INEOS Online Cable PD Monitoring
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01 June 2021
Case Studies
SUMMARY
INEOS is a major multi-national group of companies specializing in petro-chemical production. Its largest manufacturing site is based at Grangemouth, Scotland, which is home to its Olefins and Polymers (O&P UK) business, as well as a crude oil refinery that produces the bulk of Scotland’s fuel. It owns and operates one of the largest private electricity distribution networks in Europe. EA Technology specializes in providing technical services and consultancy within the power industry worldwide. One of its key areas of expertise is the detection and measurement of Partial Discharge (PD) in High Voltage (HV) switch gear and equipment.
This paper describes a joint Pilot Study between the two companies to install an online Cable PD monitoring system on 18 critical 33kV XLPE cables that link the INEOS owned Combined Heat and Power (CHP) plant to the main distribution substation at INEOS’ O&P UK manufacturing site at Grangemouth. The monitoring system, known as the CableData Monitor (CDM), detects PD on the cable by means of Radio Frequency Current Transformers (RFCTs) clipped non-intrusively around the earth screen terminations at one end of each of the cables. The system became operational in October 2016 and has since detected and recorded PD activity on three of the 18 cables being monitored. An analysis of the captured waveforms has located the PD sources to the vicinity of newly installed cable joints. This paper explains how the PD levels (which vary with time) are being monitored using trending and threshold alarms to manage the cables while they remain in operation.
This paper describes a joint Pilot Study between the two companies to install an online Cable PD monitoring system on 18 critical 33kV XLPE cables that link the INEOS owned Combined Heat and Power (CHP) plant to the main distribution substation at INEOS’ O&P UK manufacturing site at Grangemouth. The monitoring system, known as the CableData Monitor (CDM), detects PD on the cable by means of Radio Frequency Current Transformers (RFCTs) clipped non-intrusively around the earth screen terminations at one end of each of the cables. The system became operational in October 2016 and has since detected and recorded PD activity on three of the 18 cables being monitored. An analysis of the captured waveforms has located the PD sources to the vicinity of newly installed cable joints. This paper explains how the PD levels (which vary with time) are being monitored using trending and threshold alarms to manage the cables while they remain in operation.