Thermalpas field deployment (Taiwan) · Power & Electrical
Taipower Mingtan: ten years of busbar monitoring, no thermal incidents
Generator Y-neutral busbar monitoring at a pumped-hydro plant, 16.5 kV / 10,000 A.
- 10 yrsIn service since 2015
- 70%Less inspection labor
- 10,000 ACurrent on monitored busbars
The problem
Inside Taipower's Mingtan pumped-hydro plant, three large generators push 10,000-amp currents through bare copper busbars to keep northern Taiwan's grid stable. The bolted joints carrying that current are fine — until one isn't. A joint that loosens by half a millimeter doesn't look different from the outside, but the contact resistance climbs, heat builds, and eventually the metal anneals and bends.
What was installed
Catching that drift used to mean shutting a unit down, opening the panel, and pointing a thermal camera at each busbar — every month, every phase, every unit. Thermalpas M-TYPE patches were adhered directly to all three phase busbars (R/S/T), with no drilling and no shutdown. The Mingtan control room sees the temperatures continuously; an alarm is raised if any busbar crosses 90°C, and a long-term trend log is kept.
The outcome
Since 2015, three Mingtan units have run for ten years without a thermal incident. The maintenance crew, which used to walk every panel with a thermal camera each month, now reviews the trend report once a quarter — about 70% less time spent on routine thermal inspection.
Have a similar asset at your plant?
Tell us which asset worries you most (busbars, motors, panels, chillers), and we'll show you what an OctosX deployment there would look like.