Bushing Monitoring and Partial Discharge Detection for Transformers

Bushings account for a large proportion of High Voltage (HV) substation failures often causing severe and costly damages. Preventive maintenance, early replacement and regular off-line testing have been employed to address this issue in the past. Now, technology exists that enables asset owners to detect impending failures and reduce their maintenance costs.

GE’s IntellixTM BMT 330 is an on-line system that continuously monitors the condition of the bushings and can also detect developing partial discharge (PD) activity in the transformer main tank. It will alert personnel of fault conditions at an early stage and provide vital health information on the bushings and the transformer.

The Intellix BMT 330 can be utilized as a standalone system to monitor bushing insulation and partial discharge activity, or as an integrated, one-vendor solution with GE’s KelmanTM TRANSFIX Dissolved Gas Analysis (DGA) multigas analyzer and PerceptionTM Fleet software providing a more in-depth view of the transformer’s condition and root cause of major transformer failures.

Key Benefits

• Comprehensive monitoring of transformer bushings and PD activity on a 3 phase transformer or a bank of 3 single phase transformers
• One product combining on-line continuous bushing monitoring and partial discharge activity in the transformer main tank using the same bushing adaptor
• One diagnostic software, GE’s Perception, used for bushing information, PD activity and DGA data analysis, resulting in familiar easy-to-use information
• One supplier installing, servicing, ensuring proper communication and minimizing administrative burden in order to lower the total cost of ownership of your transformer

Applications

Power Utilities

• Enables condition-based maintenance of transformer bushings
• Designed for various three phase configurations

Metals

• Monitors bushing conditions to avoid unplanned production stoppage
• Monitors PD in over-stressed assets in aluminum or steel mills

Petrochemical

• Detects arcing faults with transformers
• Monitors bushing health to avoid catastrophic failures of transformers