Partial Discharge Measurement under an Oscillating Switching Impulse: A Potential Supplement to the Conventional Insulation Examination in the Field

Partial discharge (PD) detection under oscillating switching impulse (OSI) voltage was performed on three types of insulation defects, including a protrusion on a conductor, a particle on an insulator surface, and a void in an insulator, which are three kinds of the common potential insulation hazards in gas insulated power apparatus. Experiment indicated that the PD sequences under OSI were composed of various combinations of the single pulse, the multiple pulses, and the reverse polarity pulse. The difference between the PD inception voltage (PDIV) and the breakdown voltage (BDV) under OSI voltage was greater than that under alternating current (AC) voltage in some cases, which can provide a more sufficient margin below the BDV for PD diagnosis. The OSI voltage also showed a better performance for exciting PDs with detectable magnitudes from small-scale defects, of which the AC voltage was incapable under our test conditions. The different PD activities with different interfaces under an impulse and a slowly varying voltage were speculated to be associated with the gradient of the background electric field and the space-charge mobility.