Low cost thermal imaging for power systems applications using a conventional CCD camera

An investigation has been made to assess the performance of a conventional CCD camera, as commonly used in substation security schemes, for thermal imaging applications. CCD cameras are responsive to infrared radiation in the waveband 0.8-1.1 /spl mu/m. Software image averaging and filtering techniques were developed to improve the signal to noise ratio of the camera image. Laboratory tests conducted in the exclusion of light show that objects at temperatures as low as 280/spl deg/C can be reliably detected by a standard CCD camera. Although this temperature is probably too high for most power plant thermal monitoring, this work raises the question of whether camera resources for security and thermal investigations can be shared.