Willem Boone

Biography

Willem Boone’s pioneering diagnostic and condition-assessment methods for power cables have been invaluable to the electric power industry in determining product life and avoiding electrical failure. Among Mr. Boone’s major contributions was his development of testing methods to detect water treeing in both aged and new cables. Water treeing can advance degradation and lead to electrical failure in buried or water-immersed high-voltage cables. Mr. Boone’s methods aide utility companies in determining when to replace existing cables. For testing new cables, he created a high-frequency (500 Hz) accelerated method, which reduced the ageing test duration to 4 months compared to approximately 2 years. Mr. Boone has also improved partial discharge detection tools helpful in estimating remaining cable life, and he has been very active in preparing related international user guides and standards within CIGRE, IEC, and ICC.

An IEEE Senior Member, Willem Boone is a senior consultant with KEMA, now called DNV GL, Oosterbeek, The Netherlands. Boone was the recipient of the 2014 IEEE Herman Halperin Electric Transmission and Distribution Award.