What is BS EN 60599 – Dissolved and free gas analysis about?
BS EN 60599 is a European Standard that deals with fluids for electrotechnical applications and describes how the concentrations of dissolved gases or free gases may be interpreted to diagnose the condition of oil-filled electrical equipment in service and suggest future action.
BS EN 60599 is applicable to electrical equipment filled with mineral insulating oil and insulated with cellulosic paper or pressboard-based solid insulation. Information about specific types of equipment such as transformers, reactors, bushings, switchgear, and oil-filled cables is given only as an indication in the application notes.
Who is BS EN 60599 - Dissolved and free gas analysis for?
BS EN 60599 on dissolved and free gas analysis is relevant to:
- Manufacturers of oil-filled electrical equipment such as transformers and reactors
- Manufacturers of insulating materials
- Insulation maintenance personnel
- Quality control and testing agencies
- Electrical and mechanical engineers
- Laboratories
Why should you use BS EN 60599 - Dissolved and free gas analysis?
Dissolved and free gas analysis (DGA) is one of the most widely used diagnostic tools for detecting and evaluating faults in electrical equipment filled with insulating liquid. BS EN 60599 gives information for facilitating this interpretation.
Any gas formation in service, be it minimal, results from a stress of some kind, even if it is a very mild one, like normal temperature ageing. However, as long as gas concentration is below typical values recommended by BS EN 60599 and is not significantly increasing, you can accurately distinguish between what is considered a ‘fault’ and what is the result of typical gas formation.
This second edition addresses shortcomings of the previous version such as the absence of a diagnosis in some cases, the absence of concentration levels and the fact that the earlier edition was based mainly on experience gained from power transformers.
Now, interpretation schemes provided by BS EN 60599 are based on observations made after inspection of a large number of faulty oil-filled equipment in service and concentrations levels deduced from analyses collected worldwide.
BS EN 60599 provides guidance on mechanisms of gas formation, identification of faults, conditions for calculating ratios and recommendations on gas concentration levels in service.
As a result, you can minimize the risk of having an incident or a failure in service.
Overall, compliance with BS EN 60599 can ensure your oil-filled electrical equipment are well insulated, reducing the risk of damage fault or incident necessitating outage, repair or replacement of the equipment, such as internal breakdown, rupture of tank, fire or explosion.
What’s changed since the last update?
BS EN 60401-3:2016 supersedes EN 60599:1999. This edition constitutes a technical revision
- Revision of 5.5, 6.1, 7, 8, 9, 10, A.2.6, A.3, A.7
- Addition of new subclause 4.3
- Expansion of the Bibliography
- Revision of Figure 1
- Addition of Figure B.4
