IEEE Transactions on Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation

Vol. 20, No. 2; April 2013

685

New Methods of DGA Diagnosis using IEC TC 10 and Related Databases Part 1: Application of Gas-ratio Combinations
Sung-wook Kim, Sung-jik Kim, Hwang-dong Seo, Jae-ryong Jung, Hang-jun Yang
HYOSUNG Corporation 454-2, Nae-Dong, Changwon-City, Gyeongsangnam-Do, Korea and Michel Duval IREQ Varennes, QC, Canada

ABSTRACT
This paper proposes a new method of DGA diagnosis, using IEC TC 10 and related databases. We analyzed five gas components (hydrogen, methane, acetylene, ethylene and ethane), which are used for analysis in the standards, with 10 types of gas ratios, and came up with 6 types of gas ratios among them, that can classify faults. Then, we reorganized and analyzed the 6 gas ratios with 15 gas-ratio combinations. From the results, we can suggest a new diagnosis method using 3 gas-ratio combinations that are able to classify fault areas clearly. Index Terms DGA diagnosis, IEC TC 10, gas ratio, new method.

1 INTRODUCTION

A power transformer is important equipment and a valuable

asset of an electrical power system for providing stable and reliable energy. When a transformer in service fails due to deterioration, it can have a huge negative impact on an electrical power system, and repairing and maintaining a transformer is very expensive and difficult. Therefore, inspecting internal failures in an initial stage have become essential. When abnormal phenomena with specific energy, i.e., overheating, partial discharges, arc discharges and insulation breakdown occur inside oil-filled equipment such as a transformer, insulation materials, i.e., insulating oil or insulators being in physical contact with such abnormal phenomena, are affected and decomposed by the energy and produce gases. Such gases are dissolved into the insulating oil. Dissolved Gas Analysis (DGA) diagnosis is widely used to analyze gases dissolved into the insulating oil used for transformer cooling and insulation and to evaluate whether there is an internal abnormality or not and how serious it is, based on the volume and composition of the gases. DGA diagnosis is one of the oldest available, and is proven to be reliable [1, 2]. Methods of DGA diagnosis to detect internal defects are defined in IEEE C57.104 and IEC 60599 standards. Most users of oil-filled electric power equipment and apparatus determine internal faults, by using diagnosis methods described in international standards, and most of them are able to identify the different types of faults.
Manuscript received on 23 February 2012, in final form 3 December 2012.

Some utilities, laboratories and countries also use in-house methods. However, DGA interpretation is not an easy task since DGA methods often cannot provide a diagnosis or will give a wrong diagnosis. Among them, gas-ratio methods detect causes of faults, with areas defined based on faults using gas ratios. As for applying the method, if analyzed data is located within the defined areas, the fault recognition accuracy rates are high, but if the data falls outside of the defined areas, then no meaningful DGA diagnosis can be performed [3, 4]. In this paper, we used IEC Technical Committee (TC) 10 and related databases and analyzed five gas components (hydrogen, methane, acetylene, ethylene and ethane), which are used for analysis in the standards, with 10 types of gas ratios, and came up with 6 types of gas ratios among them, that can classify faults. Then, we reorganized and analyzed the 6 gas ratios with 15 gas-ratio combinations and such that we can suggest a new diagnosis method using 3 gas-ratio combinations that are able to classify fault areas clearly.

2 GAS-RATIO COMBINATIONS
2.1 ANALYSIS OF FAULT PATTERN BY GAS RATIOS Gases generated in oil are related to the insulation materials used inside a transformer in service and the types of faults created. The generated gases are different in their volume and composition, depending on the fault energy level inside a transformer. A fault at a low temperature mainly creates hydrogen, methane and ethane, and a fault at a higher temperature often creates a large quantity of ethylene as

1070-9878/13/$25.00 2013 IEEE

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S.-w. Kim et al.: New Methods of DGA Diagnosis using IEC TC 10 and Related Databases Part 1

shown in Table 1. Further, in a low-energy electrical fault such as corona partial discharges, hydrogen and methane are generated, while in low-energy sparking discharge and highenergy electrical fault such as arcing, a large volume of acetylene is created. In particular, hydrogen gas is generated with all types of faults [1, 2]. Table 1 shows the characteristics of gases generated by each fault type, and the gas components of which the standards require analysis for detecting fault causes are hydrogen, methane, acetylene, ethylene and ethane.
Table 1. Characteristics of generated gases by fault types [4].
Fault types/gases Cellulose aging Mineral oil decompositio n Thermal faults cellulose Thermal faults in oil 150 - 300 Thermal faults in oil 300 - 700 Thermal faults in oil over 700 Corona PDs Arcing + sparking PDs : Gas formation CO CO2 Trace CH4 C2H2 C2H4 C2H6 H2

(a) Fault pattern analysis with R1

Trace

Trace

No. R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 R6 R7 R8 R9 R10

Table 2. Results of fault pattern analysis by gas ratios. Distinction possible Between Between Gas ratios Between thermal and thermal faults electrical faults electrical faults T1~T3 PD~D2 CH4 / H2 C2H2 / C2H4 C2H2 / CH4 C2H6 / C2H2 C2H4 / C2H6 C2H4 / CH4 C2H6 / CH4 C2H4 / H2 C2H6 / H2 C2H2 / H2

(b) Fault pattern analysis with R2 Figure 1. Examples of fault pattern analysis with gas ratios R1 and R2.

: Distinguishable, : Unclear distinction, : Undistinguishable Table 3. Classification of faults. Faults PD D1 D2 T1 T2 T3 Meanings Corona partial discharges Discharges of low energy Discharges of high energy Thermal faults of temperature T<300 Thermal faults of temperature 300<T<700 Thermal faults of temperature T>700

In order to determine gas ratios that are capable of clearly classifying faults, the 5 gas components above can be reorganized into 10 gas ratios as in Table 2. Gas ratios of each fault type were evaluated, by using 122 cases in IEC TC 10 [5] and related databases [6] surveyed from actual incident cases, excluding Load Tap Changers (LTCs) and laboratory cases. The faults are classified into the 6 types defined in IEC 60599 as shown in Table 3, and in case a concentration value is 0 l/l (ppm) in IEC TC 10 and related databases, the value is replaced by 1 l/l (ppm), considering a common limit value of gas concentration that can be detected with routine dissolved gas measurement equipment [7]. Figure 1 shows 2 examples of fault patterns analyzed according to each gas ratio on the vertical axis, for each of the 122 cases on the horizontal axis. Table 4 shows analysis results. According to the results of fault pattern analysis with each gas ratio, the R1~R5 ratios, which are gas ratios used in existing diagnosis methods of Doernenburg [1], Rogers [1] and IEC [2], are usually able to distinguish between thermal and electrical faults and are also able to distinguish between PD, D1 and D2 faults among electrical faults. For thermal faults, however, T1, T2 and T3 faults of low-, medium- and high-temperature energy levels are not clearly divided. The ratios of R6~R10 have not been used in international standards thus far. Of the ratios, R6 can distinguish between low- and high-temperature faults among thermal faults, and mostly the remaining 4 ratios are unable to discern between thermal and electrical faults and are also unable to distinguish between each fault.

IEEE Transactions on Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation

Vol. 20, No. 2; April 2013

687

2.2 ANALYSIS OF FAULT PATTERN BY GAS-RATIO COMBINATIONS From the fault pattern results by gas ratios, the gas ratios of R1~R6 were chosen to clearly classify 6 types of faults, and since one gas ratio could not distinguish between all of the faults, the selected ratios were reorganized into 15 types of gas-ratio combinations to analyze fault patterns as shown in Table 4. Except for the R1-R2 gas-ratio combination, most of the combinations were unable to differentiate between electrical and thermal faults. Also, while they could usually detect PD faults among electrical faults, they were unable to distinguish between D1 and D2 faults, except for the R2-R5 gas-ratio combination. As for thermal faults, they could not discriminate between T1 and T2 faults, except for the R5-R6 gas-ratio combination. Further, only the gas-ratio combination of R2-R5 could clearly distinguish between T2 and T3 faults. From the analysis results, we found that if the gas-ratio combinations of R1-R2, R2-R5 and R5-R6 are used, the 6 different types of faults can be classified clearly in phases.
Table 4. Results of fault pattern analysis with gas-ratio combinations.
Distinction between electrical and thermal faults Distinction among electrical faults PDD1 PDD2 D1D2 Distinction among thermal faults T1T2 T1T3 T2T3

flow chart of the new diagnosis method [8]. First, the R1-R2 gas-ratio combination is used to distinguish between thermal and electrical faults, and then the R5-R6 gas-ratio combination is used to identify T1 faults from other thermal faults. After distinguishing T1 faults, the R2-R5 gas-ratio combination is used to distinguish between T2 and T3 faults. Also, as for electrical faults, thermal and electrical faults are firstly divided, and then the R2-R5 gas-ratio combination is used to distinguish between PD, D1 and D2 faults.
Input gas Y

>0.05 N

R1

<= 0.4 N Y

R2

R1
>3 N

>0.4 N

R2

<=0.2 N

R5

<=0.2 N Y N 0.05<R6 <=0.2 N Y Y

R6

T1

<=2 N

R2

<=0.1 N

R5

PD

>0.2

R5

R2
>2 N

<=0.1 N Y 0.1< R5 <=1.5 N

R5

D1

>0.0005 N 0.0005< R2 <=0.02 N Y

R2

<=2 N 2< R5 <=4.68 N Y Y

R5

T2

<=0.0005 Y N 0.0005< R2 <=0.02 N Y D2 Y

R2

Gas-ratio combination

>2.5 N

R2

>1.5 N Y

R5

>4.68 N Y

R5

T3

<=2.5

R2

>1.5

R5

>0.02

R2

R5
>2

R1 - R2 R1 - R3 R1 - R4 R1 - R5 R1 - R6 R2 - R3 R2 - R4 R2 - R5 R2 - R6 R3 - R4 R3 - R5 R3 - R6 R4 - R5 R4 - R6 R5 - R6

Figure 2. Flow chart of fault distinction.

: Clear distinction, : Distinguishable, : Unclear distinction, : Undistinguishable

3.1 DISTINCTION BETWEEN THERMAL AND ELECTRICAL FAULTS To distinguish between thermal and electrical faults, the R1R2 gas-ratio combination was used. Figure 3 shows 122 cases confirmed through visual inspection as well as fault areas (ratio limit values) regarding thermal and electrical faults (R1 = 0.05 and 3: R2 = 0.4). To distinguish thermal and electrical faults, the R1-R2 gasratio combination, a ratio of methane/hydrogen and acetylene/ethylene, consisting of methane and hydrogen characterized as low-energy thermal and electrical faults, and acetylene and ethylene characterized as high-energy electrical and thermal faults, was used. Therefore, as shown in Figure 3, thermal fault cases tend to be distributed relatively lower middle part than electrical fault cases since they generate a large quantity of methane and ethylene while electrical fault cases are distributed upper left part due to a large generated volume of hydrogen and acetylene. 3.2 DISTINCTION BETWEEN T1 AND T2-T3 FAULTS After thermal and electrical faults were distinguished, T1 and T2-T3 faults were differentiated, by using the R5-R6 gasratio combination. Figure 4 shows 45 cases of thermal faults and fault areas (ratio limit values) for T1, T2 and T3 faults (R5 =0.2 : R6 =0.05 and 0.2). To distinguish T1 faults below 300 from other thermal faults, the R5-R6 gas-ratio combination, a ratio of ethylene/ethane and ethylene/methane, which is composed of ethylene and ethane, gases of a low temperature, and ethylene,

Individual gas ratios R1 to R6 are defined in Table 2. As to the meaning of gas-ratio combinations in Table 4, R1-R2 for example means that the R2 ratio is plotted as a function of the R1 ratio in Figure 3.

3 NEW METHOD OF DGA DIAGNOSIS

The new diagnosis method proposed in this paper classifies each fault in phases, by using the 3 gas-ratio combinations (R1-R2, R2-R5 and R5-R6) drawn from above. Figure 2 shows a

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a gas of a high temperature, was used. Therefore, as shown in Figure 4, T1 fault cases tend to be located relatively lower left part than T2-T3 fault cases since they have a lot of generated ethane and methane while T2-T3 fault cases are scattered upper right part because the cases have a lot of generated ethylene. However, it is not easy to define the fault areas of T2 and T3, using the R5-R6 gas-ratio combination. Therefore, the fault areas can be defined, using the R2-R5 gas-ratio combination.

Figure 5. Distinction between T2 and T3 faults with R2-R5 gas-ratio combination

Figure 3. Distinction between thermal and electrical faults with R1-R2 gasratio combination

3.4 DISTINCTION BETWEEN PD, D1 AND D2 FAULTS After thermal and electrical faults were divided using the R1R2 gas-ratio combination, distinctions were made between PD, D1 and D2 faults using the R2-R5 gas-ratio combination. Electrical faults are divided into corona partial discharge (PD), low-energy (D1) and high-energy (D2) discharges according to energy level, and are accompanied by overheating, depending on each electrical fault energy. Figure 6 shows 77 cases of electrical faults and the fault areas (ratio limit values) for PD, D1 and D2 faults (R2 =2 and 2.5 : R5 =0.1 and 1.5). As described above, the R2-R5 gas-ratio combination consists of a ratio of acetylene/ethylene and ethylene/ethane. As shown in Figure 6, D1 fault cases tend to be located relatively upper right part than PD and D2 fault cases since relatively more acetylene is generated than ethylene and further, relatively more ethylene is generated than ethane. D2 fault cases tend to be located more to the left than D1 fault cases because a large volume of ethylene is generated when arcing and sparking occur, signifying overheating of 1000 or higher.

Figure 4. Distinction between T1, T2 and T3 faults with R5-R6 gas-ratio combination.

3.3 DISTINCTION BETWEEN T2 AND T3 FAULTS After T1 and T2-T3 faults were distinguished, distinction between T2 and T3 faults was made, using the R2-R5 gas-ratio combination. Figure 5 shows 37 cases of T2 and T3 faults and the fault areas (ratio limit values) for T2 and T3 faults. (R2 =0.0005 and 0.02 : R5 =2 and 4.68). The R2-R5 gas-ratio combination, a ratio of acetylene/ethylene and ethylene/ethane, is composed of acetylene and ethylene that are characterized as an indicator of high-energy faults, and ethylene and ethane characterized as an indicator of high- and low-temperature thermal faults. Therefore, as in Figure 5, T2 fault cases tend to be distributed relatively lower than T3 fault cases.

Figure 6. Distinction among PD, D1 and D2 faults with R2-R5 gas-ratio combination

IEEE Transactions on Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation

Vol. 20, No. 2; April 2013

689

4 DGA RESULTS
The individual DGA results in l/l (ppm) used in this paper are indicated in references [5, 6]. An example where IEEE and IEC gas-ratio methods cannot provide a diagnosis, but where the new gas-ratio combinations proposed in this paper can, is indicated in Table 5 and Table 6.
Table 5. Examples of IEC TC 10 databases.
Gases Cases Case 1 Case 2 Case 3 Case 4 Case 5 Case 6 H2 66 3420 30 9340 1330 75 C2H4 7 6990 308 6 66 14 C2H6 2 1500 114 60 20 7 C2H2 0 33 8 7 182 26 CH4 60 7870 200 995 10 15 Fault types T1 T2 T3 PD D1 D2

gas ratios that are capable of clear fault distinction. The 6 gas ratios were then reorganized into 15 types of gas-ratio combinations and analyzed. As a result, we were able to make clear distinctions between faults observed in service. 117 of the 122 cases exactly fell into each fault area and only 5 fell outside their areas. The new DGA diagnosis method proposed here is therefore over 95% accurate and able to diagnose almost every type of fault. As in the case of IEEE and IEC gas-ratio methods such as Rogers, Doernenburg and IEC ratios, gas ratios R1 to R6 are used in this paper only to distinguish between different types of thermal and electrical faults, whatever their location in paper or oil. The 95 % accuracy rate thus applies only to these types of faults. To determine whether or not cellulose is involved, other gases such as carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide are used by IEEE and IEC, but this is out of the scope of this paper. Such a determination has been shown recently by CIGRE [7] to be often quite uncertain, particularly in the case of sealed transformers.

Table 6. Examples of DGA results.

Methods Cases(Fault) Case 1 (T1) Case 2 (T2) Case 3 (T3) Case 4 (PD) Case 5 (D1) Case 6 (D2) New method in this paper T1 T2 T3 PD D1 D2 Doernenburg (IEEE) U.D T.D T.D U.D U.D D2 Rogers (IEEE) U.D T3 T1 or T2 U.D U.D U.D IEC ratio (IEC) U.D T3 T2 U.D U.D D1 Key gas (IEEE) O.C O.O O.O PD PD O.C.

REFERENCES
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] IEEE Std C57.104, IEEE Guide for the Interpretation of Gases Generated in Oil-Immersed Transformers, 2008. IEC Publication 60599, Mineral oil-impregnated electrical equipment in service-Guide to the interpretation of dissolved and free gases analysis, 2007. L. R. Lewand, Techniques for Interpretation of Data for DGA from Transformers, IEEE Power & Energy Society Transformer Committee, Montreal, Canada, 24 October, 2006. Serveron Corporation, DGA Diagnostic Methods, Serveron White Paper, PN 880-0129-00 Rev. B, 2007. M. Duval, Interpretation of Gas-In-Oil analysis Using New IEC Publication 60599 and IEC TC 10 Databases, IEEE Electr. Insul. Mag., Vol. 17, No. 2, pp. 31-41, 2001. M. Duval, A Review of Faults Detectable by Gas-In-Oil Analysis in Transformers, IEEE Electr. Insul. Mag., Vol. 18, No. 3, pp. 817, 2002. CIGRE Task Force D1. 01. 15, Report on Gas Monitors for OilFilled Electrical Equipment, 3 March, 2009. Sung-wook Kim, Hwang-dong Seo, Sung-jik Kim, Fault Diagnosis Method of Oil Filled Transformer using Composition of Dissolved gases, Patent (P201109-020KR-10-2011-0142842), South Korea, 2011. Sung-wook Kim was born in Busan, Korea in 1981. He received the B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in electrical engineering and high voltage engineering from the Korea Maritime University, Busan, south of Korea in 2008 and 2010, respectively. Since then, he has worked for R & D center of Hyosung Corporation and is one of the members in charge of DGA project. His research interests are partial discharge and DGA diagnosis method of power transformers.

U.D : Unresolved Diagnose, T.D : Thermal Decomposition O.C : Overheated Cellulose, O.O : Overheated Oil

Table 7 shows the accuracy rate calculated for the 122 cases of IEC TC 10 databases. From the results, the new method proposed in this paper shows that it is higher than any other IEEE and IEC methods for the 122 cases.
Table 7. Comparison between new method and existing methods. DGA Methods New method Doernenburg Rogers IEC ratio Key gas Unresolved diagnose (A) 0 15.1 37.6 17.2 3.2 Wrong diagnose (B) 4.1 1.1 17.2 16.1 38.7 Error (A+B) 4.1 16.1 54.8 33.3 41.9 Accuracy [%] (100-Error) 95.9 83.9 45.2 66.7 58.1

[8]

5 CONCLUSION
This paper proposes in Figure 2 a new method of DGA diagnosis, using IEC TC 10 and related databases. To develop an accurate and reliable method of DGA diagnosis, we organized 5 major gases, defined by the standards, with 10 different types of gas ratios, coming up with 6 types of

Sung-jik Kim was born in Daegu in 1981. He received the B.Sc. (Eng.) from Kyungpook National University in 2007. Now he works in R & D center of Hyosung corporation and is one of the members in charge of DGA project. His research interest is on-line diagnostic method of power transformers such as DGA and PD analysis.

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S.-w. Kim et al.: New Methods of DGA Diagnosis using IEC TC 10 and Related Databases Part 1
Hwang-dong Seo was born in Busan, South of Korea in 1976. He received the B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in electrical engineering and high voltage engineering from the Korea Maritime University, Busan, south of Korea in 2002 and 2007, respectively. Since then, he has worked for R & D center of Hyosung corporation and is DGA project leader. His research interests are DGA diagnosis, preventive diagnosis, and asset management of power transformers. Jae-ryong Jung was born in Busan, South of Korea in 1976. He received the B.Sc. degree in 1999, the M.Sc. degree in 2001 and the Ph.D. degree in 2006 from the Busan National University, Busan, south of Korea. Since then, he has worked for R & D center of Hyosung corporation and is part team leader. His research interests are preventive diagnosis of gas insulated switchgears and transformers. Hang-jun Yang was born in Seoul in 1967. He received the B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in physics from Inha University in 1991 and 1993, respectively. Since then, he has worked for R&D Center of Hyosung Cooperation and He is in charge of Power & Industrial solution team leader for developing substation diagnosis solution and automation system solution. Michel Duval (LF'12) graduated from the University of Toulouse in 1966 with a B.Sc. in chemical engineering, and received the Ph.D. degree in polymer chemistry from the University of Paris in 1970. Since then, he has worked for Hydro Quebecs Institute of Research (IREQ) on electrical insulating oils, dissolved gas analysis, and lithium polymer batteries. He holds 13 patents; has authored over 100 scientific papers, book chapters, or international standards; and is very active in several CIGRE and IEC working groups. He is the recipient of the 2012 IEEE Herman Halperin Electrical Transmission and Distribution Award.