Cable joint installation time optimization

Abstract

Emphasis on renewable energy demands power transmission from scattered sources. Underground power transmission and distribution is the key way due to right of way (ROW) and smart city initiative. This is increasing the demand of subterranean cable networks, which is leading to the proportional increase in the installation of cable joints. Cable joint installation is a highly time consuming process requiring very high level of human skill in the form of preparing cable ends by cutting, shaping and polishing them with a very low tolerance, without which the joint becomes the weakest link in the cable network. In view of this rapid growth of joint installations, there is now a two pronged requirement of lowering of installation time and lowering of human skill requirement for cable joint installation. In the present study all the major time consuming steps in the joint installation have been identified. A critical re-look of this decades old process was carried out in terms of materials properties and their influence on the steps involved in the process. Subsequently, based on experiments we propose a novel modification of the cable joint installation process which will lead to a 30% reduction in the installation time with a concomitant reduction in the human skill requirement.