Service Availability Assessment of Mass-insulated Power Cables by Means of Statistical Analysis

Failure data together with the length and the ages of mass-insulated power cables the still in service of a Dutch utility are used as input for the statistical analysis. The choice of the appropriate distribution depends on the goodness of fit to the data. The fitted statistical distribution gives the relation of the number of expected failures per kilometer together with the age of the cable. To see what can be expected in the future the population in service together with the obtained failure rate curve is used. This gives statistical information regarding expected failures and critical connections. The analysis can help the asset manager to determine if immediate action has to be taken to meet the business policy e.g. condition assessment, maintenance or replacement, or if the current policy fulfils the conditions.