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Articial Neural Networks Used for ZnO Arresters Diagnosis

E. T. Wanderley Neto, E. G. da Costa, and M. J. A. Maia
AbstractLightning arresters provide protection for transmission lines and power equipments. During the occurrence of lightning or switching surges, a voltage level above the equipment insulation level can be reached. An arrester, properly working, is able to limit this voltage level avoiding damages to the protected equipment. A defective arrester may not be able to provide the proper protection level in substations, exposing the equipment and personnel to damage. Monitoring of surge arresters is usually conducted by means of current measurement or thermal images acquisition. But, among power companies, there is no model procedure for the monitoring conduction and analysis of the obtained results. Besides that, when some abnormality is detected, the arrester is replaced by a new one and no further study is conducted to evaluate what kind of problem happened to it. This work proposes a method for analysis of ZnO arresters by the study of failures and usage of articial neural networks-ANN. The ANN is able to analyze the thermal prole, detect and classify patterns that could be undetected by a visual analysis. Index TermsArresters, articial neural networks, power system monitoring, thermograph, zinc oxide.

I. INTRODUCTION
Fig. 1. Porcelain insulated ZnO arrester [1].

URGE arresters are important on power systems because they protect transmission lines and power equipment against overvoltages that can damage their insulation. Modern arresters use zinc oxide (ZnO) varistors, being connected directly between phase and ground, so that a permanent current ows through their terminals. This leakage current is usually from the order of some microamperes, but can be suddenly increased to the order of kiloamperes, during the occurrence of a surge. They are very simple equipments, basically composed of a stack of ceramic varistors and metallic spacers insulated inside a polymeric or porcelain column (Fig. 1). An arrester in good condition should be able to deal with the surge current by absorbing its energy and dissipating it to the environment. Otherwise, if the arrester presents some problem or if it is not correctly dimensioned, it can be conducted to a thermal runway, when temperature and current are increased continuously, leading to the equipment break up [1]. To avoid problems with arresters, inspections should be conducted to evaluate their leakage current, providing important information about the conditions or the actuation of the arrester.
Manuscript received April 15, 2008; revised August 10, 2008. First published March 04, 2009; current version published June 24, 2009. This work was supported by Chesf and Capes. Paper no. TPWRD-00247-2008. E. T. Wanderley Neto and E. G. da Costa are with the Federal University of Campina Grande, Campina Grande, Paraiba 58109-970, Brazil (e-mail: estacio@ee.ufcg.edu.br). M. J. A Maia is with the Companhia Hidro Eltrica do So Francisco, So Francisco, Brazil. Digital Object Identier 10.1109/TPWRD.2009.2013402

A stable increase of this current is indication of degradation or permanent failure, while a temporary increase is indication of an overvoltage or electric surge. A direct consequence of a current enlargement is the heating, so that this is another parameter that can be used to evaluate the arrester state [2]. Power companies have applied thermal monitoring to most equipment in substations. With the aid of a thermal camera, abnormal heating points or regions can be detected indicating a possible problem. For the specic case of arresters, a typical thermal image usually presents a uniform temperature as shown in Fig. 2. A defective arrester will present excessive heating in some regions, according to the kind of failure. Arresters are equipments that cannot be repaireda defective one is simply replaced. Because of this, usually no further analysis in the defective arrester is conducted and important information about the failure mechanisms or the ageing of the equipment is not evaluated. An analysis of the kind of failure of an arrester and the causes of this failure could be an important tool to manufacturers and power companies so that they could work in a way to reduce these problems. In this work, the results for thermal inspection for a series of failure tests in different models of arresters is presented. These results were also used to feed an articial neural network to identify the defective arresters according to the thermal pattern obtained. The used metodology and results are shown in the next topics.

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Fig. 2. Thermal image of an arrester in good operational condition. Fig. 3. Puncture in a varistor [4].

II. SURGE ARRESTER FAILURES The existent studies indicate some kinds of failures that are more frequent or more probable to happen: sealing problems, internal humidity, varistor degradation, varistor displacement, supercial pollution and irregular voltage distribution. Each of these problems can happen alone or along othersfor instance, internal humidity is usually consequence of sealing failure. Anyway, each of them is supposed to present a change in the leakage current and heating pattern allowing their detection by means of thermal inspection. The study of these problems can bring a better comprehension about arrester failure and to what kind of problem they are more vulnerable. Sealing problems: Arresters with ceramic housing are manufactured with a sealing system that provides a complete insulation between the inner region of the equipment and the environment. Any failure in this sealing system can lead to humidity and gases entrance in the arrester, modifying its electrical and insulating characteristics. Internal humidity: As stated before, the presence of moisture in the inner region of the arrester brings alterations in its electrical characteristics, increasing the supercial current and reducing the insulation. Besides that, different gases can be created or introduced in the arrester [3]. Varistor degradation: A varistor in good conditions conducts a current in the order of microamperes for a continuous operation condition. Severe and frequent electrical surges, as though as humidity are able to damage the varistors so that they miss their electro-thermal stability, presenting excessive heating and a high leakage current. Sometimes, punctures appear on the varistors surface, indicating a discharge across the varistors structure (Fig. 3). Varistor displacement: This problem results from the incorrect transportation or storage of the arrester. If they are kept for a long period in the horizontal position, the effects of gravity or trembling can displace the varistors in central position so that they loose they alignment in the column. As a result, the contact surface between the varistors is diminished, modifying the conduction patterns. Supercial pollution: This is a very usual problem in some substations, mainly the ones located along the shore or in very industrialized sites. The presence of pollution on the arrester

Fig. 4. Dry bands due to supercial pollution [5].

surface can lead to supercial discharges an increase the leakage current along the ceramic surface. It can also lead to the creation of permanent dry bands (Fig. 4). The problem of pollution on arresters, when detected early, can be solved with the washing of its surface. However, if the problems last for a long time, permanent failures, like the premature degradation of the varistors, can occur due to the excessive heating. Irregular voltage distribution: This results from the irregular electric eld through different regions of the arrester. As this eld is more intense in the region close to the high voltage terminal, the varistors located in this region are submitted to a higher voltage drop, resulting in a premature degradation of these varistors when compared to the ones located in lower regions of the equipment. A. Failure Tests Due to the absence of data about behavior of defective arresters, some tests were conducted in laboratory so that the inuence of different failures could be evaluated. For the failure tests, a set of different high voltage arresters were used. These arresters have come from power companies after being replaced, so that some of them were already defective. Anyway, most of them presented only some pieces of porcelain shed broken, what would not affect signicantly their behavior. The rst step in laboratory was an evaluation of the arresters as they were received. An analysis of their leakage current and heating pattern was conducted. As expected, some of them presented a higher degradation level. After the rst analysis of the equipments, they were opened so that a visual inspection of their

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Fig. 6. Thermal image of an arrester with a short circuit on the varistors surface. Fig. 5. Structure of an ANN.

components could be done. For the degraded arresters, three different kinds of problems were detected. The rst on was sealing problems, which is indicated by power companies as the main problem found when their defective arresters are analyzed. The second problem was the existence of some paths on the varistors side, indicating intense supercial discharges. And the third problem was the presence of some residues on varistors borders, which are supposed to be result of ions migration from the ZnO compound due to varistor ageing [6]. The next step was the creation of failures in the opened arresters so that they could be sealed back and their new thermal behavior could be compared with non defective arresters. For each kind of failure a series of tests with different models of arresters was conducted so that the major possible variation of thermal patterns could be obtained.

Fig. 7. Thermal prole for arrester in Fig. 6.

III. ARTIFICIAL NEURAL NETWORKS An articial neural network (ANN) is an articial intelligence technique widely used for pattern recognition. For a simple explanation, it consists of an attempt to simulate the processing of a biological neural network by means of mathematical modeling [7], [8]. A basic neural network is structured as in Fig. 5. It is composed of sensitive and transmitting units, linked by means of synaptic connections. These elements are organized in layers. The rst layer is known as the input layer, receiving the signs that will be processed by the ANN. The last layer, the output, presents the results from then processing procedure. The intermediate layers are responsible for the processing of the inputs by means of the synaptic weights. The apprenticeship of the ANN is achieved by means of training algorithms. There is a wide variety of algorithms used for the ANN training. The simplest ones consist of a feedback of the results so that the weights in the synaptic connections can be changed according to an error level resulting from the comparison between the obtaining results and the desired ones. An example is the backpropagation method. For this algorithm, the input signs are propagated, layer by layer, being multiplied by the synaptic weights until they reach the output layer. In the output layer, an error sign is obtained by the comparison

Fig. 8. Thermal image of an arrester with a broken varistor.

between the obtained results and the desired ones. The error sign is then propagated backwards, adjusting the synaptic weights so that a new propagation should present a decreased error level. A training set must be chosen so that it contains a large variability of possible patterns under analysis in order to adjust properly the ANN. After the training, the adapted neural network must be tested with a data set different from the one used for training. A correct choice of the test set and also of the training set will guarantee that the ANN is not only memorizing the input from the training. In this work, input signs are the temperatures along the arrester length and the results indicate the existence or not of a failure and the kind of failure. The outputs are normalized to zero or one. So that the results obtained indicate only two possible states, a positive one, indicating a failure, for example, or zero, indicating the non existence of failures.

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Fig. 9. Thermal prole for arrester in Fig. 8.

Fig. 10. Thermal image of an arrester with sealing problems.

IV. RESULTS A. Failure Tests As stated before, failure tests were conducted with the creation of defects in different arrester models. For each kind of defect, thermal images were analyzed and thermal proles were created. From the thermal proles, data could be extracted to feed the developed neural network. Different methods were used for the defects creation and, although the models of arresters vary according to its manufacturer and size, it is expected that these different models present a similar heating pattern since usually there is no signicant modication in the inner structure, composed basically of a stack of varistors and spacers. Some examples of the failure tests can be seen are: The rst analyzed defect was the creation of short circuits in the surface of the varistor, as if a conduction path was created due to carbonization, humidity or varistor failure. An example of the results obtained is depicted in Figs. 6 and 7. The next failure was the inclusion of broken varistors in the arrester active column. An example of the results can be seen in Figs. 8 and 9. For the simulation of sealing failure, the opened arrester was re-closed with intentional failures in the sulfur sealing. The results are depicted in Figs. 10 and 11. For internal humidity simulation, the arrester was re-closed after it was vaporized with a small amount of water. A result can be seen in Figs. 12 and 13. For supercial pollution, a salty solution was vaporized over the arrester housing surface. The results are shown in Figs. 14 and 15. The last considered failure was the varistor displacement along the active column. Results for this kind of failure are depicted in Figs. 16 and 17. Each kind of failure results in a certain modication on the thermal pattern. These modications on the thermal pattern are used for the ANN to identify and classify the failures, although some of the failures present a very similar pattern among themas some failures can be deeply related to each other, being sometimes consequence of other failures. B. ANN Analysis One of the main characteristics of an ANN is the generalization: a well-trained network is able to extract the main charac-

Fig. 11. Thermal prole for arrester in Fig. 10.

Fig. 12. Thermal image for an arrester with internal moisture.

Fig. 13. Thermal prole for Fig. 12.

teristics of the patterns to be analyzed and classify data that was not used in the training process. To achieve this, the network must be trained with the most variability possible of models and failure patterns, so that the synaptic weights can be adapted to present a correct classication even for unusual patterns. Besides that, as stated before, the inner structure of ZnO arresters

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Fig. 14. Thermal image of an arrester with supercial salty pollution.

Fig. 15. Thermal prole for arrester in Fig. 14.

conducted using arresters from four different manufacturers, for 96, 192, and 550 kV, and the results were obtained to train and test an articial neural network. Different congurations of ANN were analyzed so that a good result in classication of patters could be obtained. After some tests, the chosen option was a network based on the resilient propagation (RPROP) algorithm. The RPROP is characterized for a local adjustment in the synaptic weights, instead of a global adjustment as conducted by the traditional backpropagation. The result is an increase in the convergence rate of the ANN leading to a better classication result [9]. The developed network uses the temperatures along the arrester as input, and the results indicates the existence or absence of failures and is also supposed to indicate the kind of failure. The structure of the network was made the simplest possible, consisting of 3 intermediate layers, each one with 16 neurons. 409 thermal patterns, obtained during the execution of failure tests with the different models of arresters, were analyzed by the network: 255 patterns for training and 154 patterns for testing. Different sets of patterns were used for training and testing, presenting similar results. As result, 99.4% of the testing patterns were classied correctly to indicate the existence of failure. When the classication included an indication for the kind of failure, the error increased to 39.0%. As stated before, some different failures presented a very similar heating pattern, so that a new attempt for classication of failures was made, taking in to account groups of failures with some similarity. For this new try, the error level decreased to 22.0%. V. CONCLUSION A study of failures in ZnO arresters was conducted in order to improve the knowledge about arrester failure and its thermal behavior under defective conditions. Tests were made to simulate the failures to which the arresters are submitted when working on the eld. The thermal images obtained during these tests indicate the variations in the thermal behavior of the arrester for the different kinds of problems, and these variations can be used to feed an articial neural network to classify the arresters according to the existence or the kind of failure. The obtained results conrm the usage of thermal images as an appropriate way to identify problems in ZnO arrester, as a simple model of a neural network was able to classify correctly the existence of failures in 99.4% of the evaluated thermal images. Although the indication of the kind of failure still presents a high error level, the authors pretend to use more complex congurations of ANN, as RBF, so that a better result can be obtained. ACKNOWLEDGMENT

Fig. 16. Thermal image of an arrester with varistors displacement.

Fig. 17. Thermal prole for arrester in Fig. 16.

doesnt present signicant modications for different models or manufacturers. Thus, with the similarity of the structural patterns, a well trained ANN should be able to be used for the classication of different models of arresters. The failures tests were

The authors would like to thank the engineers M. Norat, T. Cristina Leite Galindo, and A. Eugnio de Andrade Lima Calazans, from Chesf, and L. Galvani, from Eletrosul, for technical support. They would also like to thank the Thermovision technician J. Beltro for his time aiding them during the failures tests in laboratory. Lastly, the authors thank the aid of the IEEE Editor and Reviewers for their contribution to improve the text in his paper.

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REFERENCES [1] V. Hinrichsen, MetalOxide Surge Arresters Fundamentals1st ed. Berlin, Germany, 2001, SiemensPower Transmission and Distribution Power Voltage Division. [2] C. Heinrich and V. Hinrichsen, Diagnostics and monitoring of metaloxide surge arresters in high-voltage networks-comparison of existing and newly developed procedures, IEEE Trans. Power Del., vol. 16, no. 1, pp. 138143, Jan. 2001. [3] K. Izumi, H. Honma, and J. Tanaka, Deterioration of metal oxide surge arrester element caused by internal partial discharges under polluted conditions, in Proc. 3rd Int. Conf. Properties and Applications of Dielectric Materials, Tokyo, Japan, Jul. 812, 1991, pp. 517520. [4] B. Weise, C. Heinrich, L. Klingbeil, and W. Kalkner, High energy lightning impulse stress on MO arresters and their degradation, in Proc. 25th Int. Conf. Lightning Protection, Rhodos, Greece, Sep. 2000. [5] K. L. Chrzan, Concentrated discharges and dry bands on polluted outdoor insulators, in Proc. 13th Int. Symp. High Voltage Engineering, Delft, The Netherlands, Aug. 2003. [6] M. Plata, M. A. Ponce, J. M. Ros, F. de la Rosa, and V. M. Castao, Degradation of zinc oxide varistors, IEE Proc.-Sci., Meas., Technol., vol. 143, no. 5, Sep. 1996. [7] S. Haykin, Neural Networks: A Comprehensive Foundation, 2nd ed. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1998. [8] A. S. Pandya and R. B. Macy, Pattern Recognition With Neural Network in C++. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 1996. [9] M. Riedmiller and H. Braun, A direct adaptative method for faster backpropagation learning: The RPROP algorithm, in Proc. IEEE Int. Conf. Neural Networks, San Francisco, CA, 1993, pp. 586591.
Estcio Tavares Wanderley Neto was born in Campina Grande, Brazil, in 1977. He graduated from the Federal University of Paraba, Paraiba, Brazil, and received the M.Sc. and D.Sc. degrees from the Federal University of Campina Grande in 2003 and 2007, respectively. He was a Professor at the Federal University of Campina Grand for two years. He is currently with the Federal University of ItajubUNIFEI, Brazil.

Edson Guedes da Costa was born in Brazil in 1954. He graduated as an electrical engineer in 1978 and received his Masters degree in 1981 and the Ph.D. degree in 1999, both from the Federal University of Paraba, Paraba, Brazil. Since 1978, he has been a Professor in the Electrical Engineering Department, Federal University of Campina Grande, Campina Grande, Brazil. His research interests are power systems, electric elds, partial discharges, arresters, and insulators.

Marcelo Jos de Albuquerque Maia was born in Campina Grande, Brazil, in 1958. He graduated in electrical engineering from the Federal University of Paraba, Paraiba, Brazil, in 1978, and received the M.Sc. degree from the Federal University of Itajub, Minas Gerais, Brazil, in 1980, and the M.B.A. degree from the Getlio Vargas Foundation, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1997. He has been with the Companhia Hidro Eltrica do So Francisco (CHESF), So Francisco, Brazil, since 1978. He is currently in the Transmission System Planning Department at CHESF. He has already developed studies new transmission technologies at Eletrobas (a power utility in Brazil), from 1989 to 1999. Today, he is working also with research and development studies related to substation arresters at UFCG and saturated reactors at Federal University of Pernambuco.

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