Japan Copper Development Association and ICA hosted workshops in 4 cities with key stakeholders to promote the benefits of moving cabling underground from a local and international perspective.
The Japan Copper Development Association-JCDA-and the International Copper Association-ICA-hosted workshops in Tokyo, Osaka, Sendai and Nagoya called “Comparison of Conductor Material Performance for Underground Cabling and Overseas’ Case-study”.
Underground cabling-UGC-is an important issue in Japan given the high incidence of natural disasters and crowded, dense cities that’s attracted strong public support. A year ago the UGC ratio for Japan had hit 3.35% progress, with the Tokyo area at 5.46%.
ICA/JCDA is actively working with a broad number of interested groups like utility companies and cable manufacturers to understand the issues involved. On top of ongoing research ICA/JCDA is also promoting “Fact of Economic superiority of Cu Cable in UGC”based on various trial and error case study in world wide.
A number of guest speakers spoke at the workshops. Mr. Andreas Karampekios from DNV-GL, a Norwegian based independent institute known for their work in the environment and energy, spoke on their global research into a comparison of copper and aluminium (Al) cables. He said that Al might cost less as an initial investment, but when you look at the life-cycle cost for over 50 years, Al does not have much of an economic advantage.
Mr. Nakajima, of Furukawa Electric, introduced their product and system for cable undergrounding, including their new product of the pipe for UGC conduit.