Partial Discharge Sources Detection and Location with an Electromagnetic Vector Sensor

Partial discharge (PD) sources identification and location is one of the key problems for transformers PD online monitoring. Electromagnetic vector sensor (EMVS) is capable of measuring the complete electric and magnetic fields induced by electromagnetic signals at one point. Using its detecting data, we can estimate the electromagnetic sources´ spatial parameters and polarizations. In this paper, a single EMVS is proposed to measure the radiating ultra-high frequency (UHF) signal for PD detection and location. With the narrowband data filtered from the EMVS output signal, the number of PD sources can be estimated exactly by using minimum describing length (MDL) rule, the spatial parameters and polarizations of PD sources can be obtained by adopting MUSIC algorithm. The results of simulate experiment show that this method is capable of identifying three PD sources and estimating their azimuths, elevations and polarizations. It is practical and hopeful to realize the PD location in transformer online PD monitoring