Study about the effect of increasing the conductor size for electric wires and cable which shall be able to reduce the quantity of CO² emissions

Abstract

The results of the LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) analysis of electric cables revealed that over the full life cycle，cables cause greater CO₂ emissions when they are being used to conduct electricity than when they are manufactured. This CO₂ results from the generation of extra power necessary to make up for transmission losses. The only way of reducing these transmission losses，and hence CO₂ emissions， is to increase the size of the copper conductor as well as to raise voltages from 100V to 200V. The estimations based on the IEC standard showed that the life cycle cost of CV-T cables can be minimized by increasing the conductor siz e by a factor of two on average. Assuming that the CV-T cables used in Japan are entirely replaced in 20 years，the conductor size increases were found to reduce power loss by 35 GkWh per year，which corresponds to the capacity of four to five 1.1 MkW power stations. The replacement will also reduce CO₂ emissions by an unexpected 14.8 million tons per year，or as much as 1.17 % of the total CO₂ emissions in Japan of 1,261 million tons per year. Finally， authors have found out that these conductor size increases are more effective measure for CO₂ emissions reductions than the voltage raising to 200V.