Monitoring various high voltage equipment in an operation can in many respects be likened to looking after a child. As a parent, you have to look after your child and ensure that your child does not get into trouble like swallowing something inedible or falling down the stairs. At the same time, however, you also have various things that you need to do for yourself, such that you cannot spend every minute of every day solely on the task of looking after your child. Instead, you would most probably leave the child in a room and check in on them periodically just to make sure that they are not getting into any major trouble. Until recently, monitoring of high voltage equipment was carried out in much the same way. Every so often, such equipment would be shut down and an inspection carried out to ensure that it was still in good working condition.
Today, however, with online partial discharge monitoring of equipment such as motors generators cables switchgear transformer and other high voltage equipment, periodic monitoring is quickly becoming obsolete.
When talking about online partial discharge monitoring, it is easy to make the mistake of assuming that the monitoring is somehow carried out over the internet. In this day and age, with the internet having become such a major part of everyday life, the word ‘online’ usually denotes a relation to the internet. In the context of monitoring motors generators cables switchgear transformer and other high voltage equipment, however, online refers to the state of the equipment still being in operation. With periodic monitoring, equipment must be taken ‘offline’ before being checked in the sense that it must be shut down and the electrical current that usually flows through it must first be stopped.
With online partial discharge monitoring, however, monitoring can take place even while electrical current is flowing through the equipment.
Online partial discharge monitoring offers a much better system for minimizing the risk of insulation failure on high voltage equipment simply because that equipment is constantly being monitored instead of only being checked once every so often. Partial discharge can occur at any time in motors generators cables switchgear transformer and other high voltage equipment and it is entirely possible that a problem may develop in the period between checks when using the periodic monitoring method such that a serious issue may arise without your having any prior warning.
With online partial discharge monitoring, however, the moment a partial discharge arises from a problem with the insulation in motors generators cables switchgear transformer equipment, you are able to react immediately before the situation can worsen and major negative consequences result.
Online partial discharge monitoring of motors generators cables switchgear transformer equipment is done through a series of sensors that are attached to the equipment to be monitored, and these sensors are able to detect the telltale signs of partial discharge – namely electrical energy, sound and release of gases. With such a monitoring system in place, you will not have to worry about being caught unawares by an unexpected insulation failure of motors generators cables switchgear transformer equipment.
