Water And Microvoid Content In High Voltage XLPE Power Cables

Moisture and microvoids encourage the growth of trees in XLPE insulated power cables. The water content and microvoid size in XLPE insulated high voltage (69 thru 145 kV) cables is greatly reduced when crosslinking is performed in a pressurized dry-curing medium instead of pressurized steam. For properly manufactured dry-cured cables, the reduction in water content is from 2000 ppm to less than 150 ppm and the reduction in microvoid size is from 5 micrometers (0.2 mil) to the total absence of microvoids at a resolution of 0.02 micrometers (0.0008 mil).