Reliability worth assessment of an advanced cable health monitoring scheme

Schemes that have been developed for cable fault detection and location can be categorized into two major groups, namely reactive fault diagnosis schemes (RFDS) and proactive fault diagnosis schemes (PFDS). RFDS identify the failed cable sections after a complete breakdown condition following the operation of protective devices, but PFDS can detect and locate the deteriorated cable sections while still in their incipient failure conditions. This paper aims to evaluate the impact of employing a typical PFDS on the major attributes of the service reliability. The study results are also compared against the reliability worth of employing a commonly used type of RFDS. The effect of the neutral treatment method in use in a power distribution system is also taken into account when directing the reliability case studies. The study results show that by employing PFDS in a power distribution system, it is possible to improve service reliability.