The term "destructive testing" causes much consternation among cable engineers worldwide. The intention of destructive testing is to provide a controlled failure of a cable that was in imminent danger of failing anyway. Proper VLF testing on cables at any stage of their lifecycle has never been shown to have such detrimental effects.
The term "destructive testing" causes much consternation among cable engineers worldwide. The intention of destructive testing is to provide a controlled failure of a cable that was in imminent danger of failing anyway. Proper VLF testing on cables at any stage of their lifecycle has never been shown to have such detrimental effects.
The term "destructive testing" causes much consternation among cable engineers worldwide. The intention of destructive testing is to provide a controlled failure of a cable that was in imminent danger of failing anyway. Proper VLF testing on cables at any stage of their lifecycle has never been shown to have such detrimental effects.
causes much consternation among cable engineers worldwide. The mis- interpretation of the term destructive (deliberate in some cases by mischievous vendors of competing technologies) has, in our opinion, significantly retarded progress in the implementation of beneficial cable test regimes in many utilities. It is very important to understand that the term destructive refers ONLY to the damaged portion of the cable and NOT to the healthy sections of a cable. The intention of destructive testing is to provide a controlled failure of a cable that was in imminent danger of failing anyway. It is preferable to fail a cable under low power testing rather than having the cable fail under operating conditions and energies; where the collateral damage may be significant and the outage unplanned. A test that accelerates the deterioration of damaged cable and leaves healthy cable unaffected is a very useful test provided that the test is carried out correctly and that the potential need to locate and repair the damaged section is understood and planned for. A test that damages or reduces the useful lifetime of an otherwise healthy cable is not useful. DC testing on aged XLPE cable would be an example of such a test. Properly conducted VLF testing on cables at any stage of their lifecycle has never been shown to have such detrimental effects. This view is supported by international standards, by cable manufacturers, by academic and research institutes and by many utilities and opposition to the use of VLF is largely limited to vendors of competing technologies. A VLF overvoltage test needs to be properly conducted or its benefits can be reduced or even negated. The correct test voltage must be applied for the appropriate amount of time in order to maximise the benefit of the VLF test. We do not recommend short duration (< 15minute) testing of cables as any damaged portion of the cable may be prone to failure shortly after return to service. Any test that improves the reliability of a network and does not compromise the longevity of the asset is a useful test. There are numerous independent studies supporting that VLF tests fall into this category. A VLF test provides a simple yet thorough and unambiguous method of determining whether a cable can be put into (or returned) to service. The VLF test (as with all tests) is not a guarantee that the cable will not fail but it is a very good tool to reduce the failure rate of cables in service. A VLF test used in conjunction with diagnostic measurements such as Tan Delta and Partial Discharge can provide additional information valuable in the current and future assessment of the condition of a cable. This will be discussed in the next newsletter. HV NEWS 3/2011 CABLE TESTING MYTHS WEBSITE FIRMWARE 2011 CONFERENCE CABLE TESTING MYTHS: Destructive testing is bad for networks 2011 HVDSA AGENTS CONFERENCE - SOUTH AFRICA Askari Game Lodge in the Magaliesberg - www.askarilodge.co.za - has been booked for our Agents Conference 27-30 Oct 2011. This will be preceded by a one day conference on 26 Oct in Sandton, Johannesburg. This is an important event and it is a valuable opportunity for our agents to meet with the HVDSA team and benet from the sharing of knowledge, expertise and training that such platforms offer. So dont miss out! Book your spot now, if you have not already done so, by emailing: chantal@hvdsa.com www.cablediagnostics.com is to be used as a vehicle for a range of services for agents and registered users. The website will run in parallel with www.hvdsa.com Please would all agents register as users on the website using the register button. Thereafter they will be authorised and have access to the website. GOOGLE ADWORDS We are using Google Adwords to promote our products and suggest you consider making use of this marketing facility. CALIBRATION To calibrate HVA devices the following resistors are needed : 1 x HV Resistor 100 kV approx. 500MOhm (or 2 x 250MOhm 50kV in series) 20 Watts 1 x HV Resistor 50 kV approx 37 MOhm 70 Watts 1 x HV Resistor 10 kV approx 500 kOhm 200 Watts 1 x HV Resistor 20 kV approx 12 MOhm 35 Watts 1 x HV Resistor 10 kV approx 300 kOhm 350 Watts 1 x HV Resistor 10 kV approx 250 kOhm 350 Watts To load test : 5uF (40kV), 0.5uF(40kV), 1uF (100kV) We are busy sourcing these resistors in more economical quantities in order to pass some cost savings onto our agents. HVA FIRMWARE New firmware is available for the HVA60 and HVA30-5 to address a minor bug which can cause issues with startup if a specific sequence of keys is pressed. Check www.cablediagnostics.com for this.