Defect Blog

Water Trees Don't Fail Cable

By: Ben Lanz and Bill Corrente

Posted in: Wind, Utility, Solar, Renewable, Generation, Facility, Cable

Water Trees Don't Fail Cable Decades ago we learned from many of the leading industry experts that water trees fail cable and we believed this industry myth until we collected cable performance data using the  IMCORP Factory Grade&re... Read Article

PD Activity Identified During Assessment of Aged Utility Cable

By: IMCORP

Posted in: Utility, Cable

During the reliability assessment of aged underground residential distribution (URD) cable systems at a mid-western electric utility, one particular cable sample was found to exhibit low levels partial discharge (PD) activity. These PD sites were e... Read Article

Low Signal Magnitude (pC) but Serious Cable Defect

By: Ben Lanz and Bill Corrente

Posted in: Workmanship, Wind, Utility, Renewable, Cable

While commissioning new generation project in the multiple defects were identified within the cable system. One particular cable exhibited defects in the dozens of low magnitude partial discharge signals at two times the operating voltage.  Th... Read Article

Stone in Cable 176m (578ft) from Termination

By: Ben Lanz and Bill Corrente

Posted in: Backfill, Cable, Facility, Generation, Renewable, Solar, Utility, Wind, Workmanship

IMCORP’s  Factory Grade® assessment discovered a substandard  location while commissioning the cable systems at a generation facility. The client used IMCORP’s Location Matching service to pinpoint the defect location. N... Read Article

Semicon Defect During Installation

By: IMCORP

Posted in: Workmanship, Wind, Generation, Cable

The cable displayed here was compromised as a result of a semicon cutback error that was not recognized as a defect by the installer. When the cutback was made, the installer created a slight spiral instead of a radial cut leaving a thin slice of... Read Article

Power Cable Damage From Backfill

By: IMCORP

Posted in: Wind, Generation, Cable, Backfill

These images show a PD site in a medium voltage power cable, part of a collector system designed and installed at a wind farm in Idaho during 2005.  In the first few years of operation, the site experienced a very high collector syst... Read Article

Power Cable Insulation Damage (Sabotage) at a Wind Farm

By: IMCORP

Posted in: Workmanship, Generation, Cable

The discovery of this medium voltage power cable defect at a site in Canada provided an opportunity to demonstrate the effectiveness of IMCORP’s cable diagnostics. On a cable of over 1400 feet, IMCORP was able to locate the defect within si... Read Article