Port of Felixstowe – HV Condition Assessment

UltraTEV family prevents catastrophic failure during routine testing at Port of Felixstowe

The Customer

The Port of Felixstowe is the busiest container shipping port in the UK dealing with 44% of Britain’s containerised trade. The Port of Felixstowe has 10 UltraTEV Plus® units which it uses for substation entry and routine inspection.

Background

During routine testing Port of Felixstowe identified two instances of Partial Discharge (PD) using the UltraTEV® handheld.

Area 1 detection
During routine testing PD activity was identified on an 11kV RMU that had been in services since 2005.

Area 2 detection
After a planned upgrade of an 11kV substation, PD testing was carried out and revealed activity on one of the RMU Fault Making Switches.

Evidence of PD at site brought to light by UltraTEV Survey

Investigation

Area 1 detection
Investigation revealed the one phase termination had considerable PD activity damage and required re-termination. There was also interaction between cores. The cause was poor connections and the cable core spacing being insufficient.

Area 2 detection
Investigation revealed the air gap between two phases was insufficient causing interaction between them. This was identified using the UltraTEV®’s ultrasonic mode with headphones.

Impact on business

Area 1 detection
If this had been left to the point of failure there would have been disruption to the ports core operation.

Area 2 detection
If this had been left to the point of failure it would have resulted in a delay to the future development of this operational area.

Port of Felixstowe has been involved in the development of the new UltraTEV® Plus² and their valued feedback has been incorporated into the new instrument. EA Technology is grateful for their suggestions and would like to acknowledge their contribution.