Tanta University Faculty of Engineering

ELECTRICAL POWER NGINEERING

Transmission Line Performance

Dr. Hossam A. Abd El_Ghany & Dr. Amr Salah

Department of Elec. Power and Machines Eng.
 Types of transmission lines

The requirements of electricity transmission systems include:

• Providing power demand
• Maintaining stable nominal voltage (not varying > ±10%)
• Maintaining stable frequency (not varying > ±0.1Hz)
• Supplying energy at acceptable price
• Meeting standards of safety
• Respecting environmental standards
 Types of transmission lines
Design of power lines depend on:
• Amount of active power it has to transmit
• Distance over which power must be carried
• Cost of power line
• Ease of installation and expected load growth

Power transmission lines are classified according to the

operating voltage into:
• Low voltage (LV) lines (120 V- 600 V)
• Medium-voltage (MV) lines (2.4 kV - 69 kV)
• High-voltage (HV) lines (< 230 kV)
• Extra-high-voltage (EHV) lines (up to 800 kV)
 Types of transmission lines

The transmission lines are also classified according to their

length into
• Short lines: less than 50 miles (80 km)
• Medium lines: 50 –150 miles (80 –240 km) (or up to 320
km for some applications depending upon whether line
characteristics can still be represented by lumped
components)
• Long lines: Above 150 miles or 240 km
 Short Transmission Lines
A short line is a line, which is shorter than 80 km/ 50 miles
Its is represented with series RL circuits and the capacitance
is ignored
IS represents the sending end current, which will be equal in
magnitude to the load current IR

VR represents the Is XL R IR
receiving end voltage Line impedance
and VS represents the Vs VR
sending end voltage
 Short Transmission Lines
The phasor diagram is constructed by drawing a reference
phasor to represent the load current IR
If the load is operating at a lagging power factor, the phasor
representing the receiving end voltage VR is drawn to a
suitable scale leading the current phasor by an angle θR (the
cosine of which represents the load power factor)
 Short Transmission Lines
The voltage drop due to the line resistance is drawn “in phase”
(i.e., parallel to) with the current IR
The voltage drop due to the line reactance is drawn leading the
current IR by 90
Phase voltage at sending end is calculated as:

VS = VR + ZIR

Phase current in the short line:

IS = IR
 Short Transmission Lines
Is IR
XL R
Vs VR

The phasor diagram for short TL for lagging

power factor as:

VR
R

I s = IR
 Short Transmission Lines
Is IR
XL R
Vs VR

VR
R
I RR

I s = IR
 Short Transmission Lines
Is IR
XL R
Vs VR

I RX L
VR
R
I RR

I s = IR
 Short Transmission Lines
Is IR
XL R
Vs VR

VS
I RX L
 VR
R 
s I RR

I s = IR
Short Transmission Lines
Is IR
XL R
Vs VR

VS

 VR
I RX L
R  I RR
s
VR sinR
VR cosR
VR sinR

I RR Is = I R
 Short Transmission Lines
From the phasor diagram we can write:
= +
=( ∅ + ) +( ∅ + )

= ∅ + +2 ∅ + ∅ +
+2 ∅
VS
 VR
I RX L
R  I RR
s
VR sinR
VR cosR
VR sinR

I R I =I
 Short Transmission Lines
= + ( + )+2 ( ∅ + ∅ )

( + ) 2 ( ∅ + ∅ )
= [1 + + ]

( + ) ( + )
= ≅ 0, . ≪
VS

 VR
I RX L
R  I RR
s
VR sinR
VR cosR
VR sinR

I R I =I
 Short Transmission Lines
2 ∅ + ∅
= 1+
= +2 ( ∅ + ∅ )
By simplification we can write:

= + ∅ + ∅

VS

 VR
I RX L
R  I RR
s
VR sinR
VR cosR
VR sinR

I R I =I
 Short Transmission Lines

The line regulation is defined as the percentage rise in

voltage at the receiving end when full load is thrown off,
remaining the sending-end voltage at a constant value
No load voltage − Full load voltage
Line regulation = × 100
Full load voltage

V − V
= × 100
V

Transmission efficiency may also be determined from:

power V I cos
= =
power V I cos
Example: A single-phase transmission line with a total
resistance and reactance of 2.1 Ω and 32.3 Ω, respectively is
supplying a single-phase load of 800 kVA at 8 kV and 0.9 PF
lagging.
(a) What is the sending end voltage and current
(b) What is the efficiency of the TL under these conditions?
(c) What is the voltage regulation of the TL?

Solution: At 50 km length, we can treat this TL as a “short”

line and ignore the effects of the shunt admittance
The magnitude of the current flowing to the load is:
IR = S/V = 800000/8000 = 100 A
Solution:
(a) Assuming that the voltage at the load is arbitrarily assigned
to be at 0°phase, and the power factor of the load is 0.9
lagging, the phasor load current is 100-25.8°A
The voltage at the sending end of the transmission line is then:

VS = VR + IR×Z
= 80000 + (2.1 + j32.3)× (100-25.8) =10000∠16.4 V

(b) The complex output power from the transmission line is:

∗
S R = VR × = (8000∠0)(10025.8) = 80000025.8 VA

PR= 800000 ×cos (25.8) =720000W = 720 kW

The complex input power to the transmission line is:
∗
SS = VS × = (10000∠16.4)(10025.8) = 100000042.2 VA
Therefore, the input active power is:
PS= 1000000 × cos (42.2) =741000W = 741 kW
The resulting efficiency is:

720
= × 100 = × 100 = 97.2%
741
(c) The voltage regulation of the transmission line is

= × 100 = × 100 = 25%

 ABCD Parameters of Transmission Lines

• The ABCD parameters of a TL give the relationship of the

input voltage and currents to output voltage and currents
• ABCD parameters enable standard representation of
transmission lines
• ABCD parameters are dependent on the length of TLs
• To characterize TLs using ABCD parameters, the line is
modeled as a general two-port network.
• The two-port model of the transmission line takes input
current I1 at port 1, with an input voltage equal to V1
• The output voltage and current are V2 and I2, respectively
 ABCD Parameters of Transmission Lines
• The voltage V1 and current I1 are represented in terms of
independent variables V2 and I2 as follows:

The same can be represented in matrix form as:

 ABCD Parameters of Transmission Lines

The table below gives more details on ABCD parameters

Parameter Ratio Unit

A Open circuit reverse voltage transfer ratio Unitless

B Short circuit reverse transfer impedance Ohms

C Open circuit reverse transfer admittance Siemens

D Short circuit reverse current transfer ratio Unitless

ABCD Parameters of Short Transmission Lines
For steady state transmission equations, sending ends VS, IS
in terms of receiving end values are:

VS = VR + ZIR IS = IR

A=D=1 B=Z C=0.0

−
=
−
 Medium Transmission Lines
• When the line length exceeds 80 km (50 miles), the line
charging current becomes significant
• The shunt capacitive reactance between lines and neutral
(earth) has to be taken into account
• The line in this case is considered as medium line
• To consider the shunt capacitance, half of the shunt
capacitor may be lumped at each end of line (nominal π
model)
• The capacitance may be lumped in the middle of the line
(nominal T model)
 nominal π model

IS Z I IR

I2 I1
VS Y/2 Y/2 VR

Y= jωC is the total shunt admittance of the line

Z= R + j XL is the series impedance
 nominal T model

IS Z/2 V Z/2 IR

I
VS Y VR

Y= jωC is the total shunt admittance of the line

Z= R + j XL is the series impedance
 nominal π model representation
The total line resistance and inductive reactance is placed (i.e.,
lumped) at the midpoint of the line, and half the total line
capacitance placed at each end of the line
IS Z I IR
I1 = VR × Y/2 = VR × π f C
I2 I1
I = I1 + IR = IR + VR Y/2 VS Y/2 VR
Y/2
VS = VR + I × Z
= VR + Z (IR+ VR × Y/2 )
= VR + Z × IR+ Z × Y/2 × VR = (1+ Z Y/2) VR + Z IR
 nominal π model
I = IR + VR Y/2 VS=(1+ZY/2)VR+Z IR

I2 = VS Y/2 = VS × π f C

IS = I+I2 = IR+ I1 +I2 = IR+VRY/2+VS Y/2

= IR+VR*Y/2+((1+ZY/2)VR+Z IR )Y/2

= (1+(1+ZY/2)) VRY/2+(1+ZY/2)IR = Y (1+ZY) VR + (1+ZY) IR

ZY IS Z IR
VS = (1+ ) VR + Z IR I
I2 I1
ZY ZY VR
IS = Y (1+ ) VR + (1+ ) IR VS Y/2 Y/2
 ABCD Parameters of nominal π model

V = 1+ V +
2

ZY ZY
IS = Y (1+ ) VR + (1+ ) IR

= =1+ = = 1+
2 4
V
No load volt.−Full load volt. − V
reg. = × 100 = × 100
Full load voltage V

= =
 IS Z I IR

I2 I1 VR
VS Y/2 Y/2

VR

R

IR
 IS Z I IR

I2 I1 VR
VS Y/2 Y/2

I1
VR

R

IR
 IS Z I IR

I2 I1 VR
VS Y/2 Y/2

I1
VR

R
I
IR I1
 IS Z I IR

I2 I1 VR
VS Y/2 Y/2

I1
I XL
VR

R IR
I
IR I1
 IS Z I IR

I2 I1 VR
VS Y/2 Y/2

VS
I1
I XL
 VR

R IR
I
IR I1
 IS Z I IR

I2 I1 VR
VS Y/2 Y/2

VS
I2 I1
I XL
 VR

R IR
I
IR I1
 IS Z I IR

I2 I1 VR
VS Y/2 Y/2

VS
I2 I1
I XL
S  VR

R IS IR
I2
I
IR I1
 nominal T model
V = 1+ ∗V + 1+ ∗
2 4

= ∗ + 1+ ∗
2

= =1+ = 1+
2
4 =

V
No load volt.−F load volt. A − V
reg. = ∗ 100 = ∗ 100
F load voltage V
 VR

R

IR
 VR
IRXL/2
R IR R/2

IR
 V

VR
IRXL/2
R IR R/2

IR
 V
I
VR
IRXL/2
R IR R/2

IR
 V
I
VR
IRXL/2
R IR R/2

IR I
 V
I
VR
IRXL/2
R IR R/2
IS

IR I
 V ISXL/2
I
VR IS R/2
IRXL/2
R IR R/2
IS

IR I
 VS
V ISXL/2
I
 VR IS R/2
IRXL/2
R IR R/2
IS

IR I
 VS
V ISXL/2
I
 VR IS R/2
S IRXL/2
R IR R/2
IS

IR I
 Ferranti Effect in Transmission Lines

The Ferranti effect is a phenomenon that describes the increase in

voltage that occurs at the receiving end of a long transmission line
relative to the voltage at the sending end. The Ferranti effect is more
prevalent when the load is very small, or no load is connected (i.e. an
open circuit). The Ferranti effect can be stated as a factor, or as a
percent increase.

A long transmission line can be considered to compose a considerably

high amount of capacitance and inductance distributed across the
entire length of the line. Ferranti Effect occurs when current drawn by
the distributed capacitance of the line itself is greater than the current
associated with the load at the receiving end of the line(during light or
no load).
 Ferranti Effect in Transmission Lines

This capacitor charging current leads to a voltage drop across the line
inductor of the transmission system which is in phase with the
sending end voltages. This voltage drop keeps on increasing
additively as we move towards the load end of the line and
subsequently, the receiving end voltage tends to get larger than
applied voltage leading to the phenomena called Ferranti effect in
power system. We illustrate that with the help of a phasor diagram
below.