Condition monitoring of HV plant within South of Scotland Electricity Board

The South of Scotland Electricity Board (SSEB) operates 15 main power stations, of which three are nuclear, five are fossil fired and the remainder are hydro electric. In each of these stations, there are many high voltage electric motors as well as the main generators. The benefits of a regular programme of HV NDT have been identified for some time, and all such machines now have an HV `fingerprint´ against which each machine´s performance is measured on a regular basis. The author describes the tests which are carried out on the SSEB HV Plant, and the equipment used for this purpose. In addition, he describes the future proposals of SSEB in this area, involving the application of remote communications and Expert Systems technology