Multi-phase conductor PD sensing of failed PILC cable section

A system which will inform decisions relating to repair, maintenance and to reduce the number of in-service failure of paper insulated lead covered (PILC) cables is in great demand. It will both allow significant reductions in capital expenditure and increase customer confidence. An experimental test facility has been designed to allow the study of known faults commonly experienced in distribution networks. The experiment reported here involves repeated crushing of the cable to duplicate problems experienced by active service cables damaged during excavation. Partial Discharge (PD) measurement was taken after the mechanical stressing process. The results indicate that traditional commercial PD testing is able to detect different PD sources in the cable using a new PD source discrimination algorithm developed at the University of Southampton. This approach provides information allowing further investigation of the location of the PD source in the defect cable.