Cables & Power Network Calculations
Cables & Power Network Calculations
By
Ahmed Besheer
Senior Electrical Design Engineer
at Schneider Electric
1 L.V Conventional Cables Construction
7 Fire Cables
12 Voltage Drop
13 Short Circuit
14 Solved Example
L.V Conventional
Cables Construction
Low Voltage Cable Construction
1. Conductor
• AL
• CU
2. Insulation or Dielectric
• PVC (Polyvinyl Chloride) - “Thermoplastic”
• XLPE (Cross-linked polyethylene) - “Thermoset”
3. Filler or Assembly
• PVC or Polypropylene to fill spaces between cores to make the round form of cable.
• Polypropylene tape is used as a barrier tape over the laid up cores. Such tape(s) will bind the
cores together and prevents them from opening out
4. Bedding or Inner jacket or Inner Sheath
• PVC bedding , Mandatory in case of armoured cables.
• Used under cable armouring to protect the laid up
cores and as a separation sheath
5. Armouring
• Steel tape or wire tape , it is used for protection of
cable against mechanical stresses.
• XLPE (Thermo-Setting)
❖ Higher cost
❖ Max. operating temp. = 90 °C
❖ Max. short circuit temp. = 250 °C
❖ Highly resistant against humidity
❖ Rigid, doesn’t Soften at high temperatures
❖ Superior electrical properties (XLPE Cables provides higher current rating than PVC cables for same C.S.A
❖ Superior Moisture resistance capability than PVC cables.
❖ Longer service life compared to PVC Cables
❖ XLPE Cable is environment friendly compared with PVC insulated Cable while burning
7. According to Armouring
• Armoured STA
❖ STA (Steel Tape Armouring)
❖ SWA (Steel Wire Armouring)
❖ DST (Double Steel Tape Armouring)
❖ ATA (Aluminum Tape Armouring)
❖ AWA (Aluminum Wire Armouring)
• Non-Armoured
SWA
General Hints
about Cables
General Hints about cables
✓ Stranded conductors are preferable than solid conductors due to skin effect.
Stranded Solid
Sectoral Circular
Self Study Question
“Q2”
Self Study Question “Q2”
✓ State Difference between SWA & STA Armoured cables
regarding below mentioned points:
• Overall Cable Diameter.
• Overall Cable Weight.
✓ State When to use Full Neutral Cables & Half Neutral Cables.
How to write
Conventional cables
on SLD
Cables Wires
• (4x240) CU/XLPE/PVC • 3X(1X6) CU/PVC
+(1x120) CU/PVC
• (3x240+1X120) CU/PVC/PVC
+(1x120) CU/PVC
• 2//(4x240) CU/XLPE/PVC
+(1x240) CU/PVC
• 4//(4x240) CU/XLPE/PVC
+2//(1x240) CU/PVC
Fire Cables
INTRODUCTION
✓ Note: LS0H cables have Flame Retardancy properties according to most of cables manufacturers.
What is meant be: fire retardant cable?
o Cables which doesn’t spread fire rapidly according to test certificates IEC / BS.
o Cables which are self-extinguishing.
For Example:
BS EN / IEC 60332-3-22 (CAT A): is the most severe test:
sample of cables of length of 3.5m at least, fixed vertically on a ladder, then to be exposed to a flame of
70.000 Btu/h for a period of (40) minutes.
Length of the damage will be measured, the length of charred position on the test sample should not have
reached a height exceeding 2.5 m above the bottom edge of the burner.
Flame Resistance Cables
The highest category for BS 6387 is CWZ where the three tests are performed on the three samples of the same cable.
▪ Planning & Design aspects to use Fire Cables:
▪ Laid in ground
✓ Directly buried in ground
✓ Buried in ground inside conduit
✓ Buried in ground inside duct bank “Concrete encasement”
▪ In conduits
✓ Inside wall
Cables Derating
Factors Overview
Type of Circuit Breakers
LV C.Bs
Miniature Circuit Breaker Molded Case Circuit Breaker Air Circuit Breaker
MCB MCCB ACB
Type of trip units trip units
Overload protection
✓Both trip units serve the same thermal relay long time
primary function:
• to provide overcurrent protection,
• to provide the disconnection
magnetic relay short time
of a circuit carrying an excess
current. Short-circuit protection
Choice of protection devices
TM
M.L
Relation between
(Protective device ,
Cable & Load)
𝑝 𝑺
IB = or IB = For 3-phase load
√ 3 𝑥 𝑉 𝑥 𝑃.𝐹 √ 3𝑥𝑉
In > IB
In
It =
C.F (𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙)
It is the target cable current carrying capacity / target cable Ampacity.
C.F (𝒕𝒐𝒕𝒂𝒍) is the Resultant Correction factor or Resultant Derating factor according to cable installation surrounding
conditions.
Finally the below condition should be applied:
IZ ≥ It > In > Ib
IZ is the standard current carrying capacity or Cable Ampacity of cable mentioned in catalogues / codes.
Voltage Drop
(mv/A/m)𝑥 𝐼𝑏 𝑥 𝐿
V.Dind = = … (v)
1000
Where:
V.D = Voltage Drop (v)
(mv/A/m) = specific voltage drop
L = cable length (m)
Ib = Base current or load current (A)
NOTE:
The previous lows are for individual V.D
Accumulated V.D = Individual V.D + Up stream voltage drop
Accumulated V.D % = 5 % according to NEC
Accumulated V.D % = 2.5 % according to EGY. CODE
𝑉.𝐷 (𝑎𝑐𝑐𝑢𝑚𝑢𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑑)
V.D% = … (%)
𝑆𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑐𝑒 𝑉𝑜𝑙𝑡𝑎𝑔𝑒
Short Circuit
The negative effects of short-circuits on installations:
Thermal effects
temperature rise in conductors.
Mechanical effects
High electrodynamic forces, High risk of electrical contacts or busbars being deformed or broken.
Electromagnetic effects
Disturbances for measuring devices located near electrical circuits.
𝑉𝑛.𝑙
Is.c = = … short circuit current (KA)
𝑍𝑡
Where:
Vn.L = No load ( L-N ) secondary voltage of distribution transformer (V)
Zt = Total impedance contributing in s.c level (m.Ω)
Transformer Impedance
Transformer Impedance
Cable Impedance
𝐿
Rc = ρ
𝐴
Where:
• Rc = Cable resistance (Ω)
• ρ = Resistivity constant of conductor material (mΩ.mm2/M)
• 𝜌𝑐𝑢 = 23.69 mΩ.mm2/M
• 𝜌𝐴𝑙 = 37.65 mΩ.mm2/M
• L = Cable length (M)
• A = Cross sectional area (mm2)
Xc =
Motors Contribution in Short circuit Value
Short circuit Rating of M.V network acc. To Egy. Code:
Solved Example