Location of partial discharge source on distribution line by measuring emitted pulse-train electromagnetic waves

This paper presents a new system designed for detecting the pulse-train electromagnetic waves emitted from partial discharge. The authors utilize a VHF wideband antenna array as electromagnetic sensors and calculate the time delay between them in order to locate partial discharge in 3 dimensions. The standard cross correlation and smoothed coherence transform are used and compared to estimate the time delay. The time delay is then statistically calculated from a lot of pulses in one time of detection. The proposed system shows the effectiveness in the detection and location of partial discharge, and enhances the reliability of a method. A field experiment is performed to approach the concept of this method.