The presence of a partial discharge phenomenon in an electrical apparatus is a warning signal that could determine the failure of the insulation system, terminating the service of the apparatus and/or the network. In this paper, an innovative partial discharge (PD) measurement instrument based on an antenna sensor is presented and analyzed. Being non-intrusive is one of the most relevant features of the sensor. The frequency response of the antenna sensor and the features to recognize different PD sources and automatically synchronize them with the supply voltage are described and discussed in details. The results show the performance of the instrument can make a fast and correct diagnosis of the health state of insulation systems.
Keywords: PD measurements; antenna sensor; partial discharge (PD); wireless sensor.