Insights into the Thermal Performance of Underground High Voltage Electricity Transmission Lines through Thermo-Hydraulic Modelling

In this paper, a flexible numerical framework to provide thermal performance assessment for the underground buried cables, considering different geological and meteorological conditions, has been presented. Underground cables tend to retain the heat produced in the conductor, so complex coupled thermo-hydraulic response of the porous medium surrounding the cables needs to be assessed to prevent cable overheating and the associated reduction in cable capacity for carrying current. Applying a coupled thermo-hydraulic model within the developed numerical framework to conduct a health assessment on a subset of National Grid Electricity Transmission’s underground cables, this study provides novel insights into the thermal behaviour of buried circuits. The results indicate that backfill and surrounding native soil have the dominant effect on the thermal behaviour of cables, while the amount of precipitation and ambient temperature were found to have less impact on cable’s thermal behaviour. The findings strongly infer that the nature of the overloading which is undertaken in practice would have no ongoing negative impact, suggesting that more frequent or longer duration overloading regimes could be tolerated. Overall, this study demonstrates how the developed numerical framework could be harnessed to allow safe rating adjustments of buried transmission circuits.