Methods for Assessing the Condition PVC insulated Low Voltage Cables by Mechanical and Electrical Test.

The low voltage cables installed in the high voltage station for a long time will be gradually degraded due to environmental conditions. This leads to possible hazard to operators and or problems with the equipment control system. At present, there are 2 main insulation types for LV cable used : PVC and PE. This paper proposes the condition assessment method for this LV cable through the mechanical and electrical tests called Elongation at break (EAB), Tensile strength and insulation resistance. Both of PVC and PE insulated cable are tested. Furthermore, the test is carried out on both long time used and unused cables for each insulation type. The results show that the measured values of the mechanical and electrical test for the long time used PVC insulated cable still satisfy the specified criteria in TIS 838 2553 and TIS 11 2553. However, some of long time used PE insulated cable fail to satisfy those criteria.