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Monitoring of Partial Discharges in HVDC

Power Cables
Erik Winkelmann,1,2 Iaroslav Shevchenko,1,3 Christoph Steiner,1 Christian Kleiner,2
Uwe Kaltenborn,1 Peter Birkholz,2 Harald Schwarz,3 and Thomas Steiner1
1
HIGHVOLT Prüftechnik Dresden, Germany; 2Institute for Acoustics and Speech Communication, Technische Universität Dresden,
Germany; and 3Chair of Energy Distribution and High Voltage Engineering, Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-
Senftenberg, Germany

Key words: power cable, monitoring, partial discharges, localization

partial discharge (PD) measurement to reveal any weaknesses

This article describes the need for monitor- along the cable system between two stations [2]. The recently
published technical brochure no. 841 of the CIGRE working
ing HVDC cable systems and presents a new group B1.38 recommends, if technically possible, an AC test
approach for monitoring partial discharge (near power frequency) with accompanying PD measurement
at DC voltage on long-length, land-based [3]. In addition, it recommends that manufacturers and opera-
HVDC cables containing multiple joints. tors should discuss the use of a PD monitoring system. Also, it
is emphasized that each cable joint must be subjected to a sensi-
tive PD measurement.
Germany is playing a pioneering role with several planned
Introduction HVDC cable interconnections, which are, in principle, de-
signed as shown in Figure 1. The most recent transmission net
The increasing worldwide demand for electrical energy in
development plan of Germany for the year 2035 draws sev-
combination with the substitution of fossil energies are creating
eral scenarios to ensure a reliable energy supply throughout the
new challenges for all levels of the energy grid. In contrast to
country [4]. Long HVDC transmission systems play an impor-
the current structure of the transmission network, large amounts
tant role in transporting green electricity over long distances
of energy now have to be transmitted over long distances. To
between places of power generation (northern Germany) and
do so, high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission sys-
energy consumption (western/southern Germany). Those lines
tems are required. Due to the limited acceptance of overhead
are highlighted in Figure 2; no exact traces are shown but rather
lines, underground direct current (DC) cable systems come into
the starting and ending points.
focus. This technology has the advantage of low losses over
At the beginning the underground cable lines were planned
long distances but also the disadvantage of very high costs and
with operating voltages of 320 kV. However, after successful
a lack of operational experience. Therefore, it is of utmost im-
prequalification tests according to international standards, the
portance to carry out complete quality assurance measures for
four German transmission system operators (TSOs), 50Hertz,
every step of the assembly of such a cable project. The basic
Amprion, TenneT, and TransnetBW, decided to use 525-kV
procedure is known from alternating current (AC) projects, but
cross-linked polyethylene (XLPE) cables instead, which em-
some particularities of HVDC-cable systems have to be taken
phasises the innovative character of these projects [5]. The
into account. An essential part of the quality assurance chain is
even greater amount of energy that can be transmitted as a re-
to test the insulation of the cable as a part of internal or factory
sult leads to enormous costs for re-dispatching measures in the
acceptance tests at the factory of the producer. After passing
event of an unplanned outage.
these tests, the cable segments are delivered to the field and
To get a better picture of the condition of such cable systems
interconnected via cable joints on site. The transport process
and to prevent an unplanned outage at best, monitoring systems
and the handcrafted joints are a major source of errors, even
can be used. Monitoring systems like distributed temperature
when carried out by trained professionals, as failure statistics
sensing or distributed acoustic sensing use some of the numer-
show [1]. Due to the lack of operational experience, such sound
ous fiber optics incorporated in XLPE energy cables. Distributed
failure statistics are not available for HVDC cable systems.
temperature sensing can reveal thermal hotspots and provide
When a certain length of up to 160 km is reached, the cables
the operator with valuable information about transmission re-
are tested in the field before they are put into operation. During
serves [6]. Third party interference in a cable system as well as
these site acceptance or commissioning tests, the HVDC cable
breakdowns of the insulation system can be detected and local-
system shall be energized with AC voltage supplemented by a

0883-7554/22/©2022/IEEE January / February — Vol. 38, No. 1 7

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Figure 1. Design of a high-voltage direct current (HVDC) land cable.

ized using distributed acoustic sensing. Partial discharges as an Access points to the underground cable can be up to 12 km
early indicator of possible failures of the insulation system can apart to reduce construction and financial efforts. The under-
be reliably detected with PD monitoring systems. The different ground section between these points offers no grounding pos-
physics of PDs at DC as well as the particularities of the design
of HVDC cable systems in combination with the demand to
predict the future behavior of defects lead to a completely new
requirement profile. Planned outages should be used to replace
or repair components that have been identified as a risk to reli-
able operation. This procedure is known as predictive mainte-
nance.
This article explains the challenges for such a monitoring
system and describes a possible solution.

Challenges of HVDC Cable Monitoring

Systems
Topology of an HVDC Cable Line
An HVDC cable line, which can be several hundred kilome-
ters long, has a topology as shown in Figure 1. At the near and
far ends of an HVDC transmission system, converter stations
connect the line to the AC grid. After up to 160 km, a section
station is built to separate cable sections produced by different
manufacturers and provide a possibility to connect a high volt-
age (HV) test system. During the site acceptance test or com-
missioning test each single section is tested according to the
standards or as agreed between manufacturer and operator. The
longer the tested section is, the higher the power that a test sys-
tem has to deliver. Especially for tests carried out at near power
frequency, the design of the required resonant test systems is
challenging [7].
The cable line between section stations (Figure 1, lower left
part) is divided into smaller segments by several access points,
where joints with shield separation are installed and the screen Figure 2. Future high-voltage direct current (HVDC) network ex-
grounding is performed. pansion in Germany.

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Figure 3. Types of joints (from top to bottom): straight joint,
straight joint with a grounding lead, and joint with screen separa-
tion.
sibilities and thereby is constructed with straight joints that are
not accessible after laying (Figure 1, lower right part). Due to
the typical on-land weight transportation limits, the maximum
length of a single cable piece between two joints is approxi-
mately 1 km. As a result, there may be a significant number of
inaccessible straight joints between two access points that need
to be subjected to a sensitive PD measurement during a site ac-
ceptance test and monitoring.
Types of HV Joints and Sensor Placement
Nonconventional methods of PD coupling include a variety
of inductive and capacitive sensors [8]. Due to the hard practi-
cal implementation of the capacitive designs (e.g., the pre-in-
stallation into the body of a joint), inductive coupling by means
of split-core high-frequency current transformers (HFCTs) be-
came particularly prevalent in the PD monitoring of cable lines.
An occurring PD evokes currents of opposite polarity in the
shield and core of a cable. An appropriately placed inductive
sensor should be coupled only to one of these two conduc-
tors. Otherwise, for example, if the sensor is placed around the
whole cable, the measured sum of the currents is close to zero
and no signal is detected. This requirement forces the coupling
to be performed at the location where the screen separation
takes place: terminations or certain types of joints. The design
of a cable joint may significantly differ depending on types of
connected cables, dimensions, used materials, building pro-
cedure, complementary features, and so on. At the same time,
from the screen handling perspective, three main types may be
highlighted. They are presented on Figure 3 as, to some extent,
generalized examples and can be described as follows:
• Straight joint (Figure 3, top): Screens are connected di-
rectly and covered with insulation; thus, no point for a
galvanic connection exists. The inductive coupling is not
possible either, because a sensor can be placed only around
the whole cable and, thereby, couple to both conductors in
the same manner.
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• Straight joint with a grounding lead (Figure 3, middle):
Directly connected screens are linked with the conductor
that comes out of the insulation and is used for earthing
of the screens. In practice this arrangement is also usually
exploited for placing the sensor on the earthing link, result-
ing in a poor sensitivity as the main discharge current still
flows through the cable conductors, while the grounding
link carries only the minor high-frequency current from the
ground.
• Joint with screen separation (Figure 3, bottom): Screens
are not connected and have separate grounding leads. Such
joint provides two locations for the sensor placement. Most
commonly the screen coupling is used—the sensor can be
installed on the grounding link directly or placed in the
link box, where the cross-bonding (for AC) or grounding
(AC and DC) is performed. The other alternative is the
cable core coupling—in the vicinity of the joint, the sen-
sor can be placed around the whole cable with the adjacent
grounding link. At this location the cable screen prolonged
with the bonding link first goes in the direction of the joint
then bends and returns back. If the sensor is installed at
this position, the field from the screen current cancels out
as the latter passes the sensor aperture twice in opposite
directions. In this way, only the signal in the cable core is
measured.
Comparison of Monitoring Principles of HVDC and
High-Voltage Alternating Current (HVAC) Cable
Systems
Common topologies of HVAC and HVDC cable lines sig-
nificantly differ, resulting in different testing and monitoring re-
quirements. This difference can be better demonstrated with the
examples of HVAC and HVDC sections of equal length. The
top of Figure 4 shows the instance of the HVAC line: two major
sections of a frequently used sectionalized cross-bonded system
with cable transposition [9], [10]. Each cross-bonding group of
three joints is monitored by a group of three sensors installed
nearby in the cross-bonding boxes. A PD detected by a sensor
can be assigned directly to the supervised joint.
In comparison, the lower part of Figure 4 shows the design
of one pole of an HVDC line of the same length. This topology
was also shown before on the lower right part of Figure 1. The
joints at both ends of the section have a screen separation and
therefore are appropriate for the sensor installation. Contrarily,
all the other joints are of a straight type, which negates the pos-
sibility of coupling at their position.
According to the recent CIGRE publication [3], every joint
should be subjected to a sensitive PD measurement. As a con-
sequence of the design of long HVDC cable systems, the local-
sensitivity approach used in the HVAC case is not suitable for
these projects. Instead of a local sensitivity, a global sensitivity
over up to 12 km is required to guarantee a sensitive PD evalu-
ation of every joint. An additional issue is that acquired PD sig-
nals should be assigned to one of the joints along the monitored
cable segment, which makes a localization necessary.
January / February — Vol. 38, No. 1 9
Figure 4. Comparison between high-voltage alternating current (top) and high-voltage direct current (bottom) cable line topologies.

Evaluation and Interpretation of PD Signals To automate the recognition of patterns and regularities of
PDs, a pattern recognition system may be designed. Figure 6
The horizontal standard IEC 60270 describes the evaluation
shows the structure of a typical pattern recognition system. On
of PDs at AC and DC voltage [11]. Measured frames of a de-
the bottom of the same figure, the steps of the evaluation ac-
fined length (µs range) are at first band-pass filtered and then
cording to IEC 60270 are shown. The resemblance between the
integrated. The results of these integrations are proportional
steps of these two flows is remarkable.
to the apparent charges. In combination with the voltage lev-
From this perspective the bottleneck of the IEC 60270 pro-
els and phase angles of the feeding AC voltage, these values
cedure can be pinpointed. Information-rich signals are reduced
yield the well-known phase-resolved partial discharge patterns.
to two features: a charge and a time (DC) or phase (AC) of
Experienced engineers may interpret the resulting patterns, es-
occurrence. The extracted features are not representing enough
pecially their behavior with advancing time or when the test
information of the evaluated PD signals to allow a classifica-
voltage level is changed. For DC such patterns do not exist, as
tion at DC. When several PD sources are present also at AC
there is no phase angle because of the missing periodicity, so
the visual interpretation by experts may be difficult. Two com-
the only information left is the time of occurrence and the ap-
pletely different PD sources may lead to the same charge Q.
parent charge. Figure 5 qualitatively shows a typical pattern for
This drawback makes the apparent charge Q as a feature not
a surface discharge at AC and the same for a DC voltage.
suitable to distinguish different PD sources, especially for DC.
While the AC pattern reveals the nature of the PD, the DC
Many researchers are working on solutions that allow reliable
Q-t-diagram does not allow such a classification of the PD type.
interpretation of HVDC PD measurements. A promising ap-
To solve this problem, a periodic AC component superimposed
on the DC voltage can be used to assign PDs to a phase and
lead to a heat map similar to the known phase-resolved partial
discharge patterns [12].

Figure 5. Qualitative example of a surface discharge pattern at AC Figure 6. Pattern recognition system (top flow) applied to IEC
(left) and DC (right). 60270 (bottom flow).

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Figure 7. Qualitative time-domain signals, magnitude and phase
spectra of a propagating pulse.
proach, which is based on pulse sequence analysis, is presented
in [13]. The basic idea is the knowledge that every single PD
pulse influences the boundary conditions for the next discharge
by changing the local electric field through surface or space
charges. However, if different PD sources are present, the con-
cept is not valid anymore. To be able to address this problem,
a clear assignment of signals to the corresponding failure or
noise sources is required. This can be achieved by clustering.
In [14] an approach based on the cross-correlation coefficient
is presented. As every signal has to be correlated with all other
signals, this approach has the drawback of needing high com-
putational resources, increasing exponentially with the number
of signals. Another approach, the time-frequency-map (T-F-
map) uses two features, namely equivalent time and equivalent
frequency to separate different PD signals in a two-dimensional
feature space [15]. However, the resulting plot is strongly influ-
enced by various settings, which prevents an automatic evalu-
ation. An overview of used separation techniques was recently
given in [16].
Propagation of Signals in XLPE Power Cables
A signal that propagates through an XLPE power cable is
attenuated and distorted [17]. From a system theory perspec-
tive, an HVDC cable can be described as a length-dependent
transfer function with parameters defined by the cable geom-
etry, structure, and material properties. In general a cable can
be understood as a low-pass filter. As higher frequencies have
a lower propagation speed, the signal gets “broader,” an effect
that is called “dispersion.” Figure 7 shows the qualitative time-
domain signals as well as magnitude and phase spectra of a
pulse at its origin and after traveling through an energy cable.
At the origin a pulse with its typical flat magnitude spectra
and a phase of zero is shown (Figure 7 left plots). A pulse con-
sists of all frequency components (flat magnitude) being pres-
ent at the same time (phase spectrum is zero). After traveling
a certain length through the coaxial cable, the pulse is damped
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Figure 8. Estimation of signal attenuation in a 525-kV, 2,500-mm2
DC cross-linked polyethylene cable based on typical datasheet
parameters and calculated according to [18].
and the frequency components are shifted. The magnitude spec-
trum shows the typical low pass characteristics, and the phase
spectrum shows the difference in propagation speeds (Figure
7 right plots). Figure 8 shows the amplitude damping over a
traveling distance of 0 to 6 km in the frequency range of 0.1 to
20 MHz for a 525-kV XLPE HVDC cable calculated according
to [18]. It is clearly visible that higher frequencies and greater
travel distances lead to a more pronounced damping. The signal
content below approximately 4 MHz is comparatively weakly
attenuated and still exhibits significant amplitudes after 6 km.
Depending on the design of an underground cable line, an
interpretation of the propagated signals according to IEC 60270
leads to wrong conclusions about the level of the discharge and
therefore about the insulation condition. Strongly attenuated
signals can lead to low charge values, while reflections at joints
and terminations can lead to superpositions and therefore result
in a higher charge value.
Summary and Requirements for a Monitoring System
The aforementioned particularities of HVDC cable lines
lead to different requirements for a PD monitoring system com-
pared with AC. Measuring points are up to 12 km apart, so a
sensitive localization of occurring PDs is needed. The signals
are attenuated and distorted depending on the traveled distance
to the measuring point and the type of power cable used. To
enable an accurate evaluation of the cable system condition,
the original signal must be reconstructed to obtain the actual
charge value at the origin. Lower repetition rates of PDs at DC
make the information of every PD signal highly valuable [19].
Phase-resolved partial discharge patterns known from AC PD
measurements do not exist for DC. Thus, a new interpretation
using more features of the measured signals is needed. The key
January / February — Vol. 38, No. 1 11
Figure 9. Processing steps of the proposed concept.

point is that TSOs need more than just the current condition of
their assets—to avoid unplanned outages, predictive condition
assessment is required.

A PD Monitoring System for HVDC Cable

Systems
Concept
The differences of PDs under AC and DC, the particularities
of the design of HVDC cable lines, as well as the described re-
quirements for the predictive evaluation demand a new concept
of a monitoring system. The authors have identified the transfer
function of a cable section between two measurement points as
a means of meeting these requirements, namely, the localization
and reconstruction of PD signals. Five challenges were identi-
fied as shown in Figure 9.
The first challenge was to establish a bidirectional coupling
to the cable that allows signals to be both coupled into and
out of the cable. Automatically detecting signals and extract-
ing suitable features from these signals were the second and
third challenges. The general purpose of feature extraction is
to represent each recorded signal by a low-dimensional fea-
ture vector, e.g., 4–8 values. It is done to reduce the amount
of data while optimally preserving the essential information of
the original signal. This means that similar signals lead to simi-
lar feature vectors and vice versa. The fourth challenge was to
cluster the feature vectors to determine the number of different
signal sources in the monitored cable section and again reduce
the amount of data. This step is used to separate PD signals
from interferers and to clearly determine which PD signals have
the same origin. The fifth challenge was to further evaluate and
characterize the PD signals, including locating their origin and
reconstructing their original spectrum. This finally allows a re-
alistic assessment of the severity of a defect.
Bidirectional Coupling
The measurement of (PD) signals as well as the injection and
measurement of calibration signals build the foundation of the
presented monitoring approach. For this purpose, an HFCT was
developed (Figure 10), which acts as a bidirectional coupling
device to the cable core of the monitored system. The arising
requirements for such an HFCT were derived from the opera-
tional conditions and possible environmental circumstances
and can be summarized as follows:
• Sufficient inner diameter to be mountable over a cable,
• Ability to operate in the presence of a rated cable current,
• Ability to withstand possible surges originating from light-
ning or switching impulses or from a breakdown of the in-
sulation system,
• Negligible influence on the cable system,
Figure 10. Rendering of the developed high-frequency current
transformer (HFCT) prototype used for coupling to the cable core.
• Thermal stability, and
• Attenuation of unwanted frequencies.
With the developed prototype it was possible to measure a
charge of 20 pC after propagating 6.6 km in a medium voltage
cable, which causes even higher signal attenuation compared
with high voltage cables [20].
A detailed explanation of the HFCT development process
and the verification of compliance with the above requirements
can be found in [21].
Event Trigger, Feature Extraction, and Clustering
After the coupling to the cable system being established, the
next step is to detect signals of interest in the continuous analog
signal delivered by the sensors. The on-hand signal is digitized
with a sampling rate of several hundreds of megahertz to re-
solve fast transients. To process the information in real time, the
number of samples must be reduced through advanced signal
processing.
In a first step, deterministic signals are cut from the incom-
ing signal stream with the Event Trigger approach that was spe-
cifically designed for this purpose. It is based on linear predic-
tive coding, which is explained in detail in [22]. The main idea
behind linear predictive coding is to model a signal's sample as
a linear combination of several previous samples, thereby mod-
eling the general statistical dependence of successive samples
in a given time frame. This statistical dependence is more pro-
nounced in time frames containing deterministic signals such
as PD signals than in time frames containing non-deterministic
signals such as white Gaussian noise. The reason for it is that

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Figure 11. Example for the Event Trigger approach: signals are
separated and filtered (top) if the statistical dependency measure
(bottom) exceeds three standard deviations.
successive samples of white Gaussian noise are uncorrelated,
i.e., statistically independent. In the Event Trigger approach,
several frames representing noise were identified by means of
an energy criterion and used as a statistical dependency base-
line. Frames with a statistical dependency above this baseline
were considered to contain deterministic signals and cut out
from the signal stream. This example, though rather academi-
cal, is meant to describe the main idea behind the Event Trigger
approach. A more illustrative description is given in Figure 11.
In the upper part a digitized measured signal is shown in gray.
The analysis of this stream by means of linear prediction pro-
vides a measure of statistical dependency shown in the lower
part of the figure. Surpassing the three-standard-deviation
threshold then triggers the event separation indicated by the
light gray areas in the upper signal stream. To make it visible
that there are indeed deterministic signals buried by noise, the
corresponding parts had been filtered using a Wiener filter. At
Figure 12. Process of transfer function determination (blue) and evaluation of occurring partial discharges (PDs; red).
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this point the intrinsic benefit of the Event Trigger approach
compared with amplitude- or signal energy-based approaches
manifests. An amplitude-based trigger, for example, could not
detect all signals (gray dashed lines in upper part) nor extract
them in full length. With the presented statistical approach on
the other hand, it is possible to detect and separate signals of
different strengths and lengths reliably, which builds the foun-
dation of the next signal processing step, the feature extraction.
From each separated signal distinctive features are extracted to
further reduce the amount of data that has to be handled in real
time. Namely, the predictor coefficients of several orders ob-
tained from the linear predictive coding analysis of the signal,
the signal energy, the time of appearance, and the voltage level
at the time of appearance are suitable to compress the contained
information of the separated signals. An in-depth view on the
Event Trigger and feature extraction with underlying equations
is presented in [23].
The extracted features of the separated signals are the basis
for the next step: clustering. The aim of the clustering is to iden-
tify how many groups of different types of signals are present
in the monitored environment, thereby deriving the amount of
active PD sources. However, the clustering is beyond the scope
of the present study. From each identified PD cluster, one rep-
resentative PD signal is selected for further characterization.
Characterization of PD Signals
The further evaluation and characterization of PD signals
comprise the localization of their origin and the reconstruction
of their original spectrum. The general idea behind the localiza-
tion is illustrated in Figures 12 and 13.
A defect along the monitored cable section generates a PD
signal that splits into two not necessarily equal currents, one of
which travels toward the measurement location A at one section
end and the other travels toward B at the other end. As each of
these currents travels through the cable, it is affected by damp-
ing, dispersion, and reflections at discontinuities like (straight)
joints. Due to the different travel distances, the signals are sub-
ject to individual cable transfer functions. When it arrives at the
measurement location, it is decoupled by means of an HFCT.
The transfer impedances of the two HFCTs at A and B may
vary from each other because of unavoidable variations in the
electrical properties and also because of different environmen-
January / February — Vol. 38, No. 1 13
 Figure 14. Schematic of the cable test line.

location and to decouple it from the cable at the neighboring

measurement location to determine the transfer function of the
cable section in between (see Figure 12). This transfer func-
tion carries information about the characteristics of the cable
section. The challenge is to disentangle the different influences
mentioned previously. To some extent, this is already possible
solely based on on-line measurements using dedicated calibra-
tion protocols. On the downside, the determination of the cable
characteristics still requires preliminary knowledge about the
structure of the monitored cable section and off-line measure-
ments. Changes of the transfer function over time may also al-
low the assessment of the general condition of the cable line
(aging), which remains a subject for further studies.

Measurements and Results

Figure 13. Scaling of the signals measured at two measuring Cable Test Line
points: A and B.
To test the newly developed approaches under real condi-
tions, a cable test line constructed especially for this purpose
tal conditions (temperature, humidity, etc.). Under the assump- was used. As depicted in Figure 14 it consisted of three medi-
tion that the cable characteristics are known, it is possible to um-voltage segments connected with two high-voltage joints
localize the origin of the PD signal, as schematically shown in (J1, J2) with screen separation.
Figure 13 (top). Here, the two outer weights on each side of the Appropriate terminations (T1, T2) were mounted at the
scale represent the measured spectra at A and B. These spectra near and far ends. In total, the cable test section has a length of
are both scaled with transfer function weights that are related to 2.2 km. T1 and J2 were equipped with two HFCT prototypes
one another by the (known) total length of the monitored cable each. Figure 15 shows the joints J1 and J2 with two prototypi-
section L and by the (unknown) distance to the defect L*. An cal HFCTs mounted. A transient recorder was connected to the
optimization algorithm then finds the best estimate of L* that HFCTs to digitize the signals.
optimally balances the scale, i.e., that minimizes the spectral
distance between the two scaled spectra A and B.
With the knowledge of the actual position of the defect and
the transfer functions mentioned above, it is possible to recon-
struct the PD spectrum at the origin. Therefore, the measured
spectra at A and B are compensated for the transfer functions.
The compensated spectra correspond to the split currents at the
defect location, and their sum leads to the original PD spec-
trum. This briefly explains the general idea behind PD signal
characterization under the assumption that the cable character-
istics are known but not how these can be actually determined.
The essential step in the determination of the cable charac-
teristics was to measure the transfer function of the monitored
cable section. With respect to the later cable monitoring in the
field, this measurement must be able to be executed on-line.
This was the reason why a bidirectional coupling had to be
established, as already briefly indicated in the Bidirectional
Coupling section. With this, the HFCTs that were used to de- Figure 15. Foreground: Joints with mounted high-frequency cur-
couple deterministic signals from the cable could be reused to rent transformer (HFCT) prototypes and connected transient re-
couple a calibration signal into the cable at one measurement corders. Background: medium-voltage cable drums.

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Figure 16. Setup for the generation of partial discharge at joint

J1.

An artificial PD defect was created at J1. The outer jacket

and the shield of the cable were partially removed (see Figure
16). A hole was drilled through the main insulation, and the
threaded metallic rod was placed in it to contact the inner core Figure 17. (a) Measured magnitude spectrum at Joint 2 (J2) and
and transmit the high-voltage potential out of the cable. The Termination 1 (T1). (b) Magnitude spectrum of T1 compensated
rod was connected to the PD generation setup, also shown in to be comparable to spectrum measured at J2. (c) Magnitude
Figure 16. The idea of the setup is to introduce pathways for spectrum of T1 shifted by the length dependent transfer function
the charging or discharging processes that normally take place to find the minimal distance to the spectrum of J2.
in a failing insulation. The inception voltage of the setup was
approximately 9 kV DC. To derive the frequency spectrum of
ent lengths as shown in Figure 17c. When the spectral distance
the PD current at the origin, a current probe was used to record
between these spectra reaches its minimum, the distance to the
the time domain signals of occurring PDs.
defect is obtained. The first localization approach based on the
Localization transfer function presented in [20] was based on a one-sided
approach. The main drawback is that the spectrum of the PD
In the first step, the transfer function between T1 and J2 was
at the origin is needed to solve the localization equation. As
determined. A short chirp signal with a duration of 6 µs and a
this spectrum is generally unknown, the authors propose the
frequency range of 0 to 3 MHz was coupled into the cable at T1,
two-sided approach, which works without the need of a syn-
and decoupled from the cable at T1 as reference and at J2 after
chronization between the distant measuring points. In addition,
passing 1.4 km of medium-voltage cable. The transfer function
this approach significantly increases the location accuracy as
was calculated as the ratio of the two measurements at J2 and
depicted in Figure 18. Different frequency ranges in the band
T1. This measurement was performed on-line, i.e., while a DC
from 0.1 to 1 MHz were evaluated in terms of the relative local-
voltage was applied to the line. In a second step the applied DC
ization error. In the maximum frequency range of 0.1 to 1 MHz
voltage was raised to approximately 9 kV to initiate the PDs at
investigated here, the localization error is only 0.6% compared
J1. Both at T1 and at J2 the resulting responses were extract-
with about 2% obtained with the one-sided approach published
ed. These signals are attenuated by the low-pass characteristic
in [20].
of the cable and are furthermore superimposed by reflections,
which can lead to a distorted charge value in the evaluation
according to IEC 60270. Without compensation of the cable
attenuation and possible reflections, the evaluation according
to IEC 60270 must lead to deviating charge values. This be-
havior is clearly visible in the measured spectra for PD activ-
ity near J1. Figure 17 shows the measured amplitude spectra at
the distant measuring points J2 and T1. Although measurement
point T1 is 800 m away from the partial discharge source at
J1, significantly increased amplitudes are measured compared
with the measurement point at J2, which is only 600 m away
(Figure 17 a). When the measured spectrum at T1 is compen-
sated so that it is comparable to the measured spectrum at J2,
the expected behavior is obtained. The amplitude spectrum at
Termination 1 shows smaller values because the signal from
J1 is more strongly attenuated due to the longer cable section
between the artificial PD source and T1 (Figure 17b).
To localize the origin of the PD, the equalized magnitude Figure 18. Relative localization errors for different evaluated fre-
spectrum of T1 is shifted by a compensation factor for differ- quency ranges in the band of 0.1 to 1 MHz.

January / February — Vol. 38, No. 1 15

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Figure 19. Reconstruction of the current at the origin in the fre-
quency domain.
The determination of a suitable constant frequency band for
the evaluation is the subject of further investigations, whereby
the lower limit at 0.1 to 0.2 MHz and the upper limit in the
range of 1 to 3 MHz seem reasonable.
Reconstruction
With the known distance of the PD source to the measure-
ment points, the transfer function can be used to reconstruct the
spectrum at the origin. For this purpose, the measured spectrum
is divided by the length-dependent transfer function of the ca-
ble. Figure 19 shows the measured current at the origin and the
corresponding reconstruction. The two curves show only mini-
mal deviations, allowing a precise assessment of the condition.
In contrast, an analysis according to IEC 60270 would deter-
mine the charge solely on the basis of the measured (uncompen-
sated) spectra iT1 and iJ2. An assessment of the condition based
on this charge values is obviously hardly possible and accom-
panied by a certain vagueness.
Conclusion and Outlook
The transition to an all-electric world and the integration of
renewable energies require a changed grid structure at all volt-
age levels. At the TSO level, very long HVDC underground
cable lines are being planned worldwide, with Germany play-
ing the pioneering role. The specifics of these HVDC projects
were presented and compared with the design of AC systems,
especially with regard to potential PD monitoring. A novel
monitoring concept based on adaptive modeling of the cable
segment to be monitored was presented by the authors. For this
purpose an HFCT with an optimal transfer function and high
sensitivity was designed to establish a bidirectional coupling to
the cable system. The novel approach uses advanced digital sig-
nal processing and machine learning to detect and evaluate each
signal in real time. All occurring PD signals are clustered and
their origin is obtained with the use of the cable transfer func-
tion between two measuring points, which is recorded periodi-
cally during normal operation of the cable system. To enable a
precise assessment of the condition of the monitored cable seg-
ment, the spectrum of the PD at the origin can be reconstructed.
A sensitive PD measurement or PD monitoring can be carried
out by two measuring points up to 12 km apart. This also makes
our approach interesting for AC power lines in operation, be-
cause these often do not exceed a length of 10 km. Future work
will have two focal points. First, the approaches will be tested
16 IEEE Electrical Insulation Magazine
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extensively in field trials, and second, models and methods will
be explored that will allow prediction of the future behavior of
the cable system. The potential added value of the presented
system lies in the ability to derive predictive maintenance mea-
sures to prevent unplanned outages. The accuracy of these mod-
els is expected to increase significantly when metadata such as
operating data or the temperatures of a distributed temperature
sensing system are added. To achieve this, the definition of nec-
essary interfaces and procedures of data exchange should be
discussed multilaterally.
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Erik Winkelmann studied electrical engineering
from 2005 to 2009 at the University of Applied
Sciences in Dresden. Since then he has held
various positions at HIGHVOLT, most recently
as supervisor of monitoring systems. His re-
search focuses on the analysis of partial dis-
charge signals and their characterization with
the use of algorithms known from speech pro-
cessing. Since 2020 he has been a PhD student
at the Professorship for Language Technology
and Cognitive Systems, TU Dresden.
Iaroslav Shevchenko received a master’s de-
gree in power engineering and electrical engi-
neering from Peter the Great St. Petersburg
Polytechnic University, Russia, in 2018. He is
currently a PhD student at the Chair of Energy
Distribution and High Voltage Engineering at
the Brandenburg Technical University in
Cottbus, Germany. His research is aimed at
partial discharge monitoring of HV cable lines
with the focus on instrumentation develop-
ment, measurement methods, and experimental techniques.
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Featured Article
Christoph Steiner studied electrical engineer-
ing from 2015 to 2020 at the University of
Applied Sciences Dresden. In this time, he re-
ceived a diploma in electric power systems as
well as a master’s degree in process informat-
ics. Since then, his profession lies in the field of
high throughput real-time signal processing for
high voltage applications at HIGHVOLT. His
current research focus on the analysis of partial
discharges by means of machine learning algo-
rithms and real-time signal processing.
Christian Kleiner received his DiplIng degree
in electrical engineering from TU Dresden,
Germany, in 2017. He is currently a PhD candi-
date at TU Dresden, under the supervision of
Peter Birkholz, in the field of intrinsic speech
articulation and articulatory measurement
methods. His current research focus is the ap-
plication of digital speech signal processing
techniques for the localization of partial dis-
charges in HV cables.
Uwe Kaltenborn (SM’12) received a MSc in
electrical engineering from TU Dresden and a
PhD in electrical engineering from TU
Darmstadt. Beginning in 1998 he worked in
several R&D and management positions in the
field of HV products. Since 2017 he has been
the director of business development at
HIGHVOLT. He is actively working on several
IEC and IEEE Standards and is a member of
CIGRE SC A3 and DC member of CIRED. He
has published one monography, more than 60 papers, and holds more
than 50 patents. His research focuses on ecofriendly gaseous insula-
tion and cable testing and monitoring.
Peter Birkholz received his PhD degree (with
distinction) in signal processing from the
Institute for Computer Science at the University
of Rostock, Germany, in 2005. After postdoc-
toral researcher positions at the University of
Rostock from 2005 to 2007 and at the RWTH
Aachen from 2009 to 2014, he became a pro-
fessor at TU Dresden, Germany, in 2014. His
main topics of research include articulatory
speech synthesis, silent speech interfaces, and
measurement techniques for speech research.
Harald Schwarz graduated 1982 in electrical
engineering from the Technical University
Berlin and received his doctorate 1986 in elec-
trical engineering from Dortmund University.
He worked with ABB till 1994 before being ap-
pointed as full professor for power distribution
and high-voltage engineering at the
Brandenburg Technical University in Cottbus
in 1995. Prof. Schwarz is a visiting professor at
the University of Shanghai for Science and
Technology (USST) and Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic
University (SPbPU) and professor of honours at Shanghai University
January / February — Vol. 38, No. 1 17
of Electric Power (SUEP) and the Moscow Power Engineering
Institute (MPEI).

Thomas Steiner studied electrical engineering

from 1986 to 1990, majoring in informatics. In
2005 he started at HIGHVOLT Prüftechnik
GmbH as team leader for measurement tech-
nology and in 2007 took over the technical
management (technical director). Since 2008
he has represented Germany as speaker of
TC42 (HV Test and Measuring Techniques).
Steiner is convener of the working groups
TC42 WG21, TC42 MT04, and TC42 MT13.

18 IEEE Electrical Insulation Magazine

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