Chapter – 3

Transmission Lines

132 kV Double Circuit Overhead Transmission Line 132 KV Single Circuit Overhead Transmission Line
Kaliti Substation Kaliti Substation 1
 Introduction
Transmission lines connecting together generators and loads.
The Transmissions are classified into two:
 Overhead AC or DC transmission lines
 Underground cables
The voltage levels of transmission lines either overhead or cables are selected according to
the power to be transmitted to a certain area or supplied to a customer.
The advantage of higher levels of transmission line voltage the transmitting capability of a
line, which increases with the square of the voltage.
P = VI = V2/R
Therefore, very high voltage levels are used to transmit power over long distances.

Transmission Line Categorized by:

 Voltage Class: 132 kV / 220 kV / 400 kV / 500 kV / 800 kV

 Number of Circuits: Single / Double Circuit

 AC or DC: EHV AC / UHV AC / HVDC 2

There are two types of transmission lines: overhead lines and underground cables

Overhead lines Under Ground Cables (Buried cables)

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 MAJOR COMPONENTS OF A TRANSMISSION LINE
 Conductor Insulators
 Towers (and Foundations) Hardware Fittings – strings
 Earth wire Accessories

CONSTRUCTIONS OF TRANSMISSION LINES

The transmission and distribution of three-phase electrical power on overhead lines
requires at least three-phase conductors.
Most low voltage lines use three-phase conductors forming a single three-phase circuit.
Many higher voltage lines -
• Single three-phase circuit
• Two three-phase circuits string (suspended from the same tower structure a
double-circuit line)
The two circuits may be configurations as vertical, horizontal or triangular.
 A line may also consist of two circuits running physically in parallel. 4
(i) Different construction of transmission lines (a) Double circuit overhead line.
(b) Double circuit overhead line with 2 bundled
conductors per phase.

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 Overhead Line
An overhead transmission line usually consists of three conductors or bundles of
conductors containing the three phases of the power system.
Types of Conductors:
• ACSR: Aluminium conductors Steel-Reinforced
• AAC: All Aluminium conductors
• AAAC: All Aluminium Alloy conductors
• ACAR : Aluminium conductor Alloy-Reinforced
The conductors are usually aluminum conductor steel reinforced (ACSR), which have steel
core (for strength) and aluminum wires (having low resistance) wrapped around the core.
In overhead transmission lines, the conductors are suspended from a pole or a tower via
insulators.

Stranded aluminum conductor with stranded steel core (ACSR). 6

In addition to phase conductors, a transmission line usually includes one or two steel wires
called ground (shield) wires.
These wires are placing on the top of the tower and giving to the ground.
These wires are providing shielding to the phase conductors from lightning.


 Insulators
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 Bundle Conductor line
Bundled phase conductors are usually used on transmission lines at 220 kV and above.
Constructed with more than one conductor per phase
 Separated at regular intervals by metal spacers.
Conductor bundles of two, three, four, six and eight are using in various countries.

 Purpose:
 To reduce the voltage gradients at the surface of the conductors
 The bundle appears as an equivalent conductor of much larger diameter than that of a
composite conductors.
 This minimizes active losses due to corona,
reduces noise generation.
 Improve the steady state power transfer capability.

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 Underground Cables

Cable lines are designed to be placed underground or under water.

The conductors are insulated from one another and surrounded by protective sheath.
Cable lines are usually more expensive and harder to maintain.
 They also have capacitance problem – not suitable for long distance.

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 Transmission Line Parameters
An electrical transmission lines are characterized by four parameters
 Resistance
 Inductance
 Capacitance
 Shunt conductance.
 These parameters determine electrical design, performance of a transmission line, power-
carrying capacity of the transmission line and the voltage drop across at full load.


 These parameters are uniformly distributed along the whole line.

 Each line has its own value, and it is not possible to concentrate or lump them at discrete
points on the line.


 For this reason the line parameters are known as distributed parameters.


 The line parameters are depending on the line-geometry, construction material and
operational frequency. 10
 Properties of Resistance, Inductance and Capacitance
 Resistance and inductance form the series impedance of the line.

 Capacitance and conductance form the shunt admittance of the line.

 The series resistance relies basically on the physical composition of the conductor at a
given temperature.

The series inductance produced by the presence of magnetic filed and depend on their
geometrical arrangement.

 The shunt capacitance are produced electric fields around the conductors depend on their
geometrical arrangement.

 The shunt conductance is due to leakage currents flowing across insulators and air.

As leakage current is considerably small compared to nominal current, it is usually

neglected.
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 Classifications of Transmission lines
 Transmission lines are classified in to short, medium and long according to their length.

1) Short transmission line : The line length is up to 80 km, C and G are negligibly small
2) Medium transmission line : The line length is between 80 to 240 km
3) Long transmission line : The line length beyond 240 km

Short Transmission line Equivalent Circuit (Series Impedance parameters only) Medium Transmission line Equivalent Circuit (Series Impedance and Shunt Capacitance

Long Transmission line Equivalent Circuit ( All the four TL Parameters)

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 Transmission Line Resistance
 The AC resistance of a conductor in a transmission line is based on the calculation of its DC
resistance.

 If DC current is flowing along a round cylindrical conductor, the current is uniformly

distributed over its cross-section area.
RDC =  l /A [Ω]
Where,  – is the resistivity of the conductor fundamental property of the material that the
conductor is made.
L – is the length of conductor
A – cross-sectional area of the conductor

 Because of skin effect, the d.c. resistance is different from ac resistance.

 The ac resistance is referred to as effective resistance, and is found from power loss in the
conductor.
power loss
Rac 
I2
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 Continued….
 If AC current is flowing through a conductor the following factors need to be considered:
1. Frequency or skin effect 2. Temperature
3. Spiraling of stranded conductors 4. Bundle conductors arrangement
5. Proximity effect
6. The resistance of magnetic conductor varies with current magnitude.
Skin Effect (frequency effect)
 Non - uniform distribution of the current
 As frequency increases
- the current tends to go toward the surface of the conductor
- current density decreases at the center of the conductor
 Skin effect reduces - the effective use of cross-section area
- the effective resistance increases
 The AC resistance calculated as 𝑅𝐴𝐶 = 𝑘𝑅𝐷
Where k is skin effect correction factor obtained by differential equations, For 60 Hz, k is
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estimated around 1.02
 Temperature Effect
 The resistance of any conductive material varies linearly over an operating temperature.
 As temperature rises, the conductor resistance increases linearly, over normal operating
temperatures.

Where, R1 is the resistance at initial temperature T1

R2 is the resistance at second temperature T2
T is the temperature coefficient in (C°)
Resistivity (𝜌) and temperature coefficient (T) for Different Materials
Resistance of a metallic conductor as a function of temperature Material Resistivity at 20oC Temperature constant [oC]
[m]
The resistivity is same as resistance Annealed 1.7210-8 234.5
T2 = T1(T+t2) /(T+t1) copper
Where, t1 and t1 are temperature 1 in oC Hard-drawn 1.7710-8 241.5
t2 and t2 are temperature 2 in oC copper
T is the temperature constant.
Aluminum 2.8310-8 228.1
 Silver and Copper are the best conductors.
 Aluminum, being lower cost and lighter weight, Iron 10.0010-8 180.0
therefore it is used for transmission line conductors. Silver 1.5910-8 243.0 15
 Proximity effects
 A non-uniformity of current distribution caused by a higher current density in the
elements of adjacent conductors nearest.

The phenomenon is known as proximity effect.

 It is present for three-phase as well as single-phase circuits.

For the usual spacing of overhead lines at 60 Hz, the proximity effect is neglected.

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 Example 1
 A three phase transmission line is designed to deliver 190.5 MVA at 220 kV over a distance of 63
km. the total transmission loss is not to exceed 2.5 percent of the rated line MVA. If the resistivity
of the conductor material at 20°c is 2.8×10−8Ωm , determine the required conductor diameter
and the conductor size.
Total transmission line lose is
25
P𝐿 = (190.5)=4.7625MW
100
𝑆 190.5 103
|I|= = =500A
√3𝑉𝐿 √3(220)
From PL=3R|I|2, the line resistance per phase
4.7625∗106
R= =6.35ohm
3 500 2
The conductor cross sectional area is
(2.84∗10−8)(63∗103)
A= =2.817*10-4 m2
6.35

Therefore ,d=1.894cm=0.7456in

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 Inductance of a transmission line
Inductance of transmission lines is calculating per phase. It consists of self
inductance of the phase conductor and mutual inductance between the
conductors. It is given by

Geometric Mean Radius: The magnetic flux lines not only outside of the
conductor, but also inside.
GMR is a hypothetical radius that replaces the actual conductor with a hallow
conductor of radius equal to GMR such that the self inductance of the
conductor remains the same.
• If each phase consists of several conductors, the GMR is given by
Geometric Mean Distance:
GMD replaces the actual arrangement of conductors by a hypothetical mean
distance such that the mutual inductance of the conductors remains same.
• Inductance between the two single phase conductors

• The total inductance of the line is then

• If r1’ = r2’ , then r1’ = GMR of the conductor and is equal to

0.7788 times the radius of the conductor.
Transposition:
• If inductance of each phase is not same then the power system become unbalance. To make
balance of three phase circuit can be restored by exchanging the position of conductors at
regular interval with equal distance. Such an exchange of conductor position is called
transposition.

Fig: Transposition of conductors

• The average inductance per phase is

Example 2 : Determine an average inductance per phase for regularly transposed line for
three conductors 3-phase transmission line which are arranged in a horizontal plane and are
2 meters apart. The diameter of each conductor is 16mm. Assume that the load is balanced.

Solution:
Example 3 : Calculate the loop inductance in mH of the line per Km for a single-phase line
of 230V, which has conductor spacing of 0.5m. The diameter of each conductor is 1cm.
 Capacitance of a transmission line
The capacitance of a transmission line is the result of the potential differences between the
conductors themselves as well as potential differences between the conductors and ground.
The capacitance of a single phase over head transmission line is assuming that the distance
between the conductors is very large compared to the radius, can be determined by the
following equation.

Where Ɛ0 = Permitting of free space (8.85 x 10-12 F/m)

D = distance between conductors
r = radius of the conductors
Example 4 : Determine the charging current for a single phase, 45km long overhead line
which consists of two parallel straight conductors each 10mm in diameter and spaced 1.5m
apart. The line voltage is 33kV, 50Hz.

Solution:
Example 5 : The conductor of diameter 0.4cm is used for a single 3 – phase, 50Hz over
headline. Find the inductance and capacitance per km. The line is regularly transposed and
arranged as following figure.

Solution:
Conductor radius
Inductance per phase per meter
 Inductance and Capacitance of bundled conductors
Let Dsb indicate the GMR of a bundle conductor and Ds the GMR of individual conductors
composing the bundle, we find referring to figure 1.4.

Figure 1.4 Bundle arrangements

• Let Dscb stand for the modified GMR to be used in capacitance calculations
like inductance. Then capacitance
Example 6 : Two conductors of 1-phase line each of 1cm diameter are arranged in a vertical
plane with one conductor mounted 1m above the other. A second identical line is mounted at
the same height as the first and spaced horizontally 0.25m from it. The two upper and the
two lower conductors are connected in parallel. Determine the inductance per km of the
resulting doubled circuit line.

Solution: