VLF AC Testing

David M. Boyer
High Voltage, Inc.
Copake, NY. USA
www.hvinc.com
Major Cable Components

Conductor
Conductor or Strand Shield
Insulation

Insulation Shield

Metallic Shield/Neutral

Jacket (Recommended)
Good Cable = Uniform Electric Field

When both shields are:

• smooth
• intact
Then, electric field lines are
uniform, with a controlled
electrical stress distribution.
 Basic Stress Enhancements

Higher
Voltage Stress
High High
Stress Stress High
Stress

Protrusion “Empty” No High Permittivity

Void Defect Contaminant
Tree Affect
Conversion of Water to Electrical Trees

 Acts as a stress enhancement or

protrusion (non-conducting)
 Water tree increases local electric
field
 Water tree also creates local
mechanical stresses
 If electrical and mechanical stresses
high enough  electrical tree
initiates
Electrical tree growing  Electrical tree completes the failure
from water tree path – rapid growth
 DC Testing
• Advantages:
• DC hipots are small, portable, and economical.
• Easy to operate
• Considered Non-Destructive
• Disadvantages:
• DC has been found to be damaging to Solid Dielectric
insulation.
• DC leakage currents are ineffective at determining cable life.
• No diagnostic tools available.
 Why DC Is Damaging

Negative space charges

DC hipot AC input
input

DC hipot output negatively charges up water tree areas.

These “trapped space charges” remain after test.
When AC is reapplied, there’s a high difference of potential across
very little of the insulation. Leads to electrical trees – cable fails.
 No Testing

 Advantages:
 Easy to Operate
 No expensive equipment
 Disadvantages:
 Unplanned outages
 Loss of Revenue
 No feel for the health of your system
 Allows a “reaction only” mentality. Not Proactive
 Power Frequency Testing

 Advantages:
 The same profile as Service Conditions.
 Correlates to factory testing.
 Allows diagnostic testing.
 Disadvantages:
 Very Large and Expensive equipment.
 Difficult to operate.
 VLF Testing

• Advantages:
• Stress Similar to Service Conditions.
• Light Weight, Low Cost.
• Easy to Use.
• Easy to interpret results. A Go-No Go test.
• Sine Wave Output can be used with Diagnostic
Equipment.
• Disadvantages:
• Voltage Waveform in Some Designs (trapezoidal)
don’t allow diagnostics of PD or Tan Delta.
• Destructive – Cable May Fail Under Test.
 WHAT IS VLF?
A VLF instrument is just an AC hipot but
with an output frequency lower than 50/60 Hz.

Very Low Frequency: 0.1 Hz and lower.

By decreasing the frequency, it is possible to
test miles of cable with a small and affordable unit.
Models range from 0.1 – 0.01 Hz.
 VLF Explained
Xc = 1
2 x pi x f x C
The lower the frequency, the higher Xc (capacitive reactance).
The higher Xc (or resistance across the power supply output),
the lower the current/power needed to apply a desired voltage.

At 0.1 Hz, it takes 600 times less power to test a cable, or any other
high capacitance load, than at 60 Hz. At 0.01 Hz, 6000 times
higher capacitive loads can be tested than at 60 Hz.
 60 Hz vs. 0.1 Hz

At 60 Hz. a 1 μF cable has an Xc of 2.65 kOhms.

At 22 kV, it requires 8.3 amps of current to test.
Total power supply rating must be 183 kVA.

At 0.1 Hz, the Xc is 1.59 megohms.

At 22 kV, the current needed is 14 mA.
Total supply power needed is .304 kVA.
(22 kV is the maintenance test voltage for 15 kV cable)
VLF rapidly grows defects to failure
VLF is non-destructive to good insulation
VLF exposes existing defects insulation and
accessories that can be excited by the applied
voltage.
VLF with Tan Delta or PD offers an excellent
non destructive diagnostic test.
 IEEE VLF Std 400.2
Recommends test voltage of 3V0
(V0 equals line-to-ground voltage).
Test duration is 15 – 60 minutes.
Recommendation is for 30 minutes
minimum.
 IEEE 400.2 Field Test Voltages
For Shielded Power Cable Systems
Using Sine Wave Output VLF
---------------------- 0.1 Hz Test Voltage --------------------
System Voltage Installation Acceptance Maintenance
phase to phase phase to ground phase to ground phase to ground
kVrms kVrms/kVpeak kVrms/kVpeak kVrms/kVpeak
5 9/12 10/14 7/10
15 18/25 20/28 16/22
25 27/38 31/44 23/33
35 39/55 44/62 33/47
Test voltages are generally 2.5 – 3 time the line-to-ground system voltage.
 XLPE Tree Growth Rate
Per IEEE 400-2001

Test voltage Growth rate at 0.1-Hz

factor sinusoidal test voltage
(V/Vo ) (mm/h)
2 2.3
3 10.9-12.6
4 58.3-64.2
5 336
A 15kV 133% cable has an insulation thickness of 5.9 mm.
In a 30 minute test, nearly all defects will grow to failure.
 XLPE TESTING STATISTICS
TNB in Malaysia 3 V0 @ 60 minutes
17,435 VLF tests performed – 2,179 cable failures
Minutes
to failure Failures % of total
0 - 12 1472 67.62
89.16%
13 - 30 469 21.54
31 - 45 129 5.93
46 - 60 107 4.92

2.78% of tested cables failed later in service. (Many cables were PILC)
Tests conducted 2001 – 2002.
Diagnostic Cable Test Methods
Partial Discharge
Tan Delta
 Simplified Cable Model and Phasor Drawing
Tan Delta = IR/ IC - measured in radians
I
The tangent of this
angle is calculated

IC
R C IR
δ = tangent of δ
IC

Cable Cross Section Cable insulation V

IR

With perfect insulation, a cable is a near perfect capacitor, with a 90°

phase shift between voltage and current. Less than 90° indicates
insulation degradation. Cables can be rated good, marginal, or bad.
21
 Tan Delta vs.Voltage for
New and Aged XLPE Cables
New and Aged 15 kV XLPE Cable (Nov 2000)

0.06 Less Healthy Aged cable

0.05 non-linear tan
delta #s
Loss Angle (Tan Delta)

0.04
versus voltage
0.03

0.02 healthy cable

0.01
linear tan
delta #s
0
0 2.5 5 7.5 10
versus voltage
VLF Voltage (kV rms)

22
 Diagnostic Testing Tan Delta

Courtesy of NEETRAC, Cable Diagnostic Focused Initiative Meeting

Presentation in New York, NY. October 28-29, 2009
3/15/2011 23
 PD Set Up
HV Filter ICMflex
-
+

male male
female female

High Voltage Supply

e.g.
VLF System,
Transformer,
Resonant Test System,
…
PD and TD Field Test
PD INFO
 Thank You
David Boyer - High Voltage, Inc.
www.hvinc.com
David Boyer has spent his entire career in the world of electrical test equipment and the
operation, maintenance, and repair of electrical equipment. In high school he worked in the
manufacturing department of Hipotronics. After high school David served for 6 years in the
Navy as a Nuclear Electrician on board the fast attack submarine U.S.S. Gato. He specialized
in switchgear repair and refurbishment, training, and quality assurance procedures. His post
Navy career brought him to a NETA testing company, Advanced Testing Systems Inc., where
he specialized in cable testing and fault location for over 7 years. In 1999 David returned to
Hipotronics, joining their sales and training team as the North American Manager. In 2004
he reunited with the Peschel family at High Voltage Inc. David is currently the North
American Sales Manager and responsible for field testing worldwide in the VLF and Tan
Delta platforms. David is also an active member of the NEETRAC CDFI study.