End users and manufacturers of rotating machines have been using Partial Discharge (PD) tests as a means of assuring the quality of stator winding insulation for many years.  A variety of sensors and measuring instruments are available to detect PD.  Together they form measur…

The Australian National Electricity Market (NEM) is now sourcing around 20% of its generation from renewables, around half this from wind and solar. The costs of wind and particularly solar continue to fall, and many industry observers sug…

Large electric generators are directly cooled with high purity water to remove the heat from the coil efficiently. This stator cooling water system (SCWS) can operate without issues for years, but when problems arise, it can go quickly. Redu…

An unplanned outage of motors or generators can lead to high follow-up costs. To prevent those unexpected occurrences, it is essential to know the condition of the machine. In regards of the insulation system, high voltage tests such as the volt…

In 2015 AGL Torrens identified a 3.3MW DOL induction motor as a high risk machine, based on Machine Monitor site testing results of high offline partial discharge and DLA results.  The reason for the high results was not kno…

Mike Davis is an Electrical Engineer with over 45 years’ experience in electrical rotating  equipment, essentially centred on the repair, redesign and maintenance of electrical rotating plant. He has developed an intense academic interest in mac…

Motor Current Signature Analysis (MCSA) is a non-invasive method that is widely used for identifying both electrical and mechanical failures, capable to be performed online without disturbing the normal operation of the apparatus being mon…

Availability of a power plant depends crucially on the reliability of major high voltage components such as the generator, isolated phase bus (IPB) and the generator step-up transformer (GSU). These assets are interconn…

Hydro unit vibration measurements is, typically, one of the most important diagnostic procedures to evaluate the unit's stability of operation. It can be conducted using either continuous (on-line) condition monitoring systems or using multi-chann…

The presentation will draw on worlds-best work practices from relevant standard and technical brochures, as well as decades of experience related to the field maintenance of power transformers and OLTC's with a focus on t…

For many reasons, such as commissioning, maintenance and performing investigations; it may be necessary to perform high-voltage tests on large rotating plant. These tests can include, partial discharge investigations, insula…

The Internet of Things (IoT) is said to be to change our lives, by 2022 more than 22 Billion sensors will collecting data and controlling things around us.  For this to happen these sensors need to be able to connect to the services to use th…

Electrical connections are the backbone of the assets we manage. While generally highly dependable, failures can and do occur with resultant effects such as compromised safety, lost production and equipment damage. It may be surprisi…

Guthega was the first power station commissioned at Snowy Hydro, and having performed some 60 years of strong service was finally showing its age, with stator vibrations of one of the units at critical levels. This powerpoint covers t…

There are different starting applications for large motors implemented to manage the load and be gentler on the power supply. Soft starting is not always best for the motor. This presentation discusses some of the starter ch…

Worldwide, it is estimated that nearly 70% of all electric power generators over 60MW use hydrogen as the cooling medium. Hydrogen poses significant challenges to owners, operators, and maintenance personnel from the standpoin…

The Anomalert motor monitoring unit is a power measuring device that continuously monitors motor absorbed power and current and compares the operational parameters to known fault signatures and to a learned normal operati…

Russell Chetwynd has been in the Power Generation business for over 40 years. He started out as a student apprentice for GEC Turbine Generators (now part of GE) in the UK, going on to work as a Commissioning Engineer start…