A new approach to the statistical enlargement law for comparing the breakdown performances of power cables - Part 1: theory

This paper, the first of two companion papers, describes a new approach to the application of the statistical "enlargement law" to power cable insulation. The results of this work allow for selecting better insulation for medium or high voltage cables. The selection is based on the results of dielectric strength tests performed on cable models or full size cables of a limited length. The relevance of the so-called crossing length, where one insulating compound performs better below it and another compound above this length, is discussed. The proposed theory was used to analyze the performances of two ethylene-propylene rubber (EPR) compounds and two cross-linked polyethylene (XLPE) compounds. The results are presented in the companion paper.