These pictures show two different live front substation terminal ends at a wind farm in Canada. The client believed that the medium voltage power cable termination ends at the substation were in fine working order. Also, external visual inspection suggested that the terminations were identical.
After the IMCORP Factory Grade® assessment was completed, the shielding was removed from the two terminations to compare them since one did not meet the IEEE 48 standard. Once the shielding was removed, IMCORP noted that the termination featured in the middle picture was IEEE 48 non-compliant: the semi-conductive material was 7/8″ out of tolerance per the manufacturer’s specifications. This noncompliance created a potentially dangerous situation that could have ultimately resulted in the failure of the cable system. This particular cable had 18 turbines (25% of the site’s total) connected to it. The failure of this termination would have caused substantial economic losses.