Comparison of MV underground cables environmental impacts through a careful use of life cycle analysis (LCA) results disclosed in environmental product declarations (EPD)

Most cable manufacturers publish Environmental Product Declarations (EPD) for their products. These documents, to be published, must comply with some specific requirements, as stated in documents called Product Category Rules (PCR), and, if needed, for more detailed categories of products, in documents called Product Specific Rules (PSR). Both PCR and PSR are publicly available and specify the Functional Unit (FU) and the hypothesis that must be used to realize a Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) for a given type of product, so that the calculated LCA environmental impacts indicators of similar products are comparable. 10 medium voltage (MV) underground cable PEP Ecopassport® Environmental Declarations, from different cable manufacturers, complying with the requirements from two documents: PCR “PCR-ed4-EN-2021 09 06”, related to electrical equipment and PSR “PSR-0001-ed4-EN-2022 11 16” related to cables, have been analysed. This analysis showed that these documents contain valuable environmental information and highlight the efforts made by cable manufacturers to eco-design their products. As such, the publication of those documents should be encouraged, for the benefit of all.