Life Cycle Analysis Considerations for a Resilient Energy Grid

For the past 37 years, cable rejuvenation has been integral in the system resiliency programs of more than 300 utilities worldwide. During that time, more than 50 million meters of their aged underground medium and high-voltage cable has been rejuvenated through silicone injection. This technology extends the reliable service of aged cable by more than 40 years through a non-invasive process that restores dielectric strength and retards future water-tree growth. As a result, utilities have extended the reach of their capital budgets, improved their reliability indices, exceeded rehabilitation targets and reduced carbon emissions by over 660,000 metric tons of global warming potential. This presentation will highlight the methodologies and key findings from a comparative study on the life-cycle analysis (LCA) of cable rejuvenation and cable replacement. The work was conducted by an independent firm according to the life cycle inventory (LCI) and life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) standards established by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) life cycle assessment standards ISO 14040 series. Through comparison of the global warming potential (GWP) for these two options, the data reveals a 99.9% savings in kilograms of CO<inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</inf>-eq when cable rejuvenation is selected to extend the life of power cables over replacement.