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B.5.4

8th International Conference on Insulated Power Cables

B.5.4

CHALLENGES AT THE PLANNING, DEVELOPMENT AND PERFORMANCE AT THE

275KV XLPE CABLE PROJECT IN THE CITY OF LIVERPOOL
Sebastian EBERT, Horst MEMMER, Andreas WEINLEIN, Gero SCHRDER, Sdkabel GmbH, Mannheim (Germany),
[email protected], [email protected], [email protected],
[email protected]

ABSTRACT
A 275 kV extra high voltage cable system has been
designed, supplied, installed, commissioned and put in
operation between the substations Kirkby and Lister Drive
in Liverpool for National Grid, UK. This project was
demonstrating the successful performance of almost
every implication in an EHV direct buried cable project
within big city metropolis.

1. DESCRIPTION OF XLPE CABLE SYSTEM

A 275 kV extra high voltage cable, type 2XS(F)K2Y
1x1600 RMS/190 160/275 kV system has been designed,
supplied, installed, commissioned and put in operation
between the substations Kirkby and Lister Drive in
Liverpool for National Grid, UK. The cable route consisting
of 15 single sections and 14 joint bays.
The cable is rated for a load of 1.600 A respectively
762 MVA. The cable arrangement is seen in figure 2 and
3. The cable is laid in CBS (Cement Bound Sand) with a
thermal resistivity of 1.05 Km/W (wet condition) and
1.2 Km/W (dry condition). The standard laying depth of
the cables is 1200 mm and the phase distance center to
center is 400 mm.

Fig. 1: Cable ducted laying condition

The cable manufacturer has recommended the mixture of

the CBS to reach the required thermal resistivity values.
The civil work company as part of the National Grid
Alliance West has installed the CBS under the cable
manufacturer l supervision.
The cable route followed the main streets across the city
of Liverpool Many other services, cables, gas pipes,
sewers has to be crossed or laid in parallel to the 275 kV
cables. For all these laying conditions rating calculations
have to be performed by the cable manufacturer. For
some sections directional drilling with laying depths of up
to 8 m (where necessary) and phase distances has to be
increased up to 2 m in order to reach the required load.
The cable route has a total length of approx. 10.3 km,
which means a total length of approx. 31 km XLPE cable
quantity with a conductor size of 1600 mm (figure 3). The
conductor was designed in segmental construction
consisting of oxidized wires to reduce the skin effect in
order to increase the transmission capacity [9].
The cable shows an insulation thickness of 25 mm and a
composite copper screen wire / lead sheath screen for
advanced mechanical strength. A HDPE outer jacket
provides the corrosion protection of the cable.

Fig. 3: Cable design

In order to reduce the sheath losses to a minimum, a cross
bonding system has been implemented. The link pillars, which
contain also the sheath voltage limiters (SVL) are installed
along the route at the joint bay positions above ground.

Fig. 2: Cable trench laying condition

Fig. 4: Pedestrian link pillar

Jicable11 19 23 June 2011, Versailles - France

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8th International Conference on Insulated Power Cables

The link pillars had to pass special internal arcing and

short circuit current tests before National Grid approved
the use of the link pillars in the city. The link pillar has
been designed as pedestrian model (figure 4).
The cross-bonding design is shown in figure 5. Each
cable screen has been crossed bonded in each link pillar.
The cable conductor has been transposed in each joint
bay entering area (bell mouth).

Fig. 5: Earthing design with cross bonding

Six pieces of factory pre-tested and pre-assembled
275 kV compact outdoor plug-in sealing [6] ends were
installed as outdoor terminations (figures 6, 7):

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The interface connection between the OSE top bolt and

the busbar (earthing spigot) had to be considered as well
during this project.
Additionally as part of the 275 kV cable system design
both, PD monitoring and a DTS monitoring system via
fiber optic cables have been installed and commissioned.
For all activities on site method statements and risk
assessments had to be issued for approval prior to the
work commence.
Furthermore the cable manufacturer has developed a
special earthing design concept for each individual joint bay
in order to achieve a required maximum earthing resistance
of 5 , which has been measured at each joint bay after
installation before and after backfilling with CBS. The size
of each earthing system and the numbers of used earthing
rods with surrounding conductive material had to be
designed individually at each joint bay depend on the
thermal resistivity of the ground material (figure 14).
The joint type is three piece composite design, known
from [3, 4, 5] which passed both, additional mechanical
load tests and water immersion tests of the corrosion
protection system according NGTS standards.

Fig. 8: Composite type joint VMEVCB 275

Fig. 6: Design of outdoor sealing end EHFVCS 275

Fig. 7: Installed doutdoor sealing ends

Jicable11 19 23 June 2011, Versailles - France

Fig. 9: Joint bay

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8th International Conference on Insulated Power Cables

In total 14 joint bays had to be designed and installed with

a number of 42 cross bonding joints and associated
equipment. During each installation of the EHV cable
accessories hold points were implemented as an activity
of quality assurance by the cable manufacturer and the
National Grid Alliance West.

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A general cable pulling schematic drawing is shown in

figure 11 which shows the position of drum stand, winch
and main rollers. Ground loading tests had to be carried at
each joint by prior to drum offloading.

2. COMPLEXITY OF INSTALLATION WORKS

As the route led straight through the city of Liverpool key
facts like traffic management, SHE management had to
be challenged during all stages of the project, which ran
through more than 2 years due to specific requirements of
the city council and the highway agency not to open too
many trenches in one time because Liverpool was the
European capital of culture in 2008 and a lot of events
took place at this time.
Figure 8 shows a drum offloading as part of one delivery
within the city center of Liverpool at the main road
between the main Irish ferry port of Liverpool and the
motorway which is mainly used by all trailers for the heavy
transport through Great Britain. Each cable drum had a
weight up to 50 ton, a diameter of 4.5 m and a width of
3.7 m. Also not negligible in terms of decisions for a
football town like Liverpool is to mention that roads like
this are the main roads on the way to the Liverpool
football ground Anfield Road for supporters from outside
to watch their Liverpool Football Club. These effects the
complexity of the necessary permanent project
management with many years experiences in this
business between all contractors at all times. That means
in details that route survey had to be carried prior to each
cable drum delivery in order to clarify details like the
required street furniture, ground load tests, police escort
services etc. Once all details are known permit
applications had to be forwarded to the authorities for their
approval. Furthermore method statements and risk
assessments had to be issued for approval. Once the
approval had been given to the contractors only appointed
qualified persons could be allowed to be involved in the
delivery process. As an escort vehicle was supervising the
transport from the factory in Germany to the port and from
the ship to the storage yard also the last stage between
the motorway in front of Liverpool up to the designated
offloading point had to be escorted by an escort car and
additionally by several police cars. Qualified persons had
to supervise the key points of the final delivery in order to
avoid local problems up to the road closures area.

Fig. 11: Cable pulling overview

Another main challenge were specific cable accessories
installation methods in accordance with NSI 5 (working
under induced voltages and isolating working) due to
parallel working in different joint bays and at the sealing
ends within the National Grid Substations. This caused a
combination of grounded and isolated way of working.
This work had to be carried out in accordance with the
National Grid specification "Guidance Note 11 MAKING
OR BREAKING DOWN SEALING ENDS ON HV CABLES
"of UK BP / SE / NSI 5 CABLE SYSTEMS" (NSI 5
Working Procedure). Special Permits, risk assessments
and method statements had to be issued. Furthermore
special trainings were required for all involved engineers,
fitters and labours [8].

Fig. 12: Earthed working at the sealing ends

Fig. 10: 50 t cable drum offloading liverpool city

within main road closure & police escort

The cable manufacturer had to follow these guidelines as

almost the whole length of cable (approx. 10.3 km) was
already installed, the cable had entered the National Grid
substation which means that the cable is automatically
under the client rules. Due to time schedule restrictions a
parallel working was unavoidable. This means that a joint
installation and a sealing end installation were running in
parallel. Both working groups had to be in constant
communication for all working steps via radio. For an

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B.5.4

8th International Conference on Insulated Power Cables

earthed working method at the sealing ends, the

conductor and the screen had to be earthed at all times
(figure 12). For an isolated working procedure, a
combination of at least 2 isolation barriers between man
and electrically conductive parts of the cable system or
installation scaffold had to be used (figure 13). The
scaffolding had to be earthed every 5 m.

B.5.4

wrapped around in order to avoid a contact with the

screen and the at this moment isolated conductor at the
same time with the hands of the workers.

Fig. 15: Isolating working in a joint bay for jointing of

EHV 275 kV XLPE cable joints

Fig. 13: Isolating working at the sealing ends

This means isolated mats (suitable for 20 - 25 kV),
isolated working boots (suitable for a insulation strength of
7.5 kV per shoe) had to be worn. Alternatively isolated
gloves could be worn but this would not allow a high
standard working quality during the jointing due to
handling problems. For an isolating working insulating
transformer had to be used in order to allow a galvanic
isolation between the generator and the working tool.
For the isolated jointing work in the joint bay isolated mats
and boots had to be worn as well as a combination of at least
2 isolation bareers between man and electrically conductive
parts of the cable system or installation scaffolding.

Fig. 14: Isolating platform during jointing

For the using of chain hoists for lifting operations of joint
parts like the jointing body isolated gloves (suitable for a
insulation strength of 7.5 kV per glove) had to be used as
the chain of the hoists are a conductive connection with
the scaffolding beam on the the top. For reasons of
difficult practicability in terms of manual handling lifting
slings were used between chains of chain hoists in order
to avoid the using of isolated gloves at some stages of the
working process. Another difficulty was the connection of
the cable screen with the lead sheath of the cable. Once
this connection was made, an isolated tape had to be

The difficulty of the working under these circumstances

was the combination of different working procedures
(mixture of earthed and isolated working at the sealing
ends and isolated working in the joint bay). It had to be
avoided that both working teams are working on the same
phase at the same time. Therefore a constant radio
communication was unavoidable. If the sealing end
installation team had to work on one phase, this phase
had to be earthed at the conductor and the screen by the
sealing end installation team.
During this work the jointing team in the joint bay was not
allowed to work on this phase because they had to follow
the isolating working procedure. If they had to work on
one phase, the earthing connection at the sealing ends
had to be removed, so they were isolated from the
conductive parts of the cable system. The earthing
connection at the sealing ends on the far end (other end
of the cable circuit) had to be removed prior to all works
commence and the cable screen at the nearest joint bay
was earthed in order to reduce the cable length and bring
the earthing connection closer to the working place to
reduce the risk of induced voltages. The 275 kV cable
system was in fact not in operation at this time but due to
so many other services crossing the new installed 275 kV
cable circuits and due to so many parallel services a risk
of induced voltages from outside was present resulting in
all the precautions to allow an absolute safe working
process which is the aim of all working contractors.
This process has been designed and well planned by the
cable manufacturer together with all other project
contractors, which is mandatory. The design is the
foundation for reducing risks for involved personnel.
Therefore, the cable manufacturer endorse the safety by
design concept. This system has been proofed by daily
briefings, talks, constant communication which each
other, issuing workable documents as risk assessments
and method statements which all parties had to
understand and sign prior to the work commence.
Every working step change had to be documented and
signed which was controlled by the quality assurance
team in order to save the health of the workers against
induced voltages and to comply with the client health and
safety and working rules and requirements.

Jicable11 19 23 June 2011, Versailles - France

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B.5.4

8th International Conference on Insulated Power Cables

All these steps were helping to reduce incidents and to

perform all works on the highest quality level.
This project is demonstrating the successful management
of challenges comprising of almost every implications in a
EHV direct buried cable project within big city metropolis.

3. COMMISSIONING OF XLPE CABLE

SYSTEM
After successful installation a wide number of
commissioning tests had to be carried out. The cable
manufacturer had to perform SVL operating voltage tests,
over sheath DC voltage withstand tests, insulating AC
voltage withstand test acc. to IEC 62067 with a voltage of
210 kV at all phases and partial discharge tests at all
accessories (figure 16). Further the cable manufacturer
performed a positive and zero sequence impedance
measurement, a verification of the cross-bonded sheath
system, a cable conductor resistance measurement, a
measurement of the sheath system contact resistances
and a measurement of the insulation resistance at all
installed 275 kV power cables. All tests have been passed
successfully.

REFERENCES
[1]

National Grid Transco Technical Specification TS

2.5

[2]

"Guidance Note 11 MAKING OR BREAKING

DOWN SEALING ENDS ON HV CABLES "of UK
BP / SE / NSI 5 CABLE SYSTEMS"

[3]

GUIDANCE NOTE 24/24a MAKING OR

BREAKING-DOWN SEALING ENDS ON H.V.
CABLES of UK BP/SE/NSI 5 CABLE
SYSTEMS
J. Kaumanns, E. Plieth, R. Plath, 2003, On-site
AC testing and PD measurement of 345 kV /
2500 mm2 XLPE cable systems for bulk power
transmission, Jicable03, paper A8.4

[4]

[5]

S. Sutton, R. Plath, G. Schrder, 2007, The St.

Johns Wood - Elstree experience testing a 20
km long 400kV XLPE-insulated cable system
after installation, Jicable07

[6]

J. Kaumanns, G. Schrder, A. Weinlein, V.

Stroot, J. Lehnhuser: 400 KV XLPE-Insulated
cable systems with dry plug-in outdoor
terminations, Jicable07, paper A.1.2
A. Weinlein, G. Schrder, S. Ebert, H. Geyer,
2011, On-site testing with compact a.c. testsystem at the first 500 kV XLPE cable project in
South America, Jicable11, paper C.4.1
G. Schrder, "Working under induced voltage
conditions at installation of EHV cable systems",
S1-3.9, ICOLIM Conference 2004, Bucharest,
Romania.
G. Schroeder, J. Kaumanns, R. Plath, Advanced
measurement of AC resistance on skin-effect
reduced large conductor power cables,
Jicable11, paper C.8.2

[7]

[8]

[9]

Fig. 16: On-site AC test set-up

All tests had to be carried out during a short time outage
as the cable manufacturer had to replace an existing
oilfield cable system. This means that the cable
manufacturer had to manage all replacement works
without any gap, which had to be approved and confirmed
by all involved parties including the city council before the
fixed outage time had to be applied officially to the client
for their final approval.

4. SUMMARY
A 10.3 km 275 kV XLPE cable circuit was installed in the
heart of the city of Liverpool after passing all relevant
customer requirements (type registration).

B.5.4

GLOSSARY
CBS
EHV
SHE
NSI
XLPE
SVL
AC
DC
PD
DTS
OSE

Cement Bound Sand

(Extra) High Voltage
Safety Health Environment
National Safety Instruction
Cross-Linked Polyethylene
Sheath Voltage Limiters
Alternating Current
Direct Current
Partial Discharge(s)
Distributed Temperature Sensing
Outdoor Sealing End

The installation works has to handle several special

challenges during installation as limited space along the
route, limited time for work activities (route access), and
working under induced voltage conditions.
The 275 kV cable circuit was put in service in December
2009
after
passing
successfully
all
required
commissioning tests and has operated continuously
without any abnormalities since then.

Jicable11 19 23 June 2011, Versailles - France