JMCA to Confirm Energy Saving for Larger Sized Electric Cable

Japanese Electric Wire & Cable Makers’ Association (JCMA) starts demonstration experiment for conductor size up of low voltage electric cable through cooperation with Japan Electric Cable Technology Center (JECTEC). They try to confirm lower electricity cost and carbon dioxide emission by replacing inner plant distribution cable into larger diameter cable. They expect around 1% lower CO2 emission for nationwide emission when Japanese major plants use the larger cable. The experiment takes 3-4 months and 5 million yen for every 1 kilometers cable. They plan a couple of experiments in fiscal 2008 ending March 2009. They get support by International Copper Association to increase the copper usage with larger sized cable. The larger sized cable reduces the power distribution loss, which is usually around 7% from power station to users’ acceptance station and around 7% from acceptance station to using facilities, due to lower electric resistance. They expect triplex type XLPE Cable with 100 square millimeters of conductor cross section could reduce cost by around 5 million yen per year for standard sized plant compared with traditional 38 square mm of cable, which represents around 5 years of pay off for the higher initial cost. Lower electric resistance also reduces heat value reducing the CO2 emission. With double sized electricity cable in Japanese plants, Japanese CO2 emission could decrease by around 1% for total emission in fiscal 1990. With larger cable, Japanese annual electric wire demand increases to around 1 million tonnes in copper volume compared with around 850,000 tonnes of domestic shipment in copper volume in fiscal 2007.