Ethiopian Institute of Technology- Mekelle (EiT-M)

School of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Power Systems I
Chapter-3
Transmission Line and Its Parameters
Lecture -3
Introduction
Revision on power system components
An electric power system can be divided into four parts, namely:
- Generation
-Transmission
-Distribution
-Utilization
In block diagram

Generation (Power
station) Transmission Distribution
-generators System System
- Step up transfos

Fig.1.1. Block diagram of power system parts

Utilization
Power generation: convert the stored energy of fuels, or water to
electric energy.
The most frequently used power plants are: Thermal, Nuclear,
hydropower, Gas turbine or combined cycle power plants.
Transmission system:
The power transmission line is one of the major components of an
electric power system.
 They are connecting link between power station and
distribution system and lead to other power system over
interconnection.

They normally use higher voltages depending on the power and

length of transmission, which standard varies from country to
country.
 T&D with lower voltage is impossible for the following
reasons:
 very large power loss in line
 high voltage drop in line
 Very large cross-section area of conductor required and
hence to carry this large conductor huge supports and
components are required.
Distribution system:
 It is the portion of power network that takes the electricity
from the bulk and higher voltage transmission system through
step-down substation to all individual loads.
• Utilization:
 It is the final load or consumption. The major consumption
groups are: industrial, residential and commercial
cont
concept of electric energy T & D system
 Generation: - 0.4, 6.6, 10.5, 11, 13.8, 15.75, 21, 25KV
 Transmission and tie line transmission: - 220, 330, 400, 500, 750,
765KV etc…
 Sub-Transmission: - 33, 45, 66, 110, 132, 220kV etc
 Primary distribution: - 3.3, 6.6, 11, 15, 20, 22, 33, 45, 66, 132,
220kV etc
 Low voltage secondary distribution: - 400/230V
 Purpose of Transmission
 Its main function is to transport electric energy, with minimal
losses, from the power sources to the load centers
 Transmission lines are essential for three purposes.
a. To transmit power from a mater-power site to a market.
These may be very long and justified because of the sub-sidy
aspect connected with the project.
b. For bulk supply of power to load centers from outlying
steam stations. These are likely to be relatively short in response
to diversity in system peaks.
c. For interconnection purposes, that is, for transfer of energy
from one system to another in case of emergency.
The design of a transmission line depends on:
Choice of Frequency
Choice of Voltage
Choice of Conductors
 Choice of Spacing
Choice of protection Circuits
 choice of electrical parameters
 The design of transmission line depends on the basic electrical
parameters:

1. Series resistance
2. Series inductance
3. Shunt capacitance
4. Shunt conductance

Conductance, susceptance, and admittance are the reciprocals of

resistance, reactance, and impedance respectively;
The series resistance relies basically on the physical composition of
the conductor at a given temperature.

The series inductance and shunt capacitance are produced by the

presence of magnetic and electric fields around the conductors, and
depend on their geometrical arrangement.
 series inductance governs power transmission capacity of the
transmission line.

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, and therefore, shunt
conductance is normally not considered.
 Resistance
 Resistance of a conductor is very important in transmission
efficiency and economic studies. it is the most important cause of
power loss in transmission line i.e. the term resistance must be
know and qualified.
 If DC current is flowing along a round cylindrical conductor, the
current is uniformly distributed over its cross-section area and its
DC resistance is evaluated by: L
RDC  ()
A

 If AC current is flowing , rather than DC current, the conductor

effective resistance is higher due to frequency or skin effect.
 Conductor resistance can be affected by frequency and
temperature.
 Frequency effect
 When alternating current is flowing through a conductor, the
current distribution is non uniform over the conductors cross
section area.

 This degree of non uniformity increase with increase in frequency

and hence cause current density to be greatest at the surface of the
conductor than in the center.
 This causes ac resistance to increase more than dc resistance. This
effect is known as skin effect.
 Skin effect is the tendency for high-frequency currents to flow on
the surface of a conductor.
 Skin effect
 When a conductor is carrying steady direct current (dc), this
current is uniformly distributed over the whole cross-section of
the conductor.
 However, an alternating current flowing through the
conductor does not distribute uniformly, rather it has the
tendency to concentrate near the surface of the conductor. This
is known as skin effect.

Fig: skin effect in a conductor carrying ac current

 Skin effect reduces the effective cross-section area used by the
current, and thus, the effective resistance increases.
 Proximity effect
 It is the tendency of a current to flow in other undesirable patterns, loops
or concentrated distributions due to the presence of magnetic fields
generated by nearby conductors.
 Proximity effect is defined as the jumping magnetic field from one
conductor to another conductor nearby.
 The major causes of proximity effect are closeness of the wires,
bends in the wire, skin effect and high frequency noise.
That depends on: -
 Material conductor.
 Conductor diameter.
 Frequency
 Conductor structure
 Proximity effect is the main cause of imbalanced load distribution. Proximity effect
significantly increases the AC resistance of the conductor thus resulting in losses.

Fig: proximity effect in a three phase conductor carrying ac current

 Skin effect and proximity effect are major contributors to heat losses and imbalance in current
distribution.
 Temperature Effect
 The resistivity of any conductive material varies linearly over an
operating temperature, and therefore, the resistance of any
conductor suffers the same variations.
 As temperature rises, the conductor resistance increases linearly,
over normal operating temperatures, thus the resistance of a
conductor at a given temperature is:
Other variations in resistance are caused by

 strengthening of stranded conductors

 Bundle conductors arrangement

 Strengthening of stranded Conductor Effect
 There are two types of transmission line conductors: overhead and
underground. Overhead conductors, made of bare metal and
suspended on insulators, are preferred over underground conductors
because of the lower cost and easy maintenance.
 Also, overhead transmission lines use aluminum conductors,
because of the lower cost and lighter weight compared to copper
conductors.
 There are different types of commercially available aluminum
conductors: aluminum-conductor-steel-reinforced (ACSR),
aluminum-conductor-alloy-reinforced (ACAR), all-aluminum-
conductor (AAC), and all-aluminum alloy- conductor (AAAC).

 ACSR is one of the most used conductors in transmission lines.

 The purpose of introducing a steel core inside the stranded
aluminum conductors is to obtain strength

 A stranded conductor offers more flexibility and easier to

manufacture.
 By increasing the number of conductors per phase, the total cross-
section area increases, the current capacity increases, and the total
AC resistance decreases proportionally to the number of
conductors per bundle.
 Current-Carrying Capacity (Ampacity )
In overhead transmission lines, the current-carrying capacity is determined mostly
by the conductor resistance and the heat dissipated from its surface
The heat generated in a conductor (Joule’s effect) is dissipated from its surface area
by convection and radiation given by;
I 2 R  S(WC + Wr )(w)
Where; R -conductor resistance
I - conductor current-carrying (A)
S -conductor surface area (sq. in.)
Wc-convection heat loss
Wr-radiation heat loss
Heat dissipation by convection is defined as;
where p -atmospheric pressure
v - wind velocity (ft/s), d-conductor diameter (in.), Tair – air temperature
(kelvin)
 Current-Carrying Capacity (Ampacity)
 Heat dissipation by radiation is obtained from Stefan–Boltzmann law and is
defined as

• A black body is one that absorbs all the EM radiation (light...) that strikes it. To stay in thermal
equilibrium, it must emit radiation at the same rate as it absorbs it so a black body also radiates well.

• E= measure of an object’s ability to emit energy. Has value from 0 to 1.

by substitution;
 2. Inductance and Inductive Reactance
A current-carrying conductor produces concentric magnetic field lines
around. In tern those magnetic field line produce flux linkages.
If the current varies with the time, the magnetic flux changes and a
voltage is induced.

 we can rearrange this:

Therefore, an inductance is present, defined as the ratio of the

magnetic flux linkage and the current
The magnetic flux produced by the current in transmission line
conductors produces a total inductance whose magnitude depends on
the line configuration.

If current is alternating
 For the calculation of transmission line inductance knowing the
following parameters must be needed:

1. Magnetic field intensity H

2. Magnetic field density B

3. Flux linkage λ
 Inductance of a conductor due to internal flux
 The inductance of a transmission line is calculated as flux
linkages per ampere.
 If permeability µ is constant, sinusoidal current produces
sinusoidal varying flux in phase with the current.

 To obtain an accurate value for the inductance of a transmission

line , it is necessary to consider the flux inside each conductor as
well as the external flux.
 according to Ampere's law the magnetomotive force (mmf) in
ampere-turns around any closed path is equal to the net current in
amperes enclosed by the path.
Cont

where H = magnetic field intensity

s = distance along path , m
I = current enclosed , A

Let the field intensity at a distance x meters from the center

of the conductor be designated Hx ' Since the field is
symmetrical, Hx is constant at all points equidistant from the
center of the conductor.
Where Ix is the current enclosed . Then, assuming uniform current
density,

Where I is the total current in the conductor. Then, substituting eq (4)

In eq (3) and solving for Hx ' we obtain

The flux density x meters from the center of the conductor is

 In the tubular element of thickness dx the flux d¢ is Bx
times the cross-sectional area of the element normal to the
flux lines, the area being dx times the axial length.
The flux per-meter of length is:

 The flux linkages dλ per meter of length, which are caused by the
flux in the tubular element, are the product of the flux per meter of
length and the fraction of the current linked . Thus,
total internal flux linkages per meter can be found via integration.

Therefore, the internal inductance per meter

 Flux linkage between two points external to isolated conductor.
 As a step in computing inductance due to flux external to a
conductor, let us derive an expression for the flux linkages of an
isolated conductor due only to that portion of the external flux
which lies between two points at D1 and D2 meters from the center
of the conductor.

 P1 and P2 are two such points . The conductor carries a current

of J A
 Since the flux paths are Concentric circles around the conductor,
all the flux between P1 and P2 lies within the concentric
cylindrical surfaces (indicated by solid circular lines) which
pass through P1 and P2 '
 At the tubular element which is x meters from the center of the
conductor the field intensity is Hx .
 The mmf around the element is:
 Solving for Hx and multiplying by µ. yield the flux density Bx in
the element so that

 The flux dɸ in the tubular element of thickness dx is

 So, between P1 and P 2 the flux linkages are

 for a relative permeability of 1

 The inductance due only to the flux included between P1 and P2 is

 Inductance of a single-phase two-wire line
 We can now determine the inductance of a simple two-wire line
composed of solid round conductors.
 Figure 3. shows such a line having two conductors of radii
r1 and r2 .One conductor is the return circuit for the other.
 We add inductance due to internal flux linkages to inductance
due to external flux linkages with r1 replacing D1 and D replacing
D2 to obtain.
 The expression for inductance may be put in a more concise form
by facto ring eq.(18) and by noting that In ε1/4 = 1/4, hence

 combining the terms:

 This is one-half the total inductance of a single-phase line and is
called the inductance per conductor .
 The radius r’1 is that of a fictitious conductor assumed to have no
internal flux but with the same inductance as the actual conductor
of radius r1.
the inductance due to current in conductor 2 is:

For the whole ckt

If r’1 = r’2= r', the total inductance reduces to

 flux linkages of one conductor in a group
 Conductors 1, 2, 3, . . . , n carry the phasor currents I1 , I2 ,
I3 …. , In .
 The distances of these conductors from a remote point P are
indicated on the figure as D1P , D2 p , D3P ….., DnP.
 Let us determine λ1 P1, the flux linkages of conductor1 due to
I1 including internal flux linkages but excluding all the flux
beyond the point P.
 The flux linkages λ1P2 with conductor 1 due to I2 but excluding
flux beyond point P is equal to the flux produced by I2 between the
point P and conductor 1 (that is, within the limiting distances D2p
and D12 from conductor 2), and so
 The flux linkages λ1p with conductor 1 due to all the conductors
in the group but excluding flux beyond point P is

Which becomes, by expanding the logarithmic terms and regrouping,

Since the sum of all the currents in the group is zero,

Solving for In

Substituting In and In-1 in to the previous equation

Assuming p moves far away or infinite

 Inductance of composite conductor lines
 Stranded conductors come under the general classification of
composite conductors, which means conductors composed of two
or more elements or strands electrically in parallel .

 Conductor X is composed of n identical, parallel filaments,

each of which carries the current I/n .
 Conductor Y ,which is the return circuit for the current in
conductor X, is composed of m identical, parallel filaments, each of
which carries the current I/m.
 Distances between the elements will be designated by the letter D
Cont

Rearrange this:
Dividing eq .(33) by the current I/n , we find that the inductance of
filament a is

Similarly, the inductance of filament b is

The average inductance of the filaments of conductor X is

Conductor X is composed of n filaments electrically in parallel.

Substituting logarithm of each inductance

the mnth root of the product of the mn distances is called the

geometric mean distance between conductor X and conductor
Y . It is abbreviated Dm, or GMD and is also called the mutual
GMD between the two conductors.
 Self GMD is also called geometric mean radius , or GMR, identify
it b y Ds.
Therefore in terms of Dm and Ds

The inductance of conductor Y is determined in a similar manner,

and the inductance of the line is
Example. One circuit of a single-phase transmission line is
composed of three solid 0.2S -cm-radius wires. The return
circuit is composed of two 0.5cm-radius wires. The arrangement
of conductors is shown i n Fig 7. Find the inductance due to the
current in each side of the line and the inductance of the
complete line. in henrys per meter ( and in mili henrys per mile).
Solution find GMR b/n X and Y
Therefore
 Inductance of three-phase lines with equilateral spacing
Shows the conductors of a three-phase line spaced at the corners
of an equilateral triangle.
 If we assume that there is no neutral wire, or if we assume
balanced three-phase phasor currents, Ia + Ib + Ic = 0 determines
the flux linkages of conductor a :
Since Ia = - ( Ib + Ie), . eq(40) becomes

This gives the inductance per phase of the three-phase line.

 Inductance of three phase lines with unsymmetrical spacing.
 The conductors of a three-phase line are not spaced equilaterally.
Therefore The flux linkages and inductance of each phase are not t
he same.

 Transposition results in each conductor having the same

average inductance over the whole cycle.
 To find the average inductance of one conductor of a
transposed line, we first determine the flux linkages of a
conductor for each position it occupies in the transposition
cycle and then determine the average flux linkages.
With a position 1 when b is in position 2 and c is in position 3

With a in position 2, b in position 3 , and c in position 1,

with a in position 3 , b in position 1 , and c in position 2,

The average value of the flux linkages of a is

With the restriction that Ia = - ( Ib + Ic),

and the average inductance per phase is

where Ds is the GMR of the conductor.

Deq, the geometric mean of the three distances of the un
symmetrical line.
Example: A single -circuit three - phase line operated at 60
Hz is arranged, as shown in Fig11. The conductors arc ACSR
Drake. Find the inductive reactance per mile per phase.
 Capacitance of transmission line
 Capacitance exists among transmission line conductors due to their
potential difference.
 To evaluate the capacitance between conductors in a surrounding
medium with permittivity it is necessary to determine the voltage
between the conductors, and the electric field strength of the
surrounding .
 This capacitance together with conductance forms the shunt
admittance of a transmission line.
 The conductance is the result of leakage over the surface of insulators
and is negligible.
 When an alternating voltage is applied to the transmission line,
the line capacitance draws a leading current.
 The line capacitance is proportional to the length of the transmission
line and may be neglected for a line less than 100km of length.
 Electric field and potential difference.
 Electric fields are created by electric charges and they exist
around a current carrying conductor.
 Electric field lines originate from positive charges and
terminate at negative charges.
 The amount of capacitance between conductors is a function of
conductor radius, spacing and height above the ground.
 the capacitance between conductors can be defined as the
ratio of charge on the conductors to the potential difference
between them.
 Therefore, before deriving an expression for the capacitance; we
must derive a formula for potential in different conductor
arrangements.
 Potential at a charged single conductor:
Consider a long straight cylindrical conductor A of radius r
meters.
Let the conductor operate at such a potential (VA) that charge
QA coulombs per meter exists on the conductor.
It is desired to find the expression for VA. The electric
intensity E at a distance x from the Centre of the conductor in air is
given by:

As x approaches infinity, the value of E approaches zero. Therefore,

the potential difference between conductor A and infinity distant
neutral plane is given by:
Therefore

Potential at a conductor in a group of charged conductors:

Consider a group of long straight conductors A, B, C etc
operating at potentials such that charges QA, QB, QC etc
The potential at conductor A

The Potential at conductor A due to charge QB is

The potential at conductor A due to charge QC is

Therefore, the overall potential difference between conductor A and
infinite neutral plane is the sum

Integrating and rearranging the equation for a balanced condition

(i.e. QA+QB+QC=0), we obtain
 Capacitance of a single phase two wire line
 Consider a single phase overhead transmission line consisting
of two parallel conductors A and B spaced d meters apart in
air.
 Suppose that radius of each conductor is r meters and their
respective charge are + Q and −Q coulombs per meter length.
 Then, the total potential difference between conductor A and
neutral infinite plane is

 Similarly, the potential difference between conductor B and

neutral infinite plane is
 Both these potentials are with respect to the same neutral
plane. Since the unlike charges attract each other, the potential
difference between the conductors is
Capacitance to neutral:
 Capacitance of a three phase overhead line
 we will look at the capacitance of a conductor for
symmetrical and unsymmetrical spacing of three phase
transmission line.
 A. Symmetrical Spacing
 Let’s assume that the three conductors A, B and C of the
three phase overhead transmission line having charges QA,
QB and QC per meter length respectively as shown in figure.
 the capacitance from line conductor to neutral in this
symmetrically spaced line can be determined as follows:
Therefore

For a balanced three phase system QA+QB+QC=0 and QB+QC=-

QA. Therefore, the overall potential difference between conductor A
and infinite neutral plane is:
 Thus, the capacitance of conductor A with respect to neutral is
 B. Unsymmetrical spacing
 Figure below shows a three phase transposed line having
unsymmetrical spacing. Let us assume balanced conditions i.e.
QA+ QB+ QC= 0. When transposing, each phases will have
all the three sections of the transposed line. Considering all
the three sections of the transposed line for phase A

Transposition of three phase lines with unsymmetrical spacing

Cont
Cont
 Effect of Earth on Capacitance of Transmission Line

 The capacitance of transmission line is affected by the presence of

earth. Because of earth, electric field of a line is reduced.
 If we assume that the earth is a perfect conductor in the form of a
horizontal plane of infinite extent, we realize that the electric field
of charged conductors above the earth is not the same as it would
be if the equipotential surface of earth were not present.