Assessing thermal behavior of medium voltage cable joints through simulations and measurements

In the last years, an anomalous number of faults in underground medium voltage cable lines is reported in literature, especially during hottest months. This work presents a thermal analysis of MV cable joints by means of a measurement campaign and simulations leveraging a model based on electrical thermal equivalence. During measurement campaign one-year data have been gathered applying real operating conditions whilst internal temperatures are monitored. Furthermore, the developed model was used to carry out a sensitivity analysis about the effects of ground thermal properties on joint heating. Measurements and simulation results show that the joint is a cold part of an underground cable line; overheating does not occur in any considered scenarios, even in the most critical ones, assuming that the component is well packaged and operated within prescribed limits.