Condition monitoring of 88km long Offshore HVDC Power Cable: Comparison of DTS and as built data

Abstract

Distributed temperature sensing (DTS) has been deployed for a field trial on a high voltage direct current (HVDC) cable in the North Sea. Temperature measurements using a fibre optic sensing cable bundled onto the HVDC cables are compared with both the cable characteristics and the cable route demonstrating an excellent agreement. Horizontal Directional Drilling (HDD), land and offshore cable joints, transitions as well as hot spots and excess burial are clearly visible. Thermal data thus helps in assessing the cable condition.