Conference Record of the 1998 IEEE International Symposium on Electrical Insulation, Arlington, Virginia, USA, June 7-10, 1998
XLPE MATERIALS FOR EXTRUDED HIGHEXTRA-HIGH
VOLTAGE TRANSMISSION CABLES
by
L. H. Gross”, J. S. Furno, C. G. Reid, A. Mendelsohn
Union Carbide Corporation
P. 0. Box 450, Somerset, NJ 08875 U.S.A.
Abstract
High quality high voltage and extra-high voltage
extruded dielectric transmission cables can be made
with the use of appropriate insulation and
semiconductive materials and with special processing
equipment. The requirements for the cleanliness of the
insulation products are defined. The methods required
to produce, test and maintain high levels of cleanliness
are also elucidated.
The criticality of the smoothness of the semiconductive
conductor shields is described and the methods used for
producing and testing these shields are also explained.
Cable data showing excellent transmission properties
for these extruded dielectric cables are presented.
Introduction
High voltage and extra-high voltage (up to 500 kV)
extruded dielectric AC cable usage is growing around
the world, especially in urban areas. Some of the recent
projects include the 500 kV Berlin BEWAG project,
Copenhagen Loop (420 kV), Australia 275 kV,
Montreal 315 kV, Irian Jaya Indonesia (230 kV),
Wuhan 220 kV, and a number of projects within Japan.
As early as 1988 Tokyo Electric Power installed 500
kV XLPE cables without any joints. There are
experimental evaluations of cables for even higher
voltages.
Extruded dielectric high and extra-high (HV/EHV)
voltage dielectric cables are an important factor in high
voltage transmission. The primary reason for their use
is that extruded dielectric HV/EHV constructions
provide long life cables with excellent overall
properties. Because the insulation is made from
specially designed polyethylene, these cables have very
low dielectric losses and, because they are crosslinked,
have excellent thermal and mechanical aging
characteristics and have higher permissible operating
temperatures than paper-oil cables. There are
continuing improvements in the technology for
prefabricated splices and terminations which also assist
in the growth of HV/EHV cables.
0-7803-4927-X/98/$10.000 1998 IEEE
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Processing
The HV and EHV extruded dielectric cables are made
with advanced materials and with advanced process
technology equipment. One critical aspect of the
processing is the ability to maintain a high degree of
concentricity. Various methods are employed to
maintain concentricity for these cables which generally
have thick insulation layers, e.g. up to 32 mm of
insulation thickness. Processing concentricity may be
maintained through the use of vertical CVs, MDCVs,
and, with care, catenary CVs. In addition to maintaining
concentricity, maintaining cleanliness is also a very
critical part of making HVEHY cables.
The material manufacturers are capable of providing
insulation products with the required cleanliness. Cable
manufacturers need to have process facilities and
process controls which will allow them to maintain the
high levels of cleanliness of the materials as-supplied.
These facilities include true triple crossheads, staged
clean rooms, sealed materials handling systems from
the receiving station to the extruder, gravity flow,
filtered air, computer controls, stainless steel materials
of construction, and fine screen packs for the insulation
and, in some cases, even for the semiconductive
extruder. The use of the dry-curing and dry-cooling
process is also an essential part of making a high
voltage cable in order to reduce the number of voids.
Some equipment manufacturers also provide a
continuous visual monitoring system of the insulation
material as it exits the insulation extruder and passes
into the crosshead. This equipment, while still early in
its commercial stage, affords the cable manufacturer
with a method to monitor the cleanliness of the
insulation as it will be utilized in the cable.
Materials
HV/EHV cables are composed of numerous layers. The
key layers for electrical performance are the insulation
and the conductor shield and the bonded insulation
shield. The insulation must be sufficiently clean to
afford the cable with excellent electrical properties, e.g.
dissipation factor and breakdown strength. The shields
must be sufficiently smooth and clean to provide
adequate electrical stress protection.
Insulation
HViEHV cables are produced with constructions which
are intended to keep them dry radially and
longitudinally. Hence, electrical aging of and tree
formation within the insulation are the most important
properties for determining the life of an HV/EHV cable.
One theory [l, 21 of electrical aging proposes that
cables fail due to molecular fatigue and the resulting
submicrocavity formation. In this theory, the energy of
cohesion of the polymer is an important parameter.
Also, it has been shown that contaminants in the
insulation reduce the time for breakdown of the
insulation [3], probably because of the change they
produce in the local electrical field and their tendency
to create microcavities.
Therefore, two key factors in the electrical tree
retardance of an insulation is determined by the bulk
insulation cleanliness and by the smoothness of the
insulation-conductor semiconductive shield interface.
The cleanliness of the insulation is critical in order for
the cable to have the maximum AC breakdown strength
and also to minimize electrical stress enhancements
from contaminants. For cable designed for more than
69 kV, the generally accepted cleanliness level is zero
contaminants greater than 100 microns in a one
kilogram sample. Such materials are generally referred
to as being “superclean”.
Material manufacturers achieve these levels of
cleanliness in their facilities. In fact, some material
manufacturers’ facilities are capable of making
insulation compounds to even tighter specifications,
e.g. no contaminants greater than 50 microns in a one
kilogram sample. Although there is no accepted
widespread utility specification for this degree of
cleanliness, these materials are used for the highest
voltage cables (up to 500 kV) with the very tightest
control on all specifications.
In order to achieve these high degrees of cleanliness,
specific advanced technologies are required. Probably
first and foremost is a closed , self-contained
manufacturing process which uses stainless steel
materials of construction. Materials handling is by
gravity and clean, filtered air and water should be
utilized. Fine screening needs to be used to ensure that
the product is filtered to a satisfactory degree of
cleanliness. And, finally, packaging containers need to
be utilized which will maintain the degree of
cleanliness produced in the manufacturing operation.
Contamination detection is required and must be done
in a clean room. A thin tape is usually
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produced and a laser camera system is used to detect,
mark, count, and monitor the sizes of the contaminants.
Any large contaminants need to be viewed visually to
determine their origin and to establish that the process
is in control. Usually if any larger particles are found,
it is an indication of a sporadic event, while the number
of smaller particles is a measure of the overall unit
capability.
Transporting the materials from the manufacturing
facility to the cable manufacturers plant is
accomplished with dedicated cars or boxes or with
bottom unloading (gaylord) boxes. In either case, the
critical feature is that the material be capable of being
loaded into the cable manufacturers facility in a manner
which does not compromise the cleanliness of the
product. Boxes which ensure a closed system from the
box to the customer’s facility are required to maintain
the cleanliness.
High levels of cleanliness are the most critical for EHV
cables, since higher electrical stresses exist in the higher
voltage cables. For example, a 15 kV cable will
typically have an insulation thickness of 175 mils (4.4
mm), or an average operating electrical stress of about
50 V/mil (2 kV/mm). This is in contrast to a 138 kV
rated cable which would have an insulation thickness of
850 mils (22 mm) for an average operating stress of
almost 100 V/mil(4 kV/mm). And a 500 kV cable with
a 1260 mil (32 mm) insulation thickness will have an
average operating electrical stress of 230 V/mil (10
kV/mm). As the need to reduce the thickness is a
continuing goal (for transportation, handling, and
pulling through conduits), even higher electrical
stresses will be encountered. As higher electrical
stresses are encountered, the need for cleaner insulation
products and for smoother interfaces between the
insulation and semiconductive materials becomes even
more critical.
In addition to the cleanliness of the insulation material,
options exist as to the molecular weight of the
compounds to be used. The “standard” 2 MI product is
quite common for medium voltage and vertical CV
HVEHV applications. Some more demanding
applications with thicker insulation layers or in which
an MDCV is used may require the use of the higher
molecular weight, nominal 1 MI product. This higher
molecular weight material has less “sag” on the cable as
the cable is being produced, hence, maintaining
concentricity is easier. Once the cable is produced and
crosslinked, there is virtually no difference in the
properties of the cable, whether it is made from the
“standard” 2 MI or the “low sag” 1 MI product.
 Insulation: Electrical Cable Data
Extruded dielectric cables made with a “low sag” Impulse testing at 130C likewise showed excellent
material have very successfully passed the 138 kV performance. The cables were tested per the
AEIC CS7 specifications. The cables meet all the specification of 600 and 815 kV. Cable breakdowns
electrical criteria, have a very low dissipation factor, only occurred at greater than 1500 kV impulse levels.
and pass the HVTT and the 130C hot impulse test
easily (see Figures 1 and 2) [4,5]. Semiconductive Conductor Shield Material
As stated earlier, interfacial smoothness between the
700
semiconductive conductor shield and the primary
572* 572* insulation is one of the most important variables with
respect to the minimization of electrical degradation of
the XLPE insulation. Defects at the conductive-
insulation interface cause an electrical stress
enhancement. There are two components to the stress
concentration; the stress due to the geometry of the
defect derived from electrostatics, and the stress due to
space charge accumulation near the defect. Geometric
1 2 3 effects are very well understood, whereas the space
Sample Number charge contribution is still an active area of research.
Electrical stress enhancement at the conductive-
insulation interface is commonly estimated to be on the
order of h/r, where h is the base plane height of the
* No Breakdown Obtained, Equipment LimitationsEncountered conductive defect and r is the tip radius of the defect.
Figure 1 HVTT Results from a 138 kV cable utilizing a This is a first order approximation which is useful only
supersmooth semiconductive conductor shield and a “low for comparison. Closed form solutions for stress
sag” 0.9 MI high voltage insulation product extruded on an enhancement due to the flat oblique protrusion typically
MDCV line (produced and tested by Alcatel Canada Wire and found on extruded semiconductive materials are very
presented at the Fall 1992 ICC meeting). intractable and elusive. Finite element modeling has
been the preferred approach for estimation of stress
concentration due to various simulated defect
2500 geometries. Typical semiconductive defects are
Unaged
CB Aged estimated to have stress enhancement factors on the
2000 order of 2, whereas sharp tip defects (which are found
T CB
E
m 1500
T on semiconductive tape shields) have stress factors on
the order of 10 to 100.
0
r
The maximum theoretical stress within the solid
$
U)
1000
dielectric insulated cable is at the conductor shield
c“ interface. The maximum interfacial stress in a 35kV
500
small conductor cable is 4 kV/mm at the semicon
0 interface. For the case of a 420 kV design in
1 2 3 4 commercial use, the maximum stress is 12 kV/mm.
Sample Number With the higher design stress in HV and EHV cables,
the stress concentration at the interface is even more
8650 kV level 0815 kV level .Steps to Breakdown
important. For the 420 kV design, a stress
T=Temination Flashover CB=Cable Breakdown enhancement of 2 can be tolerated with minimal
degradation to the XLPE, but a stress enhancement on
Figure 2 Impulse Results for 130 C Conductor the order of 10 will create localized field stress >lo0
Temperature for Same 138 kV Cable of Figure 1 kV/mm which will result in degradation of the XLPE.
Current dielectric research has demonstrated that the
In the high voltage time test, the specification calls fo predicted electrostatic stress at the conductive-
testing at four hours at 200 kV and one hour at 300 kV insulation interface is well below the actual stress value
Cables made with a high voltage insulation product due to space charge effects, even in AC fields. Due to
easily passed these tests and gave no breakdown up to the superimposed electrical stress of space charge at the
the limitations of the equipment, i.e. at least up to 470 semiconductive interface, minimization of the localized
kV. field enhancement due to geometric protrusions
becomes even more important. It has not yet been

540
 determined experimentally, but it is presumed that
conductive defects at the interface may enhance space
charge injection into the dielectric.
Supersmooth semiconductive shields are the preferred
materials for HV and EHV cables. The characteristic of
supersmooth products is at least an order of magnitude
reduction in the area density of surface protrusions
(number per square area at the conductive-insulation
interface) for defects less than 50 microns in height, and
an absence of defects larger than 50 microns, relative to
conventional conductor shield products.
Supersmooth conductor shields are engineered from
acetylene black, whereas conventional semiconductive
shield utilize fiunace carbon black. Acetylene black is
a very pure form of carbon produced through the auto-
decomposition of acetylene gas. This attribute of
conductive-insulation interface has been shown by
many researchers to demonstrably improve HV and
EHV cable properties in short term tests such as
impulse breakdown strength, and in long term tests
such as dry aged life tests. Supersmooth conductor
shields have also been shown to improve cable
performance in medium voltage cables in wet
accelerated tests, as shown in Figure 5. Because of the
proven benefit to cable breakdown stress and longevity,
supersmooth conductor shields are strongly
recommended for all voltages of shielded solid
dielectric cables.
1
n
N

acetylene black allow for production of semiconductive E

materials which are free of foreign residue greater than
50 microns and surface smoothness far superior to
conventional products. Furnace carbon blacks, on the
z
\

b
.3

other hand, are produced by the combustion of oil 8

CI
based feedstock and contain 25 micron residue on the
order of 10-100 ppm and oxygen content of 0.4 to .3

1.O%.
The smoothness of semiconductive shields can be EI
PI
measured with several different methods. The most
common approach is to inspect a ribbon of material
extruded with a small laboratory extruder. These 20 30 40 50 >=60
ribbons, 1 mm thick, model the smoothness that can be Protrusion Height (microns)
expected when the materials are extruded on to full size Figure 3 Surface Smoothness of Conventional (m) and
cables. Figure 3 depicts the smoothness of Supersmooth (0)semiconductive materials as measured with
conventional and supersmooth semiconductive lasar profilometry i.e. SEED, Surface Excellence Evaluation
materials as measured with a laser based device which Device, a modified Uninop instrument.
measures the height of surface protrusions greater than
20 microns in height. Other methods, such as
interferometry, can be used as well to evaluated surface
smoothness. Interferometric measurements of extruded
semiconductive products show the average roughness
(average deviation from a flat plane) of supersmooth
products to be on the order of 0.2 microns, whereas
conventional products are on the order of 1.O microns.
Figure 4 shows the results of AC stepped breakdown
tests (HVTT) for identical XLPE insulated cables with
different conductor shields. These shields are
formulated from the same polymer, poly(ethy1ene-co-
ethylacrylate), and were manufactured at the same 20 40 60 80
facility. The difference between the two shields is that Breakdown Strength (kV/mm)
one was produced with fiunace carbon black, and the
other is a supersmooth semiconductive shield produced
Figure 4 AC Stepped Breakdown Strength (HVTT)for
with acetylene black. The smoothness difference identical un-aged XLPE cables with Conventional (W) and
between these two materials was 1.5 orders of Supersmooth (0) conductor shields (same materials as
magnitude. characterized in Figure 3. 15kV designs, AWG #2 (34 "2)
Extra High Voltage cables are manufactured aluminum conductor, 4.4 mm XLPE insulation, strippable
exclusively with supersmooth conductor shields due to insulation shield. Cables manufactured for Union Carbide.
the demonstrated benefits. Improved smoothness of the Conventional shield: Weibull Eo = 35 kV/mm, beta = 3.8
Supersmooth shiled: Weibull Eo = 46 kV/mm, beta = 5.2

541
 10 100 lo00
Failure T i (days)

Figure 5 Accelerated Cable Life Tests (ACLT) on XLPE Cables with various conductor shields; Conventional shields
From 1987 (e),Conventional shields from 1992 (0), and Supersmooth shields (4). Cable design and materials are the
pame as in Figure 2; 15kV designs, AWG #2 (34 mm2)aluminum conductor, 4.4 mm XLPE insulation, strippable
lnsulation shield. Aging Conditions; 4uo stress (8 kV/mm), 9OoC conductor (cycled 8/16hr), 5OoC de-ionized water
tank; water in conductor strands.

Conclusions
Engineered materials and processes exist to meet the
highest demands of high voltage and extra-high voltage
extruded dielectric transmission cables. Materials are
capable of being produced with very high levels of
cleanliness and with an excellent combination
of electrical properties. Cable manufacturers utilize
these materials to produce high quality HV/EHV
cables.
Acknowledgments
Numerous helpful discussions with Union Carbide
Corporation colleagues from the Weston Canal and
Montreal R&D Centers and the Seadrift manufacturing
site and with personnel from the research group at
Nippon Unicar Company, Japan, are gratefully
acknowledged.
References
[ l ] C. Dang, J.-L. Parpal and J.-P. Crine, “Electrical
Aging of Extruded Dielectric Cables-Review of
Existing Theories and Data”, IEEE Transactions of
DEI, Vol. 3, pp.237-247, 1996.
[2] J.-L. Parpal, J.-P. Crine and C. Dang, “Electrical
Aging of Extruded Dielectric Cables-A Physical
Model”, IEEE Transactions of DEI, Vol. 4, pp. 197-
209, 1997.
[3] S . Kitai, S . Asai, and H. Kenechi, “Long-term
Aging Phenomena of XLPE Cable”, Proceedings of
Jicable 87 Conference, pp. 446-450, 1987.
[4] Hartley, M. D. and Hintze, F. W., “Recent High
Voltage XLPE Cable Developments”, ICC Fall 1992
Meeting Minutes, St. Petersburg, FL, November, 1992,
Appendix V-M- 1.
[5] Gross, L. H., “New High Voltage XLPE Insulation
Material”, ICC Fall 1992 Meeting Minutes, St.
Petersburg, FL, November, 1992, Appendix V-L- 1.

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