Risk Management of HV Polymeric Cables Based on Partial Discharge Assessment

Electrical asset managers have to face the issue of balancing the need for cost reduction with the increasing demand of reliability and availability of the overall electrical energy network. The development of diagnostic tools seems to be the most effective practice to support an effective risk assessment, and, thus, condition based maintenance of electrical assets, from both economical and technical points of view. In this paper the results of an advanced, but already assessed, diagnostic approach based on partial discharge measurements and analysis, applied to HV polymeric cable systems, are reported and discussed. Both after laying test experiences and diagnostic assessments of aged cable systems are presented and evaluated showing the significant contribution that effective partial discharge measurement and analysis can bring to electrical asset managers. In particular, the matters of noise rejection, PD detection and identification, and PD source location along the cable route are treated, dealing with on site testing on 400 and 220 kV, XLPE insulated, cable systems