Development of extruded ethylene propylene rubber insulated superconducting cable

A superconducting power cable is one of the promising ways of underground transmission of huge electric power in the future. The authors have long proposed the idea of the extruded polymer insulation for superconducting cables. The prominent features of the design are to exploit the excellent electrical properties of polymer in the cryogenic temperatures and to separate the helium coolant from the electrical insulation. Although the extruded cross-linked polyethylene cable has proved ability at the liquid nitrogen temperature, the cable insulation cracked due to mechanical stress during cooling to the liquid helium temperature. To overcome this problem, ethylene propylene rubber (EPR) was selected as a new insulating material considering the good results of mechanical and electrical tests of EPR samples at cryogenic temperatures. An extruded EPR insulated superconducting cable 15 m in length was fabricated and a cooling test down to the liquid helium temperature and a voltage test at the liquid helium temperature were carried out with fair success. This is a breakthrough in terms of the electrical insulation design of cryogenic cables.     

Research and development of electrical insulation ofsuperconducting cables by extruded polymers

This is a review to show the importance of electrical insulation in ac superconducting cables. An attractive superconducting cable has to be designed for the voltage range of 60-270 kV. Therefore, a reliable insulation design is imperative. Two types of insulation have been compared. One is composite insulation, namely laminar paper or plastic tape, impregnated with coolant. The other is solid insulation of extruded polymer on the conductor. The composite insulation has a lengthy history and, in the constructions to date, has been the insulation design used for superconducting cables. Some prototype superconducting cables with this type of insulation have been developed and successfully tested. However, the partial discharge in butt gaps may affect their long-term reliability. The solid insulation, on the other hand, can separate the coolant from the electrical insulation and can exploit the benefit of the super electrical insulation characteristics of polymers in the cryogenic region. Some attempts have been made to use this design with liquid nitrogen and liquid helium. One example incorporating extruded ethylenepropylene rubber (EPR) for insulation was found to satisfactorily go through the cool-down to a liquid helium temperature and to endure the simultaneous voltage and current tests. EPR, and possibly some other polymers, seem to be promising materials for solid insulation in the cryogenic region     

ac treeing of ethylene-propylene rubber in cryogenic temperature region

The authors have proved that ethylene-propylene rubber (EPR) is suitable for the solid electrical insulating material of superconducting and cryoresistive cables due to its excellent mechanical and good electrical properties. It is imperative to study the treeing resistivity of EPR in view of long-term reliability as a cable insulator. The objectives of this paper are to establish an ac treeing test method of opaque EPR samples with fillers and to examine the treeing resistivity of EPR at both liquid-nitrogen and room temperatures and the effect of fillers on treeing resistivity. It was found that EPR has enough resistance to ac treeing at liquid-nitrogen temperature and that fillers improve ac treeing resistivity slightly. High reliability of EPR insulation is expected during long-term operation at cryogenic temperature.     

挤包绝缘高压直流电缆应用现状与研究展望

挤包绝缘高压直流电缆已成为远距离、大容量输电线路建设的主要装备之一,现阶段广泛应用的挤包绝缘直流电缆以交联聚乙烯(XLPE)绝缘为主。针对XLPE绝缘高压直流电缆研发和应用中的绝缘空间电荷特性、副产物脱气等主要问题进行全面综述,指出在工业化生产方式下,超纯净体系XLPE绝缘材料是目前用来缓解空间电荷问题和实现电缆批量化生产更为可行的技术方案,对于副产物脱气问题的研究需结合小样测试结果,向长距离批量化电缆生产的脱气工艺控制进行扩展。结合现有国内外已投运和正在规划的挤包绝缘高压直流电缆典型工程,指出未来应侧重于在提高绝缘材料电气绝缘水平的基础上,使挤包绝缘直流电缆向更高电压等级发展,并同时通过提高电缆最高允许运行温度实现更大的传输容量。此外,从提高生产效率和利于回收利用的角度考虑,可加强热塑性绝缘材料在挤包绝缘高压直流电缆中的应用研究。     

Accelerated cable life testing of EPR-insulated medium voltagedistribution cables

This paper presents results aimed at developing a reliable accelerated aging tank test for EPR-insulated cables. Aging was performed at 2 to 4 times rated voltage on load cycling to temperatures of 45°C, 60°C, 75°C, and 90°C at the conductor with water in the conductor strands and outside the cable. Results show that cable failure is more rapid at the highest electrical stress and lowest conductor load cycle temperature. Cables aged at higher temperatures and various levels of electrical stress rarely failed and retained in excess of 40% of their original breakdown strength after 1500+ days of aging. Aging performed at 90°C load cycle temperature and 4 times rated voltage with air on the outside and water at the conductor of the cable showed more rapid loss of life than with water outside. Results indicate the optimum aging conditions for EPR-insulated cables in the accelerated cable life test (ACLT) differ significantly from those previously observed for XLPE-insulated cables, and that the appropriate test methodology for EPR-insulated cables requires additional study     

乙丙橡胶在我国中高压电缆中的应用

简介了乙丙橡胶在国内外中高压电缆中应用的情况,论述了中高压乙丙橡胶电缆料的设计和生产的关键,以及国内自主开发的乙丙橡胶电缆料在中压橡胶绝缘电缆上的应用。     

105°C/140°C rated EPR insulated power cables

The excellent long-term operation and field performance of existing EPR cables under the current industry operating temperatures of 90°C normal and 130°C overload is well known. This paper describes a study for the implementation of a higher temperature rated EPR cable system including accessories up to a range of 105°C continuous service and 140°C emergency operation. The investigation has been carried out into the electrical, mechanical, and thermal behavior of the system as a function of temperature. Compatibility has been studied under higher temperature in relation to conductor filling compound and the semi-conducting stress control layer. The results indicate that insulation degradation does not occur under accelerated and elevated temperature testing, concluding that properly formulated and selected materials are both compatible and suitable for the higher temperature ratings     

高温超导电缆发展及其应用概述

随着高温超导技术的发展,高温超导电缆已经在输电系统中有了实际应用。与传统电缆相比,高温超导电缆具有传输容量大、损耗低、体积小、重量轻、可靠性高、节约资源、环境友好等优势,有望在未来电网发展中发挥重要作用。本文介绍了高温超导电缆的结构及特点、基本设计原理、传输电流与导体层电流分布及交流损耗等技术问题,并对高温超导电缆在交流和直流输电系统中的应用以及目前世界各国对高温超导电缆的研究及成果做了介绍。     

A Fourier transform technique for calculating cable and pipetemperatures for periodic and transient conditions

An underground pipe-type cable system is represented by a thermal impedance network. A ladder network of resistances/capacitances represents the cable out to the outer surface of the pipe. The earth, adjacent pipe-type cables, and cable images are modeled by a frequency dependent thermal impedance found by solving the heat transfer differential equation. The heat input to the system is conductor I² R loss. The heat input can be a periodic signal or a transient of up to 300 h. A fast Fourier transform (FFT) is used to obtain heat input in the frequency domain. The frequency domain thermal input at the conductor is divided by the thermal admittance seen by the conductor and an inverse FFT is used to obtain conductor temperature as a function of time. A similar procedure obtains shield and pipe temperature. Iteration is used to model conductor electrical resistance change with temperature. The ambient temperature and temperature due to dielectric loss is added in to obtain final values     

Thermal degradation characteristics of oil‐filled cable joint with extremely degraded tan δ oil

Much of oil‐filled (OF) cable has been used for a long time as 66‐ to 500‐kV extrahigh‐voltage cable. Sometimes we can see extremely degraded tan δ oil (several tens of percent of tan δ, for example) in joint boxes, etc. The values of tan δ calculated by a simple combination model of paper/oil show that the oil‐impregnated paper with such a high tan δ oil likewise has an extremely high tan δ, which must result in thermal breakdown. However, such an event has not taken place up to the present in actually operated transmission lines. This fact suggests that some mechanism for the suppression of tan δ has acted in the paper insulation impregnated with degraded tan δ oil. Therefore, we investigated in detail the tan δ characteristics of paper impregnated with extremely high tan δ oil. In addition, based on the investigation results, we developed a method for simulation of heat generation by dielectric loss in an OF cable joint (which has degraded tan δ oil). © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 178(1): 1–10, 2012; Published online in Wiley Online Library ( wileyonlinelibrary.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.21184     

Evaluation of service aged 35 kV TR-XLPE URD cables

This paper provides information on the aging of URD power cable insulated with a tree-retardant crosslinked polyethylene (TR-XLPE) compound, installed in a typical utility environment, Numerous evaluations were performed on samples of power cables aged up to 7 years in-service. AC and impulse voltage breakdown data are compared with data for similar 35 kV ethylene propylene rubber (EPR) and crosslinked polyethylene (XLPE) insulated cables removed from the same utility system. The data show that, to date, the rate of degradation of TR-XLPE cables is less than that of the EPR and XLPE insulated cables. Extrapolation of the data, assuming the same rate, indicates TR-XLPE cable will have the longest life     

Comparative laboratory evaluation of TR-XLPE and XLPE cables with Super-smooth conductor shields

This paper provides data on four commercial tree retardant crosslinked polyethylene (TR-XLPE) and one cross-linked polyethylene (XLPE) insulated 15 kV cables supplied by three manufacturers. The cables have "super-smooth" conductor shields and "extra-clean" insulation and insulation shields. AC and impulse voltage breakdown and selected other characterization data are presented for cables that were aged immersed in room temperature water (15-30/spl deg/C) up to 24 months of a planned 48 months aging program. The five cables have high ac voltage breakdown strength, three of the TR-XLPE cables, actually increased in breakdown strength during aging. The one TR-XLPE cable that had the lowest ac voltage breakdown had vented trees at the insulation shield and high dissipation factor, which the other cables did not have. The impulse voltage breakdown strength of all cables decreased during aging; the cable with the lowest ac voltage breakdown also has the lowest impulse voltage breakdown. The dissimilar performance of the TR-XLPE cables and the excellent performance of the XLPE cable indicates evaluations at longer times are required to differentiate between modern TR-XLPE and XLPE insulated cables.     

Electrical aging of extruded dielectric cables: review of existingtheories and data

Despite the huge amount of data on so-called electrical aging of extruded HV cables, the fundamental phenomena responsible for it or evolving with aging time, are still far from well understood. It is therefore not surprising why it is so difficult to predict reliable cable lifetimes in service from accelerated aging experiments in the laboratory. The objective of this paper is to review critically the existing theories of electrical aging of solid dielectric materials. A relatively large number of models and theories exist but none of the most often used is known to yield reliable life predictions. One conclusion is that there is a need for a more comprehensive model of electrical aging of extruded dielectric cables. In order to develop this model, an extensive review of existing literature data was undertaken. This paper summarizes the data collected from more than 200 papers on aging of PE, XLPE and EPR cables. It appears that cable breakdown strength should not be plotted on log field vs. log time graphs to yield long-time (i.e. low-field) values, since results obtained over a long time period do not obey an inverse power law. In fact, high-field results are better described by an exponential relation between time and field. The models of Simoni, Montanari and Crine seem to give the best fit to experimental results obtained under a wide variety of experimental conditions. It is also shown that the lower field limit for the exponential regime with XLPE cable is in the 8 to 15 kV/mm range, which corresponds to the onset of strong charge injection. The influence of environment, insulation nature and morphology, and testing temperature are discussed     

Stress induced electrochemical degradation of the inner semiconlayer of XLPE-insulated cables and model samples

A degradation phenomenon of the inner semicon layer of extruded cable insulation occasionally has been observed in different service aged as well as in laboratory aged polymer insulated cables. To investigate this effect, accelerated aging tests on XLPE-insulated cable cores as well as on a new type of model sample (aluminum wires, semicon and XLPE insulation layer) were performed. It is shown that under the influence of an electrolyte and mechanical strain, channel-like structures develop in the semicon of both test objects, and that vented trees are initiated when these structures reach the interface to the insulation. Thus, this type of degradation also is of particular importance for the long time aging behavior and testing procedures of polymer insulated cables. It is demonstrated that the newly developed model sample test arrangement is a valuable tool for the study of aging of insulation systems     

High-field dielectric properties of polypropylene films in high-temperature region

Nonpolar polymers are used widely as electrical insulation materials, and their operating conditions sometimes become high-electric field and high temperature. Under these conditions, the conduction loss is assumed to affect the dielectric properties and to make the ac dissipation factor (tan δ) increase. Therefore the high-field dielectric properties of polymeric materials in the high-temperature region become very important. This paper describes the high-field dielectric properties of polypropylene films measured at 50 and 400 Hz above room temperature with the new electrodes developed by authors. At low temperature, the high-field tan δ is independent of the frequency of the applied field. However, at high-temperature, the high-field tan δ becomes almost inversely proportional to the frequency, namely, the conductivity is independent of the frequency. The theoretical analysis shows that the high-field dielectric loss is governed by two processes: one is the loss which appears only under ac field; and the other is conduction loss which appears also under dc field. The latter loss becomes prominent under high-electric field at high temperature.     

Performance of reduced wall EPR insulated medium voltage powercables. II. Mechanical characteristics

For the replacement of paper-insulated lead covered power cables (PILC), reduced insulation wall designs have been developed. They provide a reliable lower diameter cable design for installation in existing PILC conduits. This paper presents the results of mechanical tests conducted on both reduced- and full-wall EPR insulated power cables. Both jacketed and nonjacketed cable designs have been subjected to mechanical pulling forces which greatly exceed recommended industry limitations, followed by electrical testing to ascertain cable performance. The results of this study conclude that reduced-wall EPR insulated cables can safely withstand the same pulling forces as recommended for conventional walls and can be designed for installation under the same pulling limitations     

Performance characteristics of XLPE versus EPR as insulation forhigh voltage cables

The physical and electrical properties of crosslinked polyethylene (XLPE) and ethylene propylene rubber (EPR) are compared in the context of their use in transmission class cables. Results indicate that the 138-kV XLPE cable has AC withstand/breakdown strength at least 25% higher than the 150-kV EPR cable. The XLPE cable exhibits about 70% higher impulse strength than the EPR cable. The loss factor of the XLPE cable is at least 20 times lower than that of EPR cable. Thus with XLPE cables, the yearly energy savings can be on the order of 15 MWh/cct. km for a 69-kV system, 52 MWh/cct. km for a 138-kV system and 127 MHh/cct. km for a 230-kV system     

The behavior of water in XLPE and EPR cables and its influence onthe electric characteristics of insulation

This paper presents the latest results of continuous investigations of cable insulations degradation of crosslinked polyethylene (XPLE) and ethylene-propylene with rubber based formulation (EPR) when subjected to electric stress and heating in the presence of water or water vapour. The paper deals with water absorption and diffusion in two kinds of crosslinked polyethylene insulation-dry-cured and steam-cured, and steam-cured EPR insulation. The aim of this investigation is to present the results of the influence of changing of water or water vapour pressure in the conductors of XLPE and EPR cables in different service conditions on the electric characteristics of XLPE and EPR insulations-breakdown voltage (AC BDV), dissipation factor (tan δ) and rata of partial discharge (RPD). In this paper, RPD is defined as, the maximum electrical field when the beginning partial discharge in the cable insulation and partial discharge were measured in accordance with the IEC standard. This paper also shows the relation between AC BDV and water content, and AC BDV and tan δ in XLPE and EPR insulations. In this testing the tap water was put in the cable conductors and the ends were properly closed by terminal boxes. The results indicate that the combined effects of water or water vapour, pressure, moisture, electric field and temperature will greatly accelerate deterioration of XLPE and EPR insulations     

海底超导电缆交流损耗的抗损伤特性研究

海上新能源发电的快速发展急需大容量高效率的海上电力传输网络与之匹配。为促进海底超导电缆的发展,需要研究局部损伤对超导电缆的影响,尤其是对其损耗特性的影响。这关系到损伤是否会导致损耗骤升而冷却系统无法及时排出多余热量,进而导致低温平衡被破坏,超导电缆无法继续工作,甚至发生进一步大范围损伤。基于陆上超导电缆建立了包含单层到多层电缆的物理模型,并使用有限元方法分析电缆的电流分布、内部磁场分布和输电损耗。通过比较损伤前后电缆损耗特性的变化,分析并总结得出了最适宜用于海底输电的超导电缆结构。结果表明,在单根带材损伤的情况下,一层和二层电缆的损耗大幅度提升,而六层电缆的损耗不到5%。因此六层电缆较为适应海底环境。