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Failure Analysis of Three 230kV XLPE Cables

Charles Q. Su, Senior Member, IEEE

Abstract - This paper presents a case study on the failures of three 230kV XLPE cables. These cables failed after only 4 years of service. It was found that the copper woven fibre glass (CWFG) tape and the water swellable tape had many burnt stains. The causes of these stains were analysed. It was proved from theoretical analysis and experimental investigations that there was a problem of bad contact between the outer semiconductive screen and the aluminum sheath. During operation, the charging current from system ac voltage damaged the semiconductive layer and caused the insulation breakdown. The lessons learnt from these failures are also discussed in the paper. Index Terms cable insulation, XLPE insulation, failure analysis, fault diagnosis

II. GENERAL CONSIDERATION IN FAILURE ANALYSIS When a failure occurs to a HV power cable, the local damages to the insulation are normally severe and could destroy all evidences which make the fault cause analysis difficult. In order to correctly determine the root causes, the following structured and systematic approaches should be used: In-depth examination of the problem theoretically and experimentally for the identification of the root causes; Honest and objective appraisal, removing any preexisting biases and pressures from any parties involved; Determine if the failure is an isolated one or may occur to the other similar equipment (cables); Defines actions to prevent recurrence. An insulation failure of HV power cables could occur from the following problems: Equipment performance - cable defects produced in the manufacture, insulation deterioration and malfunctions; Human effects - potential human errors and poor quality of workmanship, installation and handling; Abnormal system conditions - overvoltage and overcurrent caused by system misoperations and lightning strikes; Damages caused by road digging, thermal mechanical movement, earth movements etc. III. BACKGROUND OF THE FAILURES In the transmission network of a utility, three 230kV cable circuits were connected in parallel to supply power to a load centre of petroleum industry. Each cable is 7km long laid between two 230kV substations. They are made of 2000 mm2 copper conductor, XLPE insulation and corrugated aluminum sheath. Fig.1 shows the across section area of the cables. These cables had been in service for four years carrying load of less than 40% of the rating. The first failure occurred to Feeder 1 early in the morning when there was no system switching, lightning and road digging activity. The failed cable section was laid in the trench underneath a security gate which was built about 6 months before the failure. While the cable manufacturer suspected that the failure was due to mechanical damage, the concrete slabs above the faulty cable section were intact. A photo of the failed cable is shown in Fig. 2. Although the fault was cleared within 70ms by circuit breakers on both ends of the cable, it caused 71% voltage dip to the customers in the local area.

I. INTRODUCTION

he manifold tasks of power transmission and distribution call for a sound and extensive knowledge in the condition monitoring and maintenance of HV power cables. In the rapidly-developing countries, there is an obvious trend of increasing utilization of cables rather than overhead lines. This has occurred due to the improved cable technologies and the demanding requirements on environment protection, especially in urban areas. However, under various stresses and insulation ageing effects, the insulation breakdown of HV cables and accessories is increasing and has become a nerve-racking problem to electricity supply industry. In critical situations, the breakdown of a HV cable and/or its accessories may cause millions of dollars damage to consumers as well as to the utilities. It is therefore vital to carefully investigate the failure, determine the root causes and prevent its recurrence. Advanced condition assessment techniques should be used in the investigations.[1,2] This paper presents a case study on the failures of three 230kV XLPE cables. The cables failed only after 4 years of operation. The failures of these cables from the same manufacture prematurely within nine months indicated that they are not isolated cases. It was found that there were many burnt marks in the CWFG tape, the water swellable tape and the insulation screen. The causes of these burned stains were analysed. It was proved from calculations and experimental investigations that there was a problem of bad contact between the outer semi-conductive layer and the grounding aluminum sheath. The charging current under system voltage damaged the semi-conductive layer and caused the failures.

Dr. Charles Q. Su is a professor with the Petroleum Institute, PO Box 2533, Abu Dhabi, UAE (e-mail: qsu@pi.ac.ae).

The subsequent failures of these 230kV cables caused a big concern to the utility which decided to detect partial discharges (PDs) in the remaining cable circuit Feeder 2. Using a resonant HV source, the cable was energized to 1.1Uo and large PDs above 100pC were detected and the PD sources located. In order to find the root causes of the failures, the failed cable sections were cut and shipped to independent laboratories for further investigations. Firstly, the reports of original type tests and quality assurance tests were carefully examined. According to the IEC standards, the following tests were done on these 230kV cables: A. Type tests Power Frequency Voltage Test Partial Discharge Test Di-electric loss angle Test Over-sheath Voltage Test Impulse Voltage Test Heat Cycle Voltage Test Bending Test Water Penetration Test Metallic sheath Impact Test Insulation Thickness Insulation Concentricity Insulation Purity Hot Set Test Shrinkage Test

Fig. 1 Cross section view of the 230kV cables

B. Quality-control tests

Fig. 2 The failed 230kV cable of Feeder 1.

After installation, the following site tests were carried out on these cables: Phasing Checks Insulation Resistance Test Capacitance Test Sheath Continuity Test High Voltage AC Tests Partial Discharge Measurements Protection System Tests

Nine months after the first failure, another 230kV cable circuit Feeder 3 failed. The failure occurred to the cable in a cable pipe block under a landscaping fountain on the road side. There were six piles in the block equally distributed in two levels. The faulty cable pipe was on the lower lever to the side. Fig.3 shows the failed cable at site. There was no evidence of early mechanical damage to the cable.

It was also found that during operation, the sheath resistance of these cables was measured several times which was always > 50 M at 12kV. The cable circuit route was checked by patrol daily to prevent any damage which could be caused by nearby ground digging. During the failure investigations in the laboratory, the following key areas were examined: Water treeing in XLPE Voids in insulation Presence of Impurities Chemical composition of XLPE Sheath corrosion test Raw material batches
Fig. 3 The failure of the second 230kV cable (Feeder 3)

More detailed tests and analysis were made which included: Corrosion assessment of the aluminum sheath; Metallurgical assessment of the separation surfaces of the PE jacket and the aluminum sheath; Visual examination of the XLPE insulation looking for voids, contaminants and ambers including a hot oil test; Moisture content of the XLPE and water tree evaluation; Extrinsic ac break down strength of the XLPE insulation; Oxidation Induction Time to assess if any premature oxidation has occurred; Differential Scanning Calorimetry to determine the maximum operating temperature of the XLPE; Fourier Transform Infra Red Spectroscopy to look for oxidation peaks; Radial dissipation factor and degree of crosslinking from the conductor shield to the insulation shield. Three sample locations near to the conductor, in the middle of the insulation and near to the insulation shield. All investigations could not find any abnormality in either cable insulation or sheath. The only important discovery was the extensive burnt stains on the CWFG tape, as shown in Fig.4, which spread over 200 metres along the cable on both sides of the fault. The CWFG was wrapped around the semiconductive water swellable tape underneath the aluminum sheath. Burning of the CWFG tape was observed to follow the tinned copper strands and white powder deposits were found on the outer surface of the outermost water swellable tape (Fig. 5). The white deposits were concentrated, but not limited to, the immediate area under the tinned copper strands. Energy Dispersion Spectra identified the white powder as a sodium compound originating from the sodium acrylate, a component of the water swellable tape. IV. FAILURE ANALYSIS Since the evidence of insulation failure development at the fault was destroyed by the fault current, it was impossible to identify the discharge and arcing path in the cable insulation system. The possible causes of the failures and discussions are given in Table 1. From the burning of the CWFG tape and the damages to the water swellable tape, it was agreed by the investigators that there could be a large current, even arcing, and heating at the burnt copper strands, either caused by the fault current or the charging current under system voltage in normal operation. The manufacture engineers suggested that the burning was due to the fault current. However, the fact of PDs detected on Feeder 2 which had not failed before the PD measurement proved that the burning was mainly caused by the charging current under the system voltage. When the cable section of Feeder 2 was cut open, burning was also found along the cable CWFG tape.
POSSIBLE CAUSES External damage to cable High temperature and overvoltages Cable defect and quality control problem Cable design problem or misused materials

Fig. 4 Extensive burnt stains on the copper wired fiber glass tape of the faulty cable

Fig. 5 White deposits on the water swellable tape were concentrated in the area under the tinned copper strands of the CWFG tape. TABLE I
POSSIBLE CAUSES OF THE CABLE FAILURES

DISCORD & COMMENTS

No pitting corrosion on the aluminium sheath, no water tree was present in the damaged portion of XLPE. Low load (around 40%), fewer circuit switching, no lightning overvoltages.

No contamination has been found on the cable samples. No abnormality in laboratory tests during the investigations.

Abnormal heat of copper strands was found. Comparison has been made with cables of other manufactures.

Fig. 6 shows the schematic diagram of the cable insulation system. It can be seen that the tinned copper strands woven in the fibre glass tape was to make electrical connection between the semi-conductive water swellable tape and the aluminum sheath, providing a path for the charging current to flow from the cable conductor to the earth. Only 6 strands of 35 gauge wire woven in CWFG tape were used in this cable which could not provide reliable electrical connection. Compared to the cable from another manufacture, the number of wire strands was 96 which provided a more reliable contact between the water swellable tape and the aluminum sheath. The charging current was calculated to be 200mA per meter of cable. If a cable section of a meter long had only one spot where the tinned copper wire is in contact with the semi-conductive water swellable tape and the aluminum sheath, the continuous charging current would cause overheating and burning to the strand and the semi-conductive tape. In addition, the heating of the copper strands will likely produce sodium acrylate from the water swellable tape which corroded the tinned copper strands and the aluminum sheath. This would further increase the resistance between the insulation shield and the aluminum sheath and cause much heating at the local contact.
PVC jacket

VI. ACKNOWLEDGMENT The author wishes to acknowledge his ex-colleagues and the manufacturers engineers for their contributions to the joint investigations. VII. REFERENCES
[1] [2] R.E. James & Q. Su, Condition Assessment of HV Insulation , London: IET Power and Energy Series No. 53, 2008, p. 231. Q. Su, Research and Development on Insulation Condition Monitoring in Australia, Key-note Speech, the 1st International Conference on Insulation Condition Monitoring of Electrical Plant, ICMEP2000, Wuhan, China, 24-26 Sept 2000, pp.19-24. Zaninelli, D. and Ballocchi, A.Fault analysis on AC/HV cable transmission lines IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery, Vol: 15, No. 2, 2000 , pp. 616 622. Zhong Zheng and Boggs, S. Defect tolerance of solid dielectric transmission class cable Electrical Insulation Magazine, IEEE, Vol: 21 No. 1, 2005 pp. 34 41. Chang, G.W.; Huang, H.M.; Lai, G.G. A study on controlling electrical stress of underground cable by semi-conductive shielding Proc 2002 Transmission and Distribution Conf . vol 3, pp.1874 1878. Hiyama, S.; Fujiwara, Y.Testing Methods for Power Cable Insulation IEEE Transactions on Electrical Insulation, Vol: EI-21, no. 6, 1986 pp. 1051 1056. von Olshausen, R The new extended type test according to VDE 0273: an approach to maintain the XLPE cable quality on a high level Proc IEE Colloquium on European View of Testing and Assessment of Medium Voltage Polymeric Cables, 1992 pp. 4/1 - 4/4. Becker, J.; Chatterjee, S. Development and evaluation of 400 kV XLPE cable system, Proc 1996 IEEE Transmission and Distribution Conference, pp.508 514. Cavallini, A.; Montanari, G.C.; Puletti, F.; Bononi, S.F.; Ombrello, F.; Butt, I. Experience of testing polymeric HV cable systems by an innovative partial discharge measurement approach Proc 2004 International Conference on Power System Technology, Vol. 2 pp. 1684 1688.

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[8] Aluminium sheath CWFG tape Water swellable semi-conductive tape Outer semiconductive screen [9]

XLPE
conductor

Inner semiconductive screen Fig. 6 Schematic diagram of the cable structure

VIII. BIOGRAPHIES
Charles Q. Su (M89-SM91) Dr. Su is a Professor and Chair of the EE Research Committee at the Petroleum Institute, UAE. He received his MEng in 1981 and PhD in 1990 (University of New South Wales, Australia). He was a tests and operations engineer during the period 1971-78, and an Honorary Research Associate at the University of Western Australia in 1985. From 1991 until 2001 he was Senior Lecturer, Associate Professor and Head of the High Voltage and Insulation Condition Monitoring Group at Monash University, Melbourne. Commencing in 2002 he worked as Chief Technologist in a utility for five years. He was Guest Professor at the Technical University of Denmark in 1999, and at North China Electrical Power University, Beijing in 2000. Dr. Su holds two Australian patents and has published around 150 journal and conference papers. He co-authored a book with Prof. R.E. James (University of New South Wales, Australia) on Condition Assessment of High Voltage Insulation, which was published in the Energy & Power series by IET in 2008. He has conducted many engineering short courses and provided consulting services for a number of utilities round the world. He is a member of CIGRE A2, a Fellow of IET and a Senior Member of IEEE since 1991.

V. CONCLUSIONS The number of 35 gauge tinned copper wire strands woven into the fiberglass fabric tape used in the space between the water swellable tape and the aluminum sheath is insufficient to carry the capacitive charging current under normal 50 Hz operation voltage. The heating at the tinned copper wire liberated sodium acrylate from the water swellable tape, corroded the strands and aluminum sheath and increased the contact resistance. This would produce much heating locally and damage the outer semi-conductive screen, causing PDs and deteriorating the XLPE insulation. The electrical strength of XLPE insulation was reduced leading to the break down. The investigations proved that the failures of these three 230kV cables were due to the design problem. Although the cables passed all type tests, routine tests and quality assurance tests according to the relevant IEC standards, the specific design problem could not be detected in the manufacture. It is recommended that additional insulation tests should be done on any cable of new or modified design to ensure the reliable and durable electrical connection between the outer semiconductive screen and the sheath.