Title: Smart Condition Monitoring of Power System Equipment

Date: 03 May 2018

Time: 4:00pm – 5:00pm

Venue: E4-04-03, Engineering Block E4 (Floor No: 04), National University of Singapore

Abstract:

During the last three decades, there have been many new developments in condition monitoring (CM). Hundreds of new instruments are used in power industry around the world. Enormous quantities of CM data are collected from on-line and off-line tests every day. Now, it may be the right time to ask “Are we using CM instruments wisely?” In fact, one of the problems often encountered by industry is how to interpret the mass of CM data. Of course, CM program must be accurate, reliable and cost-effective. The cost includes instrumentation and on-going testing and data interpretation. The common problems experienced by industry are:

  • Over-usage of techniques and instruments, making CM costly;
  • Misunderstanding of the principles underlying the operation of CM equipment;
  • Difficulty in interpreting complex and voluminous data, and therefore in diagnosing incipient faults;
  • Difficulty in determining the critical fault levels on which repair/replacement decisions should be based;
  • Difficulty in estimating accurately the remaining service lifetime of insulation.

Given the above problems, a new concept of Smart Condition Monitoring (SCM) is proposed to wisely select and apply condition monitoring techniques, i.e.

  • Smart selection of CM techniques
  • Smart sensor development
  • Smart data interpretation and diagnosis
  • Smart failure investigation and failure prevention
  • Smart sharing

Speaker’s Bio:

Charles was a high voltage engineer in 1970’s. In 1990, he obtained PhD from the University of NSW Australia and worked as a lecturer until 1991. Then, he joined Monash University as a lecturer, senior lecturer and associate professor until 2001. In 2002, he took the chief technologist position in SP PowerGrid. From 2007 to 2011, he was a professor and head of research committee at Petroleum Institute, UAE. Then, he worked as a guest professor at North China Power University in 2012 and Wuhan University in 2013. Afterwards, he joined Newcastle University (UK) until Feb 2017 when he retired to Melbourne. He is now the director of Charling Technology, Australia.

Charles published two books and over 150 technical papers. He received two awards: 2001 Monash University Vice-Chancellor’s Special Commendation for Teaching Excellence* and 2002 IEEE Standards award. He is a life senior member of IEEE and fellow of IET.

 

Books published:

  • Book “Condition Assessment of High Voltage Insulation” UK: IET Power & Energy series No.53, 2008 (co-authored with Prof. R. James of UNSW)
  • Book “Electromagnetic transients in transformer and rotating machine windings”, ISI Global, USA, Aug 2012

For further information, please contact:

A/Prof. Thillainathan Logenthiran 
Email: t.logenthiran@newcastle.ac.uk