Cable Components

In this tutorial, a brief description of the components found in a cable will be pointed out. Additionally, a com-
parison between the main parts constituting the cable geometry and the modelling capabilities of PowerFactory
will be defined.

1 Single Core Cable

Every electric power cable is composed of at least two components: an electrical conductor and the conductor
insulation which prevents direct contact or unsafe proximity between conductor and other objects [1]. Regard-
ing modelling purposes in PowerFactory, a cable is divided mainly in two categories: single core cables and
three core cables. For simplicity reasons, we will start describing the components of a single core cable type
and then expand its definition for the application of three phase cable systems. The geometry of a single core
cable type in PowerFactory is as depicted in figure 1.1.

Figure 1.1: Layers of a single core cable in PowerFactory

• Conductor: the hollow red portion of the cable consists in a section with a conducting element, usually
copper or aluminum, which is defined by means of the resistivity material and the section thickness. If the
core were to be solid, without hollowness, the core diameter shall be defined simply by only the overall
section of the core.
• Conductor Screen: A semi-conducting tape to maintain a uniform electric field and minimise electro-
static stresses. It has a very thin section and is located between the conductor and the insulation.
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• Insulation: this section is intended to prevent the flow of electricity from the energised conductors to the
ground or to an adjacent conductor. Typically, the material of this section is of the thermoplastic (PVC) or
thermosetting (EPR, XLPE) type.
• Insulation Screen: A semi-conducting material having a similar function as the conductor screen. It is
located between the insulation and the sheath.
• Sheath: This layer has two main objectives:
1. To carry the neutral and/or fault current to earth in the event of an earth fault in the system.
2. To be used as a shield to keep electromagnetic radiation in and, in the case of paper-insulated
cables, to exclude water from the insulation.
Usually, when a solid sheath is used in the cable construction, it is made of lead or aluminum. In some
special cases, copper may be used. Because of safety considerations, metallic sheaths are always
grounded in at least one place.

• Oversheath: This layer covers the metallic sheath and acts as a filler between the metallic sheath and
the armour. Most commonly used materials are PVC and PE.
• Armour: This layer is intended to provide mechanical protection of the conductor bundle. Usually, it is
used for submarine and special purpose cables.

• Serving: This is usually a plastic cover and provides mechanical, thermal, chemical and electrical
protection to the cable.

2 Comparison between vendor and PowerFactory data

The first task an engineer must confront with, in order to model a cable and for being the most representative
as well of the real condition, is to identify the constitutive parts of it and bring them to a simulation software.
PowerFactory defines each part of the cable modelling tool with universally accepted names, however this
process of identification still can be a difficult task as it may lead to errors of interpretation.

In order to help with this identification process, a comparison between the PowerFactory and the most common
used names in cable datasheets is shown in Table 2.1

Name in PowerFactory Name in Datasheets

Table 2.1: Comparison of cable component names for a single core cable type

3 Laying methods in three phase systems

Laying methods for three phase systems with single core cables are usually found in two categories: trefoil
and flat. Trefoil is used to minimise the sheath circulating currents due to the magnetic flux linking the cable
conductors and metallic sheath. Flat formation is appropriate for heat dissipation and consequently to increase
cable rating.

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(a) Flat (b) Trefoil

Figure 3.1: Laying arrangements in three phase systems with single core cables

PowerFactory is able to define a widespread of laying arrangements for single core cables, using a coordinate
system. For cables installed in pipes, such as submarine cables, a slightly different configuration must be
defined, in order to cope with all the internal arrangement for these types of cables. Nonetheless, both
arrangements are to be defined in a cable system element. The definition of the common geometry and
the differences with the single core cable type are described in the next section.

4 Pipe type cables

As mentioned in the last section, some cable installations, for example, submarine cables, are constructed in a
pipe type arrangement. The distribution of the internal components is slightly different in comparison with the
single core cable type. The pipe type cables are related to three phase cables, where each one of the phases
is included inside the pipe. In PowerFactory, the definition of a pipe type cable is done by means of using a
single core cable type, and then using these characteristics on a pipe arrangement in a cable system.

What you should be aware of, is that normally each of the single core cables inside a pipe have layers ending
at the oversheath. No armour is included individually for each phase, but an overall armour surrounding the
pipe is used. Then, a filler is used to define the bundle geometry, usually of a soft polymer material. The
arrangement (similar as the trefoil described in 3.1a) is surrounded by the armour and serving (jacket), the
latter being as the outmost layer of the pipe cable. This implies that the modelling of a pipe type cable will need
the definition of a single core cable without armour and serving, and the definition of these components have
to be made inside the cable system. Below is a representation in PowerFactory of the single core cable type
without armour and serving layers and the cable system used for a pipe type cable with serving and armour
layers.

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(a) Single core cable (b) Pipe cable

Figure 4.1: Cable system representation for a pipe laying arrangement

In figure 4.1a, the layers from the centre to the outermost layer are in the following order: Conductor, Conductor
screen, Insulation, Insulation screen, Sheath and Oversheath.

In figure 4.1b, the white area between the single core cable trefoil arrangement and the armour is the filler,
whereas the black area represents the armour. No graphical representation is available for the serving in pipe
type cables.

5 Rating and Bonding

For three phase systems composed of single core cables with metallic sheaths, the bonding arrangement and
the thermal resistivity of the trench fill are the most important factors influencing cable rating.

The bonding of the cable to earth is the process where the metallic shield (sheath and/or armour) is grounded
at one or both ends. Different variations exist, where the double bonded and cross bonded bonding types can
be found. Since the electric power losses in a cable are dependent, amongst other factors, on the currents
flowing in the metallic sheaths, by reducing the current flows in these layers, the ampacity of the cable can
be increased. A double bonded configuration will reduce induced voltages, but will provide a path for the
circulating current through the sheaths, thus reducing the current-carrying capacity of the cable. In the cross
bonded configuration, the sum of the induced voltages in the shielding of the phases will be zero and thus the
current flowing through the shielding will be minimised, improving the available cable rating.

The use of armour wires on cables with lead sheaths, installed in three phase systems with close spacing,
causes additional sheath losses because the presence of armour wires reduces sheath resistance, since both
armour and sheath are connected in parallel, and the losses are largest when the sheath circuit resistance is
equal to its reactance. Without armour wires, the reactance of the sheath is always very much smaller than
the resistance. To minimise this increase in losses, armour wires made of high resistance material such as
copper-silicon-manganese alloy are sometimes used. Please note that the losses in the sheath and armour
combination could be several times the conductor losses, depending on the bonding arrangements of the
sheaths and armour [1].

PowerFactory is capable of modelling a simple, double or cross bonded configuration, for cable systems using
single core cables. For a pipe cable, and for the single core cable systems, a bond between the sheath and the
armour is also available. A schematic example of a cross-bonded configuration is shown in the figure below.
The dashed lines represent the sheath and/or armour.

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Figure 5.1: Cross bonding connection scheme

References

[1] Anders, G., “Rating of Electrical Power Cables: Ampacity Computations for Transmission, Distribution, and
Industrial Applications”, IEEE Press, 1997.