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Electrical signature analysis (ESA) has been successfully applied to predictive maintenance of synchronous machines. The fault diagnosis is performed by analyzing failure patterns in the current or voltage spectra, which allow the discrimination of a healthy and a faulty condition on the monitored machine. Generally, the failure patterns are a function of the line frequency, rotor rotation frequency, and some structure features of the machine. The rotor rotation frequency pattern, for instance, is indicative of rotor mechanical problems and rotor winding interturn short-circuit. An increase of this frequency component magnitude may indicate the incipience of a rotor fault but may not discriminate the nature of the fault (electrical or mechanical). Thus, it is necessary to distinguish the effects of electrical and mechanical faults in these components in order to get a reliable diagnosis of the machine. No works have been found in the literature approaching this specific issue. This paper proposes a simple and innovative methodology to distinguish the effect of electrical and mechanical faults in the mentioned ESA failure patterns based on the method of symmetrical components. Its effectiveness is validated by experiments performed on a synchronous generator test rig. The proposed condition monitoring system is simple, low cost, and low intrusive, as it only relies on stator electrical quantities. Moreover, it is in operation in a Brazilian 404-MW thermal power station. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper presents an innovative concept for the online application of Frequency Response Analysis (FRA). FRA is a well known technique that is applied to detect damage in electric machinery. As an offline technique, the machine under testing has to be removed from service—which may cause loss of production. Experimental adaptations of FRA to online operation are usually based on the use of passive high pass coupling—which, ideally, should provide attenuation to the grid voltage, and at the same time, allow the high frequency FRA signals to be injected at the machine. In practice, however, the passive coupling results in a trade-off between the required attenuation and the useful area obtained at the FRA spectra. This paper proposes the use of an active coupling system, based on power electronics, in order to cancel the grid voltage at the terminals of FRA equipment and allow its safe connection to an energized machine. The paper presents the basic concepts of FRA and the issue of online measurements. It also presents basic concepts about power electronics converters and the operating principles of the Modular Multilevel Converter, which enables the generation of an output voltage with low THD, which is important for tracking the grid voltage with minimum error. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motor current signature analysis (MCSA) enables non-invasive monitoring, without interruption of machine operation in a remote and online way, allowing the identification of various types of faults of electrical and mechanical nature without the need of accessing the motor itself, but only its supply cables. Despite its advantages, it has limitations in accurately diagnosing incipient roller bearing faults. For the detection of incipient roller bearing faults, envelope analysis of vibration signals is a well-known and stablished technique used by motor condition monitoring experts for a long time, overcoming MCSA for that purpose. Thus, it is proposed in this paper, that the fault characteristic frequencies of roller bearings are identified in the current spectrum with the aid of envelope analysis on the bearing vibration signal. After this aided identification, the fault related spectral components in the current spectrum can be correctly tracked over time for trending evaluation and decision-making. This approach can represent a significant economic value in a motor condition monitoring program, since vibration envelope analysis is performed only at a first step and, after that, its results can be applied for the MCSA monitoring of all same-model motor drivers in an industrial site. This approach is even more valuable considering the concept of the Self-Supplied Wireless Current Transducer (SSWCT) also proposed in this paper. The SSWCT is an Industrial Internet of Things (IIOT) device for MCSA application in an Industry 4.0 environment. This proposed device has wireless communication interface and wireless/battery less power supply, being supplied by the energy harvested from the magnetic field of the same currents it is transducing. So, it is a completely galvanic isolated monitoring device, without batteries and without any electric connections to the industry electric system, easily installable to the motor cables, not using precious space in the electric panels of the motor control centers and not having any physical contact to the monitored asset. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the development of a peak-shaving equipment, composed by a multilevel converter in a cascaded H-bridge topology and battery banks on the DC links. Between specific time periods, when the demand is higher, the equipment injects active power from the batteries into the grid to provide support to the system. During the other times of the day, when the demand is lower, the converter charges its battery banks with the exceeding (and low producing cost) energy from the grid. The charge and discharge control algorithms are implemented in a digital signal processor (DSP). The precise time of the day information is obtained from a real-time-clock from a global positioning system module (GPS), which communicates with the DSP through the serial interface. This paper presents the control algorithms and experimental results obtained in a 24 h continuous operation of the equipment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Induction motors consume a great portion of the generated electrical energy. Moreover, most of them work at underloaded conditions, so they have low efficiencies and waste a lot of energy. Because of this, the efficiency estimation of in-service induction motors is a matter of great importance. This efficiency estimation is usually performed through indirect methods, which do not require invasive measurements of torque or speed. One of these methods is the modified Air-Gap Torque (AGT) method, which only requires voltage and current data, the stator resistance value, and the mechanical losses. This paper approaches the computation of a modified stator resistance including the mechanical losses effect to be applied in the AGT method for torque and efficiency estimation of induction motors. Some improvements are proposed in the computation of this resistance by using a direct method, as well as the possibility to estimate this parameter directly from the nameplate data of the induction motor. The proposed methodology only relies on line voltages, currents, and nameplate data and is not intrusive. The proposed methodology is analyzed through simulation and validated through experimental results with three-phase induction motors. Also, a comparison of methods for in-service induction motors efficiency estimation is presented for the tested motors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The culture of excellence in the area of maintenance combined with the needs of production cost reduction and increased productivity makes the reliability of electric power generation process becomes increasingly important, making room for the emergence of new maintenance techniques, especially predictive techniques that use continuous monitoring equipment systems. Predictive maintenance is the technique that establishes the planned corrective maintenance based on the changing monitored parameters. These monitored parameters may come from continuous condition monitoring system, which are more effective. Within this context, the most ancient and widespread technique is the vibration analysis. However, a relatively new technique and, until so little used, is the electrical signature analysis of generators. This paper presents the development of a predictive system for diagnosing internal combustion engines faults as well excitation and coupling through the electrical signature analysis of voltage and current signals of the generator. The main goal of this system is to obtain the signature of the electrical signals to identify the magnitude and frequency of each individual component allowing the identification of different faults in the generator group. The paper presents some measurements acquired directly through the installation of the developed system in SUAPE II thermal power plant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]