Partial discharge localization using time reversal: Application to gas insulated switchgear

Gas-insulated switchgear (GIS) are some of the most reliable and most expensive equipment that are nowadays used in power systems. Condition monitoring of the power system equipment can help operators detect defects like partial discharges (PDs) early, prevent severe damage to the insulation of the apparatus and the related costs. Different techniques such as time difference of arrival (TDoA) have already been implemented to localize PDs. The TDoA technique requires four synchronized sensors to find the 3D location, it does not yield accurate results in a realistic situation when having multiple PDs, noise, scattering or obstacles which mask the line of sight between the sensor(s) and the PD. To have a powerful and accurate technique that can localize single or multiple PDs in power transformers in the presence of noise, scattering, obstacles, etc., using a single sensor, the time reversal (TR) technique has recently been proposed in both the acoustic and electromagnetic regimes. In this paper, the electromagnetic time reversal (EMTR) technique is applied to localize PDs in GIS, which have a more complicated structure than a transformer. The performance of the method is demonstrated considering several realistic case studies involving two pipe-shape and T-shape parts of a GIS.