In this paper, the practical application of a bio-inspired antenna for partial discharge (PD) detection in high voltage equipment was evaluated in order to validate the efficiency of using this technology for PD monitoring purposes. For this, PD measurements using the bio-inspired antenna were performed on operational 69 kV potential transformers (PT) in a real substation. After the field experiment, laboratory measurements using the IEC 60270 standard method and a bio-inspired antenna were performed, simultaneously, over the evaluated PT. The results obtained at the substation indicated suspicious frequencies of partial discharge activity in two out of three evaluated potential transformers, mainly for the frequencies of 461 MHz, 1366 MHz, 1550 MHz and 1960 MHz. During the laboratory tests, the presence of partial discharge activity over the suspicious potential transformers was confirmed with the detection of PD apparent charge levels above 20 pC. Finally, the frequency spectrum obtained from the PD signals detected by the bio-inspired antenna in the laboratory presented similar frequency values to those obtained during the practical application at the substation, making it a promising indicator for future defect classification studies using artificial intelligence.
Keywords: UHF sensors; artificial intelligence; bio-inspired design; monitoring; partial discharges.