Digital Twin of an Electrical Insulation System: Data Communication, Predictive Models and Health Condition

Digital twins, DT, are being developed to emulate behaviour, control, performance and operation of electrical assets. For the purpose of simulation, testing, monitoring and maintenance of asset components, work shall be done to integrate in a DT ageing modelling, reliability, design procedures, diagnostics, health condition evaluation and maintenance of the weakest component of an electrical or electronic asset component, that is, electrical insulation. Life and reliability models, potentially able to account for any type of stress, even time varying, are developed and their integration in a DT is discussed. Similarly, design procedures, accounting also extrinsic ageing, that can be scaled, with voltage and power, and algorithms for the dynamic assessment of insulation health condition through diagnostic testing or monitoring, are developed. The takeaway is that a DT approach should cover any feature regarding electrical insulation systems from design to condition monitoring.