Power Cable Monitoring for Electrical Network Reliability Guide 2025

Distributed fiber optic temperature sensing significantly enhances power cable reliability by providing continuous temperature measurements along the entire cable length. This complete thermal profile enables detection of localized heating at joints, terminations, and sections with constrained thermal conditions that point sensors would likely miss. Since thermal degradation is a leading cause of insulation failure, identifying these hot spots enables intervention before permanent damage occurs. The distributed nature of our sensing technology means no potential trouble spots go undetected, while the immunity to electromagnetic interference ensures accurate readings even during fault conditions or in electrically noisy environments. Our customers typically report a 75-85% reduction in unexpected cable failures after implementing distributed fiber optic temperature monitoring.

Yes, our distributed fiber optic monitoring systems can be retrofitted to existing cable installations through several approaches. For cables in conduits or ducts, sensing fibers can be installed in adjacent empty ducts or attached to the outside of conduits. For direct-buried cables, sensing fibers can be installed in small-diameter microducts placed alongside the cable during minimally invasive trenching operations. For critical joints and terminations, local sensing solutions can be installed during routine maintenance activities. While the most comprehensive monitoring is achieved when sensing fibers are installed during initial cable construction, our retrofit solutions provide excellent coverage for existing assets. Our engineering team specializes in developing custom installation plans that maximize monitoring effectiveness while minimizing installation complexity and cost for retrofit applications.

The fundamental difference between distributed temperature sensing (DTS) and point sensors is coverage completeness. Traditional point sensors (like thermocouples or RTDs) provide temperature readings only at specific installation locations, potentially missing critical hotspots between measurement points. Our distributed sensing technology transforms the entire fiber optic cable into a continuous sensor, measuring temperature at every 0.5 meters along the entire length (up to 60km per channel). This ensures complete visibility of the thermal profile with no blind spots. Additionally, point sensors typically require individual signal conditioning and wiring for each measurement point, rapidly increasing installation complexity and cost as the number of monitoring points grows. With DTS, a single fiber provides thousands of measurement points without additional hardware. For long cable runs or complex networks, this comprehensive coverage represents a fundamental advantage over point-based approaches, ensuring no developing thermal issues go undetected.

Temperature and partial discharge monitoring provide complementary insights into cable health by detecting different failure mechanisms at different stages. Temperature monitoring excels at identifying issues related to excessive loading, poor connections, constrained cooling, or external heat sources. These thermal issues typically develop gradually and, if detected early, can be addressed during planned maintenance. Partial discharge monitoring, on the other hand, detects insulation defects like voids, contamination, or water treeing that may not initially generate significant heat but will eventually lead to insulation breakdown. Some insulation defects can develop and progress to failure without significant temperature rise until moments before failure, making PD detection critical for these cases. By combining both monitoring approaches, virtually all developing failure mechanisms can be detected in their early stages. This comprehensive monitoring strategy maximizes the probability of detecting developing faults regardless of their nature, ensuring the highest level of cable system reliability.

The ROI for our cable monitoring systems typically ranges from 12-36 months depending on cable criticality, replacement costs, and downtime implications. For critical transmission cables where failures would result in significant revenue loss or penalties, ROI can be realized immediately if just one major failure is prevented. Beyond the direct costs of cable repair (which can range from $250,000 to several million dollars for submarine cables), the indirect costs of unplanned outages often far exceed the direct repair expenses. These indirect costs include lost production, regulatory penalties, customer compensation, and reputational damage. Additionally, our monitoring systems enable more efficient utilization of existing assets through dynamic thermal rating, potentially deferring costly capacity upgrade projects. For one recent customer, a single prevented failure on a critical industrial feeder paid for the entire monitoring system installation four times over when accounting for avoided production losses. Our team can provide a customized ROI analysis for your specific installation based on your cable assets, criticality, and operational constraints.