Cable Diagnostic Focused Initiative

This report summarizes an extensive effort made to understand how to effectively use the various diagnostic technologies to establish the condition of medium voltage underground cable circuits. These circuits make up an extensive portion of the electric delivery infrastructure in the United States. Much of this infrastructure is old and experiencing unacceptable failure rates. By deploying efficient diagnostic testing programs, electric utilities can replace or repair circuits that are about to fail, providing an optimal approach to improving electric system reliability. This is an intrinsically complex topic. Underground cable systems are not homogeneous. Cable circuits often contain multiple branches with different cable designs and a range of insulation materials. In addition, each insulation material ages differently as a function of time, temperature and operating environment. To complicate matters further, there are a wide variety of diagnostic technologies available for assessing the condition of cable circuits with a diversity of claims about the effectiveness of each approach. As a result, the benefits of deploying cable diagnostic testing programs have been difficult to establish, leading many utilities to avoid the their use altogether. This project was designed to help address these issues. The information provided is the result of a collaborative effort between Georgia Tech NEETRAC staff, Georgia Tech academic faculty, electric utility industry participants, as well as cable system diagnostic testing service providers and test equipment providers. Report topics include: •How cable systems age and fail, •The various technologies available for detecting potential failure sites, •The advantages and disadvantages of different diagnostic technologies, •Different approaches for utilities to employ cable system diagnostics. The primary deliverables of this project are this report, a Cable Diagnostic Handbook (a subset of this report) and an online knowledge based system (KBS) that helps utilities select the most effective diagnostic technologies for a given cable circuit and circuit conditions