This paper focuses on the phenomenon of discharge of HVAC cables, which is a concern for utilities when performing AC/DC tests, during maintenance works, and more recently when switching cables for grid voltage control. The study is based on field and laboratory tests of 275 kV pressurized-oil-filled (POF) cables, analytical calculations, and simulations. The contributions of this paper are: field and laboratory measurements of voltages and leakage currents during cable discharge, including a field test carried out in 2015 by the National Grid (UK) on a 275 kV POF cable of 21 km; a method for estimating the leakage resistance and the time required to discharge a cable system using simple parallel RC circuit theory; and typical values of leakage resistance, leakage current, and discharge time for 275 kV cable systems. The influence of temperature, electric field, and humidity on cable discharge is also discussed and a correction factor to account for the impact of humidity is proposed. Index Terms-Cable discharge, cable leakage current, cable field tests.
This paper focuses on the phenomenon of discharge of HVAC cables, which is a concern for utilities when performing AC/DC tests, during maintenance works, and more recently when switching cables for grid voltage control. The study is based on field and laboratory tests of 275 kV pressurized-oil-filled (POF) cables, analytical calculations, and simulations. The contributions of this paper are: field and laboratory measurements of voltages and leakage currents during cable discharge, including a field test carried out in 2015 by the National Grid (UK) on a 275 kV POF cable of 21 km; a method for estimating the leakage resistance and the time required to discharge a cable system using simple parallel RC circuit theory; and typical values of leakage resistance, leakage current, and discharge time for 275 kV cable systems. The influence of temperature, electric field, and humidity on cable discharge is also discussed and a correction factor to account for the impact of humidity is proposed. Index Terms-Cable discharge, cable leakage current, cable field tests.
During reclosure of 275 kV cable circuits used for voltage control, excessive overvoltages were observed on the network. Such events cause onerous and costly failures. Transient simulations have shown that the normal voltage on its own cannot generate such excessive switching overvoltages. Initial investigations by the network operator pointed towards trapped charge on the unearthed as the cause of the failures. Measurement of these trapped charge voltages and their slow decay without interfering with the charge has, to the author’s knowledge, not been done before in an operational substation. This work introduces a technique to measure trapped charge at a 275 kV substation using the Electrostatic Field Mill. Since the electric field is a proxy measurement of surface voltage, field mills can also be used to measure voltage. In this paper, an on-site substation measurement setup using an electrostatic field mill has been developed for the non-contact measurement of trapped charge voltage on a 275 kV underground cable circuit following switching operations at a National Grid substation. Results of field measurements within the substation and laboratory experimentation are discussed. It is demonstrated that with adequate calibration, achieved by using the known pre-switching power frequency steady state voltage, the slowly decaying DC voltage caused by the cable trapped charge can be measured using this non-contact technique. The correlation between the instantaneous time constant and the relative humidity is also analysed.
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