Power cables: fault location and identification

Electrical equipment has evolved enormously over the last 5 to 10 years, and fault-finding methods have been considerably improved. In fact, after a bitter game of musical chairs, there are now only two manufacturers of laboratory cars left in Europe. At the same time, logically enough, several methods have gradually declined or disappeared. As a result, operating methods have finally been adapted to the new situation.

After the decisive contribution of Henri HUBIN (head of the Electricity Technical Division at the SFP site in Nanterre) in fault-finding methods, today it's a very small group of experts from Electricité de France's Service de la Formation Professionnelle (SFP) who maintain this knowledge. An exceptional training room enables us to use practically all existing equipment, under almost real-life conditions, taking into account all regulatory and safety constraints.

In addition to training users (Électricité de France, RTE, EDF subsidiaries, electricity and public lighting companies, other distributors in Europe and worldwide), this tool also enables us to participate in the development of new equipment, in partnership with equipment manufacturers, and to validate it.

For particularly new techniques such as very low frequency (VLF) testing, cable diagnostics or partial discharge measurement, this partnership involves the EDF Group's Research & Development Division.

This booklet is part of a series on fault finding in power cable networks:

• "Power cables: fault finding and identification" ;

• "Power cables: fault prelocation using echometry";

• [D 4 543] "Power cables: echometry theory;

• [D 4 544] "Power cables: fault location methods;

• "Power cables. Find out more".