A critical review of present trends in low- and medium-voltage cables

It is only when a particular type of equipment starts giving excessive trouble that its importance to the community becomes apparent. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the case of electric cables — normally taken for granted by the average engineer and quite certainly to be buried and forgotten. However, when cables start failing in the early hours of the morning, disrupt important services and disturb the peace of the supply authority, then their importance is appreciated. We, in South Africa, had this brought home to us in no uncertain manner when there was an epidemic of troubles, experienced on 11-kV cables in particular, which gave rise to many learned dissertations and theories propounded in club, committee and consulting rooms and a loss of sleep to many engineers. Catch words and phrases such as ‘surges,’ ‘altitude derating,’ ‘aspiration,’ ‘inferior cable manufacture’ and ‘careless installation and workmanship’ became the order of the day.