Investigation of Void Size and Location on Partial Discharge Activity in High Voltage XLPE Cable Insulation

The cables failures in power systems utilities have been given great attention for reliability, economic aspects and safety of power utility operation. Such failures are caused by electrical, mechanical, and environmental stresses. Power cables might experience some serious damages particularly during the partial discharge activities. Therefore, the early localization of the exact defective cable section has become of extreme importance. The contribution of this study is to analyze electrical parameters behavior and its effects caused by a spheroidal cavity within the high voltage Cross-Linked Polyethylene (XLPE) cables. Also it investigates the correlation between electrical parameters and the size and location of voids inside the dielectric insulator using Finite Elements Analysis (FEA) environment. The results is intended to show that the location of the void inside the XLPE insulated power cables has a higher impact on the electric field and current density distribution than the void size.