Testing 320 kV XLPE HVDC Cable

HV/HP Testing
 July 23, 2021  8 min read

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In an HVAC cable, electric field distribution depends on capacitances, which are dominated by permittivity of
the insulation material that is stable with temperature. A specified is therefore not required when testing such
cables. By contrast, field distribution in an HVDC cable is determined by resistivity of the insulation material,
which varies greatly with temperature. This results in the need to control temperature difference, during thermal
stresses represented by the load cycle in a test. In operation, an HVDC cable also experiences SI/LI overvoltage,
which is superimposed onto the DC service voltage. As such, to properly simulate an in-service condition,
superimposing a switching surge and a lightning transient onto the operating DC voltage is a standard
requirement.
This edited past contribution to INMR by Hong He and W. Sloot of KEMA Labs in the Netherlands described a
test circuit with two separate test systems – a DC generator and an impulse generator, connected with a test
cable system located between the two. The test cable system consists of three pieces of 50 m HVDC XLPE cable
assembled with two outdoor terminations and two joints. One major complexity from this arrangement is
preventing damage to each test system due to presence of the other. Therefore, a sphere gap is installed to block
DC voltage from the impulse generator with a damping impedance set to protect the DC generator from very fast
transients.

Thermal Physical Model

A temperature difference arises across the cable and temperature distribution inside can either
be measured by thermocouples or calculated by a numerical model. Fig. 1 shows an equivalent
thermal circuit for the cable, where

Q, heat transfer rate (heat flow), W;

θ , θ , θ , θ , θ , θ , temperature of conductor, conductor screen, insulation, insulation screen,
c cs i is is amb
sheath and ambient, °C;
Δθ , Δθ , Δθ , temperature drop across conductor screen, insulation and insulation screen
cs i is

respectively, K;
Δθ , temperature difference from conductor to insulation screen, K;
c-is

T , T , T , thermal resistance of conductor screen, insulation, insulation screen respectively, K·m/W;

cs i is

T , thermal resistance in total from metal sheath to over sheath, K·m/W;

s

T , thermal resistance of external thermal insulation material, K·m/W;

tm

Fig. 1:
Diagram of equivalent thermal circuit for cable.
Temperature difference across conductor screen, insulation and insulation screen is calculated as
follows:

θ , and θ are measured directly by thermocouples. Overall temperature difference from

is c 

conductor to insulation screen is therefore:

Based on Eq (2) and (4),

Eq (5) is the simple formula for calculation of . Since the surroundings also play a role, the main
temperature drop in a cable is between the cable surface (sheath) and environment (). In order to
control within the limit of , external thermal insulation material (e.g. plastic bubble) is applied to
minimize influence of the environment. This thermal insulation material helps adjust based on
different cable design and surrounding condition.

Load Cycle & Temperature Measurement

In order to monitor the thermal environment of HVDC cable system, thermocouples were placed
at a total of more than 20 different locations on a reference cable and a test cable. The reference
cable must be installed in close proximity with the test cable to ensure equal thermal
environment. Conductor temperature of the reference cable (based on rated maximum , e.g.
70°C) was monitored to guide the same current applied to the test cable simultaneously. By
applying Eq (5), specified Δ was calculated and monitored during the load cycle. Fig. 2 shows a
typical 24 hours load cycle.
 Fig. 2: Typical 24
hour load cycle.
Figs. 3 and 4 schematically demonstrate the cable cross-section (e.g. 2500 mm2) and the locations
of the measured temperature respectively.

Fig. 3: A cross-section overview of cable construction.

 Fig. 4: Locations of measured temperature.
Experimental Set-up
An experimental setup included a DC generator, an impulse generator and a test object, which
was a 320kV DC cable system including HVDC XLPE cable (copper conductor and XLPE insulation,
nominal capacitance of 0,26µF/km), two outdoor oil terminations and two premoulded joints with
shield interruption. A schematic test circuit and a photo of a real test setup are shown in Figure 5
and Figure 6 respectively. Each test system was equipped its own divider in order to measure DC
voltage (Divider 1 in Fig. 5) and SI/LI (Divider 3 in Fig. 5) respectively. A combined divider (Divider 2
in Fig. 5) was applied to measure the superimposed withstand voltage subjected directly to the
test object.

A pair of spheres (diameter of 0,5 m, SG2 in Fig. 5) was installed in vertical position, the lower
sphere directly fixed to the outdoor terminations. The DC generator was also connected to the
lower sphere with the protection water resistor (10 MΩ, R1 in Fig. 5) and the blocking impedance
(35 mH, L1 in Fig. 5) in between. The upper sphere was separated from the lower sphere and the
cable by an air gap and connected to the impulse generator. The surge arrestor (A1 in Fig. 5 ) was
installed for extra protection of the DC generator.
Fig. 5: Schematic view of the test circuit for superimposed impulse test of DC cable system.

Fig. 6: Test set-up of 320 kV DC cable system.

Test Procedure
Accurate measurement of voltage waveforms and self-ignition of sphere gap are the two essential
aspects for a superimposed impulse test. By means of a sphere gap, this gap must ignite at a
certain level and transfer the SI/LI to the cable system. The gap distance has to be considered and
adjusted. Under the same polarity of two voltages (e.g. + U and + U , a unipolar stress), the
DC  SI

breakdown voltage of the sphere gap (U  = U  – U ≥ U  , thus U  ≥ 2 U ), in contrary to a

bd unipolar DC SI  DC SI DC

bipolar stress (e.g. + U and – U ), the voltage (U

DC  SI  = U  – (– U ) ≥ U  , thus absolute U  ≥ 0).
bd bipolar DC SI DC SI

Therefore under the bipolar stress, there is not critical for breakdown the air gap; however under
the unipolar stress, it is a complex procedure due to the U . Furthermore, this calibration steps
bd unipolar

are necessary to avoid overshot of the test object [4]. The distance of sphere gap needs to be
adjusted corresponding with the calibration of impulse voltages from low scales (50%, 65% and
80% of the test voltage) up to full scale (100% of the test voltage).
Analysis of Measured Results
The three measured voltages were obtained with three dividers D1, D2, D3 (see Fig.5) during the
testing. The DC voltage measured by the Divider 1 via a digital voltage meter and the full scale of
DC voltage should be 320kV. The SI/LI voltages were overserved by the Divider 3 and the peak
voltages should be 710kV and 740kV respectively (see Fig.7). DC voltage superimposes with same
polarity of SI is shown in Fig. 8. It is further found that DC voltage superimposes with opposite
polarity SI and LI in Figs, 9 and 10 respectively.
 Fig. 7:
Representations of the switching impulses waveforms measured by Divider 3.

Fig. 8:
The unipolar stress (U  and U  ) measured by Divider 2.
DC SI

Fig. 9:
The bipolar stress (U  and U ) measured by Divider 2.
DC SI

Fig. 10:
The bipolar stress (U  and U ) measured by Divider 2.
DC LI

In Fig. 7, the Divider 3 measured a spike in front of the SI wave shape, which is the time delay of
the protection sphere gap, it was until over the breakdown voltage, then sphere gap was
conducting and the cable system was connected at that moment to the impulse generator.

It is observed in Fig. 8, a systematic DC offset error occurs during the tests. The Divider 2 was
calibrated by DC voltage and Impulse voltages respectively. For combined voltages, a correction
factor is needed (i.e. a factor of 0,78). This offset leads to a difference of peak voltages of impulses
measured by Divider 3 and Divider 2.

It is noticed that, once the arc between the spheres was ignited, the voltage on the cable system
followed the voltage at the terminal of the impulse generator. Thus the voltage on the cable
system in extreme short time (hundreds or thousands of µs) discharged via impulse generator to
extinguish voltage of the arc (visible in graphs), then it would take short recover time (few
hundreds of ms) to recharge to the DC voltage (invisible in graphs due to limitation of data
collection). In the meantime, the protection resistors sustained the full difference of impulse
voltage and DC test voltage.

Conclusions
The calculation of Δ is obtained based on heat transfer method. In order to maintain a constant
surface temperature of the cable, needed to guarantee a specified Δ , the practice methods are to
control load current through conductor, maintain constant ambient temperature or apply the
external thermal insulation material.

A proper test setup using a sphere gap has been developed for the application of SI/LI
superimposed on a DC voltage. The correct gap adjustment is essential for unipolar stress
condition, otherwise under certain circumstances, the high-frequency oscillations might occur.

Further experimental work will focus on a method of controlling cable sheath temperature, and
developing a new three-channel software with extended data capture time (up to recover time of
DC voltage). Furthermore, a protection capacitor is another alternative of a sphere gap to realize
the superimposed withstand test.

References
[1] Cigre 496: Recommendations for Testing DC Extruded Cable Systems for Power Transmission at a Rated Voltage up to
500kV, April 2012.
[2] IEC 62895 Edition 1.0: 2017-05: High voltage direct current(HVDC) power transmission – Cables with extruded
insulation and their accessories for rated voltages up to 320 kV for land applications – Test methods and requirements.
[3] E. Pultrum, W. Sloot, J. Fernandez, R. P. P. Smeets, “High-voltage cable testing: type test experiences and new insights
into pre-qualification”, CEPSI, 2016.
[4] IEC 60060-1 Edition3.0: 2010-09: High-voltage test techniques – Part 1: General definitions and test requirements.