Оnline partial discharge monitoring for the generators of TPP AES - 3C Maritza East 1.

Contragent 35 Ltd in cooperation with our partner Omicron Electronics GmbH Austria/Germany successfully completed a project for online partial discharge (PD) monitoring for the generators of TPP AES - 3C Maritza East 1. The project includes design, delivery of the equipment, installation, test and commissioning. The system for online PD monitoring assures the real time control of the status of insulation of the generators' windings, provides preventive information concerning trends for eventual reduced quality of the insulation and issues a warning to the exploitation personnel in case the status of the generators is risky and can lead to future failure. The system allows remote access to the collected data and detailed analysis from an expert or from a computer expert system. The remote analysis is performed by the Research and Development Center of Omicron in Berlin. The system includes PD sensors (coupling capacitors), mounted on the terminals of the generators, Acquisition Unit for processing the signals from the sensors, collecting the data for the PDs and sending it in digital format via fiber optic cable to a database server, which makes the real time evaluation. The system takes care for the "health" of the generators in the thermo-power plant and thus prevents equipments' failure. In order to increase the complete reliability of the power plant, implementation of PD monitoring system is foreseen also for other key elements as power transformers, feeding pumps and high voltage cables.