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B1-108

Session 2004
CIGR

1600 MVA ELECTRICAL POWER TRANSMISSION

WITH AN EHV XLPE CABLE SYSTEM
IN THE UNDERGROUND OF LONDON

SCOTT SADLER SIMON SUTTON

NATIONAL GRID TRANSCO
(UNITED KINGDOM)

HORST MEMMER JOHANNES KAUMANNS*

SDKABEL GMBH
(GERMANY)

SUMMARY:
For 1600 MVA bulk power transmission in the underground of London a 400 kV
XLPE cable system was planned and developed to fulfil the increased power
consumption of the mega polis.
This project sets a new milestones for the European XLPE cable technology for
project engineering, cable system dimensions and transmission rate and testing:
A 20 km long tunnel with an inner diameter of 3 m was driven through the London
underground in a depth of approximately 30 m which allows a straight route
independent from the surface situation.
The tunnel will show a cooling system with forced air to increase the transmission
capacity of the cables which are installed in a vertical flat formation. Temperature
monitoring along the tunnel route and cable screen will optimise the load situation of
the cable to ensure a continuous transmission capacity of 1600 MVA for one cable
system.
The delivered cable lengths up to 1000 m leads to a total drum weight of 47 t which
has to be handled during production, shipping, and installation. This extreme long
cable length was chosen to reduce the total number of joints. The complete cable
system consists of 60 km cable, 60 cross bonding joints, and 6 GIS terminations.
The EHV XLPE cable shows an insulation thickness of 27 mm. The cable outer
sheath shows an extruded flame retardant layer to prevent the development of fire
along the tunnel.
In order to qualify the full cable system a type test and a pre-qualification test
according IEC 62067 has been successfully carried out at independent testing
institutes.
The on-site AC testing procedure will set a new mark: At an AC voltage of 280 kV
20 km of 400 kV cable and 20 joints will be simultaneously tested and PD watched.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

*[email protected]
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With the total cable capacity of 4.4 F the AC charging current will be 230 A. To
solve this task a new mobile resonant testing equipment has to be build.
An extended PD measuring and transmission technique will be applied. The
analysing technique is able to reduce the external noise level to 1 2 pC for the
joints during PD testing even under on-site testing conditions. This is possible by
selection of the frequency range with a low noise level which is used for PDmeasurement.
The tunnel work started April 2001. Since then both the shaft and the 20 km tunnel
have been completed. All cables and accessories has been manufactured in
2002/2003. The head house will be finished in 2004. The cable installation will be
started in 2004. On-site test and commissioning is planned for mid 2005.
KEYWORDS
400kV EHV XLPE Cable - Tunnel Project - Bulk Power Transmission - On-site Test PD-measurement
1. INTRODUCTION AND PROJECT DESCRIPTION
The customer is undertaking
a major civil engineering
project
The
London
Connection to ensure that all
its customers (the largest
being London Electricity)
can meet the ever increasing
demand for electricity in and
around London [1].
For 1600 MVA bulk power
transmission in the underground of London a 400 kV
XLPE cable system was
planned and developed to
fulfil the increased power
consumption.
The customer is the largest
investor-owned utility in the
UK, where it owns and
operate the high-voltage
electricity transmission network in England and Wales.
The cable manufacturer was
chosen because of his broad
experience with similar EHV
XLPE cable projects [2,3] .
picture 1: Cable route in London

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The project includes the construction of a 20 km long and 3 m diameter tunnel to

accommodate two 400 kV cable circuits, but only one circuit will be installed under
this contract. The London Connection is the largest tunnelling project that the
customer has undertaken ever [1].

St Johns Wood
400 kV Substation
Depth: 24 m
10.3 m dia.

Centennial Park
Depth: 38 m
10.3 m dia.

Kilburn Park
Depth: 36 m
7.5 m dia.
Cricklewood
Sidings
Depth: 35 m
10.3 m dia.

Colindale
Depth: 20 m
7.5 m dia.

Canons
Corner
Depth: 28 m
10.3 m dia.

Elstree Substation
Depth: 8 m
10.3 m dia.

2 3

4 5 6

7 8 9 10

11 12 13 14

15 16 17

18 19 20

picture 2: Longitudinal cut along tunnel route

picture 3: Tunnel with joint arrangement

picture 4: Inside view of tunnel

By building the 400 kV cable tunnel, most of the works were carried out underground
and were invisible and inaudible at ground level. The only exceptions are two new
400 kV substations being built at Elstree and St John's Wood (both extensions of
existing substation sites).

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In addition, five intermediate tunnel access shafts and head house buildings will be
sited along the tunnel route located in Centennial Park, Canons Corner, Colindale,
Cricklewood and Kilburn. These buildings will be needed for ventilation purposes and
to hold control equipment for the operation of the transmission cables (picture 2).
The tunnel work started April 2001. Since then both the shaft and the 20 km tunnel
have been completed. The head house will be finished in 2004 and the cable
installation will be started in 2004. On-site test and commissioning is planned for mid
2005.
2. DEVELOPMENT OF AN EHV XLPE CABLE SYSTEM FOR 400KV/2500MM2
For this project a new EHV cable system was developed and qualified with respect to
the large conductor and the installation requirements. In order to be qualified as full
system supplier for further projects the qualified cable system consists of cable,
sectionalizing joint, outdoor termination and GIS termination.
Picture 5 shows the design of the 400 kV (rated voltage UN) cable. The copper
conductor has a cross section of 2500 mm2 with a DC-resistivity of 6.9 /m (at
20C) and shows six segments in order to reduce skin effect losses. The longitudinal
water tightness of the conductor was achieved by swelling powder. The XLPE
insulation thickness was chosen to 27 mm. This leads to an electrical stress at the
inner semicon of 11.6 kV/mm and on the outer semicon of 6.5 kV/mm with a phaseto-earth voltage (Uo) of 230 kV. The maximum operation voltage Umax is 420 kV.
6 segmental conductor
Inner semicon
XLPE insulation
Outer semicon
Screen wires
Copolymer coated Al-foil
PE outer sheath
(fix bonded with flame retardant layer)
picture 5: 400 kV/2500mm2 cable design
The inner and outer semiconducting layers are fix bonded to the insulation material
and guarantee clean and smooth electrical interfaces. The production process is a
triple head extrusion process followed by a dry curing process to avoid water
penetration to the insulation material.
The metallic screen consists of copper wires which are imbedded with crepe paper to
reduce mechanical and thermal impact from the screen wires to the insulation. A
copper screen with a total cross section of 400 mm2 was used to meet the short
circuit current requirement of 63 kA for 1 s. The gaps between the screen wires are
filled with swelling powder to achieve longitudinal water tightness of the screen
construction.

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For the outer protection of the cable a laminated sheath is responsible: The
laminated sheath is made of PE and extruded onto the cable with a thickness of
5 mm with a fix bonded aluminium foil on its inside. The PE-oversheath ensures both,
a high mechanical and an ideal corrosion protection of the cable. The aluminium foil
effectively avoids water diffusion from the outside into the cable. The foil thickness of
0.2 mm is only necessary for the manufacturing process reasons, as for a water
diffusion barrier a thickness of only a few m would be sufficient.
In addition to that, a flame retardant layer to prevent extension of fire along the cable
in the tunnel has been extruded together with the PE sheath. The two oversheath
layers are applied during a double head extrusion process, which leads to fix bonded
layers (pic. 5).
This construction of the oversheath leads to a very compact and low weight design to
reach the maximum cable length for a given drum size. Additionally, this design
reduces eddy current losses in the cable sheath and together with its compact design
the ampacity is optimized.
The well proven pre-fabricated composite joint design was chosen for this project and
adapted to the conductor and cable size requirements. This approach allows pretesting of all main electrical parts and reduces as well installation risks as installation
time on site. The chosen design is absolutely dry without any gaseous or liquid
materials and maintenance free (pic. 6).

2
3
1
picture 6: 400 kV composite joint design,
1 cable, 2 joint main insulation, 3 stress cone
The joint consists of an insulation body made of epoxy-resin with an integrated field
control electrode. The high voltage sealing of the cable to the joint body is achieved
by stress-cones made from silicon rubber with an integrated stress control using a
deflector. The stress cone is mechanically pre-loaded by means of a metal spring
device. This device ensures a very homogenous pressure distribution on the stress
cone at all electrical interfaces almost independent from the thermal expansion of the
cable or stress cone itself.
Additionally, the joint design has an integrated capacitive PD-sensor which allows an
easy PD-measurement during on-site after installation tests. Further on, the joint
body has an integrated sheath insulation to withstand impulse voltages of 125 kV
between the two joint sections and 62.5 kV to earth (according IEC 62067). This
enables a cross bonding arrangement of the cable screens to reduce the induced
screen currents and the losses of the AC-cable system.
The GIS and outdoor terminations use the well proven technology of capacitive field
control. This technique leads to an almost linear electrical stress distribution along
the insulator, which makes the outdoor termination less sensitive for an outer rain or
dirt impact. The composite insulator has an increased creepage distance of 16.3 m in

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order to fulfil even highest pollution and salt fog requirements. The dimensions of the
GIS termination were chosen according to IEC TS 60859 showing a standardised
interface. Both types of terminations, GIS and outdoor are equipped with an
integrated capacitive PD-sensor and a monitoring system to detect losses of
insulation oil.
3. PREQUALIFICATION AND TYPE REGISTRATION
The total cable system consisting of cable, outdoor sealing end, sectionalising joint
and GIS termination was tested at independent testing laboratories according
customer specification which are similar or more severe than IEC requirements.
Main electrical type test parameters were:

Heating cycle test with applied voltage of 460 kV (2 U0) and 20 load cycles
(95C; +5C; -0C, 8/16h)
Partial discharge test at 345 kV (1.5 U0), < 5 pC
Hot switching impulse test on the complete set-up
(1150 kV, 95C;+5C;-0C, +/- 10 impulses)
Hot lightning impulse test on the complete set-up
(1425 kV, 95C;+5C;-0C, +/- 10 impulses)
Final AC test, 15 min. with 460 kV (2 U0)

Pre-qualification test parameters were:

Total cable length: 100 m

Heating cycle test at AC voltage of 400 kV (1.73 U0) for 8760 h,
180 load cycles (90C; +5C; -0C, 8/16 h)
Hot lightning impulse test on 30 m cable sample
(1425 kV, 90C;+5C;-0C, +/- 10 impulses)
examination of all accessories

Additional requirements were passed according relevant customer specification (link

boxes, CB-system, cable outer sheath, etc.). A full size three phase short circuit test
of mechanical installation system (saddle and spacer system) with 63 kA for 1 s and
peak currents up to 160 kA has been carried out.
4. CABLE SYSTEM LAYOUT
Following the example of the successfully completed 400 kV XLPE cable project at
Bewag in Berlin [2] the arrangement of power cables was defined to be in a vertical
flat formation, the cables are installed on a so called cable saddle system which
consists of stainless steel cable saddles and spacers. The span length between the
saddles is 8.4 m, the axial distance between the phases is 0.5 m and the sag in the
middle of each span is about 0.15 m in unloaded condition.
In the middle of each span the phases are additionally fixed against short-circuit
forces by the spacers. The length of the saddles is 800 mm and the radius is
3500 mm.
An essential advantage of the saddle support system is, that the cables can be pulled
via pluggable cable installation rollers directly over the saddles in its final position.

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Furthermore, it was requested to reduce the number of joints. This leads to an

individual cable length of about 960 m. A continuous cross bonded cable system with
a two times phase transposing inside the tunnel were applied to the cable system to
minimise the screen losses and to achieve an optimized current carrying capacity in
normal operation conditions (picture 7).
At each joint position surge voltage arresters (ZnO type) will be installed in order to
limit the transient cable sheath overvoltages. A detailed study of AC and transient
overvoltages taking into account the detailed system arrangement and HF-aspects
has been carried out. This study confirms that all expected overvoltages can be
withstand by the screen/cross bonding system.
At each joint position an overload sensor will check the surge voltage arrestors. The
remote information is transmitted by means of optical fibres to a central alarm system
to detect failures of the CB-system.
These parameters lead to 21 sections and 20 joints between the GIS terminations at
the gas-insulated switchgears.

picture 7: CB-scheme at joints of the 400 kV/2500mm2 cable system

An important application, the distributed temperature sensing system (DTS) of all
cable lines, allows the customer to monitor the XLPE cable system temperature at all
times and along the entire cable route. Beside the optical fibre inside the cable
screen of the middle phase which acts as sensor for the DTS systems a second
optical fibre is located at the outer sheath of the upper cable.
For detecting the tunnel air temperature two additional optical fibres are installed in
the crown and at the bottom of the tunnel. The spatial resolution of the system is
typically 1 m whereas the temperature resolution is 2 K. As the damping of the optical
fibres reduces the maximum possible measuring length six independent DTS
systems are distributed along the tunnel route.
The air cooling system is dimensioned to deliver an air speed of up to 6 m/s
(picture 9). Presuming an air inlet temperature of 20C this cooling system allows a
maximum load of 1600 MVA for one cable system under operation. With two
identically installed cable systems - in the future - the admissible load will be
1200 MVA per cable system.
Calculations have shown that the cable systems have a huge overload capability
depending on the pre-load situation. The DTS system will significantly improve the
ability to control such situations and prevent the cable systems from overheating.

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Elstree

S/S

Centennial
Park

10.3 m dia.

10.3 m dia.

8m
Deep

3.0 km

38 m
Deep

2.6 km

Canons
Corner

Colindale

10.3 m dia.

28 m
Deep

4.1 km

7.5 m dia.

20 m
Deep

4.0 km

Cricklewood
Sidings

Kilburn
Park

10.3 m dia.

7.5 m dia

35 m
Deep

2.8 km

St Johns
Wood
10.3 m dia.

36 m
Deep

24m
Deep

3.3 km

picture 8: Scheme of cooling system

5. ON-SITE TESTING
The AC testing voltage for the 1 hour commissioning test was chosen to be 280 kV,
which is 1.22 Uo. This on-site AC testing procedure will set a new mark: At this AC
voltage the total length of the 20 km of 400 kV cable and 20 joints will be
simultaneously tested and PD watched. With the total cable capacity of 4.4 F per
phase the AC charging current will be 230 A at a frequency of 30 Hz. To solve this
task a new mobile resonant testing equipment has to be build.
An extended PD measuring and transmission technique will be applied. It can be
expected that the analysing technique is able to reduce the external noise level to 1
2 pC for the joints during PD testing even under on-site testing conditions. This is
possible by both: selection of the PD measuring frequency range with a low noise
level and integrated PD sensors in all accessories. This technique was successfully
applied at other EHV XLPE cable projects [4] for 7 accessories simultaneously and
will now be extended to 22 accessories in series.
Based on this experience the customer is reviewing a PD monitoring system which
operates during normal operation of the cable system.
REFERENCES
[1] D. Miller, London Infrastructure Project, pp 24-35, Electra No. 206, Feb. 2003
[2] C. H. Hennigsen, K. Polster, K. B. Mller, R. G. Schroth, New 400 kV XLPE
Long Distance Cable Systems, Their First Application for the Power Supply of
Berlin, Cigr Session 1998, paper 21-109
[3] Bjorlow-Larsen, M. Del Brenna, J. Kaumanns, R. Meier, M. Kirchner, P. Argaut,
Large Projects of EHV Underground Cable Systems, Jicable03, International
Conference on Insulated Power Cables, Paris, 2003
[4] J. Kaumanns, E. Plieth, R. Plath, On-site AC Testing and PD Measurement of
345 kV/2500 mm2 XLPE Cable System for Bulk Power Transmission, Jicable03,
International Conference on Insulated Power Cables, Paris, 2003

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