Abstract
This paper presents an approach for estimation of deterioration and failure probability of water tree degraded crosslinked polyethylene (XLPE) medium-voltage (MV) underground cables. The approach is based on a general analysis framework that can be used for various components in the power grid. A case study is presented where the general framework is applied to a specific power cable. A reliability model with five condition states is used to model deterioration and to calculate the failure probability. The paper shows how existing databases and knowledge from experts combined with a structured approach can be applied in a reliability analysis. Copyright IET 2009