The machine learning-powered partial discharge severity assessment is the newest feature in our family of intelligent solutions and a part of NL Analytics. The severity assessment classifies and describes the discharge type, estimates how acute it is, and recommends what steps to take to fix the issue. This article explains how all this works.
What Are the Benefits of In-Depth Partial Discharge Information?
Partial discharges are present in the majority of breakdowns that cause disturbances in high- and medium-voltage systems. The consequences can be anything from malfunctioning and easily replaceable components to costly network outages and catastrophic, life-threatening failures. Detecting partial discharges in their early stages and knowing what to do about them is the most efficient approach to avoiding detrimental results.
How Does NL Analytics Know Whether or Not a Discharge is Harmful?
The severity assessment is a part of our comprehensive NL Analytics solution that provides additional data for intelligent decision making and is displayed in the NL Camera, NL Cloud, and NL software options.NL Analytics’ algorithms determine whether a detected discharge is low, medium, high, or very high in severity. NL Analytics defines this based on the discharge type and real-world data on how alarming the different types usually are. Corona discharge, for example, is often not so severe, but the results of the severity assessment also depend on the discharge’s location. In some locations, corona may cause or indicate more serious issues.
As well as classifying the partial discharge type, NL Analytics provides a more detailed description of it. Did you know that, for example, surface and internal discharges have very similar PRPD (phase-resolved partial discharge) patterns? The description is accompanied by action recommendations that can be, among other things, visually inspecting or cleaning the components—or taking no action if the discharge is harmless. The suggestions depend on the combination of the above-mentioned pieces of information that NL Analytics evaluates.
How Does the Severity Assessment Work Together with the NL Camera?
Before the severity assessment can yield results, it needs the partial discharge information provided by the NL Camera. The NL Camera pinpoints partial discharges that the on-device NL Analytics distinguishes from other sounds. The NL Camera also shows the PRPD pattern that is the basis for recognizing the type of partial discharge. All of this partial discharge data that the NL Camera gathers is then further analyzed by the cutting-edge severity assessment in the NL Cloud and NL Software.