Introduction to Power

Systems(ECEG-3176)

Addis Ababa University

Addis Ababa Institute of Technology (AAiT)
School of Electrical & Computer Engineering
Instructor: Awraris Getachew
 Chapter 3
Transmission Line Parameters
1

Transmission Line Design Considerations

An overhead transmission line consists of :
 Conductors
 Insulators
 Support structures
 Shield wires

 The transmission towers are usually made of steel and are

solidly erected with a concrete base. The three-phase
conductors are supported by the towers through insulators.

2
.

3
Cont’d…

4
Cont’d… 4

Conductors
 The conductors are usually made of aluminum or its
alloys. Aluminum is preferred over copper as an
aluminum conductor is lighter in weight and cheaper
in cost than copper conductor of the same resistance.
 The conductors are not straight wires but strands of
wire twisted together to form a single conductor to
give it higher tensile strength. One of the most
common conductors is aluminum conductor, steel
reinforced (ACSR).

5
Cont’d…
5

● The central core is formed with strands of steel

while two layers of aluminum strands are put in the
outer layer.

● The other type of conductors that are in use are all

aluminum conductor (AAC), all aluminum alloy
conductor (AAAC), aluminum conductor, alloy
reinforced (ACAR).

6
Cont’d… 6
● EHV lines often have more than one conductor per
phase.
● These conductors are called a bundle.
● Bundle conductors have a lower electric field
strength at the conductor surfaces, thereby
controlling corona.
● They also have a smaller series reactance.

Fig. Bundle conductor arrangement

7
Cont’d… 7

8
Cont’d… 8
Insulators
● Towers are at ground potential, the lines must be
insulated from the tower structure.
● An insulator is a device intended to give flexible or
rigid support to the conductors or equipment and to
insulate these conductors or equipment from
ground.
●

9
Cont’d… 9

10
Cont’d…
10
Support structures
Transmission lines employ a variety of support
structures.

11
Cont’d…
11

Shield wires
● Shield wire located above conductors protect the
conductors from lightening.
● These are usually high- or extra-high strength steel,
Alumo-weld , or ACSR with much smaller cross
section than the phase conductors.
● Shield wires are grounded to the tower.

12
Cont’d…

13
Cont’d…

14
Cont’d…
14

● The decision to build new transmission is based on power

system planning studies to meet future system
requirements of load growth and new generation.
● The points of interconnection of each new line to the
system, as well as the power and voltage ratings of each,
are selected based on these studies.
Thereafter, transmission line design is based on optimization
of:
 Electrical
 Mechanical
 Environmental
 economic factors
15
Cont’d…
15

Electrical factors
● Conductors:
size, type, number of bundle per phase
Thermal capacity: normal, emergency, overload, short
circuit currents
● Insulators:
No. of insulator discs
Arrangement of strings: vertical or V-shaped
Clearance: phase to phase, phase to tower.
● Shield wires: no., type and location of shield wires,
footing resistance of towers,…
16
Cont’d…
16

Mechanical Factors
● Mechanical design focuses on strength of the conductors
, insulator strings and support structures.
● Conductors must be strong enough to support a
specified thickness of ice and a specified wind in
addition to their own weight.
● Suspension insulator strings must be strong enough to
support the phase conductors with ice and wind
loadings from tower to tower (span length).
● Towers support phase conductors, shield wires with ice
and wind loadings.

17
Cont’d…
17

Environmental factors
● Environmental factors includes land usage and visual
impact.
● When a line route is selected, the impact on local
communities and population centers, land values,
access to property, wild life and use of public parks ,…,
must all be considered.

18
Cont’d… 18

Economic Factors
The optimum line design meets all the technical design
criteria at lowest possible overall cost, which includes the
total installed cost of the line as well as the cost of line
losses over the operating life of the line.

19
Transmission Line Parameters
19

A transmission line has four parameters:

 Series Resistance
 Series Inductance
 Shunt Capacitance
 Shunt Conductance

20
Cont’d…
20

● Conductance exists between conductors or

between conductors and the ground. It is due to:
 The leakage current at the insulators (dirt,
salt,…)
 Corona discharge between lines
It is neglected due to:
 Leakage currents at insulators and the
power loss due to corona are negligible.
 It is quite variable. There is no good way
of taking it into account.

21
 Line Resistance
21
● It is very well known that the dc resistance of a
wire is given by

 
● where ρ is the resistivity of the wire in Ω - m, l is
the length in meter and A is the cross sectional area
in m2 .
● Unfortunately the resistance of an overhead
conductor is not the same as that given by the
above expression.

22
Cont’d… 22
● When alternating current flows through a
conductor, the current density is not uniform over
the entire cross section but is somewhat higher at
the surface.
● This is called the skin effect and this makes the ac
resistance a little more than the dc resistance.
● Moreover in a stranded conductor, the length of
each strand is more than the length of the
composite conductor.
● This also increases the value of the dc resistance.

23
Cont’d… 23
● Finally the temperature also affects the resistivity
of conductors.
● However, the temperature rise in metallic
conductors is almost linear in the practical range
of operation and is given by
 

● where R1 and R2 are resistances at temperatures

t1 and t2 respectively and T is a constant that
depends on the conductor material and its
conductivity.
24
Cont’d… 24

● Since, the resistance of a conductor cannot be

determined accurately, it is best to determine it
from the data supplied by the manufacturer.
The effective (ac) resistance of a conductor is:

25
Inductance
25

Inductance of a Straight Conductor

● From the knowledge of high school physics we know
that a current carrying conductor produces a
magnetic field around it.
● The magnetic flux lines are concentric circles with
their direction specified by Maxwell's right hand
thumb rule ( i.e., if the thumb of the right hand
points towards the flow of current then the fingers
of the fisted hand point towards the flux lines ).

26
Cont’d… 26

● The sinusoidal variation in the current produces a

sinusoidal variation in the flux.
● The relation between the inductance, flux linkage
and the phasor current is then expressed as

● where L is the inductance in Henry, λ is the flux

linkage in Weber-turns and I is the phasor current in
Ampere.

27
Cont’d…
27

The inductance of a magnetic circuit that has a

constant permeability μ can be obtained by
determining the following:
1. Magnetic field intensity H, from Ampere’s law
2. Magnetic flux density B (B = μH)
3. Flux linkages λ
4. Inductance from flux linkages per ampere (L = λ/I )

28
Cont’d…
28

A. Internal Inductance
Consider a straight round (cylindrical) conductor, the
cross-section of which is shown below.

The conductor has a radius of r and carries a current I.

29
Cont’d…
29

 Ampere's law states that the magneto-motive force

(mmf) in ampere-turns around a closed path is equal
to the net current in amperes enclosed by the path.
We then get the following expression:

 where H is the magnetic field intensity in At/m, s is

the distance along the path in meter and I is the
current in ampere.
 Let us denote the field intensity at a distance x from
the center of the conductor by Hx.
30
Cont’d… 30
 It is to be noted that Hx is constant at all points that
are at a distance x from the center of the conductor.
 Therefore Hx is constant over the concentric circular
path with a radius of x and is tangent to it.
 Denoting the current enclosed by the contour Ix we
can then write

 If we now assume that the current density is uniform

over the entire conductor, we can write

31
Cont’d… 31

Assuming a relative permeability of 1(non-magnetic

conductor), the flux density at a distance of x from the
center of the conductor is given by

Where
µ0 is the permeability of the free space and is given by 4π X
10-7 H/m.

32
Cont’d…
32

The flux inside (or outside) the conductor is in the

circumferential direction .
The two directions that are perpendicular to the flux
are radial and   axial .
Let us consider an elementary area that has a
dimension of dx m along the radial direction and 1 m
along the axial direction.
Therefore the area perpendicular to the flux at all
angular positions is dx X 1  m2 . Let the flux along the
circular strip be denoted by and this is given by .

33
Cont’d…
33

 Note that the entire conductor cross section does

not enclose the above flux.
 The ratio of the cross sectional area inside the
circle of radius x to the total cross section of the
conductor can be thought about as fractional turn
that links the flux   .
 Therefore the flux linkage is

34
Cont’d…
34
 Integrating over the range of x , i.e., from zero to
r , we get the internal flux linkage as

 Then, we get the internal inductance per unit

length as

 It is interesting to note that the internal inductance

is independent of the conductor radius.
35
Cont’d…
35

B. External Inductance
Let us consider an isolated straight conductor as shown
below.

The conductor carries a current I .

36
Cont’d…
36

● Assume that the tubular element at a distance x

from the center of the conductor has a field
intensity Hx .
● Since the circle with a radius of x encloses the
entire current, the mmf around the element is
given by

and hence the flux density at a radius x become

37
Cont’d… 37

● The entire current I is linked by the flux at any

point outside the conductor.
● Since, the distance x is greater than the radius of
the conductor, the flux linkage dλx is equal to the
flux  
● Therefore, for 1m length of the conductor we get

● The external flux linkage between any two points

D1 and D2, external to the conductor is

38
Cont’d…
38

We can then write the external inductance due to the

flux linkage between any two points outside the
conductor as

The total flux λp linking the conductor out to external

point P at a distance D is the sum of the internal flux
linkage and the external flux linkage, from D1 = r to
D2=D.

39
Cont’d…
39

Using the identity

Where

The total inductance Lp due to both internal and external flux

linkages out to distance D is

40
Inductance of a Single-Phase Two-Wire Line
40

41
Cont’d…
41

The inductance of the circuit due to current in conductor 1 only

  −7 𝐷
𝐿1=2 × 10 𝑙𝑛 ′
𝑟1
The inductance of the circuit due to current in conductor 2 only

  −7 𝐷
𝐿2=2 × 10 𝑙𝑛 ′
𝑟2

42
Cont’d… 42

For the complete circuit (Loop inductance of

 

the circuit)
  −7 𝐷
𝐿= 𝐿1+ 𝐿2= 4 × 10 𝑙𝑛 ′ ′
𝐻 /𝑚
√𝑟 1 𝑟2

If
  −7 𝐷
𝐿= 4 × 10 𝑙𝑛
𝑟′

43
 Flux Linkage of One Conductor in a Group
43

  𝑛
𝐼 1 + 𝐼 2+ …+ 𝐼 𝑛=∑ 𝐼 𝑗=0
𝑗=1
44
Cont’d…
44

The flux linkages of ith conductor due to its own

 

current , (self linkages)are given by

The flux linkages of conductor i due to current in

conductor j is

45
Cont’d…
45
 Where is the distance of ith conductor from jth conductor
carrying current
The total flux linkages of conductor i due to flux up to point P are

46
Cont’d…
46

Let the point p now recede to infinity

47
Inductance of Composite Conductor Lines
47

All the strands are identical and share the current equally. Thus,
each filament of A is taken to carry a current I/n, while each
filament of conductor B carries the return current of -I/m.

48
Cont’d… 48
Flux linkages of filament i in conductor A.

49
Cont’d… 49

Equation 2.33 can be rewritten as

 is called Geometric Mean Distance (GMD or
Mutual GMD).(possible mutual distance
between conductor A and B)
is called Geometric Mean Radius (GMR or Self
GMD).(possible distance b/n filaments within a
conductor)

50
Cont’d…
50
The inductance of the composite conductor B is determined in a
similar manner, and the total inductance of the line is

51
 Inductance of Three Phase Lines with
Equilateral Spacing
51
Balanced three phase currents.
Three-phase three-wire line consisting of three solid cylindrical
conductors a, b, c, each with radius r, and with equal phase
spacing D between any two conductors.

52
 Cont’d…
● To determine inductance, assume balanced positive-sequence
currents

● The total flux linking the phase a conductor is

 Due to symmetry, the same result is obtained for

 To calculate inductance for three-phase lines with stranded

conductors and equal phase spacing, is replaced by the conductor
53 GMR
 Inductance of Three Phase Lines with
Unsymmetrical Spacing
53
 If the spacing between phases are unequal unbalanced flux
linkages occur, and the phase inductances are unequal
 balance can be restored by exchanging the conductor positions
along the line, a technique called transposition
Flux linkages of a in position 1:

 The total flux linking the phase a conductor while it is in

position 1 is

54
Cont’d…
54

Flux linkages of a in position 2:

Flux linkages of a in position 3:

The average value of the flux linkages of a:

55
Cont’d… 55

 Defining   is the conductor GMR for

DS
stranded conductors, or for solid
cylindrical conductors
56
 Inductance Calculation for Bundle Conductors
56
Advantages of using bundle conductors
Reduced corona loss and interference with
communication lines
Reduced Reactance
To compute Deq, the distance from the center of one bundle
to the center of another bundle is sufficiently accurate for
Dab, Dbc and Dca.

57
Cont’d…
calculation of bundle GMR with
57
bundle spacing is given by
For a two bundle conductor

For a three bundle conductor

For a four bundle conductor

58
Inductance of Three Phase Double
Circuit Lines

59
Cont’d…
59

 A three phase double circuit line consists of two

identical three phase circuits.
 The circuits are operated with a1-a2, b1-b2, and
c1-c2 in parallel.
 Because of geometrical differences between
conductors, voltage drop due to line inductance will
be unbalanced.
 To achieve balance, each phase conductor must be
transposed within its group and with respect to the
parallel three phase line.

60
Cont’d…
60
Transposed double circuit line.

61
Cont’d…
61
 The method of GMD can be used to find the
inductance per phase.
 To do this, the identical phases are grouped
together.
 The GMD between each phase group:

62
Cont’d…
62
The equivalent GMR for calculating the per phase inductance is:

The inductance per phase in millihenries per kilometer is:

or
63
Capacitance
63

 Shunt admittance of a transmission line consists of

conductance and capacitive susceptance.
 As we have discussed previously the conductance is
usually neglected because its contribution to the
shunt admittance is very small.
 Capacitance of a transmission line is the result of
the potential difference between the conductors.
 It causes them to be charged in the same manner as
the plates of a capacitor when there is a potential
difference between them.

64
Cont’d…
64

The capacitance between conductors in a medium

 

with constant permittivity can be obtained by

determining the following:
1. Electric field strength E, from Gauss’s law
2. Voltage between conductors
3. Capacitance from charge per unit volt (C = q/ V )

65
Cont’d… 65

Gauss’s law states that the total electric flux leaving a

 

closed surface equals the total charge with in the

volume enclosed by the surface.

Where denotes the normal component of electric flux

density, denotes the normal component of electric
field strength, and ds denotes the differential surface
area.

66
Cont’d… 66

67
Cont’d… 67

Assumptions:
1. The line is sufficiently long that end effects are
neglected.
2. It is a perfect conductor (zero resistivity).
3. Uniform distribution of charge on the surface. The
uniformly distributed charge on the wire is
equivalent to a charge concentrated at the center
of the wire for calculating flux external to the wire

68
Cont’d…
68

At x distance from the center of the conductor:

The potential difference between two pints P1 and P2

at distances D1 and D2 from the center of the
conductor.

69
Cont’d…
69

For array of M solid cylindrical conductors

70
Cont’d…
70

The voltage between conductors k and i due to the

charge qm acting alone

Using superposition, the voltage between the

conductors k and i due to all the charges

71
 Capacitance of single phase two wire line
71
ra rb
.
a b
D

 V

V
F/m line to line

72
Cont’d…
72
 If the two-wire line is supplied by a transformer with a grounded center tap,
then the voltage between each conductor and ground is half the potential
difference between the conductors and therefore
the line to neutral capacitance for conductor a becomes
where ra=rb=r

 The associated line charging current is = A/m

73
 Capacitance of a Three-phase Line with
Equilateral Spacing
73

If there are no other charges in the vicinity , the sum

of the charges on the three conductors is zero. (For
balanced voltages)

𝑞 𝑎 +𝑞 𝑏 +𝑞 𝑐 =0
 

  V

  V

74
Cont’d…
74
.

75
Cont’d…
75

The capacitance-to-neutral per line length is:

Or

Due to symmetry:
The line associated line charging current

76
 Capacitance of a Three-phase Line with
Unsymmetrical Spacing
76

Since we have a balanced three phase system:

𝑞 𝑎 +𝑞 𝑏 +𝑞 𝑐 =0
 

Assume that the line is transposed.

77
Cont’d…
77

For section I of the line:

For section II of the line:

For section III of the line:

78
Cont’d…
The average vab is: 78

79
Cont’d…
79
Since,

80
 Effect of Bundling
80

Two bundle three phase line:

Assume that the conductors in each bundle, which are in

parallel, share the charges equally.
Also assume that the phase spacing are much larger than the
bundle spacing.  
𝑞 𝑎 +𝑞 𝑏 +𝑞 𝑐 =0

81
Cont’d… 81

 One difference between the equation of capacitance and inductance is

that the radius in equation for capacitance is the actual radius of the
conductor and not GMR of the conductor as in the inductance
 For two conductor arrangement

 For three conductor arrangement

 For four conductor(quadruplex) arrangement

82
 Capacitance of Three Phase
Double Circuit Line
 Each phase conductor is transposed within the groups
 The expression for GMD is the same as was found for inductance
calculation.
 The GMRC of each phase group is Similar to the GMRL, with the exception that
r is used instead of conductors GMR

Per phase equivalent capacitance to

neutral is
83
 Skin and proximity effect
83
Skin Effect
 The tendency of alternating current to concentrate near the surface of a
conductor is known as skin effect.
 Due to skin effect, the effective area of cross-section of the conductor
through which current flows is reduced.
 Consequently, the resistance of the conductor is slightly increased when
carrying an alternating current.

The skin effect depends upon the following factor

(i) Nature of material
(ii) Diameter of wire−increases with the diameter of wire.
(iii) Frequency − increases with the increase in frequency.
(iv) Shape of wire − less for stranded conductor than the solid conductor.

84
Cont’d… 83
Proximity Effect
 In the transmission lines, there are (one or two) current carrying
conductors placed nearby and their magnetic flux links with the conductor
under consideration.
 The flux set up by the nearby current carrying conductor affects the
distribution of current in the conductor. This effect is called proximity
effect.

The current is zero in the remote

The current is crowded in the half of the conductor and crowded
remote half portion of the at the nearer part of the conductor.
conductor.
85