Partial Discharge Pattern Recognition of GIS with Time–Frequency Energy Grayscale Maps and an Improved Variational Bayesian Autoencoder

Partial discharge pattern recognition is a crucial task for assessing the insulation condition of Gas-Insulated Switchgear (GIS). However, the on-site environment presents challenges such as strong electromagnetic interference, leading to acquired signals with a low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Furthermore, traditional pattern recognition methods based on statistical parameters suffer from redundant and inefficient features that compromise classification accuracy, while existing artificial-intelligence-based classification methods lack the ability to quantify the uncertainty in defect classification. To address these issues, this paper proposes a novel GIS partial discharge pattern recognition method based on time–frequency energy grayscale maps and an improved variational Bayesian autoencoder. Firstly, a denoising-based approximate message passing algorithm is employed to sample and denoise the discharge signals, which enhances the SNR while simultaneously reducing the number of sampling points. Subsequently, a two-dimensional time–instantaneous frequency energy grayscale map of the discharge signal is constructed based on the Hilbert–Huang Transform and energy grayscale mapping, effectively extracting key time–frequency features. Finally, an improved variational Bayesian autoencoder is utilized for the unsupervised learning of the image features, establishing a GIS defect classification method with an associated confidence level by integrating probabilistic features. Validation based on measured data demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed method.