Lifetime Assessment of PILC Cables with Regard to Thermal Aging Based on a Medium Voltage Distribution Network Benchmark and Representative Load Scenarios in the Course of the Expansion of Distributed Energy Resources

  • The decentralized feed-ins from distributed energy resources (DER) represent a significant change in the manner in which the power grid is used. If this leads to high loads on electrical equipment, its aging can be accelerated. This applies in particular with regard to the thermal aging of older generations of power cables, namely paper insulated lead covered (PILC) cables. This type of power cable can still be found frequently in medium voltage (MV) networks. If aging of these cables is significantly accelerated in the presence of DER, distribution system operators (DSO) could face unplanned premature cable failures and a high replacement demand and costs. Therefore, this paper investigates the thermal aging of PILC cables in a MV distribution network benchmark for different load scenarios, using standardized load profiles and representative expansion scenarios for wind power and photovoltaics plants in particularly affected network areas in Germany. A main objective of this paper is to present a methodology for estimating theThe decentralized feed-ins from distributed energy resources (DER) represent a significant change in the manner in which the power grid is used. If this leads to high loads on electrical equipment, its aging can be accelerated. This applies in particular with regard to the thermal aging of older generations of power cables, namely paper insulated lead covered (PILC) cables. This type of power cable can still be found frequently in medium voltage (MV) networks. If aging of these cables is significantly accelerated in the presence of DER, distribution system operators (DSO) could face unplanned premature cable failures and a high replacement demand and costs. Therefore, this paper investigates the thermal aging of PILC cables in a MV distribution network benchmark for different load scenarios, using standardized load profiles and representative expansion scenarios for wind power and photovoltaics plants in particularly affected network areas in Germany. A main objective of this paper is to present a methodology for estimating the thermal degradation of PILC cables. An approach is used to draw simplified conclusions from the loading of cables to their conductor or insulation temperature. For this purpose, mainly Joule losses are considered. In addition, thermal time constants are used for the heating and cooling processes. Based on the insulation temperature, thermal aging is determined using the Arrhenius law or the Montsinger rule. However, it is important to note that there is an urgent need for research on reference data in this area. For this reason, the results of the lifetime estimation presented in this paper should only be considered as an approximation if the selected reference data from the literature for the aging model are actually applicable. The lifetime assessment is performed for a highly utilized line segment of the network benchmark. Accordingly, extreme values are examined. Different operational control strategies of DSO to limit cable utilization are investigated. The results show that the expansion of DER can lead to a short but high cable utilization, although the average utilization does not increase or increases only slightly. This can lead to significantly lower cable lifetimes. The possible influence of these temporarily high loads is shown by comparing the resulting cable lifetime with previous situations without DER. It is also shown that DSO could already reduce excessive aging of PILC cables by preventing overloads in a few hours of a year. In addition to these specific results, general findings on the network load due to the influence of DER are obtained, which are of interest for congestion management.show moreshow less

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Metadaten
Author:Martin ZapfORCiD, Tobias BlenkORCiD, Ann-Catrin Müller, Hermann Pengg, Ivana Mladenovic, Christian Weindl
DOI:https://doi.org/10.3390/en14020494
ISSN:1996-1073
Parent Title (English):Energies
Publisher:MDPI AG
Document Type:Article
Language:English
Date of first Publication:2021/01/18
Reviewed:Begutachtet/Reviewed
Release Date:2024/07/31
Tag:Arrhenius law; Montsinger rule; distribution network benchmark; line and network load; load scenarios; thermal aging; thermal network method; thermal time constant
Volume:14
Issue:2
Article Number:494
Pagenumber:25
institutes:Fakultät für Elektrotechnik Feinwerktechnik Informationstechnik
Research Themes:Digitalisierung & Künstliche Intelligenz
Licence (German):Creative Commons - CC BY - Namensnennung 4.0 International
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