Method of estimating the remaining life of the 10kV XLPE cable operated 10 years

A used XLPE cable was cut into more than ten sections as samples in testing, so was a new one of XLPE. These samples of each cable were divided into tow groups. A series of high-voltage tests on samples were done one by one. The test voltage of each group of samples was raised step by step until breakdown. It is determined by the method of linear regression analysis that the statistical distribution of breakdown voltages of each group of samples follows Weibull's distribution. According to the ratio of average breakdown voltages for the used and the new cable samples in testing, the operating years, the ageing rate and the remaining life of the used cable insulation are estimated in this paper.