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最近の会社事件について Xi'an Xu&Hui Electromechanical Technology Co., Ltd. 認証

800V Cable Fault Detection at Weinan Solar Plant: B-Phase Short to Armor Precisely Located

2026-09-03

最近の会社事件について 800V Cable Fault Detection at Weinan Solar Plant: B-Phase Short to Armor Precisely Located

Project Overview

Test Date July 16, 2026
Test Site Weinan Solar PV Plant, Shaanxi, China
Cable Under Test YJV 3×120, 800 V armored low-voltage cable, direct buried
Cable Length 1,335 m (marked) / 1,333.1 m (measured)
Test Team Ye Peng (Lead), Du Chaochao
Instruments Used Model 502 fault locator, Model 512-12 integrated impulse unit, Model 503 / 503E pinpointing receivers, Model 507C cable locator
Fault Identified Phase B short circuit to the armor layer, located at about 30 m from the test end

Background

The tested cable is an 800 V armored low-voltage power cable (YJV 3×120) running from the PV panel array side to the box-type transformer side of a solar plant in Weinan, Shaanxi. The cable is about 1,335 m long and is direct-buried along a known route. When abnormal operation was reported on the circuit, the plant requested a complete cable fault detection and location service.

Fault Verification

Insulation resistance was first measured with an electronic megohmmeter at the 1000 V range, covering all phase-to-phase and phase-to-ground combinations. Phases A and C both measured above 1 GΩ, while phase B measured 0 MΩ; all phase-to-phase readings were above 1 GΩ. A multimeter check between phase B and the cable armor gave 3 Ω. The initial diagnosis was therefore a phase B short circuit to the armor layer.

Cable Length Measurement

A low-voltage pulse test on the A-C phase loop produced the full-length waveform (Fig. 1), giving a measured cable length of 1,333.1 m, which matched the marked length of 1,335 m.

Cable Length Measurement

Rough Fault Location

Two complementary methods were combined to estimate the fault distance from the PV-side test end:

  • Low-voltage pulse method: the healthy-phase waveform confirmed the full cable length of about 1,300 m, and the faulty-phase short-circuit waveform indicated the fault at roughly 30 m from the test end.
  • High-voltage flashover method: applied from the PV side to verify the near-end fault distance (L = S/N) indicated by the pulse test.

The recorded waveforms included the low-voltage pulse full-length waveform (A-C phase), the low-voltage pulse test waveform from the PV side, and the high-voltage flashover waveform from the PV side. Both methods agreed on a fault zone approximately 30 m from the test end.

Precise Fault Location

Because the cable route was clearly known, no route tracing was needed. The Model 512-12 integrated impulse unit with large capacitance applied impulse high voltage to the faulty phase. Within the suspected 30 m zone, the Model 503 pinpointer (acoustic method) and the Model 503E pinpointer (acoustic-magnetic time difference method) were used to trace the discharge, and the Model 507C cable locator was applied in audio-frequency mode for final pinpointing. The fault point was finally confirmed at approximately 30 m from the test end.

Test Summary & Key Takeaways

  • For low-voltage cables, the impulse test voltage cannot be raised as high as for high-voltage cables. The resulting low discharge energy makes the discharge sound very weak and increases the difficulty of precise pinpointing. The solution is to increase the capacitance of the high-voltage source, which raises the discharge energy at the fault point and makes the discharge sound stronger.
  • Low-voltage cable faults should be cross-verified with multiple test methods to avoid misjudgment caused by armor-to-ground discharge. In this job, the low-voltage pulse method, high-voltage flashover method, audio-frequency method, acoustic method, and acoustic-magnetic time difference method were combined to achieve a reliable result.

About XZH TEST

XZH TEST provides cable testing and fault-location solutions for power utilities, electrical contractors, industrial facilities, and maintenance teams. Its solutions support cable insulation testing, high-voltage testing, fault pre-location, and precise cable fault location applications.