What is the expected lifespan of a high-voltage cable system?
The answer to this depends entirely on who you ask. Manufacturers of cables and cable equipment tend to operate with an expected lifespan of about 30 years. Various studies based on empirical data indicate that one can expect a lifespan somewhere between 40 and 80 years.
The lifespan of a facility is affected by a number of factors that are difficult to predict at year 0. A facility is exposed to a number of environmental and operational stressors that affect its lifespan.
So what can a facility owner do to influence the lifespan of the facility?
Firstly, they can ensure that the plant is dimensioned and designed for the relevant operating conditions. Secondly, they can ensure that the plant is not delivered with weaknesses. This requires that there are requirements for final inspection of the plant in its entirety.
Based on this, there is a high probability that the plant will exceed the manufacturers' expected lifespan.
During the life cycle, it would also be wise to carry out condition checks. This provides an ongoing assessment of the status quo and the opportunity to implement improvements along the way.
If you wait to make repairs until breakdowns occur, you risk that the short-circuit current and increased electrical stress will damage and degrade the cable, joints and terminations, causing the system to deteriorate more quickly.
In other words, it will pay off to be ahead of a breakdown.
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