1

Transmission and Distribution of

Electrical Energy in Power Systems

ELEN 3441 Fundamentals of Power Engineering Spring 2008

 2

Transmission line models

Unlike the electric machines studied so far, transmission lines are characterized by
their distributed parameters: distributed resistance, inductance, and capacitance.
The distributed series and shunt elements of the transmission line make it harder
to model. Such parameters may be approximated by many small discrete
resistors, capacitors, and inductors.

However, this approach is not very practical, since it would require to solve for
voltages and currents at all nodes along the line. We could also solve the exact
differential equations for a line but this is also not very practical for large power
systems with many lines.

ELEN 3441 Fundamentals of Power Engineering Spring 2008

 3

Transmission line models

Fortunately, certain simplifications can be used…
Overhead transmission lines shorter than 80 km (50 miles) can be modeled as a
series resistance and inductance, since the shunt capacitance can be neglected
over short distances.
The inductive reactance at 60 Hz for – overhead
lines – is typically much larger than the resistance
of the line.

For medium-length lines (80-240 km), shunt

capacitance should be taken into account.
However, it can be modeled by two capacitors of
a half of the line capacitance each.

Lines longer than 240 km (150 miles) are long transmission lines.

ELEN 3441 Fundamentals of Power Engineering Spring 2008

 4

Transmission line models

The total series resistance, series reactance, and shunt admittance of a
transmission line can be calculated as

R  rd (9.37.1)

X  xd (9.37.2)

Y  yd (9.37.3)

where r, x, and y are resistance, reactance, and shunt admittance per unit length
and d is the length of the transmission line. The values of r, x, and y can be
computed from the line geometry or found in the reference tables for the specific
transmission line.

ELEN 3441 Fundamentals of Power Engineering Spring 2008

 5

Short transmission line

The per-phase equivalent circuit of a short line

VS and VR are the sending and receiving end
voltages; IS and IR are the sending and receiving
end currents. Assumption of no line admittance
leads to
IS  IR (9.38.1)

We can relate voltages through the Kirchhoff’s voltage law

VS  VR  ZI  VR  RI  jX L I (9.38.2)

VR  VS  RI  jX L I (9.38.3)

which is very similar to the equation derived for a synchronous generator.

ELEN 3441 Fundamentals of Power Engineering Spring 2008

 6
Short transmission line: phasor
diagram
AC voltages are usually expressed as phasors.

Load with lagging power factor.

Load with unity power factor.

Load with leading power factor.

For a given source voltage VS and magnitude of

the line current, the received voltage is lower for
lagging loads and higher for leading loads.

ELEN 3441 Fundamentals of Power Engineering Spring 2008

 7

2-port networks and ABCD models

A transmission line can be represented by a 2-

port network – a network that can be isolated
from the outside world by two connections
(ports) as shown.

If the network is linear, an elementary circuits theorem (analogous to Thevenin’s

theorem) establishes the relationship between the sending and receiving end
voltages and currents as
VS  AVR  BI R
(9.50.1)
I S  CVR  DI R
Here constants A and D are dimensionless, a constant B has units of , and a
constant C is measured in siemens. These constants are sometimes referred to as
generalized circuit constants, or ABCD constants.

ELEN 3441 Fundamentals of Power Engineering Spring 2008

 8

2-port networks and ABCD models

The ABCD constants can be physically interpreted. Constant A represents the effect
of a change in the receiving end voltage on the sending end voltage; and constant D
models the effect of a change in the receiving end current on the sending end
current. Naturally, both constants A and D are dimensionless.
The constant B represents the effect of a change in the receiving end current on the
sending end voltage. The constant C denotes the effect of a change in the receiving
end voltage on the sending end current.
Transmission lines are 2-port linear networks, and they are often represented by
ABCD models. For the short transmission line model, IS = IR = I, and the ABCD
constants are
A 1
BZ
(9.51.1)
C 0
D 1
ELEN 3441 Fundamentals of Power Engineering Spring 2008
 9

Medium-length transmission line

Considering medium-length lines (50 to 150

mile-long), the shunt admittance must be
included in calculations. However, the total
admittance is usually modeled ( model) as
two capacitors of equal values (each
corresponding to a half of total admittance)
placed at the sending and receiving ends.

The current through the receiving end capacitor can be found as

Y
IC 2  VR (9.52.1)
2
And the current through the series impedance elements is

Y
I ser  VR  I R (9.52.2)
2
ELEN 3441 Fundamentals of Power Engineering Spring 2008
 10

Medium-length transmission line

From the Kirchhoff’s voltage law, the sending end voltage is

 YZ 
VS  ZI ser  VR  Z  I C 2  I R   VR    1 VR  ZI R (9.53.1)
 2 
The source current will be
Y Y  ZY   ZY 
I S  I C1  I ser  I C1  IC 2  I R  VS  VR  I R  Y   1 VR    1 I R (9.53.2)
2 2  4   2 
Therefore, the ABCD constants of a medium-length transmission line are
ZY
A 1
2
BZ
 ZY  (9.53.3)
C Y   1
If the shunt capacitance of the line is  4 
ignored, the ABCD constants are the ZY
constants for a short transmission line.
D 1
2
ELEN 3441 Fundamentals of Power Engineering Spring 2008
 11

Long transmission line

For long lines, it is not accurate enough to approximate the shunt admittance by two
constant capacitors at either end of the line. Instead, both the shunt capacitance
and the series impedance must be treated as distributed quantities; the voltages
and currents on the line should be found by solving differential equations of the line.
However, it is possible to model a long
transmission line as a  model with a
modified series impedance Z’ and a
modified shunt admittance Y’ and to
perform calculations on that model
using ABCD constants. The modified
values of series impedance and shunt
admittance are:
sinh  d
Z' Z (9.54.1)
d
tanh  d 2 
Y 'Y (9.54.2)
d 2
ELEN 3441 Fundamentals of Power Engineering Spring 2008
 12

Long transmission line

Here Z is the series impedance of the line; Y is the shunt admittance of the line; d is
the length of the line;  is the propagation constant of the line:

  yz (9.55.1)

where y is the shunt admittance per kilometer and z is the series impedance per km.
As d gets small, the ratios approach 1.0 and the model becomes a medium-length
line model. The ABCD constants for a long transmission line are
Z 'Y '
A 1
2
BZ'
 Z 'Y '  (9.55.2)
C  Y '  1
 4 
Z 'Y '
D 1
2
ELEN 3441 Fundamentals of Power Engineering Spring 2008
 13

Transmission line characteristics

In real overhead transmission lines, the line reactance XL is normally much larger
than the line resistance R; therefore, the line resistance is often neglected. We
consider next some important transmission line characteristics…
1. The effect of load changes
Assuming that a single generator
supplies a single load through a
transmission line, we consider
consequences of increasing load.

Assuming that the generator is ideal, an increase of load will increase a real and
(or) reactive power drawn from the generator and, therefore, the line current, while
the voltage and the current will be unchanged.

1) If more load is added with the same lagging power factor, the magnitude of the
line current increases but the current remains at the same angle  with respect to
VR as before.

ELEN 3441 Fundamentals of Power Engineering Spring 2008

 14

Transmission line characteristics

The voltage drop across the reactance increases but stays at the same angle.
Assuming zero line resistance and remembering that
the source voltage has a constant magnitude:

VS  VR  jX L I (9.41.1)

voltage drop across reactance jXLI will stretch

between VR and VS.

Therefore, when a lagging load increases, the received voltage decreases sharply.

2) An increase in a unity PF load, on the other hand,

will slightly decrease the received voltage at the end
of the transmission line.

ELEN 3441 Fundamentals of Power Engineering Spring 2008

 15

Transmission line characteristics

3) Finally, an increase in a load with leading

PF increases the received (terminal) voltage
of the transmission line.

In a summary:
1. If lagging (inductive) loads are added at the end of a line, the voltage at the end
of the transmission line decreases significantly – large positive VR.
2. If unity-PF (resistive) loads are added at the end of a line, the voltage at the end
of the transmission line decreases slightly – small positive VR.
3. If leading (capacitive) loads are added at the end of a line, the voltage at the end
of the transmission line increases – negative VR.
The voltage regulation of a transmission line is
Vnl  V fl
VR  100% (9.42.1)
V fl
where Vnl and Vfl are the no-load and full-load voltages at the line output.
ELEN 3441 Fundamentals of Power Engineering Spring 2008
 16

Transmission line characteristics

2. Power flow in a transmission line

The real power input to a 3-phase transmission line can be computed as

Pin  3VS I S cos  S  3VLL ,S I S cos  S (9.43.1)

where VS is the magnitude of the source (input) line-to-neutral voltage and VLL,S is
the magnitude of the source (input) line-to-line voltage. Note that Y-connection is
assumed! Similarly, the real output power from the transmission line is

Pout  3VR I R cos  R  3VLL , R I R cos  R (9.43.2)

The reactive power input to a 3-phase transmission line can be computed as

Qin  3VS I S sin  S  3VLL ,S I S sin  S (9.43.3)

ELEN 3441 Fundamentals of Power Engineering Spring 2008

 17

Transmission line characteristics

And the reactive output power is

Qout  3VR I R sin  R  3VLL , R I R sin  R (9.44.1)

The apparent power input to a 3-phase transmission line can be computed as

Sin  3VS I S  3VLL ,S I S (9.44.2)

And the apparent output power is

Sout  3VR I R  3VLL , R I R (9.44.3)

ELEN 3441 Fundamentals of Power Engineering Spring 2008

 18

Transmission line characteristics

If the resistance R is ignored, the output power of the transmission line can be
simplified…
A simplified phasor diagram of a transmission
line indicating that IS = IR = I.
We further observe that the vertical segment
bc can be expressed as either VS sin or
XLIcos. Therefore:
VS sin 
I cos   (9.45.1)
XL
Then the output power of the transmission line equals to its input power:
3VSVR sin 
P (9.45.2)
XL
Therefore, the power supplied by a transmission line depends on the angle between
the phasors representing the input and output voltages.
ELEN 3441 Fundamentals of Power Engineering Spring 2008
 19

Transmission line characteristics

The maximum power supplied by the transmission line occurs when  = 900:

3VSVR
Pmax  (9.46.1)
XL
This maximum power is called the steady-state stability limit of the transmission line.
The real transmission lines have non-zero resistance and, therefore, overheat long
before this point. Full-load angles of 250 are more typical for real transmission lines.
Few interesting observations can be made from the power expressions:
1. The maximum power handling capability of a transmission line is a function of the
square of its voltage. For instance, if all other parameters are equal, a 220 kV
line will have 4 times the power handling capability of a 110 kV transmission line.
Therefore, it is beneficial to increase the voltage… However, very high voltages
produce very strong EM fields (interferences) and may produce a corona –
glowing of ionized air that substantially increases losses.

ELEN 3441 Fundamentals of Power Engineering Spring 2008

 20

Transmission line characteristics

2. The maximum power handling capability of a transmission line is inversely

proportional to its series reactance, which may be a serious problem for long
transmission lines. Some very long lines include series capacitors to reduce the total
series reactance and thus increase the total power handling capability of the line.
3. In a normal operation of a power system, the magnitudes of voltages VS and VR do
not change much, therefore, the angle  basically controls the power flowing through
the line. It is possible to control power flow by placing a phase-shifting transformer at
one end of the line and varying voltage phase.

3. Transmission line efficiency

The efficiency of the transmission line is

Pout
 100% (9.47.1)
Pin

ELEN 3441 Fundamentals of Power Engineering Spring 2008

 21

Transmission line characteristics

4. Transmission line ratings

One of the main limiting factors in transmission line operation is its resistive heating.
Since this heating is a function of the square of the current flowing through the line
and does not depend on its phase angle, transmission lines are typically rated at a
nominal voltage and apparent power.

5. Transmission line limits

Several practical constrains limit the maximum real and reactive power that a
transmission line can supply. The most important constrains are:
1. The maximum steady-state current must be limited to prevent the overheating in the
transmission line. The power lost in a line is approximated as
2
Ploss  3I R L
(9.48.1)

The greater the current flow, the greater the resistive heating losses.

ELEN 3441 Fundamentals of Power Engineering Spring 2008

 22

Transmission line characteristics

2. The voltage drop in a practical line should be limited to approximately 5%. In other
words, the ratio of the magnitude of the receiving end voltage to the magnitude of the
sending end voltage should be

VR
 0.95 (9.49.1)
VS
This limit prevents excessive voltage variations in a power system.
3. The angle  in a transmission line should typically be  300 ensuring that the power
flow in the transmission line is well below the static stability limit and, therefore, the
power system can handle transients.

Any of these limits can be more or less important in different circumstances. In short
lines, where series reactance X is relatively small, the resistive heating usually limits
the power that the line can supply. In longer lines operating at lagging power factors,
the voltage drop across the line is usually the limiting factor. In longer lines operating
at leading power factors, the maximum angle  can be the limiting f actor.

ELEN 3441 Fundamentals of Power Engineering Spring 2008

 23

A 275kV, 50 Hz three phase transmission line is 70km long. The resistance

per phase is 0.035ohm/km and the inductance per phase is 0.85 mH/km. The
shunt capacitance is 0.00112pF/km. The line is supplying a three-phase load
of 300 MVA at 0.85 pf lagging at 275kV. Find:

1.Sending end voltage

2.Power at sending end voltage
3.Percentage of voltage regulation
4.Percentage of efficiency

ELEN 3441 Fundamentals of Power Engineering Spring 2008

 24

SOLUTIONS:

ELEN 3441 Fundamentals of Power Engineering Spring 2008

 25

ELEN 3441 Fundamentals of Power Engineering Spring 2008

 26

ELEN 3441 Fundamentals of Power Engineering Spring 2008

 27

ELEN 3441 Fundamentals of Power Engineering Spring 2008

 28

ELEN 3441 Fundamentals of Power Engineering Spring 2008

 29

A 275kV, 50Hz three-phase transmission line is 110 km long. The line is

supplying a three-phase load of 280MVA at 0.85 pf lagging at 275kV. The
line comprises the following characteristics per-phase, resistance
0.035Ω/km, inductance 0.85mH/km and capacitance 0.0112 µF/km.
Evaluate the ABCD constant of the transmission line.

ELEN 3441 Fundamentals of Power Engineering Spring 2008

 30

SOLUTIONS:

ELEN 3441 Fundamentals of Power Engineering Spring 2008

 31

ELEN 3441 Fundamentals of Power Engineering Spring 2008