Challenge of fault location on long submarine power cables

Repair of damaged submarine power cables requires specialized ships and experts to recover the cable from the seabed and replace the faulty cable section. Fast and efficient fault detection is essential to reduce the overall outage time. Fault location on submarine power cables differs significantly from conventional cable fault location on buried land cables in terms of condition and measuring methods. The paper illustrates the most efficient cable fault location methods for submarine cables. Field results relevant to submarine power cable faults are provided, which were measured on AC submarine cables as well as on the longest HVDC submarine links