A new method of partial discharge measurements

Partial discharge (PD) measurements on high voltage equipment has become one of the main tools in predictive maintenance programs as a very valuable source of information in everyday equipment state assessment. Progress in digital data acquisition electronics opened new opportunities in designing the Universal Partial Discharge Analyzer (UPDA) with improved noise suppression performance and extends application to different types of high voltage equipment. This paper describes a new approach of UPDA based on 8 channel fast analog to digital conversion, data transmission via IEEE 488 bus to PC and following data processing in the PC. The analyzer is fully controlled by custom designed software for MS Windows 95/NT.