Revitalizing

Water-Damaged Cables

from Within
By Ian Clarke

s we all know water and electricity are not known to mix well. So to have water in an electricity carrying cable of any sort, cannot be a good thing in the long run. Frequently, power cables manufactured in the 1970s and 1980s are mentioned in the failure statistics of utilities across the world because of their susceptibility to degradation from water trees.Water trees occur where the plastic insulation used for covering the power carrying metal cables allows percolation of water through from the surroundings through microscopic defects in the plastic into the inner core.The water permeates along the microscopic flaw lines in the plastic to form tree-like structures within the plastic. Due to degradation of this type in cables manufactured during this time, utilities must now invest significantly in terms of cost and time to maintain power quality and the safety of cables. CableCURE is a technology that eliminates the water tree problem by enhancing the dielectric strength of the insulation and represents an advanced and cost-saving alternative to cable replacement.

the affected cables. In the age of market liberalization, unsatisfied end-users can change supplier if the services does not perform. Consequently, the maintenance of the distribution grid must be a high priority. With the need for highly reliable power supplies and cost consciousness, CableCURE technology has come to offer both owners and customers a cost-saving and technically advanced alternative to cable replacement with its 20-year, money-back-guarantee.

The Technology

The CableCURE process is explained quite simply. Approximately 11 percent of a cable core is free space into which the silicone CableCURE fluid is injected. The fluid reinforces the primary insulation and combines with the water molecules present. The fluid is pumped into the cable under pressure from one end until it has completely filled the cable. If required a vacuum can be applied to the free end of the cable to increase the efficiency of the filling process. In slightly more detail, the CableCURE system comprisThe Problem es a restoration fluid that is injected into a cable and difIn the early 1970s, the first reports of increasing failures on A view of how water is ejected from the inner core of cable using the fuses into the insulation CableCURE system. immediately starting to PE-insulated, medium-voltage restore its dielectric strength. cables were noted in the In the insulation itself, the fluid reacts with water moleUnited States. At the beginning of the 1980s, similar cable cules, eliminates the negative effect of the water trees and faults were noted also in Europe. The cause of these faults retards future water tree growth. The process raises the was found to be the formation of water trees. It was found dielectric strength of the water tree and the insulation to that water trees grow with the correct combination of a uniform high strength. water, imperfections of the PE, XLPE or EPR insulation Additionally, in the reaction with water, the CableCURE around a cable and the operating voltage over the course of molecule grows to a larger size, which keeps the fluid in time. the insulation.This assures the restoration of the cable will When a water tree reaches a critical size, it can convert last many years. into an electrical tree accompanied by partial discharge to Some 200 utilities all over Europe and around the globe ground that inevitably leads to an electrical fault on the have utilized CableCURE technology with some 15,000 cable. All solid dielectric medium-voltage cables are suskm of water tree damaged medium voltage cables having ceptible to water treeing regardless of the existence of a been successfully treated over the past 17 years. jacket or strand filling. As with power cables, many of the troubles within airToday, cable failures are not only the owners problem in core telecommunications cables, such as noise on the line terms of time and cost intensive repairs or replacement of
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July 2005

TRENCHLESS TECHNOLOGY INTERNATIONAL

and cross talk, and the resulting customer complaints, arise through problems resulting from water-damaged cables.Again solving these problems can get expensive not only because they often require repeated service calls, but also because they can eventually lead to abandoning so many lines that system capacity can become a problem. CableCURE/CB treatment can eliminate most of these problems, significantly reducing trouble calls and saving time and money. It can also recover 90 percent of abandoned lines, so increasing capacity. The CableCURE/CB fluid used for these circumstances is injected directly into the cable.This process pushes the water out of the cable and the fluid thickens to a re-enterable gel within 48 to 72 hours so engineers can get into the cable if needed but water cannot. CableCURE/CB treatment comes with a full money-back warranty for as long as owners choose to keep the cable in service. Not only is the system good for the cables but it also enables contractors to carry out repairs with minimal excavation. The contractor carrying out the work is also less dependent on the weather.

Use in the Netherlands

Many first-generation, synthetic-insulated, medium-voltage cables (10,000-volt) were extensively used in the Netherlands over the period from 1975 to 1981. These cables were mainly laid in the Dutch provinces Noord Brabant, Drenthe and Groningen. For example, the Dutch utility Essent has successfully

used the renovation service of CableCUREs European Operation Center for cable works in cooperation with A.Hak Infranet, which provided the craftworks for splice and termination fitting as well as civil engineering. A recent project involved the CableCURE treatment, of some 160-system km of water tree damaged medium voltage cable in the Brabant region of the Netherlands for Essent (South). The longest single run made on the project was on a cable length of about 3.5 system km. For the treatment of the Essent cables, all old cable splices were replaced with modern equivalent, pressure resistant and injectable splices from specialist manufacturer,Tyco. It is also possible to treat single segments of a cable when necessary or preferable. The advantage of choosing CableCURE for this project instead of cable replacement was that it became possible to stretch the budget for asset management and maintenance. The regular cost-savings of CableCURE compared with cable replacement is between 60 to 80 percent. In the case of the Essent project, the client was happy to confirm that it benefited to about 80 percent compared to the replacement cost of the cables. In addition, cable treatment is easy to perform and the organizational requirements are low. To date, some 99.5 percent of all CableCURE-treated, medium-voltage cables are operating undisturbed in service subsequent to their treatment. Ian Clarke is a freelance writer with No-Dig Media, which is based in the United Kingdom.

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TRENCHLESS TECHNOLOGY INTERNATIONAL

July 2005

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