Fault Location on long Transmission Power Cables
and Submarine Links
Manfred Bawart
Ground Bonding Systems
Cross Bonding
High load AC transmission cables are designed as Cross Bonding System.
Depending on total cable length the cable is divided in several sections.
Most cable fault location methods are very much limited on their performance
when operated in cross bonding cables. Especially all methods based on TDR are
limited.
Measuring Results and Interpretation
All cross bonding configurations require deep analyse of the cable configuration.
Consider the cable lay out diagram to check the shield connections.
Phase identification is only possible by referencing the main conductor (core).
Most cable fault location methods are very much limited on their performance
when operated in cross bonding cables. Especially all methods based on TDR are
limited.
Cross Bonding
Several Cross Bonding junctions are definitely misleading TDR based
measurements,
just imagine the TDR diagram you may expect?
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Measuring Results and Interpretation
Cable fault location on HV cables with cross bonding joints requires more
experienced operators and specific measuring methods compared to classic
medium voltage network with straight joints.
Most of the nowadays used prelocation methods are based on TDR
(Echometer) technology.
TDR based measurements may mislead on cross bonding cable lines and
thereby indicates the wrong cable length or fault distance.
Accessible junction boxes are needed to support the cable fault location
capability.
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Special cable fault location methods,
useful for long cable length and cross
bonding cable design:
Differential Impulse Current Method
Differential Decay Method
Measuring Bridge Method according to Murray
Measuring Bridge Method according to Glaser
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Cable fault location on long Submarine cable links
the following slides are extracted from
Cigre Technical Paper B1-201
source © CIGRE
Cigre Copyright protected
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Cause of Submarine Cable Faults
Despite the mechanical precaution against damage and the reinforced cable armoring, cable
faults on submarine cables may occur during operation causing expensive power outages.
Cable faults on submarine cables are mostly caused by human activities. Ship
anchors, fishing gear and dredging are common causes as emphasized in Table1 [6.]
Submarine cables are also exposed to a range of natural hazards in all water depths and
these include submarine earthquakes, submarine landslides, seabed erosion, turbidity
currents, current waves, hurricanes, volcanic activity free hanging cable sections, fish and
mammalbites (e.g. sharks) and others natural hazards.[3,4].
source © CIGRE, Paper B1-201-2014
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source © CIGRE, Paper B1-201-2014
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TDR on AC Submarine Cable
source © CIGRE, Paper B1-201-2014
10
TDR on long HV DC Submarine Cable
source © CIGRE, Paper B1-201-2014
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TDR on worlds longest 500KV DC link
source © CIGRE, Paper B1-201-2014
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Murray Bridge Application
- on Worlds longest HV Link
source © CIGRE, Paper B1-201-2014
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SAFETY AND SAFETY MEASURES
The stored energy can reach extremely high and risky levels.
Cable length: 442km, cable capacity 150µF
The stored energy at UDC=100 kV reaches the extremely hazardous value of 750 kJ!
source © CIGRE, Paper B1-201-2014
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