International council on large electric systems

2011 Colloquium
STUDY COMMITTEE D2
Information Systems and Telecommunication

D2-01 A07
OPTICAL CABLES MANAGEMENT SYSTEM FOR
500KV HVAC NETWORKS

CARLOS ALBERTO DI PALMA

GUILLERMO GALARZA
ARIEL CAMPOS
TRANELSA CONSULTORA
ABB SA
TRANSENER SA
ARGENTINA

eett@tranelsa.com

ARGENTINA

guillermo.galarza@ar.abb.com

ARGENTINA

ariel.campos@transx.com.ar

CURRENT SITUATION

(part 1)

The Argentinas 500kV High Voltage Transmission System has a vast optical cable
network (order of 5300 km) and 127,000 km of fibers, along the whole country, as well
as a lot of new projects under development
The optical cable network is used for transporting services of:
*the own Main EHV Transporter (Transener)
*other 500, 330 and 220kV HV Transmission Operators
*Generation Plants Agents
*HV trunk distributors (sub-transmission)
*etc
The services channeled by the optical cable network are mainly:
*differential protection system and main protection system
*teleprotection system (backup of main protection system)
*data of the SCADA system
*data of stabilization resources in order to assure the high Availability figures
of the Argentinas National Interconnected System (SADI)
*data exchange with other countries where HV interconnections are made
*remote supervision of communication and control systems
*connection of digital telephony trunks between PABXs
*etc
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CURRENT SITUATION (part 2)

Nowadays, the EHV System of Transener has installed several remote management
systems (NMS), such as:
*NMS of the SDH digital communication systems
*NMS of the digital teleprotection systems
*NMS of the SHF digital radiolinks
*NMS of the private automatic exchange networks (PABX)
*NMS of the optical amplification chain (when it is applicable)
*Overall NMS

BUT the performance of fiber optic cables are not monitored yet
Consequently, it is necessary to plan the automatic supervision of all optical cables
networks in order to have the effectively monitoring of the whole communication
system
>> Optical Cables Management System (OCMS)<<

MAIN BENEFITS TO BE OBTAINED (part 1)

Permanent and continue monitoring/supervision of the whole optical cable network

Reduction of failure detection time
Reduction of failure restoration time
Very precise and accurate optical cable performance information
Increase of the Total Annual Availability (Ai) of the whole optical cables network
because the irreversible failure rate (TIF) will be minimal due to:
*the early detection of the performance degradation
*the fast and effective preventive actions
Reduction of preventive maintenance costs. Replacement of the annual
measurements of each optical cable (24 optical fibers) with OTDR portable
instruments along of thousands of kilometers
Warranty of the right conditions of the optical cables in-use (and their fibers)
Maximization of the level of utilization of the communication systems (full operative
capacity), as well as the services transported by the optical cables
Linkage between the geographical documentation system (GIS) of Transener and
the location of optical cables (and their joint boxes)

MAIN BENEFITS TO BE OBTAINED (part 2)

Reduction of the critical failures due to the permanent and continuos monitoring
process
Online verification of the installation process of the new optical cables to be
installed (during the commissioning period)
Audit of the quality of maintenance (repair tasks) of the existing installed optical
cables

>> After the development and explosive growth of the optical cable network, it is
necessary to focus into the quality of service (QoS) of the EHV System, as well as
the reduction of maintenance costs of the optical cable network<<

Consequently, it is necessary:
*monitoring optical cable degradation (measurement of fiber attenuation)
*monitoring breaking situations (measurement of fiber length)
*monitoring splice degradation/damages (measurement of splice losses)
*monitoring water ingress (measurement of H2 absorption in splice boxes)

OTDR AND BACKSCATTERING TECHNIQUE

OTDR module is capable of:

fault location as well as the analysis of the optical fiber system
Measurements of attenuation, rate of attenuation, distance, etc
Measurements of reflectance (as ratio of reflected power to incident power of an
event /connector/splice)
additional features like automatic event detection, table of events, optical return
loss, overlapping of traces
data storage capability
additional functionalities like light source, power meter

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MONITORING PROCEDURES (part 1)

CRITERION # 1
In order to monitor the quality of service of the optical cable it is possible to
adopt the criterion of monitoring all fibers of the whole optical cable
That means that the monitoring process must coexist with the transmission of
information in the same fibers
Optical filters as well as WDM multiplexers must be used in order to combine the
monitoring wavelength m with the signal wavelength j of the communication
system, without interfering between them (m signal must be -60dB from j signal)

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MONITORING PROCEDURES (part 2)

CRITERION # 2
In order to monitor the quality of service of optical cables, it is possible to adopt
the criterion of monitoring the dark fibers that are not used by the useful
transmission
In such case it is not necessary (exceptions that can be seen on the paper)
neither to install optical switches in order to verify all fibers of the optical cable,
nor install optical filters in the enlighten fibers
Consequently, the monitoring system will not interact with the communication
system that is transmitting in the enlighten fibers

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MONITORING PROCEDURES (part 3)

CRITERION # 2 (criterion of dark fibers monitoring)

The main advantages of this criterion are:

*low cost of implementation
*no interferences with the useful wavelengths
*it is not necessary to enter into systems that are in-service
*possibility of using any monitoring wavelength
*reduction of the time detection of failures because it is not necessary to
do the cycle of measurements of 24 optical fibers (per cable)

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FIBER MONITORING SYSTEM (part 1)

REMOTE MEASUREMENT UNIT (MRU)

An optical coupler permits the injection and extraction of light signal to/from the
dark fiber
An optical switch (automatically controlled) can select between monitoring dark fiber
# 1 (main) and dark fiber # 2 (backup monitoring fiber) on each supervised cables in
the Node
The optical measurement unit includes OTDR module multitest, as well as light
source emitter, optical power meter
The OTDR module is remotely controlled and provides the optical signals for
measurement, so as also to draw reflection graphs by bidirectional tests
The controller and data processor (CPU) will make, among others, the following
functions:
* control of the whole measurement process
* storage of the measured data
* analysis of the obtained results
* communication with the remote Server through the existing communication
systems (SDH fiber optic system; SHF digital radiolink)

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FIBER MONITORING SYSTEM (part 2)

REMOTE MANAGEMENT CENTER (RMC)

It will consist of a Server that will centralize the information of several MRU nodes,
as well as storage the whole information of all optical cables in its Data Base
The Server will manage the collected information and give alerts to the O&M area
in order to do the consequent actions of maintenance
The measurement information will be included in the geographical system (GIS)
that Transener normally uses for his whole EHV network.
Consequently, the event of an optical cable failure (and their features) will be
precisely located
The RMC Center will be suitable for processing the OTDR measurements and the
traces, as well as the rest of information of each MRN node (optical cable ID; dark
fiber in-use; date of events; etc)
Consequently, the failed optical cable as well as the failure location, place, etc, will
be shown immediately, in spite of the network location where the event has
happened
The dynamic range of the OTDR instrument must cover:
*optimal distance: 100% of the optical cable length
*acceptable distance: 70-80% of the optical cable length
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FIBER MONITORING SYSTEM (part 3)

STAGES

Failure detection: in case of a performance degradation of an optical fiber (cable),

the Remote Unit (RMU) will send an alarm to the Server (RMC), together with its
related information (date, time, failure details, failure location, etc)

Processing: the Server will register the failure/degradation event received and
send a notification to the O&M office with all the details collected about the failure

Information: additionally to the GIS failure location, it will be possible to open

several lapels with information like:
* splice details
* specific span (between two splice boxes)
* end-to-end optical link
* monitoring dark fiber (main dark fiber; backup one)

Additionally, the Server can add information coming from the NMS System of the
SDH Communication System in order to confirm the degradation detected by the
OCMS (double-checking method)
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FIBER MONITORING SYSTEM (part 4)

SENSORS

They are necessary in order to verify the optical fiber performance

Humidity detectors: they are based on the Hydrogen absorption and include a
hydro-absorbent material that will expand causing a fiber loss due to a
consequent macrobending of the fiber

Stress detectors: they are optical fibre sensors of distributed strain and
temperature range, for monitoring the mechanical stress. They allow to make high
resolution measurements, as well as the measurement for long distance links.
These sensors are based on Brillouin effect, and can measure simultaneously,
both temperature and mechanical stress on optical standard fibres according to
ITU-T G.652 (details on paper)

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FIBER MONITORING SYSTEM (part 5)

MEASUREMENT OF TRACE

The MNR node uses an OTDR module multitest in order to measure the features of
the optical fibers (cable) that are involved in the Node
Each event of the link that could cause a reflection will be drawn on a trace of the
OTDR. It will allow to obtain information related to that event:
*attenuation measurement
*reflections produced
*discontinuities
*etc
The failures will be represented by reflections, due to different situations as:
*misalignment between optical cables and light emitter
*failures due to microbending located in splicing boxes
*presence of dust in optical connectors
*cut in fibers
*macrobending of the optical cable

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FIBER MONITORING SYSTEM (part 6)

PROCESS

In the MRU node will be saved the right graph/trace of the optical fiber during the
commissioning period, in order to be used as the reference trace

Subsequent traces that can include a failure will differ from the original trace.
Consequently, it will be produced:
*generation of an alarm
*distance calculation to the event
*location of the event within the GIS system

The measurement will be performed continuously, making a permanent

comparison between the original trace and new traces

Both traces (original trace; trace with failure) will be overlapped showing the
differences as well as doing a comparative analysis

The traces will be selected by the monitoring system, as follow:

*original trace (reference trace)
*trace with failure (alarm trace)
*overlapped traces (showing differences)

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FIBER MONITORING SYSTEM (part 7)

Each MRU Node (located in a specific substation) can check more than one optical
cable (to different routes)
Examples:
*substation Cobos can check the optical cables towards three routes:
Cobos-El Bracho; Cobos-SanJuancito; Cobos-Monte Quemado
*substation ChChoel can check the optical cables towards three routes:
CChoel-BBlanca; CChoel-PMadryn; ChChoel-PAguila

>>> It is necessary to emphasize that the monitoring system for optical cables is not
intended to replace the essential steps:
*the correct choice of the best solution for both, optical cable and its
accessories
*the right installation process necessary to be made
*the experienced subcontractors to be used
*the qualified and certified handworkers to be used <<<<
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QUESTIONS OF THE SPECIAL REPORT (part 1)

Q1.1-26. Please, further explain how you are doing at present, the method of revision
and checking of the performance of your 5300km optical cable network. Please, try
to compare the time that is currently needed for detecting a failure in your whole
optical cable network, with the expected lower time that you estimate could be
obtained with an on-line monitoring of the optical cables
ANSWER
Currently, the performance verification of the whole optical cable network is made
one time per year (measurement of 24 fibers of each optical cable; bidirectional
measurement). The current measurement time demands six months long.
The expecting time by using a fiber monitoring system can be reduced to
minutes/cable (by a continue online monitoring)
Q1.1-27. Would the Utility Company accept doing the monitoring of one fiber optic per
cable, instead of doing the monitoring of all fibres?
ANSWER
To use a monitoring of dark fibers (instead of the enlighten ones) is considered an
acceptable method because it is not too simple to interact in the communication
system that is in-service (including elements with the existing system)
The insertion of filters and multiplexers would add attenuation in the links in-use
(undesirable attenuation in case of long haul links)
The dark monitoring method detects 85% of the possible failures in the optical
cables because the most of the failures will happen in the entire cable and rarely
happen in a particular fiber alone
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QUESTIONS OF THE SPECIAL REPORT (part 2)

Q1.1-28. Do you have an estimation of the reduction of maintenance cost, as well as

the improvement of System Availability that the on-line optical cable monitoring
can obtain? Could you tell us if the Utility Company has saved a detailed, recorded
information of each optical cable (in spite of its date of put in-service) in order to
use it for the future monitoring system of these cables (comparison of
performance by overlapping of graphs)?
ANSWER
It is not possible to calculate a precise value of maintenance costs reduction, but
it should be considered:
*avoid the measurement tasks in-field that nowadays imply 1,800 man-hours
per year, plus the operative direct costs (127,000km of fibers) and indirect
costs (risks, accidents, etc)
*reduction of troubleshooting time considering that it is a wide area in a
large country (see slide #25)
*reduction of expensive repair tasks, through the preventive detection and
reduction of catastrophic failures
*execution of more precise tasks (according to the received precise
information)
*reduction of the out-of-service periods through the advanced perception of
degradation)
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QUESTIONS OF THE SPECIAL REPORT (part 3)

Q1.1-28. Do you have an estimation of the reduction of maintenance cost, as well as

the improvement of System Availability that the on-line optical cable monitoring
can obtain? Could you tell us if the Utility Company has saved a detailed, recorded
information of each optical cable (in spite of its date of put in-service) in order to
use it for the future monitoring system of these cables (comparison of
performance by overlapping of graphs)?
ANSWER
The Availability improvement of the whole optical communication system will be
important because it will minimize failures in optical cables (through control of the
installation process/repair process and their useful lifetime) that currently are
detected after some time has elapsed
The detailed information of each optical cable (graphs, traces) has been saved and
is available for use in a future database of the OCMS

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