Low-voltage Underground Power Cables; AC-Driven Corrosion and its Remediation

Low-voltage cable comprise the secondary and service links that connect the end user to the power grid. While these cables represent a small portion of the underground cables in North America, they account for a disproportionately large percentage of cable failures overall. The leading cause of failure in secondary and service cables has been identified as corrosion of the aluminum conductor due to water ingress through breaks in the insulation. An extensive study into the corrosion of these systems and remedies to address these issues will be presented. The data reveals silicone-gel injected cables outperform non-injected cables when exposed to highly corrosive environments by maintaining their resistance up to 50 times better. Further, this study finds the mean temperature rise for silicone-gel injected cables to be 6.6 times less than non-injected cables.