Electro-acoustic detection, identification and location of partial discharge sources in oil-paper insulation systems

The detection of Partial Discharges (PD) is a reliable technique to analyze the status of electrical insulation in power transformers. Phase resolved partial discharge patterns are being complemented with high frequency pulse waveform analysis, in order to identify discharge sources. In addition to this, acoustic techniques are being implemented trying to locate PD sites in large power transformers. In this work, an inductive loop sensor will be used to identify two different PD sources by means of the energy distribution of the detected waveforms. Additionally, these PD sources will be located by means of acoustic measurements with an electrical reference, through the analysis of the acoustic activity detected for each sensor individually.