Towards a Hybrid Power Cable Health Index for Medium Voltage Power Cable Condition Monitoring

Abstract

Power cables are critical assets for the safe and cost effective operation of the power grid. However, the health assessment of cables is intricate due to its various degradation mechanisms. Motivated by the generation of a consistent cable health index metric, this paper presents a novel hybrid cable health index approach which combines data-driven and physics-of-failure degradation models. Data-driven models are focused on partial discharge tests and physics-of-failure models are focused on cable lifetime estimation based on thermal and electrical stresses. The combination of these models offers an enhanced cable health indicator which supports engineers in the power cable maintenance related decision-making processes.