Safety aspects of MV and HV underground cables and accessories in urban areas

The booming of renewable power stations (solar and wind mill mainly), the increase use of Interconnectors and submarine cables, the construction of urban substations in big cities with intense population and the need to avoid the use the overhead lines (right of way and so on), are the main factors leading to the increasing amount of installed km of cables all around the world.
Meanwhile utilities are asked to increase and enhance safety and reliability of their networks (both MV and HV) in order to prevent strong economical, technical and social consequences.
Due to their linear installation in vertical and horizontal layouts and potential high amount of fire loads (mainly in underground solutions), cables have a high probability to catch fire with catastrophic consequences because of easiness of flame spread propagation and further environmental problem in case of significant amount of fire effluents dispersed.
This paper highlights some situation of potential danger and tests recently performed in order to check possible solutions to increase safety and reduce the consequences and risks of injury from failures of cable and accessories.
​​