Significance of non-invasive diagnostic methods for condition assessment of medium-voltage equipment

The most objective and realistic condition assessment of various grid components is the basis of all optimized maintenance strategies. To ensure a valid condition assessment measuring techniques can be used in addition to visual inspections, but correct handling and interpretation of measuring results is crucial in order to avoid any misinterpretation. A comparison of measured values with limiting values -as generally done- is only possible to a limited extent, especially if non-invasive methods are used because measurements are significantly affected by measurement conditions. Even limiting values can vary and therefore influencing factors and their consequences on the evaluation scheme have to be considered to generate a realistic evaluation result. This paper concentrates on selected…