LV Power (PVC and XLPE) Cable, Wire and Cords

Low Voltage 0.6kV/1kV

LV POWRE CABLE-HA- COF

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The below References are used:
1- Switchgear manual by A. Hoppner.
2- Practical Fundamental of electrical construction by Ahmed
Abd Al-Mtal.
3- Mechanisms and modes for ignition of low voltage PVC
cables, wires and cords by Vytenis Babrauskas, Ph.D.

Low Voltage (0.6kV /1kV) power cables

Prepared by: Hawree Mohammed Sidqi

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Abbreviation:
A Ampere

AC Alternating current

Al Aluminum

CF Conversion factor

CF1 Conversion factor 1

CF2 Conversion factor 2

Cu Copper

DC Direct Current

HV High Voltage

kV Kilo Volt

L Distance between the load and the power supply

LV Low voltage

PE Polyethylene

PVC Polyvinyl chloride

R Resistance

Vd Voltage drop

XLPE Cross Linked Polyethylene

XL Inductance

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Index
1 Abstract………………………………………………………………………5
2 Introduction………………………………………………………………..6
3 LV power cable structure…………………………………………….7
4 Metal Core…………………………………………………………………..9
4.1 Copper Core…………………………………………………………9
4.2 Aluminum Core……………………………………………………10
5 Type of Insulation of LV power cables…………………………11
5.1 Thermoplastic……………………………………………………..11
5.2 Thermo sets…………………………………………………………12
6 Cable external protection layer……………………………………13
7 Cable Cross section selection……………………………………….14
8 Current-Carrying Capacity Calculation………………………….16
9 Call Drop Calculation…………………………………………………….18
10 LV Power Cable protection……………………………….19
11 Appendixes………………………………………………………20
11.1 Appendix A……………………………………………………………20
11.2 Appendix B……………………………………………………………21
11.3 Appendix C……………………………………………………………22
11.4 Appendix D…………………………………………………………...23
11.5 Appendix E…………………………………………………………….24

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1 Abstract
The purposes of this document are:

1- Providing some topics on the insulation types of the LV power

cables, and their type as well

2- How the engineer can select the proper cable in work

environment in term of metal of cable, cross section, current-
carrying capacity, Low voltage drop and etc. ?

3- How the selected cable can be protected?

Thus, it is so important while any projects that may be included

the electrical affairs especially the cabling or wiring part have to
be planned and designed in proper way.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………

2012

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2 Introduction
Low voltage power cables, wire and cords (0.6/1kV) are used in most of
electrical project like low voltage side of distribution transformer,
buildings, low voltage network, control board of motors, control boards
in Diesel generators, Telecommunication (DC and AC) power system
and etc..

The selection of LV cables, wire and cords for any types of above
mentioned projects has to be in proper or an engineering way,
otherwise a set of risks will be come up and the cost will be impacted
and some time some disaster may be happened.

So, below are two different types of work that LV power cables and
wires are used as an example:

1- Distribution transformer
Regarding the low voltage side of low
Voltage Transformer, normally the single
Core cable are used.

2- Wiring of building:
Building, workshop, establishment building
Have also needed the engineering plan and
Design.

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3 LV power cable structure
There are two types of Low voltage (0.6/1kV) power cables that are
being used in different fields which are:

1- Single core.
2- Multi-core.

In both types, different metals and different types of insulations cab be

used, in (figure 1 ) generally the structure or the construction of the low
voltage (0.6/1kV) power cable are as below:

Figure 1 General overview of LV power cable structure

 Metal core:
This part of the LV power cable is responsible for carrying the
electrical amperes, it can be either solid or stranded wire and
normally the metal is Aluminum or copper.

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  Insulation:
This part is responsible for insulating the metal core from the
surrounded area, and there are different types of insulations:

1- PVC (Polyvinyl chloride)

2- XLPE (Cross Linked Polyethylene)
3- PE (Polyethylene)

 Bedding, separating sheath, type of armour and outer sheath:

These parts of cable are giving the cable the circular shape,
providing the shielding layer of the cable for availability of
mechanical protection of the cable, providing the protection of
the voltage that are bigger than 1Kv and carrying the error current
that may be happened during the error that may generated due
to earthing system..

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4 Metal Core
Previously as it is mentioned the most popular metal that are used in
the manufacturing of the LV (0.6/1kV) power cable, wire and cords are
copper and aluminum, because these two metals own the high
conductivity.

4.1 Copper Core

Copper metal can be used as a solid metal till

the cross-section area 16mm 2, in

this case the used copper will be

Fermented type so as it will be soft. Figure 2

If more than 16mm 2 cross section is required, it will be stranded wire

over each other and this will be made some

layers and this construction will provide

a soft to the copper conductor and

Increasing in the diameter of this

structure will give a

Benefit of skin effect of Alternating current.

Moreover at ambient temperature 20 Co Figure 3

the resistivity of solid copper metal is 1.777*10-8 Ω.m and the

resistivity of the stranded wire copper metal is 1.724*10 -8 Ω.m.

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4.2 Aluminum Core

Alumiua conductor is cheaper and light weight if it is compared with

copper conducter but there is a shortcoming in Aluminum conductor
which is high resistiveity for exampe if the ambient tempreture is 20 Co
it is 2.803*10-8 Ω.m, thus it will make the diameter of aluminum
conductor become bigger comparing with copper for the same current-
carrying capacity.

Figure 4 LV power cable with Aluminum conductor

In add to that due to high resistance of Aluminum, this give a

benefit to this type which is decreasing the erosion inside the
stranded and in parallel with that there will be some Oxidation
due to weather effect, yes it is right that this oxidation will protect
the conductor from the erosion but the impact will be on the
conductivity.

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5 Type of Insulation of LV power cables
In LV (0.6/1Kv) power cables structure there is one layer which is called
insulation layer, within this layer couple types of insulation can be used
like (PVC, XELP and PE), in the structure of these insulation types, the
polymer material are being used.

Polymer material is divided in two types:

 Thermoplastic.
 Thermo sets.

5.1 Thermoplastic

This type of insulation will be impacted by the temperature, heat will

make it soften and cold will make it harden.

The most important types of Thermoplastic insulator that is used in

cable manufacturing are:

 PVC:
This type is more commonly used and it is In the form of white
powder (Figure 3), and this material is Non-flammable and it
becomes soft at temperature 80C o , the increasing the
temperature to 70Co has to be avoided.
 PE:
In electrical specification point of view it is lower than PVC. And it
is being used in a narrow range in industry it will be used for
protection layer of the cable, it is divided in to two types, low
density it can support till the temperature 70Co and high density it
can support till the temperature 115Co .

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5.2 Thermosets

This type is not effected by the heat , and the most important types
that are used in cable manfacturing are as below:

 Rubber:
There is two types of Rubber, Natural rubber which is used in
narrow range due to the its working temprature 60C o and
industrial rubber which is called Butyl, this one can stand against
Oils and greases, so that it is used in cablieng and wiring in ships.
 XLPE:
This type is the famous one within the Thermosets insulation kind
and the famous one as well in that is being used in insulation of
cables, it can stand the tempretute till 90C o and in add to that due
to the short circuit it can stand the tempreture till 250Co for short
period.

The usage of this insulation is not for only the LV power cable
some time it can be used for HV, the disadvange of this type is,it is
hard material and there will be some diffculities during the
manfacturing process.

Figure 5 CU/XLPE/PVC

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6 Cable external protection layer
Commonly PVC is used for the external layer of the cable, PVC is
characterized by chemical specification and its resistance toward
Organic materials that are available in the soil, but there are some
other external materials that may be destroyed this layer which is
Hydrocarbon component so that extending or drawing the PVC cable
will be avoided in that areas that has like this material.

For that if it is mandatory that there has to be the need of cable in the
areas that may contain Hydrocarbon component so HPDE will be used.

Figure 6 Showing the damaging of PVC cable

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7 Cable Cross section selection
In Previous sections, some ideas are gotten in the type of insulation,
metal core and etc.., currently is a time of how we can select which
cross-section are needed of the LV (0.6/1Kv) power cable?

Reference to Appendix A there a full list of the cross-section types of

copper cable*, thus the load study of the location that is needed the
electricity via LV(0.6/1Kv) power cable/wire are strongly required if you
see the Appendix A the first column is the type of the cross-section of
copper cable, the other columns are the current-carrying capacity of
the type of copper cable so the below data collection has to be taked in
to the consideration:

1- Load study of the location to calculate the required current by

supposing the voltage is low voltage, there is some other study
are needed in term of the calculation which is the diversity factor
has to be applied properly, otherwise the huge amount of
amperes will be required.
2- How many numbers of systems are needed? Single, double, triple
and etc..
3- Is the cable laying in the ground or in the conduits or on the wall
or in air or etc..
4- Proper connector either Cu terminal or Bi-metallic terminal have
to be selected.

Moreover, the selection or the mentioning name of the LV cable has to

be according to the standard like below:
*planning and design in this document is just for copper LV (0.6/1kV) power cables and wire.

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 1- 0.6/1kV PVC cable laid in air: the standard name is N(A)YY or
N(A)YCWY.
2-0.6/1kV XLPE laid in air: the standard name is N(A)2XY.
3-0.6/1kV PVC cable laid in ground: the standard name is
N(A)YY:N(A)YCWY.
4-0.6/1kV XLPE laid in ground: the standard name is N(A)2XY.

Thus according to that the cable will be selected in term of the

insulation, core conductor and etc.. then the current-carrying
calculation and other calculation should be started.

As an example, if the cable is three phase cable it will be:

3*25+16mm2 , Cu PVC N(A)YCWY or in some other resource it is

Cu PVC N(A)YCWY 3*25+16 mm2 both case are correct.

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8 Current-Carrying Capacity Calculation
In section 7 by supposing the load study is done for a building which is a
certain house, for interconnecting it to the low voltage network the
assumption is as follows:

1- The required electrical current is 45A.

2- The engineer selected a pair core system (CU PVC 2*Xmm 2).

X is the cross-section of cu cable that has to be calculated for that the

below equation can be used:

A=current rating in Y * conversion factor for air temperature CF *

conversion factor for laying method CF1*margin ration (85%)

Y: Appendix A

CF: Appendix B

CF1: Appendix C

The current ratings that are mentioned in Appendix A can be applied

for ambient temperature 25Co so that the conversion factor is so
important with this regard.

The result will be:

The engineer has to make an assumption, first the engineer select one
cable size for example 2*10mm 2 so,

A= 66*0.71*1*0.85

A=39.83 A

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So from appendix A 2*10 PVC cable cannot carry the required load so
that 2*16mm2 is the suitable one.

Some time in some environment a single core can be used and as an

example laid on the floor so the below formula must be applied:

Exact current rating= current rating in Y * conversion factor for air

temperature CF * conversion factor for laying method CF1*margin
ration (85%)* conversion factor for grouping in case it is three phase or
more that one core CF2

Y: Appendix A

CF: Appendix B

CF1: Appendix C

CF2: Appendix D

Reference to the above formulas the exact current-capacity will be

achieved.

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9 Call Drop Calculation
In previous sections the suitable cross-section (Cu PVC N(A)YY 2*16mm 2

Was selected then the exact current –carrying capacity was calculated
as well, a very important thing does not have forgotten which is the
voltage drop, it means once the cable type and the current-carrying
capacity were selected it is not meaning that this the end of story and it
has to be implemented.

The distance from the source of the electricity to the destination has to
be measured then the below formula has to be applied for calculating
the amount of voltage that may be dropped within this distance.

Vd= 3 *I*L*(RLcosΦ+XLsinΦ)

Vd= 3 * I*Distance between the source and the destination*resistance

per unit length Rm

Then :

Vd percentage = vd/line voltage or phase voltage

Rm Appendix E

For example:

The distance between the source and destination is 100m

The maximum load is 39A

The resistance per unit length for PF 0.8 is 1.14

Vd= 3 *39*0.1*1.14= 7.7Volte Vd percentage= 7.7/240=3.2% it means
the terminated voltage is 232v
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10 LV Power Cable protection
Once the LV (0.6/1Kv) power cable is designed, there must be some
protection provisioning to be there like the circuit breaker in case it is
high current and miniature circuit breaker if it is for house hold usage.

In this document the main topics are on LV power cables and wires
within the operating voltage from 0.6/1kV.

But the current and the voltage rating of the circuit breaker and the
miniature circuit breaker have to be within the current-carrying
capacity of the LV cables even lower so as it will not be reached to
disaster situation.

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11 Appendixes
11.1 Appendix A

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11.2 Appendix B

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11.3 Appendix C

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11.4 Appendix D

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 11.6 Appendix E

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