LAUSR

Abstract This paper presents a modified Jaya algorithm for optimizing the material costs and electric-thermal performance of an Underground Power Cable System (UPCS). A High Voltage (HV) underground cable line with three 400 kV AC cables arranged in flat formation in an exemplary case study is considered. When buried underground, three XLPE high voltage cables are situated in thermal backfill layer for ensuring the optimal thermal performance of the cable system. The study discusses the effect of thermal conductivities of soil and cable backfill material on the UPCS total investment costs. The soil thermal conductivity is assumed constant and equal to 0.8 W/(m K). The cable backfills considered in the study are as follows: sand and cement mix, Fluidized Thermal Backfill™ (FTB) and Powercrete™ a product of Heidelberg Cement Group. Constant thermal conductivities of the backfills in the dry state are assumed, respectively, 1.0 W/(m K), 1.54 W/(m K) and 3.0 W/(m K). The cable backfill dimensions and cable conductor area are selected as design variables in the optimization problem. The modified JAYA algorithm is applied to minimize material costs of UPCS under the constraint that the cable conductor temperature shall not exceed its optimum value of 65 °C. The cable temperature is determined from the two-dimensional steady state heat conduction equation discretized using the Finite Element Method (FEM). The performance of the modified Jaya algorithm was compared with classical Jaya and PSO algorithms. The modified Jaya algorithm, for the presented case study, allows one to obtain lower values of the cost function.