Electronics > Power/Renewable Energy/EV's

Measuring ESD/Partial Discharge in electric grid.

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dervu:
Hi. I am working on very specific case in my place of residence.
I am suspecting ESD/Partial Discharge being present in electric grid and caused by faulty connections or some other phenomenon happening at/near one device powered from the same electric grid.
Whatever it is, it affects how electronics work, mostly visible at every computer present in apartment. Not wanna get into details, just want to find out how to measure things related to ESD, since only that makes sense and most other things are ruled out through years of testing.

I know that ESD is supposed to go to ground. I am not sure if there is any evidence that ESD/Partial discharge would travel to electronics first instead to ground or neutral if is bonded to ground at some point.
My apartment has old style electric grid (TN-C). According to my investigation issue was not present before this device was installed years ago.

I ruled out many things by using different filters, up to high tier ones. Ferrites helped to some degree. Other high tier filters had better attentuation and range than those ferrites, but ferrites seem to affect ESD.
RFI spectrum analyzer did not show anything meaningful.

Every filter with direct connection failed. Galvanic isolation in toroidal balanced transformer helped, which also helped to find which device was most probably the source. Maybe electrostatic shield and indirect connection helped (I was forced to have floating ground to make it work - so electrostatic shield for sure was not working at its full capacity).

Following my findings, disconnecting this source device helped. I want to get to the point of this issue. Not sure yet about faulty connections inside that device. Not really want to touch cold plastic housing during winter.
This device was working outside on elevation for 10 years (so electronics prone to any temperature changes and weather phenomenons).



My question is:
What is cheapest and accurate enough measurement method and device to find out if electrostatic discharge or partial discharge is happening and is present in electric grid?

- There are electrostatic field meters. I am not sure if it will show what is happening inside cable. Probably cheapest option?
- There are sensors like HFCT, but this thing itself is as expensive as electrostatic field meter, but you also need wireless transmitter and analayzer, to keep it separate from grid, to not get affected. It all adds up to pretty high $. Seems like this is option only if I could rent it/hire someone to measure.

trobbins:
Can you power the suspect equipment from an isolated supply (battery powered inverter, to indicate if the coupling is mainly radiated), or a supply that is connected to the mains from a somewhat distant point (ie. via an extension cord) ?  Or vice versa, can you power a PC from a distant point (using extension cable) and still observe the same problem on the local PC.

You are being vague about what the symptom is on other equipment (eg. on a PC) - is the symptom the same, and how do you measure that?

mzzj:

--- Quote from: trobbins on January 21, 2023, 09:46:19 pm ---
You are being vague about what the symptom is on other equipment (eg. on a PC) - is the symptom the same, and how do you measure that?

--- End quote ---
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/beginners/pc-performance-correlated-with-relative-humidity/100/

What next?

trobbins:

--- Quote from: dervu on January 21, 2023, 04:11:57 pm ---Whatever it is, it affects how electronics work, mostly visible at every computer present in apartment. Not wanna get into details, just want to find out how to measure things related to ESD, since only that makes sense and most other things are ruled out through years of testing.

--- End quote ---
There is no detailed description of the symptom as related to PC(s), or if such symptom is completely stopped by certain tests that dervu has done and has then assumed (if I interpret it correctly) a cause related to some aspect of the rf spectrum, and then to some root cause related to arcing.  Imho that is all pretty vague so far, but I appreciate that defining in more detail may well be technically hard, but I'd suggest at least starting with a definition of the symptom.

jonpaul:
unlikely ESD.

suspect power mains quality.

Check with power Analyzers for line transients flicker, hits.

First resources may be A UPS on the computers.

Most mains filters and transients protectors unlikely to solve the problem

Jon

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