Corona: Introduction, Overview, and the Application of Corona Camera Technology to Managing our Population of MV and HV Insulators

Improvements include a new full HD visible sensor and a new circuit board allowing 720p HD video of the central cropped full HD feed. This gives you the best of both worlds, the resolving power afforded by a high zoom (30x) full HD visible camera with the smaller file sizes of 720p (a 1/4 of Full HD file sizes).

A simpler and cleaner user interface has been implemented, while keeping the easy to handle and understand the physical interface and menu structure - putting powerful features at your finger tips, if you want to use them.

AVO New Zealand was sad to hear of the passing of former collegue and founding member of AVO New Zealand Mr Peter Hockley.

• Virtual testing of protection relays is real!
• Testing high speed DC circuit breakers
• Electrical hot spot inspection and preventative maintenance
• Insulation drying and oil processing of in-service transformers
• VLF testing on motors and generators
• IEC 60255 1xx: Protection relay functional standards for all
• Insulation assessment of motors through partial discharge testing and analysis
• Surge and lightning arresters
• Diagnostic testing of bushings
• Understanding generator restricted earth fault (REF) protection and testing
• Motor inrush current
• The importance of IEC 61850 in relation to the smart grid

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Video: CoroCAM 8UAV Inspection at Qirion, NL

A fascinating flashback to a flying visit in the Netherlands with the CoroCAM 8UAV combined UV, visible and thermal camera mounted in a Gremsy T3 gimbal, lofted by an Aerialtronic’s Altura Zenith drone. The point inspection luckily did not show any major issues, unlike the example image included in the video, which shows a corona discharge co-locating with a hotspot.

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To Achieve Better Lifecycle Management and Reliability

Richard Kingsford
Asset Planning and Engineering Manager, WEL Networks

Vikram Sen
Maintenance Engineer (Strategy), WEL Networks

Preamble:

When assessing what might at first appear to be a “new technology” in the power industry, it is reasonable of any client to seek a degree of evidence of its established provenance offshore and in the application to which it is intended to be applied in the ‘local’ context.

When that ‘new technology’ is in fact well established offshore but new to the local market, one must consider the question as to what would constitute a suitable level of information to inform, address, and allay in reasonable fashion any uncertainties or questions as to the suitability of the technology for the intended application and also the quality of its said provenance. Clearly, no technology will ever hold 100% of the market or technical opinion but it would be a fair observation that evidence of widespread uptake over a longer term, coupled with a selection of technical papers that all concur on the technical quality and advantages of the technology over alternative or conventionally-deployed solutions, should be deemed to be a tipping point to allow that technology’s confident and optimistic deployment locally.

The purpose of this paper is to convey the background, deployment level, international uptake, and technical evidence enough to allow one to embrace with confidence the ‘near 50Hz’ partial discharge cable diagnostic testing technology applied to both new and in-service condition assessment of one’s 11-33 kV cable population.

Author - Mike Herring, Baker

Energy costs are a major part of the operating expenditure for any plant or facility, and in almost every case, electric motors are among the largest consumers of energy. Properly implemented monitoring of motor performance, which will help to improve reliability and extend the life of motors, is therefore an excellent investment, as it will reduce overall operating costs. 

To be truly effective, condition monitoring must include not only tests like vibration analysis, oil analysis and thermography, which mainly detect mechanical problems, but also a structured testing regime for electrical faults. All too often, other than the basic tests, electrical testing is deemed unnecessary. This is unfortunate, as studies have shown time and again that after bearing failure, electrical winding faults are the most common mode of motor failure. A structured electrical testing regime is, therefore, not simply an optional extra – it’s a vital requirement for achieving plant reliability.