High Voltage Testing
What Does High Voltage Testing Involve?
Our High Voltage Testing team offers a range of services related to the testing, repair and life-cycle management of high voltage assets such as transformers, motors, generators and rotating plants.
Our Approach
As high voltage assets are vital infrastructure, their reliability is of paramount importance. Our comprehensive assistance to plant and asset owners in the areas of asset management systems, condition monitoring and condition and life assessment facilitates the economic and safe operation of these critical assets.
Transformer Management
Effective power transformer life management programs are essential for the optimisation of power supply reliability and the reduction of the long-term cost of supply.
Most industrial organisations depend on the reliability of their high voltage infrastructure to remain in business. Understanding the condition of power transformers is key to ensuring a reliable power supply.
We can assist your organisation in the management of power transformers through:
Asset Management System Development
We can develop or assist in the development of asset management systems to provide actionable information on how to optimise the performance and life of these critical assets.
Condition Monitoring
A major proportion of power transformer failure mechanisms can be detected by condition monitoring programs that utilise:
- Visual inspection
- Infra-red thermography
- Insulating oil analysis
Condition and Life Assessment
We have over 30 years of experience in power transformer condition and life-cycle assessment.
Our experience is supported by extensive capabilities in testing and measurement including:
- High voltage testing (up to 500kV AC)
- Winding resistance, ratio and excitation current
- Insulation condition assessment:
- Insulation resistance, Polarisation index, Dielectric dissipation factor
- Partial discharge
- Ultrasonic discharge location
- Thermography
- Frequency response analysis
- Dielectric spectroscopy
HV laboratory services are augmented by comprehensive insulating oil testing including degree of polymerisation of paper, Furan analysis and the determination of sulphur and silver corrosivity. These services are an invaluable aid to transformer insulation risk management.
Plant Repair Management
We can assist plant owners in the repair of motors, generators and transformers. Repair management is a service designed to monitor the repair process to achieve the best possible outcomes.
Our repair management service ensures a high quality of repair so the equipment can be returned to service in a reliable condition.
The repair management process includes:
- Development of a detailed repair / overhaul specification
- Detailed repair time line (schedule)
- Quality assurance:
- Inspection test plan
- In process testing and inspection
- Acceptance testing
- Witness hold point activities
- Progress reporting
The repair management program will ensure the repair is tracked from the time the machine leaves site for the repairer’s workshop, until it returns to site.
Our technical staff have over 30 years’ experience in electrical plant condition and life assessment. This experience is supported by an extensive testing and measurement capability for low voltage and high voltage plant.
All components of the apparatus being repaired are included in the repair management process, including electrical, mechanical and ancillary components.
The repair testing process includes:
- Electrical insulation condition assessment, before and during repair
- IR and PI
- Winding resistance and impedance
- Dielectric Dissipation Factor
- Partial Discharge
- Core testing before and after burnout
- Ring flux – motors and generators
- EL-CID – motors and generators
- Core losses
- Transformers – FRA
- Acceptance high voltage testing
- Mechanical (assembly checks) including:
- Bearing clearances and dimensions
- Air gap clearances
- Rotor balancing
- Brushgear alignment
- Ancillary component functionality test.
Rotating Plant Life Management
Effective rotating plant life management programs are essential for optimising power supply reliability and reducing the long-term cost of supply. The operation of most industrial organisations today is highly dependent on a reliable rotating plant.
We assist organisations in the management of generators and motors through:
Asset Management System Deployment
Development of asset management systems help to provide actionable information on how to optimise the performance and life of these critical assets.
We have experience in developing practical and cost-effective Asset Index systems to enable ranking of assets for easy targeting of expenditure.
Condition Monitoring
A major proportion of stator and rotor failure mechanisms can be detected by condition monitoring programs that use:
- Visual inspection
- Partial discharge monitoring
- Stator current spectral analysis
- Infra-red thermography
- Vibration monitoring
Our condition monitoring programs integrate these methods into a comprehensive condition assessment service.
Condition and Life Assessment
Our engineers have many years’ experience in rotating plant condition and life assessment.
This experience is supported by extensive capabilities in testing and measurement, including:
- High voltage testing for a wide range of motors and generators
- Insulation condition assessment:
- Insulation resistance and polarisation index
- Winding resistance and impedance
- Dielectric dissipation factor
- Partial discharge
- Recurrent surge oscillography (RSO)
- Electrical core imperfection testing (El CID)
- Ring Flux testing
- TVA probe surveys
- Motor Current Spectral Analysis
- Rotor shorted turns monitoring
Electrical Plant Support Services
Through our electrical plant support services the performance of your plant can be maintained and enhanced. These services are utilised by organisations throughout Australia and South-East Asia in a range of industries including electricity supply, mining, metal processing and manufacturing industries to optimise plant availability, reliability and to reduce plant operating costs.
Our Electrical Plant Support Products and Services
- Asset management program development
- Plant condition and asset management systems auditing
- High voltage testing (to 720 kV a.c.) in laboratory and field environments
- Condition monitoring
- Condition and life assessment
- Plant and systems investigations
- Earthing system measurements and investigations
- Failure investigations
- Owner’s Engineer
- Compliance tests
- Power system harmonic and transient measurement and analysis
- Instrumentation and monitoring systems development
- Scientific and engineering measurements
Our expert testing and consulting staff are supported by advanced laboratories, equipment and measurement techniques to provide customers with solutions to their plant problems. We can also undertake advanced analysis and modelling to meet client needs.
We have a strong commitment to industry attuned research and development which is pursued through joint R&D programs with customers and in association with world leading technical organisations such as Cigre. This ensures that customers have access to the best techniques to satisfy their asset management needs.
Techniques are applied to:
- Generation, transmission, distribution and industrial power systems
- Rotating plant (generators, synchronous condensers and motors)
- Power and instrument transformers
- Switchgear
- Reactive plant
- Batteries
- Overhead transmission lines and underground cables
- Earthing systems
High Voltage Test Units
Our 200kV and 720kV AC test units provide enhanced capability to deliver reliable site testing works throughout Australia.
The mobile test system enables insulation testing of switchyard primary equipment up to nominally 500 kV. This is achieved through the combination of resonant and conventional AC test equipment, assembled into a versatile mobile test system, which often removes the need for additional test trucks, resulting in a saving in testing effort and cost.
The system is well suited to performing insulation tests on:
- transmission lines cables,
- insulators,
- switchgear,
- isolators,
- surge arrestors,
- capacitive voltage transformers,
- current and voltage transformers.
Power transformers with compatible secondary or tertiary windings are also able to be tested for commissioning or condition assessment purposes.
In addition, the test system’s added capability of automated test sequencing greatly improves the control of long duration tests.
