Diagnostic technologies for embedded intelligence in high voltage power equipment

In the future power grid, equipment will need to work with distributed generation, deregulation, and accelerating ageing factors. For smart operation without degrading the reliability of the system, there is a need to make a turn with diagnostics towards condition monitoring systems, which assess the actual performance of individual equipment. However, the emerging technologies for sensors specifically for high voltage equipment performance, interpretation tools and aging models needed for such smart grids are still in a premature stage. A few emerging monitor systems have achieved robustness to some extent. In this paper, the expectations and experiences for power equipment monitoring will be discussed. In addition a model-based framework to optimize usage of power equipment is proposed using a predictive health model.