ON SURGE ARRESTER FAULT PREDICTION VIA THERMOGRAPH ANALYSIS

R. C. lvares N. S. Silva P. Resende J. L. Silvino R. M. Andrade Companhia Energtica de Minas Gerais - CEMIG Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais UFMG

Abstract This paper investigates a new methodology for surge arrester inspection via infrared thermograph toward fault prediction purposes. The use of infrared thermograms is a very convenient approach since the measurement device operates with no physical contact with the tested equipment. The methodology is applied for inspection on 120kV/10kA surge arresters, for both ceramic and polymeric encapsulating. Thermograms are analyzed to identify surge arrester fault proximity. To attain this purpose, inspections were carried out to construct a data base that is used to apply the new methodology. The analyses are developed by considering some areas of the arrester thermograms by means of temperature gradient criteria. Effects of measurement position angles and solar incidence are discussed.

contamination, degradation of the equalization circuitry and discharges with long duration or high intensity. Therefore, it is essential to standardize a methodology for surge arrester inspection. The use of infrared thermograms is a very convenient approach since the measurement device operates with no physical contact with the tested equipment. Also, the production process is not perturbed since the tested equipment continues in normal operation while measurement is taken. The main purpose of this paper is to investigate infrared thermograph techniques to identify surge arrester fault proximity. To attain this purpose, several inspections were carried out to construct a data base that was used to apply the new methodology proposed by (Silva, 2007). 2. SURGE ARRESTER AGING Modern surge arresters are constructed with set of ZnO block elements, which operates as VDR (Volt dependent Resistor), ceramic or polymeric cases encapsulated. Besides climatic adversity conditions that accelerate the surge arrester aging, in normal operating conditions they are submitted to constant voltage effort implying temperature rises, because of joule losses in a resistive current by a cyclic process. Also, temporary over voltage surges, with non uniform distribution, gives a current unequal distribution that can cause fusion in a definite location. Also, residues in the surface of the surge arrester may cause current drift on the involucres causing a

1. INTRODUCTION Electrical substation equipments are frequently demanded by over voltage caused by operation occurrences and lightening. To avoid that electric equipments be damaged by over voltage a suitable protection is necessary. In these situations, surge arresters are the most appropriate devices to provide protection for transformers, reactors and capacitor banks. They act as voltage limiters such that voltage over some prescribed level are blocked to the equipments. Generally surge arresters are constituted by non linear resistive element or series spark gap. However, some factors contribute to surge arrester degradation such as sealing loss, moisture infiltration, external

non uniform voltage distribution in the arrester body, delivering excessive heating (Araujo, 2006; Franco, 1993). Wetness penetration may result in moisture condensation, changing the protection level and the energy dissipation capability. Usually, the surge arrester aging may present a gradual rising in the resistive component of the current loss that contribute to thermal instability and finally conducts to complete fault (Schei & Franco, 1988). The infrared thermograms give temperature information of the surged arrester surface, providing means to identify warm and cool areas in a wide temperature range. Since abnormal state of the surge arrester is related with thermal abnormality, it suggests that thermogram inspection could be a valuable method since it can indicate the temperature distributions in its body. The temperature measurement obtained by radiation given by the infrared camera depends mainly on the surface emissivity, distance of the object from the camera, atmospheric temperature, relative humidity and wind velocity. All these informations are required by the thermocamera to provide the correct temperature information from the radiation obtained from the object (FLIR, 2003). A thermal abnormality is defined by observing the temperature gradients. In greater part of the cases it is considered when the surge arrester temperature arises from a prescribed value. This interpretation is done in comparison with other surge arresters subjected to same conditions that do not present high temperature gradient. 3. TERMOGRAPHY DATA BASE This section describes the methodology to build the data base for termography images obtained from substation surge arresters in different conditions. It is recommended that the thermografic inspection should be carried out by an infrared trained professional that is authorized to work in dangerous area and is familiar to the electric power system (Silva, 2007). For a best performance, it is required a perfect interaction of the operator, the infrared equipment and the processing capabilities. To perform the inspection the operator needs the

complete termovisor equipment, digital camera, thermo-hygrometer, anemometer and electronic meter. The wind velocity need to be below 5 m/s and inspections should be avoided under rainy conditions. It is also recommended that he electric systems need to be energized for at least 45 minutes before with currents over 50% of the nominal value. The operator should respect the security distance, depending on the electrical system voltage level. It is desirable that for substation surge arrester, the thermographic inspection should be done every semester or at least yearly. The surge arresters are located in the three phase, they are named here as VM, AZ and BR. The thermograms are obtained by attempting to fill the thermal image with the surge arrester, to avoid different heat sources influences. It is critical to adjust the correct focus, the relative humidity, ambient temperature and object distance. The present methodology (Silva, 2007) recommends taking the emissivity value as 0.75, for both ceramic and polymeric encapsulated surge arrester. The thermograms are taken in six positions, named here as 01 to 06, with equally spaced angles (60 degrees, around the surge arrester) and a digital photography is also taken in each position. If is impracticable to arrange the six angles positions, due to obstacles difficulties, at least three position spaced in angles of 120 degrees should be taken (Silva,2007), as show in Figure 1. It is shown in Figure 2 the notation used to represent the positions where the thermograms are taken.

Figure 1. Acquiring thermographic images in three positions (Silva 2007).

value greater than 6C, it is recommended to contact the maintenance division for a decision 5 Surge arrester inspections To obtain the data base to be used in this paper, some surge arrester inspections were performed in two typical substations, as described below. 5.1 Inspection in Substation A Figure 2: positions representations for thermograms acquisitions. Before each inspection, some examinations in the surge arresters appearance are required: cleanness conditions, existing fissures on surface (or around) the column of insulators and the base status. The line conditions and recording of surges (or meter of discharge), if they exist, also need examination. The thermographic image of the entire surge arrester is divided in at least four region areas. For each area, the reference temperature is defined as the minimum temperature value in the corresponding area for all positions and every surge arrester. The temperature gradient, T, is defined as the temperature difference of the respective area its reference temperature 4. INSPECTION ANALYSIS CRITERIA. When executing an electric component inspection using a thermo-graphic approach, the inspector needs to identify if the component status is normal or if a thermal anomaly registration is required to be included in technical report for a posteriori diagnosis. To categorize a surge arrester as abnormally heated is adopted the following criteria (Silva, 2007). The analysis are carried out in comparative way for the same components of all phases, for the same model and brand. SiC surge arrester: For a T between 7C and 10C, it is suggested to reduce the inspection periodicity for 30 days. For a T greater than 10C, it is recommended to contact the maintenance division for a decision making. ZnO surge arrester: For a T between 5C and 6C, it is suggested to reduce the inspection periodicity for 30 days. If the T increases to a The inspection was executed for SiC surge arresters, ceramic encapsulated, SPRECHER & SCHUH do Brasil S.A brand, 120kV/10kA, model BHFGe, Series n.75-1236/1/2/3, installed at Maracan substation, located at BH So Marcos line. The line current at inspection time was 192,0A, 189,0A and 193,0A at VM, AZ and BR phases, respectively. The wind speed at the inspection time was less than 5m/s. As pointed out in Section 3, thermograms were taken, for each of the three surge arresters, in six equally spaced angles position around. Each themographic surge arrester images were divided in areas named P1, P2, P3 and P4. Figure 3 presents the thermograms obtained in position 01 for the surge arrester in phases VM, AZ e BR. The parameter values to set the thermocamera were emissivity, 0.75, object o distance, 7.0m, ambient temperature, 36 C and relative humidity, 53%. Reference temperatures were obtained as 29.0C, 27.0C, 27.3C, and 27.1C, for areas P1, P2, P3 and P4, respectively. It is important to notice that at the time this inspection was executed, it was observed high solar incidence at the positions 01 and 04. 5.2 Inspection in Substation B The inspection was executed for ZnO surge arresters, polymeric encapsulated, ALSTHON brand, 120KV/10KA, model MHF2E98, installed at Siderrgica ICAL substation, Bar n. 1-OP138KV-S2. The wind speed at the inspection time was less than 5m/s. As pointed out in Section 3, thermograms were taken, for each of the three surge arresters, in six equally spaced angles position around. Each

themographic surge arrester images were divided in areas named AR01, AR02, AR03 and AR04. Figure 4 presents the thermo-grams obtained in position 05 for the surge arrester in phases VM, AZ e BR. The parameter values to set the thermo-camera were emissivity, 0.75, object distance, 6.0m, ambient temperature, o 33 C and relative humidity, 59%. Reference temperatures were obtained as 38.2C, 38.2C, 38.5, and 38.9C, for areas AR01, AR02, AR03 and AR04, respectively. It is important to notice that at the time this inspection was executed, large amount of pollution residue over the surge arrester insulation was observed.

Figure 4 Thermo-grams for substation B at position 05

6. THERMO-GRAPHIC ANALYSIS This section describes the analysis of the thermo-grams obtained from the inspections explained in Section 5. This analysis was carried out using the thermo-camera software (FLIR, 2003, CARVALHO, 2005). The results are based on the Inspection analysis criteria (SILVA, 2007) described in Section 4. Therefore, the surge arrester thermo-gram analysis initiate from the temperature gradient and reference temperature of each area.

Figure 3: Thermo-grams for substation A at position 01.

6.1 Analysis for surge arrester at substation A The results of the inspection described in section 5.1 are summarized in Table 1. From this table it is noted that there was no temperature gradient over 10C. On the other hand, T between 7C e 10C is observed at positions 1 and 4, which would suggest reducing the inspection periodicity for 30 days. However, this temperature gradient increase can be explained by the solar incidence at these positions, since the detector computes the reflected energy from Table 1: T (C) for surge arresters at substation A, for phase VM, AZ and BR
T (C) Surge Arrester Phase VM Position 1 2 3 4 5 6 A1 6,7 0,0 2,7 6,3 3,4 4,3 T (C) Surge Arrester Phase AZ Position 1 2 3 4 5 6 A1 5,8 1,1 2,5 6,3 4,2 4,6 T (C) Surge Arrester Phase BR Position 1 2 3 4 5 6 A1 6,3 1,3 1,7 6,9 4,5 4,4 A2 7,6 2,3 3,2 7,8 6,4 5,6 A3 7,8 2,3 3,3 8,1 6,4 6,0 A4 7,8 2,4 3,7 6,7 6,3 6,4 A2 7,2 2,4 3,5 7,4 5,1 5,7 A3 7,6 2,7 3,3 7,4 5,2 6,0 A4 7,4 2,7 3,2 7,4 5,3 6,0 A2 8,2 0,0 3,8 7,4 4,4 5,2 A3 8,4 0,0 3,6 7,5 4,7 5,5 A4 8,4 0,0 4,8 7,0 4,8 5,7

incident solar radiation in addition to the object emitted energy. 6.2 Analysis for surge arrester at substation B The results of the inspection described in section 5.2 are summarized in Table 2. From this table it is observed high temperature gradients (much over 6 C, reaching 22,0C) at surge arresters in phases VM and BR denoting thermal anomaly It is evident an anomalous status of these surge arresters. Table 2: T (C) for surge arresters at substation B, for phase VM, AZ and BR
T (C) Surge Arrester Phase VM Position 1 2 3 4 5 6 A1 10,0 16,9 17,0 15,5 14,8 11,5 T (C) Surge Arrester Phase AZ Position 1 2 3 4 5 6 A1 0,0 2,2 1,9 1,3 0,5 0,6 T (C) Surge Arrester Phase BR Position 1 2 3 4 5 6 A1 10,1 14,1 14,0 12,0 13,1 10,8 A2 14,9 18,7 19,0 16,8 20,8 12,6 A3 15,5 21,8 22,0 20,2 21,1 15,5 A4 10,5 16,8 16,3 15,2 14,4 11,6 A2 0,0 2,1 2,0 1,5 0,8 1,3 A3 0,0 2,1 2,0 1,5 1,0 1,2 A4 0,0 1,8 2,0 2,0 0,7 1,0 A2 7,5 15,9 14,7 13,0 13,9 10,4 A3 5,9 11,4 11,5 11,4 9,4 7,7 A4 4,9 12,7 12,9 12,5 9,3 7,3

It is important to remark that this substation is located at an industrial district in a high polluted environment. It is well known that pollution and moisture, together, may cause leakage current rise on the surge arrester encapsulation. This situation leads to a non uniform potential distribution over the surge arrester, resulting excessive heating and aging of some blocks ZnO. 7. CONCLUSIONS O present paper explained a methodology for surge arrester fault prediction via thermograph analysis, from two typical inspections performed specifically for this investigation. Surge arrester of both SiC and ZnO are considered. It was explored the solar incidence effects on the results from the thermo-graphic analysis. This effect contributes to the apparent temperature rising in positions where reflected energy from solar incidence is taken in account by the thermo-camera sensor. A condition of thermal anomaly of surge arrester submitted to a high pollution environment e moisture is explored showing a possible fault prediction situation. It should be stressed that a more precise evaluation can be obtained from the intrinsic characterization of the surge arresters, considering other parameters as electrical quantities, the results of field testing, the manufacturer's technical data and results of laboratory tests. 8. REFERENCES ARAJO, D. C.; P. MARTINS, A. J. A. L.; SILVA, N. S.; A experincia da CEMIG em Monitoramento e Diagnstico de Pra-Raios em Subestaes de 69kV e 138kV, Anais do SBSE 2006 Simpsio Brasileiro de Sistemas Eltricos, Campina Grande, 6p., 2006. CARVALHO, H. G., Utilizao do Software ThermaCAM Reporter 2000 Pro, Instruo de Manuteno POP-OM-RD- 02063, CEMIG, 2005.

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