The Problem
Consumer-level AC power is distributed by way of multiple three-phase cables that fan out from neighborhood transformers. These cables may be several hundred meters long. Along this cable, customers are connected at regular intervals. Many times contaminated moisture can permeate a cable which then can lead to voltage arcing from the phase to phase or phase to neutral conductors.

The arc causes a loss of power to the customer from a few milliseconds to a period long enough to blow the line fuse. Sometimes this arc burns away its conductive path, making it very difficult to find the problem area. Over time, this path will grow back and will cause more arcing.

The Solution
The ideal instrument's design goals for finding the faulting arc are (A) the cable must stay in service while it is being monitored, (B) the instrument must be able to capture even the shortest duration arc, and (C) the instrument must be able to operate for several minutes, hours, days, or weeks while monitoring the cable waiting for the fault to occur.

The SPIKE Model 829 Power Fault Analyzer meets all of these design goals using well-established and new and patented techniques to record and analyze the intermittent arcing faults while the cable remains in service.

The Power Fault Analyzer is environmentally rugged, so the instruments can be left to operate for extended periods of time while monitoring the cable.