ELP Products in Power Distribution

Major transmission lines are mostly above ground. However, as it enters plants, facilities, airports and other major assets, main supply cables HV (usually 11kV, 22kV, 33kV) or LV (430V) are distributed underground.

Over time cable insulation can degrade due to damage caused during installation, poor installation practises, damaged conduits, or other factors such as overloading. This may result in leakage current, with or without water ingress. If not picked up, the degradation will worsen overtime:

This results in loss of energy and revenue (for supply authority or asset owner). Over time, this could be a significant monetary loss.

Significant damage to the cable will eventually trip the upstream circuit breaker (protection device), resulting in significant downtime without power, as large power cables have significant lead time to procure and install.

Diagram 10

ELP has a solution for this problem. ELP have developed a patented technology that will collect all the leakage current from the cable and raise the alarm for this issue. This conduit which was specifically developed for these applications, acts as the collector and path for all stray currents (leakage current and induced current) to flow back to the ELP eLynX device that is connected to the conduit at one end or both ends of the conduit.

The benefits are:

  • All lost energy is collected and injected back into the mains, resulting in no energy loss and no revenue loss.
  • The ELP solution identifies the earliest signs of issues on the cable as it detects the smallest leakage current, and isolates the location of the issue.
  • Allows operators to plan a replacement for the cable, preventing an unforeseen trip and loss of power for an extended amount of time.
  • All resulting in preventing a significant loss of energy, down time and financial losses.