A Comparative Analysis of the Economic Performance of New Energy-saving Wires Based on Life Cycle Cost

Abstract

Many types of new wires are rapidly emerging to address the increasingly wide gap between power supply and demand for both residential and industrial needs. Based on the characteristics of a transmission line construction project, this paper presents a comparative analysis of the economic performance of three new wire types (a new steel core aluminum strand wire with high electrical conductivity, a new aluminum alloy core aluminum stranded wire, and a new medium-strength aluminum alloy conductor) for a 500 kV transmission condition based on life cycle cost. The results of the analysis show that under the conditions of constant transmission capacity, annual loss hours, electricity price and recovery rate for the electric power project, the annual cost of the new steel core aluminum stranded high-conductivity wire is the highest, and the annual cost of the new medium-strength aluminum alloy wire is the lowest of all three wire types studied. The new medium-strength aluminum alloy wire is optimal from an economic perspective.