Installation

The use of new high performance materials, such as cross-linked polyethylene (XLPE), has allowed cable manufacturers to produce thinner, more flexible cables for a given electrical service. These cables can be produced, shipped and handled in longer lengths and are easier to handle during installation. This reduces manufacturing and installation time and costs because of longer production runs, reduced number of shipments, fewer cable joints and improved handling during installation.

Cables can be installed using a range of techniques, allowing costs to be controlled and installations to be engineered to suit the environments and risks that they face in service.

• Mechanised trench laying methods avoid extensive excavations and transport of material
• Trenchless methods of cable installation, such as thrust boring and directional drilling, reduce time installing cables around other infrastructure, such as motorways and railway crossings, or in sensitive rural areas where existing habitats must remain undisturbed
• Installation of cables in mini tunnels allow the use of longer cable lengths that save on joints, installation time and costs

The engineering around the cable can also be optimized to provide special levels of protection to the cable and to the surrounding environment. For example, in rural areas it my be appropriate for the cables to be direct buried in a trench, with labeling above the system only to warn farmers and constructors from inadvertent disturbance to the cable and its surrounding. In the urban environment, where construction and utilities maintenance is a constant disturbance hazard, cables may be laid in concrete ducts with concrete lids. Lastly, the cable trench or conduit system may, in certain cases, be surrounded with metal shielding structures to ensure that minimal magnetic fields are emitted in service.

View pictures of actual installations.