Incipient Equipment Failure Assessment and Avoidance through Robust Detection Technqiue

Abstract

Key contributor to normal power grid operations is optimal working of the various power grid equipment/apparatus. Nonoptimal operation of any of this equipment causes power quality problems which can pose great risk to the stability of the grid. Damaged or partially damaged equipment leaves characteristic signatures in the form of current and voltage waveform distortions. Detecting and localizing such signal distortions would contribute to grid reliability as the damaged equipment could be replaced in time before it can cause further damage. This paper proposes a Distortion Detection Technique (DDT) based on second-difference approach. This distortion detection technique has very low memory requirements and can be easily implemented on decentralized systems. The paper investigates the performance of this technique and evaluates it with case studies involving different kind of equipment failures simulated on Real Time Digital Simulator (RTDS).