Laboratory measurements for power system condition monitoring

About 30 percent of all overhead power distribution outages are caused by failing electrical equipment, e.g., surge arresters, cutouts, insulators, wires, and grounding. Failing equipment can be located and scheduled for removal prior to an outage. Replacing failing equipment reduces all reliability index figures. Equipment that was identified by an Outage-Avoidance System as an electromagnetic (EM) noise source was removed from service and tested in the High Voltage Laboratory of The Ohio State University. The purpose of the laboratory effort was to begin the process of identifying the EM noise emission signatures of a failing component so that the effectiveness of the field measurement apparatus can be improved. In other words, ultimately develop a Failure Signature Library to identify what component failed and what type of failure occurred.