The LIRA Power project has developed a method enabling LIRA measurements on cables without putting them out of service. This enables cable owners and operators to monitor the condition of their cables without any service disruptions.
Electrical cables for power distribution can be considered as the arteries in any power network delivering energy from power generation plants to oil and gas installations, public infrastructure and consumer households. The condition of a vast part of these (often old) cables are unknown and they represent a significant risk with regards to security of supply.
Reduce the risk with LIRA
(LIRA), an already established technology, can contribute to reduction of this risk by gathering measurement data from a cable and perform analysis based on those data which can say something about the condition of the cable. Today, these measurements must be performed manually, which implies that the cable have to be out of service.
Since startup, the project has developed a patent pending technology and a prototype for LIRA based measurements on power cables in operation.
Field trials in Denmark
In December of 2017 SINTEF and Wirescan executed field trials based on the world’s first LIRA-based cable condition monitoring system for cables in operation. One of these trials is a permanent installation of the system on a 1850 kVA distribution net line in Denmark. The results shows that the LIRA system identifies defects and splices over the cable length. The system is now monitoring the cable continuously to detect changes in the 50 year old oil-filled cable.
The system is now monitoring the cable continuously to detect changes in the 50 year old oil-filled cable.
Great to know about this development !! What had been the key findings? Can you share the details. We at CESC Limited, a power utility operating in city of Kolkata are interested to know & try-out the online LIRA for our cable condition monitoring.