Power Cable Testing - VLF, Tan Delta, Partial Discharge and Fault Location

This course is for anyone who tests, commissions, maintains or manages medium and high voltage cable systems, including:

• Utility distribution and transmission engineers and technicians
• Cable testing and field service technicians, including NETA technicians
• Industrial, commercial and institutional maintenance electricians and engineers
• Solar, wind and battery storage O&M and commissioning staff
• Data center and critical facility electrical teams
• Consulting engineers who specify cable acceptance and maintenance testing
• Reliability engineers and asset managers
• Electrical contractors and inspectors

No prior experience with cable diagnostic testing is needed.

Power Cable Testing Training Course Outline

DAY ONE

Module 1: Cable Systems and Why They Fail

• MV and HV cable construction: conductor, semiconducting layers, insulation, shield and jacket
• Insulation types: XLPE, TR-XLPE, EPR and PILC, and mixed (hybrid) systems
• Splices, terminations and separable connectors as common failure points
• Aging mechanisms: water trees, electrical trees, thermal aging, neutral corrosion
• Testing within a predictive and condition-based maintenance program

Module 2: Safety for High Voltage Cable Testing

• NFPA 70E and CSA Z462 requirements for testing work
• Test area setup, barriers, far-end control and communication
• Cable capacitance, trapped charge, discharging and grounding
• Test equipment safety checks and safe connection practices

Module 3: Selecting the Right Test

• Withstand testing versus diagnostic testing
• Offline and online tests, and test voltage sources: DC, VLF, damped AC and 50/60 Hz resonant
• Acceptance, installation and maintenance testing
• Matching the test to the cable’s type, age, length, voltage and risk
• Cable testing standards and NETA testing requirements (IEEE 400 series, IEC, NETA ATS and MTS)

Module 4: Insulation Resistance and DC Testing

• Insulation resistance, PI and DAR testing
• Jacket and sheath integrity testing
• DC hipot and DC leakage testing
• Limits of DC testing on aged XLPE cable

Module 5: VLF Withstand Testing

• VLF sine wave and cosine-rectangular waveforms
• Test voltage and duration selection for acceptance and maintenance tests
• Step-by-step VLF testing procedure
• Pass/fail evaluation and what to do after a failure

DAY TWO

Module 6: VLF Tan Delta Testing

• Dissipation factor principles and test setup
• Tan Delta stability, tip-up and mean value
• IEEE 400.2 condition assessment criteria
• Combining VLF withstand and Tan Delta in one monitored test
• Interpretation workshop with real field data

Module 7: Partial Discharge Testing

• PD theory, measurement and calibration
• Offline PD testing with VLF and damped AC
• PD inception and extinction voltages, magnitude and PD mapping (locating defects)
• Online PD testing and continuous monitoring
• Partial discharge test acceptance criteria and interpretation case studies

Module 8: Cable Fault Location

• Fault types and the Test, Analyze, Locate process
• TDR and arc reflection pre-location
• Surge generators (thumpers) and acoustic pinpointing
• Sheath fault location and cable route tracing

Module 9: Interpreting and Trending Test Data

• Comparing test results across phases, circuits and over time
• Test records and reporting
• Renewable energy collector systems and data center cable applications
• Case studies of cable failures and what the test data showed

Module 10: Cable Asset Management and Decisions

• Condition ranking and prioritizing circuits for action
• Repair, replace, rejuvenate or keep in service
• Building a cable testing program and setting test intervals
• Course summary, review and Q&A

Questions and Answers

COURSE TIMETABLE

Both days:

Start: 10 am ET
Finish: 4:30 pm ET