Fred is one of our grids experts. He has over 35 years of experience in the degradation of underground power cables, with mainly subjects as remaining life, diagnostics, tests, and last but not least the root cause analysis of failures. Next to this, Fred is a part-time professor at the University of Technology in Eindhoven (NL).
Did you know?
The Netherlands, home base of Fred’s DNV GL office, has its complete medium voltage network underground. It makes the Netherlands a so-called ‘cable country’ and indeed, quite some development work for diagnostics were founded by Dutch utilities.
Power cables are a crucial element in the global transition towards the use of renewable energy. For example, off-shore windfarms are connected to the shore by submarine power cables.
Expertise in action: a project case
The challenge
The Netherlands has around 110,000 km of underground medium-voltage (6-50 kV) cables, some of which date back to the early 1900s. Problems in underground cables are the biggest cause of power outages. In order to ensure a reliable energy supply, Distribution System Operators (DSOs) require a fast and accurate way of monitoring all their cables.
The solution
In early 2000, Dutch DSOs teamed up with DNV GL to develop a 24-hour cable monitoring system that can guard MV cables while these are in service (online). The solution is DNV GL’s Smart Cable Guard®*: a sensor-based solution for pinpointing faults and weak points in cables. DNV GL manages and monitors the system, analyzing sensor data to allow the DSOs to resolve problems fast.
Following successful testing, all Dutch DSOs, have rolled out the cable monitoring system across their networks.
The system is up to 70% more effective than previous failure detectors. Its accuracy means faults can be repaired faster and weak points are easier to identify, helping to prevent future faults.
The added value
It is forecasted by several DSOs that after a widespread roll out, power outages and the related outage time on their network can be reduced by around 25%. Time and cost of repairing failures is also predicted to fall considerably as well.
DNV GL and grids
If you know what the future holds, you can anticipate on what it will bring.
A medium voltage network that is continuously monitored by a fully automated system which immediately gives a warning when problems arise is a dream long held by many grid operators. Part of this dream is now realized by Smart Cable Guard®. DNV GL’s Smart Cable Guard® is a unique monitoring system; it not only monitors the cable for weak spots – which can lead to failures and fault spots – but can narrow down the location of weak spots to within 1% of the total cable length.
Some of the things Fred can help you with on underground power cables:
Didn’t find what you’re looking for? Perhaps one of our other experts can help...
Watch the videos
