Increasing the current carrying capacity of overhead power cable by wet blasting…
Power cable needs to transmit electricity over large distances as efficiently as possible to help reduce running costs.
And cables operating at lower temperatures transmit power more efficiently because a cooler cable has lower resistance.
The non-specular finish created by wet blasting power cable increases emissivity to approx. 0.8 - untreated cable is approx. 0.5.
Higher emissivity leads to more heat being emitted. So, a cable with higher emissivity operates at lower temperatures as it can more easily emit excess heat.
An increase in current carrying capacity of around 5% can be achieved due to the increase in surface emissivity.
