Design of a non-intrusive cable condition monitoring technique by means of partial discharge

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the design of a non-intrusive condition monitoring technique for medium- and high-voltage power cables. Partial discharge (PD) was used to design the non-intrusive condition monitoring technique, with specific focus on XLPE power cables. A simple A-B-C model was used to derive an equivalent circuit for partial discharge, due to a void in the insulation material of a power cable. The condition monitoring technique is based on the classification of PD activity according to 5 distinct levels of PD. The design of the condition monitoring technique is of such a nature that it can easily be adapted to be used for different input voltages as well as different types of electrical cables. This technique can thus be seen as an effective and useful technique of cable condition monitoring. Future work will include the use of the results discussed in this paper to aid the construction as well as calibration of a practical model. This model will be used to perform non-intrusive condition monitoring of power cables by means of PD measurement