Tackling sheath problems: Latest research developments in solving operational sheath problems in underground power transmission cables

In a power transmission cable system, the uniformly configuration of the cables between sections is sometimes difficult to achieve because of the geometrical limitation. This will cause the increase of sheath circulating current which results in the increase of sheath loss and the decrease of permissible current of the power transmission system. While the cable is on operation, because of cable aging and other unexpected reasons, sheath fault always occurs which leads to the further damage of the insulation layer and the life of the cable. These two problems were particularly addressed in this paper. Over last few years, two research groups in South Korea and the United Kingston have worked together extensively to solve these problems and made some great achievements. For tackling the problem of the increase of sheath circulating current, one special device was designed to measure this kind of current; an effective measure was proposed to reduce the current and the new measure was well protected from any further threats like cable fault and lightning. Regarding the problem with sheath fault, one data acquisition system was designed to monitor the sheath fault on field; a new fault phenomenon was discovered for the cable buried in sand; based on the new discovery, the fault was characterised, modelled and simulated; furthermore advanced signal processing techniques were introduced to extract the fault signals from the sheath, detect and locate the fault. These new solutions have either been successfully applied in practical operation of the power cable system or used in further research to propose more advanced solutions. The paper reviewed the latest developments of these new solutions.