Electric Substation Termography - Frequency

[adamparker]

G'day All,

Is there any method (or industrial standards) of establishing how often electrical substations (MCC and HV Switches) should be surveyed for faults using Thermography?
We traditionally used to check them every 12 months. Should we move to 6-monthly intervals or stay at 12?

Regards,
AP

 

[IRstuff]

How often do you find faults?
Are there pre-conditions that can be spotted?

The answers to these questions should be part of your decision process

TTFN

 

[mwmonty]

As an in house Thermographer, I started my program at an interval of every 3 months. At that time, I was finding exceptions in about 5% of equip[ment scaned. After about a year my exceptions dropped to about 1%. I then changed the frequency to every 6 months with about a 3% exception rate. I plan on moving to a annual schedule within the next 2 years.

I major lesson I have learned is to reinspect the equipment after repairs have been made. I did not do this at first and found that the same items were coming up on every survey. We were having a sucessful repairs only 50% of the time. After working with the electricians during the repairs the success rate is now 95+%.

Monty

 

[mvcjr]

The same is true with our overhead electric distribution lines. When we started infrared scanning we scan each feeder two times a year. There were a lot of hotspots detected then.

Now, after all those repairs, once a year cycle is sufficient.

God bless!