Return to Session ON-SITE PARTIAL DISCHARGE TESTING OF DISTRIBUTION CLASS CABLES USING VLF AND POWER FREQUENCY EXCITATION

The ongoing deregulation of the energy market has had up to now a strong impact on the maintenance strategies of most utilities. Especially, the increasingly service aged population of distribution class cables influences the reliability of the distribution network. Thus, field-testing is required to assess the severity of the degradation and to determine the cables, which require urgent replacement. Different methods are available for the high voltage excitation of the cables under test. The fixed frequency resonant test set running at 50/60Hz power-frequency offers a perfect match of the service condition, but such test sets are comparably heavy and costly. Other solutions, such as variable frequency resonant test sets, damped oscillating wave, or very low frequency (VLF) excitation offer more cost-effective testing solutions.