Case Study: Rejuvenation Fluid Injection Results from Duke Power's Little Rock Retail Tap Line

Abstract

In 1994, a Duke Power Company, 115 kV class, XLPE underground transmission cable failed. Failure analysis performed by Cable Technology Laboratories noted a low ac breakdown strength and suggested a high insulation moisture content as a likely reason. Duke Power opted to treat the remaining (un-failed) cables using CableCUREreg life-extension, fluid injection technology. The treated cables remained in service for an additional 10 years after injection. Ultimately a termination failure led to the decision to remove them from service. This allowed an unprecedented opportunity to evaluate the responsiveness of solid dielectric, transmission cables to fluid treatment. Until now most of the 60,000,000 feet of injected cable has been in the distribution class of cables. The results of that evaluation, published in this paper, demonstrate treatment effectiveness on par with results obtained on distribution class cables