Loop Plant Modeling: Economic Design of Distribution Cable Networks

Economic Design of Distribution Cable Networks By J. A. STILES (Manuscript received August 20, 1977) Distribution plant under the Serving Area Concept (SAC) is the plant on the customer side of the Serving Area Interface. The major part of this plant is the cable network connecting each customer to the interface. Sizing of distribution cables involves a trade-off between current construction costs and future costs that may be incurred. Thus, providing more cable pairs initially costs more at the outset, but reduces relief and rearrangement costs in the future. A set of cost models is described which allows these trade-offs to be studied. These models are applied to examples of aerial cable plant to show how the best cable sizing may be determined.