(How) Can EMTR Contribute to Temperature Monitoring of Underground Power Cables?

The electromagnetic time-reversal (EMTR) method has proven its feasibility in the field of underground power cable diagnostics for cable fault and partial discharge location. A recently proposed application is related to real-time temperature monitoring of power cables. This paper discusses some of the challenges related to implementation of EMTR in operational medium-voltage networks. The accuracy is expected to be similar compared to other techniques, like threshold discrimination of arriving signal fronts. However, EMTR is an attractive alternative because it deals with signal recordings as a whole rather than relying on the identification of individual signal features. The more complex analysis and consequently the computational burden should be carefully considered when implementing EMTR for thermal monitoring of medium-voltage distribution networks.