The Eighth Day

Before I proceed with today's event, let me share something about cable insulations. Insulators are materials that do not conduct electricity or resist current flow and can be in a form of solid, liquid, or gas. Insulators protect you from the danger of high voltage and the conductor from environmental factors. In Malaysia, modern high-voltage cables have XLPE insulators, which stands for Cross-Linked Polyethylene but there are still cables with oil insulators.

So today, I followed the technicians to take oil samples from this oil-filled cables. The samples are then sent to the lab to be analyzed for moisture content, dissolved gases, and impurities. This information will tell us about the condition of the cable and also the insulator itself. The process of the oil sampling will be summarized in the pictures below.

The oil tanks that provide continuous flow of oil

to the cables

The tube that connects the cable to the tank is bypassed

Sample taking in action!

The oil used is mineral oil or liquid petroleum. As you can see, it is colourless. An amazing application of the oil that I found, not related to cables unfortunately. Computer enthusiasts, this might interest you:

No cooling fans = less power consumption + no sound + no dusk.

Awesome? Definitely.