Advanced Switchgear Diagnostics Through PD Monitoring Correlated With Environmental And Operating Parameters

In Medium Voltage (MV) environment there are several factors that conduct to MV equipment ageing and degradation. Among others, partial discharges (PDs) strongly impact dielectric performances of MV insulating materials and represent a proven risk for the safety of MV equipment. An innovative solution, Partial Discharge Monitoring Device (PDMD), represented by a compact capacitive coupling device to monitor and detect PDs, presented promising results in laboratory [1]. However, to consider real on-site environmental conditions and estimate the impact on the reliability of MV equipment, a field test campaign on a switchgear equipped with a PDMD, started at the end of 2021. In this paper, the preliminary results of this one-year campaign will be presented by taking particular care of the most relevant features extracted on measured signals and by correlating them with operating and environmental measurements (e.g., temperature, humidity, power, etc.). This work confirmed the adapted application of the innovative, easy to install, PDMD on a real switchboard at customer site, with all encountered challenges. Furthermore, the proposed data correlation of PDMD features with other environmental sensors strongly enhanced the interpretation of PD detection.