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RECENT DEVELOPMENTS FOR ON-LINE

PARTIAL DISCHARGE DETECTION IN CABLES

Article · January 2001

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 RECENT DEVELOPMENTS FOR
ON-LINE PARTIAL DISCHARGE DETECTION IN CABLES

B.T. Phung, Z. Liu, T.R. Blackburn and R.E. James

School of Electrical Engineering and Telecommunications

University of New South Wales, Australia

Abstract: The viability of on-line partial discharge (PD) monitoring on high-voltage power
cables is investigated with particular emphasis on methods to overcome the interference problem.
These include the use of a multi-sensor monitoring system, choice of detection frequency and
signal discrimination based on the waveshapes. To reduce the noise level, measurements are
carried out at high frequencies (above 2MHz). An added advantage is better pulse resolution that
enables more accurate locating of the PD source. Comparison is made between two different types
of sensors used for detecting the PD signals.

up a wide range of signals such as radio, television and

1. OVERVIEW
High-voltage distribution and transmission cables are
an important component of the power network.
Following the deregulation of the power industry
which imposes tighter economic constraints on new
capital expenditure, the current capacity (or ampacity)
in existing cables is usually stretched to satisfy
increasing loading demands. The resulting higher
working temperature together with long-term
operation can lead to insulation deterioration in cables
and their accessories (terminations, joints). Partial
electrical discharges (PD) then occur. The impact of
high-energy electrons from these discharges gradually
cause further damage and eventual breakdown.
In addition to the so-called intrinsic ageing mentioned
above, PDs can also be caused by the presence of
contaminants, defects, protrusions or voids in the
insulation or at the interfaces. For this type of extrinsic
ageing, the insulation degradation is initially localised
but gradually propagates throughout the cable.
Measurement of partial discharges is considered to be
one of the most effective methods for monitoring the
integrity of the cable insulation [1]. Over the years, a
number of investigations have been carried out on the
possibility of applying this technique for on-line
condition monitoring without isolating the cables from
service, e.g. [2-7]. However, the obstacle is the
presence of substantial noise and interference on site.
The main culprits are corona from sharp protrusions,
switching transients and discharges from other HV
equipment in the substation. Furthermore, cables are
usually terminated to overhead transmission lines
which in turn act as a huge receiving antenna, picking
mobile phone transmissions. The detection sensitivity
is thus limited by the interference. For example, the
acceptable limit of PD level can be as low as few tens
pC in the case of XLPE cables whereas the
interference in a typical substation can easily exceed
1000pC.
This paper is a continuation of work carried out by the
authors [4,5] over the last few years with support from
Integral Energy, a major power utility in New South
Wales. The emphasis is on the application of various
techniques to reject interference. Many on-site
measurements in the substations were carried out on
paper/oil and XLPE cables as well as testing in the
laboratory. The cable voltage ranges vary from 11kV
up to 132kV. A substantial database of useful
measurement results was obtained and some of the
more interesting results are discussed in this paper.
2. MEASUREMENT TECHNIQUES
The basic configuration of the monitoring system is
shown in Fig.1. One PD sensor is attached to each
cable. The output signal from the sensor is then fed via
a long 50Ω coaxial cable to the electronic circuitry for
further conditioning and processing.
As will be discussed in Section 3, the PD signals are
wideband and only their higher frequency components
are monitored. A high-pass filter with a 2MHz cut-off
frequency is used to reject interference from AM radio
broadcasts (540kHz-1600kHz). Other high-pass filters
with higher cutoff frequencies (50, 100, 150 and
200MHz) are also available for use to further reduce
the low-frequency noise.
The raw signal from the sensor is small (mV) so HF electrical current pulses propagating through the
amplification is necessary. The broadband amplifier earth terminal and thus can be detected with the clip-
provides adjustable voltage gain in 10dB steps. Up to on CT.
40dB gain, the bandwidth is from 0.1MHz to 1GHz.
For higher gain (up to 60dB), the upper cutoff
frequency of the amplifier reduces to 500MHz.
Cable
sheath

To filters, amplifiers,
and CDA system 3 phase
HF-CT system

Fig.1: Basic configuration of the monitoring system.

Fig.2: High-frequency CT sensor.
There are a number of options to analyse the output
An example of HF-CT connection is shown in Fig.2.
signal from the amplifier. It can be fed to digital
An outage is necessary to allow modification of the
storage oscilloscope (DSO) for visual inspection. To
cable earthing termination. Such an outage is also
analyse the PD pulse shape, a DSO with a sampling
useful for carrying out calibration measurements. The
rate of at least 2Gs/s is required. To obtain the pulse
earthing conductor is cut into halves. The ends are
distribution over just one 50Hz cycle (phase-resolved
stripped back, fitted with lugs and then bolted
analysis), the memory needed is 40Mbytes. The DSO
together. This completes the modification. Subsequent
used in this work satisfies the sampling rate
measurements can then be carried out while the cable
requirement but its memory is insufficient.
is energised. The procedure to attach the sensor is as
follows. Firstly, a short length of conductor with the
To enable phase-resolved analysis, one solution is to
sensor fitted on is connected in parallel with the earth
limit the detection bandwidth to 2MHz-30MHz and
conductor. When this is fully secured, the main
use a pulse stretching circuit to process the output
connection is broken by removing the bolt. Thus at all
signal from the RF amplifier. It converts the fast PD
times, continuity between the cable fault screen and
pulse into a rectangular pulse. In other words, the
Earth is maintained. To remove the sensor, the above
magnitude of the original signal is retained but its
procedure is simply reversed. The technique is safe as
waveshape is lost. The required sampling rate is much
no direct connection with HV is required.
reduced and thus the DSO has enough memory to
record the full ac cycle. The data is then transferred to
the PC for further processing by software. This is the
so-called CDA2 system as described in [8].
Alternatively, the pulse stretcher output signal can be
fed to CDA3 data-acquisition system [8] without the
need of the DSO. This Computerised Discharge
Analyser provides a much faster data throughput for
phase-resolved analysis.

Two different types of sensors were used in the

investigation. The high-frequency current transformer
(HF-CT) sensor with a toroidal soft-ferrite core is
shown in Fig.2. It is clamped around the conductor
that connects the metallic fault screen of the cable to
the main Earth. This earthing usually is installed at one Fig.3: Clamping sensor.
end of the cable termination in the substation.
The second type of sensor used – the “clamping”
To understand the detection method, one can simplify sensor – is shown in Fig.3. It is a metallic ring
the whole cable as a single capacitor with the inner clamped around the cable itself. It can be easily
conductor as the HV terminal and the sheath as the attached to the cable and no modification to the cable
earth terminal. Discharges in the cable will result in is required. Here, the principle of signal detection is
somewhat different. It relies on the electromagnetic
pulse that travels along the screen [2,3]. Near the PD
source, the discharge pulse is carried over a small part
of the screen circumference. The pulse distribution
becomes uniform along the screen circumference at
some distance away from the source. This distance can
be a few hundred metres for PD pulses in the VHF
range. Over the section of the cable where the current
distribution in the screen is unbalanced, a magnetic
field outside the cable is produced and the clamping
sensor acts as an inductive coupler.
Further reduction of the low-frequency interference
can be achieved by adding a coupling series capacitor
to the clamping sensor [2]. This is done by breaking
the continuity of the metal ring with a thin rubber
washer. Fig.3 shows the capacitively coupled inductor
sensor, the washer is where the two ends of the ring
are joined.
3. CHARACTERISTICS OF PD SIGNALS
The rise-times of the PD pulses vary in the order of
nano-seconds to several tens of ns. The pulsewidths
can extend from a few ns to some hundreds of ns.
Thus, the bandwidth of the PD signal can extend up to
1 GHz. Conventional electrical PD detection is limited
to the lower frequency range (<1MHz) where the noise
level is relatively higher than that in the upper
frequency band. Therefore, the high frequency
detection technique used here (>2MHz) would give a
better SNR.
signal attenuation
( using clamping sensor )
1
0.8
XLPE
( ratio )
0.6
0.4 paper
0.2
0
1 10 100
( metres )
Fig.4: Attenuation in paper and XLPE cables.
Frequency response measurement of the HF-CT sensor
shows an upper limit of ~300MHz. The upper cut-off
of the clamping sensor is much higher, at least
>500MHz. However, the high frequencies in both
paper/oil and extruded cables are quickly attenuated.
This is shown in Fig.4 for the clamping sensor. The
attenuation is much higher in paper/oil cable. It should
be noted that the allowable PD level in paper cables is
also much higher. Also, since the HF-CT can measure
the lower frequency components, its signal attenuation
characteristic is better than that for the clamping
sensor (Fig.5). Therefore, the HF-CT is better suited
for monitoring long cables where PDs may occur far
away from the sensor. On the other hand, the
attenuation of HF components can be used to
advantage in monitoring cable accessories with the
clamping sensor.
signal attenuation of 11 kV XLPE cable
( using clamping sensor and HFCT )
1
0.8
( ratio )
0.6 HFCT
clamping
0.4
0.2
0
1 10 100 1000
( metres )
Fig.5: Clamping sensor vs HF-CT.
One possible method for interference rejection is by
examining the characteristics of the received signals. It
is expected that discharges would produce signals that
have different waveshapes from those associated with
other types of disturbances. To this end, a test circuit
was set up in the laboratory. As shown in Fig.6, the
same PD detection circuit as used for on-line
monitoring consists of the HF-CT, high-pass filter,
amplifier and digital storage oscilloscope.
Fig.6: Test circuit setup in the laboratory.
To obtain the discharge magnitude in pC as specified
in the IEC-60270 or AS1018 Standards, the
conventional PD measurement circuit was also
included where the signal was picked up through a HV
coupling capacitor Cb. Note that the conventional PD
detector has a detection bandwidth of 10kHz-300kHz.
Different types of faults were artificially created in the
cable samples and a collection of PD characteristics in
the form of time-domain waveforms and frequency
spectra was obtained. In Fig.7 are shown some of the
typical examples: (a) external corona, (b) external
surface discharges, (c) discharges in cavity in cable
and (d) discharges at the cable termination.
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
0.2µs/hor. div 10MHz/hor. div
50.0mV/vert.div 100mV/vert. div
Fig.7: Typical PD signal characteristics.
There are numerous factors that can influence the
signal characteristics. For example even for a simple
void defect, the PD signal is dependent on the void
shape, its size, electrical stress, dielectric composition,
ageing stage, etc. Also if the PD source is remote, the
received signal will be distorted since the attenuation
varies with frequency. Therefore, it would be
practically very difficult to identify the type of defects
based on the signal waveshapes. This type of pattern
recognition is mainly helpful in discriminating against
the interference. Even in this case, it will fail if the
interference is a real external PD signal from other
connecting HV components.
4. ON-SITE MEASUREMENT RESULTS
Interference rejection based on signal waveshapes:
To a certain extent, discharge recognition can be
achieved by matching signals recorded on-line with
those stored in the database. An example is shown in
Fig.8. The on-line signal corresponds to surface
discharges on the HV bushing at the sealing end of a
132kV XLPE cable. The location of the discharge
source was confirmed using an ultrasonic detector.
Rejection of radiative interferences:
Radiative interferences can be picked up by the cable
sensors, either directly through the air or indirectly via
the overhead transmission lines or busbars attached to
the cables. To demonstrate the effect, a detachable
discharge source was attached to a live 66kV Yellow-
phase bus bar. Fig.9 shows the disturbances were
picked up by the other two phases. Note the longer
time-base for displaying the pulses in relation to the
50Hz cycle and the relative magnitudes of the signals.
(a)
(b)
Fig.8: Waveshape and spectrum of signal recorded (a)
on-site and (b) in laboratory.
Simultaneous recording of signals from sensors
attached to the three phases can facilitate the
recognition of external interferences. Fig.10 is an
example of different signal patterns recorded during a
site visit. In Fig.10(a), the signals occur on all three
channels exactly at the same time. Furthermore, the
waveshapes and their relative magnitudes are very
similar. Thus, it can be reasonably concluded that this
is an external radiative interference, equally picked up
by the three cables. Fig.10(b) also corresponds to
another interference. Note the difference in the
waveforms between these two interference signals and
also against those shown in Fig.7.
20mV
Red 5ms
20mV
Yellow 5ms
20mV
Blue 5ms
0.5V
50Hz 5ms
Fig.9: On-line injection of PD source on Y Phase.

(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
Fig.10: Rejection of external interference.
Fig.10(c) shows a pulse detected by the Yellow-phase
sensor (top trace) and at that instant nothing occurs on
the other two sensors. This suggests an internal
discharge in the Yellow-phase cable. Fig.10(d) is
another example of an internal discharge pulse on the
Blue-phase cable (middle trace).
Thus, a possible solution for interference rejection is
the use of a multi-channel monitoring system that can
record simultaneously signals from the three phases.
Rejection is achieved by comparison of the recorded
signals. A pulse is a valid internal PD if it occurs on
one channel only. However, if the cable discharges
near the termination, the signal can be picked up by
other channels but the coupling is somewhat reduced.
In other words, the pulse on the source cable is much
larger than the pick-up signals on the neighbouring
cables. Thus the largest signal should be kept and the
others rejected. The criterion for comparison of the
magnitudes (coupling factor) is dependent on the
particular physical setting of the site.
Rejection using phase-position windowing:
Another method based on 'phase position windowing'
can be included to improve the interference rejection.
Its basis is that PDs normally occur on certain parts of
the 50Hz ac cycle (see Fig.9) and there is a 120o shift
between the three phase supplies. Therefore any
signals outside the ‘normal windows’ must be either
noise or pick-ups from the other phases and thus
should be rejected.
Rejection of external discharges from same phase:
Rejection of external PDs originating from the same
phase is a difficult problem. One possible solution is
the use of a pair of clamping sensors - positioned near
the cable termination - to detect the direction of signal
propagation. This, however, will not be able to
distinguish between external PDs and PDs at the
termination.
To detect PDs at the terminations or joints, one can
increase the lower cut-off frequency of the clamping
sensor so that it is responsive to local signals.
Location of discharge sources – A case study:
Sensor 1
Black Sensor 2
Blue
Joint
Sensor 3
Red
Fig.11: Location of the three clamping sensors.
In this case study, the subject is a three-core XLPE
11kV cable which is approximately 1km long and has
a joint in the middle. Separate source tests gave an
unacceptable high reading of 3000-8000pC at 2Uo
(12.7kV). In order to determine whether the cable joint
is sound, three capacitively coupled clamping sensors
were positioned near the joint as shown in Fig.11.
Sensors 1 and 2 are 2.05m and 0.65m, respectively, to
the left of the joint whereas sensor 3 is 2.15m to the
right. The signals recorded simultaneously from each
sensor pair are shown in Fig.12. The sampling rate of
the DSO was set at 10Gs/s. It can be seen that the PD
pulsewidths are <5ns and the clamping sensors are
able to capture these very fast PD signals. The time
 delay between each pair of sensor signals can be
measured with accuracy in the order of 1ns. Based on
the propagation velocity of 0.2m/ns, the PD location
can be resolved to within 20cm.
(a)
(b)
(c)
Fig.12: Time delay between sensor signals.
Fig.12(a) indicates that the Blue sensor receives the
signal 10.3ns before the Red sensor. Thus the PD
source is closer to the Blue sensor. Also, the source
must be in between the Blue and Red sensors because
otherwise the delay should be 14ns which is the time
for the signal to travel from the Blue to the Red sensor.
Hence the solution narrows down to one point which is
18cm to the left of the centre of the joint. Using
similar arguments, Fig.12(b) simply confirms that the
source is to the right of both the Black and Blue
sensors. Fig.12(c) indicates the source is 15cm to the
left of the joint centre which agrees well with the result
from Fig.12(a). Note that the joint itself is at least
60cm long and thus this location of the PD source is
still part of the joint.
The joint was subsequently replaced with a short
length of spare cable and two joints. The cable passed
the PD test carried out by the utility after the repair.
The removed faulty joint was opened up later for
visual examination and the fault was confirmed. It
happened when the semicon layer was stripped back
and accidental overcutting had caused damage to the
insulation underneath.
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5. CONCLUSIONS
The following are main points covered in the paper:
¾ The PD signatures (time-domain waveforms and
spectra) of different types of defects on cable
samples were obtained from laboratory tests. Such
a database can facilitate PD recognition.
¾ Examples of interference and PD waveforms as
recorded on-site at a number of substations were
presented. A case of matching between laboratory
and on-line signal waveforms was given.
¾ Comparisons were made between attenuation
characteristics of paper and XLPE cables and also
between the clamping sensor and the HF-CT.
¾ The clamping sensor enables measurement at even
higher frequencies and thus it gives a much better
time resolution for discharge location. This was
demonstrated with a case study where a fault was
successfully located at the joint of an 11kV cable.
6. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The continued supports from Integral Energy, in
particular P. Taylor and J. Hickey, are gratefully
acknowledged.
7. REFERENCES
[1] J.C. Chan, P. Duffy, L.J. Hiivala and J. Wasik,
"Partial discharge - Part VIII: PD testing of solid
dielectric cable", IEEE Elec. Insul. Mag., 7, 1991,
pp.9-20.
[2] P.A.A.F. Wouters, van der Laan P.C.T., Hetzel E.
and Steennis E.F., "New on-line PD measurement
technique for polymer insulated cables and
accessories", Proc. 8th ISH, Paper 63.08, 1993.
[3] N.H. Ahmed and N.N. Srinivas, “On-line partial
discharge detection in cables”, IEEE-DEI Trans.,
Vol.5, No.2, Apr.1998, pp.181-188.
[4] B.T. Phung, Z. Liu, T.R. Blackburn and R.E.
James, “On-line PD measurement on high voltage
power cables”, 11th Int. Symp. On High-Voltage
Engineering (ISH), London, Aug.23-27, 1999.
[5] Z. Liu, B.T. Phung, T.R. Blackburn and R.E.
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pulses in a HV cable", Proc. AUPEC'99, Northern
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[6] E.F. Steennis et al, “Learning from high-voltage
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[7] W. Wei, Z. Sen, C. Bin and L.En-heng, “The study
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