Developments in partial discharge plant-monitoring technology

Partial discharge activity is both a symptom of degradation in the solid insulating systems of power plants-irrespective of the causative stresses-and a stress mechanism which causes degradation. It can therefore be readily appreciated why the detection, location and interpretation of pd activity is an attractive technique to the diagnostic engineer. Partial discharge (pd) activity can be detected by a variety of techniques, the most common being acoustical, optical, chemical and electrical techniques, and, in this brief overview, an attempt will be made to place these within the contest of individual items of plants. Also, the limitations of individual detection techniques will be discussed in the contest of power plant monitoring and some suggestions for future developments will be made