Effectiveness analysis and temperature effect mechanism on chemical and electrical-based transformer insulation diagnostic parameters obtained from PDC data

Abstract

The dielectric monitoring/diagnostic tool, such as Polarization and Depolarization Current (PDC) measurement, is now being widely applied to obtain the status of deteriorated transformers around the world. Nowadays, several works have reported that the chemical and electrical-based transformer insulation diagnostic parameters (absorption ratio, polarization index, paper conductivity, oil conductivity, insulation resistance, etc.) can be easily calculated from the PDC data. It is a fact that before using these parameters to obtain the status of deteriorated transformers, the power engineers should prudently investigate the effectiveness of these parameters. However, there are few papers that investigate the important issue. In addition, the understanding of temperature effect mechanism on these parameters should also be prudently studied. In the present work, we firstly prepare several oil-impregnated pressboard specimens with various insulation statuses by using a sequence of thermal ageing and moisture absorption experiments launched in the laboratory, and then the PDC measurement is performed to obtain the chemical and electrical-based transformer insulation diagnostic parameters. Finally, we systematically interpret the effectiveness and temperature effect mechanism on these chemical and electrical-based transformer insulation diagnostic parameters.