An envelope detector as a trading cost technique for radiometric partial discharge detection

Partial discharge (PD) measurement is an established high voltage insulation monitoring technique used to facilitate the detection of incipient faults in high voltage apparatus. Based on the great importance of the power system, is constant the research about the nature and characteristics of PD sources. A low-cost, free-standing, radiometric, partial discharge wireless sensor network (PD WSN) is described for application to real-time condition monitoring, asset management and operations optimization in the future smart grid. The proposed PD WSN is based on a novel approach to PD location which obviates the need for synchronization between sensors thereby improving scalability. In this paper, the progress in the development of a PD WSN prototype is described. For the proposed evaluation of PD signals, several measurements were performed using a diskcone antenna and a commercial system based on the IEC 60270 standard. Early progress in the development of components for a PD detection system using a network of free-standing radiometers for monitoring of electricity substations has been also presented.