Elia, the power transmission system operator in Belgium, has selected a permanent on-line partial discharge (PD) cable monitoring system from OMICRON for its Stevin project. This project is a major undertaking by Elia to reinforce the high-voltage (HV) power grid in Belgium’s Flanders region. Installation of the company’s cable monitoring system will start in the spring of 2016. One part of the extensive Stevin power grid renewal project consists of laying four 380 kV power cable circuits in the ground, each over a length of 10 km between the grid substations Gezelle and Van Maerlant in Flanders. The PD monitoring system will be permanently installed at each of the terminations and joints along these buried HV cable circuits to continuously assess PD activity and insulation condition in the cables. The monitoring system will also assess cable sheath currents during standard operation to detect fault conditions. The system comprises high-frequency current transformers which detect PD and data acquisition units connected to a data concentration unit at the substation.
Contact Alexander Dierks, Alectrix, Tel 021 790-1665, alexander.dierks@alectrix.co.za