Research Work

Rapidly depleting deposits of oil, coal, natural gas etc. has given the world, an impetus to shift towards renewable sources of energy. Also, with the increasing power requirements and grid capacity, the usage of HVDC systems has increased many folds. Interconnection of islands, offshore wind tapping, long distance feasible transmission, are all dependent on HVDC underground cable technology. This makes the research in the area of cable technology an utmost significance. In the already existing cable systems, the area of cable accessories is found to be the weaker link and is still a challenging problem for researchers all over the world.

About 70% of failures occurring in cable systems are associated to failures in joints and terminations. Several factors such as localized electric stress, multiple dielectrics in addition to human factors such as inadequate testing and installation etc. come into play, and the multi factor dependency makes the problem that much complicated. The optimal working of these accessories without any premature failures is of utmost importance, as the smooth working of the grid is highly dependent on the health of these accessories.

The Cable Joints constitute a significant part in the underground power network. The cable terminations are one other such accessory which is present everywhere in an underground cable system — be it transmission and distribution, offshore to onshore transmission, inter island transmission, etc. A significant amount of research work has been in the AC side of the terminations but with the shift towards non-conventional sources and advantages of DC over AC, the study of DC cable joints and terminations becomes an area with huge possibilities. Moreover, the existing standards on DC cable terminations and joints are very limited and significant amount of research is yet to be done as these are observed to be one of the areas with frequent failures.