SUSTAINABLE INSULATION-SYSTEM FOR LOW UP TO HIGH VOLTAGE CABLES

Today’s people are asking for a more sustainable world. It is not only that materials should be fully recyclable but also energy saving is more of a concern. If you have for example to remove old fluid filled high voltage cables, the cost for removing them might be as high as the new installation. Normally energy cables between 1 and 500 kV are today insulated with XLPE but only recently in low voltage thermoplastic PVC has been replaced by XLPE due to that PVC has temperature rating of the conductor of only 70 °C and a short circuit rating of only 160 °C. However in the past decade thermoplastic cable insulation systems based on polypropylene have been also installed. They are currently used up to 525 kV DC for the German corridor projects for example. This paper will talk about thermoplastic insulation materials based on polypropylene for low, medium and high voltage application for AC voltage. It will show you the use of for example bio-polypropylene for low voltage and the energy savings for the total range of production. It will also highlight the use of recycled material of these cables in cable applications itself. In medium voltage we will describe the advantage of bio-polypropylene for this application compared to conventional XLPE. We also show the properties of low voltage cables where recycled materials have been been used. In medium and high voltage we will highlight the use of insulations systems based on polypropylene including semi-conductive screens.