Development and implementation of a condition monitoring system in a substation

Maintenance is a key activity for utilities in order to assure the proper operation of their networks. And it implies a huge amount of human and economic resources. Saving maintenance costs means that it is needed to invest in innovation. In order to improve the effectiveness of the maintenance in the electrical utilities, a transformation from preventive maintenance based on time (TBM) to preventive maintenance based on condition (CBM) is taking place. The core element of the CBM strategy is the implementation of a condition monitoring system. This work treat about the development and implementation of a condition monitoring system in a pilot plant of an electric utility consisting in a 66/25 kV, 30 MVA power transformer and 66 kV and 25 kV circuit breakers. The system was implemented by using the monitoring functions of commercial protection relays equipped with IEC61850 communication capabilities. In this work, first a description of the monitoring system is presented, followed by the description of the pilot plant where the system has been installed and finally, the conclusions and further works are presented.