The paper discusses the role of partial discharge measurement in the c
onditioning monitoring of power plant. Following a discussion of recen
t developments in partial discharge detection and measurement technolo
gies, the problems and challenges for the future in the different tech
nologies are analysed and discussed. For those unfamiliar with partial
discharge detection as a condition monitoring tool, a brief discussio
n on its relationship to insulation degradation is presented as an App
endix.