Methods for Localization of Partial Discharge Sources within Air Insulated Electrical Substation

Sudden interruption of power due to insulation failure of electrical apparatus is one of the major problems in India. Early prediction of insulation failure can be given through monitoring of Partial Discharge activities within any electrical system. Air insulated distribution substation consists of many electrical apparatus which are distributed within some specified area. A partial discharge monitoring system capable of monitoring an entire substation with the help of a few ultra-high-frequency (UHF) based sensors could be an economical and practical tool. UHF based sensing mechanism can also be used for localization of Partial Discharge (PD) sources. This paper shows a comparative study of different localization methods that can be applied in the present application. In this paper the existing far field-based approaches based on Time Difference of Arrival (TDOA) and Angle of Arrival (AOA) have been investigated. This paper proposes a near field-based approach for localization of PD sources with the help of TDOA scheme. The result indicates the superiority of the proposed near field based approach.