2026-09-03
| Test Date | July 18, 2026 |
| Test Site | Solar PV plant, Japan |
| Cable Under Test | YJV 3×300, 26/35 kV medium-voltage cable, direct buried |
| Cable Length | 7,800 m (marked) / 7,732.4 m (measured) |
| Test Team | Ye Peng (Lead), Ge Haojie |
| Instruments Used | Model 502 fault locator, 5/50 and 40/6 high-voltage flashover test sets, Model 503 / 503E pinpointing receivers, 5 kV electronic megohmmeter, Model 507C cable locator |
| Fault Identified | Phase B leakage-type high-resistance fault to ground (joint water ingress), located at about 2,500 m from the test end |
The tested cable is a 26/35 kV medium-voltage power cable (YJV 3×300) running between a substation and a box-type transformer at a solar PV plant in Japan. The cable is direct-buried, about 7,800 m long, and has several intermediate joints whose exact burial positions were not documented. After many years in service, the circuit tripped suddenly and could not be restored, so a complete cable fault detection and location service was requested.
Routine insulation checks at 5 kV showed all three phases above the GΩ range, yet phase B failed the voltage-withstand test. A further insulation resistance survey with the electronic megohmmeter at the 5 kV range covering A-ground, B-ground, C-ground and all phase-to-phase combinations found that phase B measured only 0.5 MΩ to ground, while every other combination remained above GΩ. The fault was therefore classified as a leakage-type high-resistance fault on phase B.
The marked cable length was 7,800 m. Low-voltage pulse testing returned a measured length of 7,732.4 m, which confirmed the total route length before fault location began.
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Three methods were combined to estimate the fault distance from the test end:
The flashover and bridge results agreed well, narrowing the fault zone to roughly 2.3–2.6 km from the test end. Typical waveform charts recorded during rough location included the low-voltage pulse test chart, the high-voltage flashover test chart, and the bridge method test chart.
The exact cable route on site was not clearly documented, and the alignment was complex, running through farmland. The Model 507C cable locator was therefore used to re-trace the route and mark the position of the cable above ground before precise pinpointing.
Impulse high voltage was raised to 36 kV to generate a detectable discharge at the fault point. Within the suspected zone of 2,300–2,600 m, the team walked directly above the marked route using the Model 503 pinpointer (acoustic method) and the Model 503E pinpointer (acoustic-magnetic time difference method). The fault point was finally confirmed at about 2,500 m from the test end, and excavation confirmed a water-ingress joint fault.
XZH TEST provides cable testing and fault-location solutions for power utilities, electrical contractors, industrial facilities, and maintenance teams. Its solutions support cable insulation testing, high-voltage testing, fault pre-location, and precise cable fault location applications.