Open Access

ARTICLE

Aging Characteristics of XLPE Insulation of 110 kV Cables in the Initial Stage of Operation

Jie Chen¹, Wei Zhang¹, Man Ding^2,*, Libin Hu¹, Jinpeng Wang², Chenying Li¹, Jingying Cao¹

1 State Grid Jiangsu Electric Power Co., Ltd., Research Institute, Nanjing, 211103, China
2 Hohai University, Nanjing, 211100, China

* Corresponding Author: Man Ding. Email:

Energy Engineering 2021, 118(5), 1537-1548. https://doi.org/10.32604/EE.2021.015439

Received 18 December 2020; Accepted 22 March 2021; Issue published 16 July 2021

Abstract

The aging characteristics of the XLPE insulation of 110 kV power cables in the initial stage of operation are studied in this paper. The XLPE insulation from cables with different running time was tested by using electrical and physicochemical methods, from which the degradation state of XLPE under multiple stresses during operation was derived. The broadband dielectric spectrum test taken from 10^–1 to 10⁶ Hz showed that the dielectric constant and dielectric loss of the XLPE insulation first decrease and then increase with the increase of cable running time, which show obvious variation until 10 years of operation. The AC breakdown strengths of the XLPE insulation of operated cables with the service year no longer than 10 years were higher than that of new cables. The mechanical properties of the XLPE insulation showed no dependence with the cable running time. The crystallinity and perfection of the crystallization area were found to be enhanced during operation and the polar functional groups inside the XLPE insulation were found to be determined not only by the cross-linking by-products but also by the oxidation process during cable operation. The experimental results in this paper are important for improving the operation reliability and reducing the maintenance costs of the cables.

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