Circuit breakers are used in a power system to break or make current flow through power system apparatus. Reliable operation of circuit breakers is very important to the well-being of the power system. Historically this is achieved by regular inspection and maintenance of the circuit breakers. An automated online circuit breaker monitoring system is proposed to monitor condition, operation and status of high and medium voltage circuit breakers. By tracking equipment condition, this system could be used to perform maintenance only when it is needed. This could decrease overall maintenance cost and increase equipment reliability. Using high accurate time synchronization, this system should enable development of system-wide applications that utilize the data recorded by the system. This makes possible tracking sequence of events and making conclusions about their effect on-line. This solution also enables reliable topology analysis, which can be used to improve power flow analysis, state estimation and alarm processing.

Circuit breakers are used in a power system to break or make current flow through power system apparatus. Reliable operation of circuit breakers is very important to the well-being of the power system. Historically this is achieved by regular inspection and maintenance of the circuit breakers. An automated online circuit breaker monitoring system is proposed to monitor condition, operation and status of high and medium voltage circuit breakers. By tracking equipment condition, this system could be used to perform maintenance only when it is needed. This could decrease overall maintenance cost and increase equipment reliability. Using high accurate time synchronization, this system should enable development of system-wide applications that utilize the data recorded by the system. This makes possible tracking sequence of events and making conclusions about their effect on-line. This solution also enables reliable topology analysis, which can be used to improve power flow analysis, state estimation and alarm processing.

New maintenance techniques for circuit breakers are studied in this dissertation by proposing a probabilistic maintenance model and a new methodology to assess circuit breaker condition utilizing its control circuit data. A risk-based decision approach is proposed at system level making use of the proposed new methodology, for optimizing the maintenance schedules and allocation of resources. This dissertation is focused on developing optimal maintenance strategies for circuit breakers, both at component and system level. A probabilistic maintenance model is proposed using similar approach recently introduced for power transformers. Probabilistic models give better insight into the interplay among monitoring techniques, failure modes and maintenance techniques of the component. The model is based on the concept of representing the component life time by several deterioration stages. Inspection and maintenance is introduced at each stage and model parameters are defined. A sensitivity analysis is carried to understand the importance of model parameters in obtaining optimal maintenance strategies. The analysis covers the effect of inspection rate calculated for each stage and its impact on failure probability, inspection cost, maintenance cost and failure cost. This maintenance model is best suited for long-term maintenance planning. All simulations are carried in MATLAB and how the analysis results may be used to achieve optimal maintenance schedules is discussed. A new methodology is proposed to convert data from the control circuit of a breaker into condition of the breaker by defining several performance indices for breaker assemblies. Control circuit signal timings are extracted and a probability distribution is fitted to each timing parameter. Performance indices for various assemblies such as, trip coil, close coil, auxiliary contacts etc. are defined based on the probability distributions. These indices are updated using Bayesian approach as the new data arrives. This process can be made practical by approximating the Bayesian approach calculating the indices on-line. The quantification of maintenance is achieved by computing the indices after a maintenance action and comparing with those of previously estimated ones. A risk-based decision approach to maintenance planning is proposed based on the new methodology developed for maintenance quantification. A list of events is identified for the test system under consideration, and event probability, event consequence, and hence the risk associated with each event is computed. Optimal maintenance decisions are taken based on the computed risk levels for each event. Two case studies are presented to evaluate the performance of the proposed new methodology for maintenance quantification. The risk-based decision approach is tested on IEEE Reliability Test System. All simulations are carried in MATLAB and the discussions of results are provided.

O presente trabalho visa o desenvolvimento de um sistema de monitoramento de disjuntor voltado a coletar informações para manutenção preditiva. São analisadas as características das variáveis que são monitoradas através de sensores ligados ao disjuntor, sua aquisição e o tratamento das informações. Um protótipo foi desenvolvido e instalado na subestação de Sumaré 440kV de ETEO (Empresa de Transmissão de Energia do Oeste Paulista). Um assunto importante para a manutenção é a avaliação dos tempos envolvidos na movimentação dos contatos principais do disjuntor principalmente na operação de abertura do curto circuito. Para tal é proposto um sistema não intrusivo que analise a oscilografia das tensões e correntes no disjuntor sincronizado com as correntes no circuito de disparo deste equipamento. A Transformada de Fourier aplicada no sinal de corrente/tensão sem perturbação permite determinar o valor do componente fundamental desse sinal. Com esse valor pode-se gerar uma senóide que superposta com o sinal coletado pelo oscilógrafo permite visualizar a alteração. A Transformada Wavelet é realizada através de filtros decompondo-se o sinal de corrente ou tensão em Análise Multiresolução, em diferentes estágios obtendo-se em cada, uma versão chamada aproximação (baixas freqüências) e uma de detalhes (altas freqüências), sendo assim, os distúrbios podem ser detectados e localizados no tempo em função do seu conteúdo de freqüência. / The present work addresses the development of a circuit breaker monitoring system so as to collect information for predictive maintenance. The characteristics of the variables that are monitored through certain sensors linked to the circuit breaker, its acquisition and the treatment of the information, are analyzed. A prototype was developed and installed at the 440kV Sumaré substation of ETEO (Empresa de Transmissão de Energia do Oeste Paulista) a Brazilian Transmission Company. An important aspect for the maintenance is the evaluation of the times involved in the movement of the circuit breaker main contacts, mainly at the opening operation for example during a short circuit. On this respect, a non-intrusive system that analyzes the oscillography of both voltages and currents in the circuit breaker synchronized with the currents in the tripping circuit of this equipment is proposed. The Fourier Transform applied to the current or voltage signal with no disturbance allows to determine the value of the fundamental component of this signal. With that value, it can be generated a pure sine wave which when overlapped to the signal collected by the oscillograph allows to visualize alterations. The Wavelet Transform is realized through filters and decomposing the current or voltage signal through the Multiresolution Analysis at different levels, in this way, obtaining in each level, a version called approximation (low frequencies) and another with details (high frequencies), thus, the disturbances can be detected and located in the time and as a function of its frequency content.

O presente trabalho visa o desenvolvimento de um sistema de monitoramento de disjuntor voltado a coletar informações para manutenção preditiva. São analisadas as características das variáveis que são monitoradas através de sensores ligados ao disjuntor, sua aquisição e o tratamento das informações. Um protótipo foi desenvolvido e instalado na subestação de Sumaré 440kV de ETEO (Empresa de Transmissão de Energia do Oeste Paulista). Um assunto importante para a manutenção é a avaliação dos tempos envolvidos na movimentação dos contatos principais do disjuntor principalmente na operação de abertura do curto circuito. Para tal é proposto um sistema não intrusivo que analise a oscilografia das tensões e correntes no disjuntor sincronizado com as correntes no circuito de disparo deste equipamento. A Transformada de Fourier aplicada no sinal de corrente/tensão sem perturbação permite determinar o valor do componente fundamental desse sinal. Com esse valor pode-se gerar uma senóide que superposta com o sinal coletado pelo oscilógrafo permite visualizar a alteração. A Transformada Wavelet é realizada através de filtros decompondo-se o sinal de corrente ou tensão em Análise Multiresolução, em diferentes estágios obtendo-se em cada, uma versão chamada aproximação (baixas freqüências) e uma de detalhes (altas freqüências), sendo assim, os distúrbios podem ser detectados e localizados no tempo em função do seu conteúdo de freqüência. / The present work addresses the development of a circuit breaker monitoring system so as to collect information for predictive maintenance. The characteristics of the variables that are monitored through certain sensors linked to the circuit breaker, its acquisition and the treatment of the information, are analyzed. A prototype was developed and installed at the 440kV Sumaré substation of ETEO (Empresa de Transmissão de Energia do Oeste Paulista) a Brazilian Transmission Company. An important aspect for the maintenance is the evaluation of the times involved in the movement of the circuit breaker main contacts, mainly at the opening operation for example during a short circuit. On this respect, a non-intrusive system that analyzes the oscillography of both voltages and currents in the circuit breaker synchronized with the currents in the tripping circuit of this equipment is proposed. The Fourier Transform applied to the current or voltage signal with no disturbance allows to determine the value of the fundamental component of this signal. With that value, it can be generated a pure sine wave which when overlapped to the signal collected by the oscillograph allows to visualize alterations. The Wavelet Transform is realized through filters and decomposing the current or voltage signal through the Multiresolution Analysis at different levels, in this way, obtaining in each level, a version called approximation (low frequencies) and another with details (high frequencies), thus, the disturbances can be detected and located in the time and as a function of its frequency content.