Characterizing HV XLPE cables by electrical, chemical and microstructural measurements on cable peeling: Effects of surface roughness, thermal treatment and peeling location

Characterization of the electrical, chemical, and microstructural properties of high voltage cables was the first step of the European project “ARTEMIS”, which has the aim of investigating degradation processes and constructing aging models for the diagnosis of cross-linked polyethylene (XLPE) cables. Cables produced by two different manufacturers were subjected to a large number of electrical, microstructural, and chemical characterizations, using cable peelings, instead of lengths of whole cables, as specimens for the measurements. Here the effect of surface deformation and roughness due to peeling and the relevance and significance of thermal pre-treatment prior to electrical and other measurements is discussed. Special emphasis is put on space charge, conduction current and luminescence measurements. We also consider the dependence of these properties on the spatial position of the specimen within the cable. It is shown that even though the two faces of the cable peel specimens have different roughness, the low-field electrical properties seem quite insensitive to surface roughness, while significant differences are detectable at high fields. Thermal pre-treatment is required to stabilize the insulating material to enable us to obtain reproducible results and reliable inter-comparisons throughout the whole project. The spatial position of the specimens along the cable radius can also have a non-negligible influence on the measured properties, due to differential microstructure and chemical composition

Security management under uncertainty: From day-ahead planning to intraday operation

peer reviewedIn this paper, we propose to analyse the practical task of dealing with uncertainty for security management by Transmission System Operators in the context of day-ahead planning and intraday operation. We propose a general but very abstract formalization of this task in the form of a three-stage decision making problem under uncertainties in the min-max framework, where the three stages of decision making correspond respectively to operation planning, preventive control in operation, and post-contingency emergency control. We then consider algorithmic solutions for addressing this problem in the practical context of large scale power systems by proposing a bi-level linear programming formulation adapted to the case where security is constrained by power flow limits. This formulation is illustrated on two case studies corresponding respectively to a synthetic 7-bus system and the IEEE 30-bus system

State-of-the-art, challenges, and future trends in security constrained optimal power flow

This paper addresses the main challenges to the security constrained optimal power flow (SCOPF) computations. We first discuss the issues related to the SCOPF problem formulation such as the use of a limited number of corrective actions in the post-contingency states and the modeling of voltage and transient stability constraints. Then we deal with the challenges to the techniques for solving the SCOPF, focusing mainly on: approaches to reduce the size of the problem by either efficiently identifying the binding contingencies and including only these contingencies in the SCOPF or by using approximate models for the post-contingency states, and the handling of discrete variables. We finally address the current trend of extending the SCOPF formulation to take into account the increasing levels of uncertainty in the operation planning. For each such topic we provide a review of the state of the art, we identify the advances that are needed, and we indicate ways to bridge the gap between the current state of the art and these needs.FP7-EU PEGAS