Introduction to Power

Systems
Chapter 3: Transmission
Line Parameters

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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.

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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).
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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).
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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.

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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.

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Support structures
Transmission lines employ a variety of support
structures.

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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.

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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.

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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,…
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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.
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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.

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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.

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Transmission Line Parameters
A transmission line has four parameters:
Series Resistance
Series Inductance

Shunt Capacitance

Shunt Conductance

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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.

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Line Resistance
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.

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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.

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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.
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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:

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Inductance
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 ).

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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.

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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 )

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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.

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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.
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It is to be noted that Hxis 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 Ix we can then write

If we now assume that the current density is uniform

over the entire conductor, we can write

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Assuming a relative permeability of 1, 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.

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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 dφ x and this is given by .

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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
dφ x.
Therefore the flux linkage is

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

The conductor carries a current I .

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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

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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 dϕx.
Therefore, for 1 m length of the conductor we get

The external flux linkage between any two points D1

and D2, external to the conductor is

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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 D 1 = r to
D2=D.

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Using the identity

Where

The total inductance Lp due to both internal and

external flux linkages out to distance D is

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Inductance of a Single-Phase Two-Wire Line

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The inductance of the circuit due to current in
conductor 1 only
−7 𝐷
𝐿 1=2 × 10 𝑙𝑛 ′ ❑
𝑟 ❑1
The inductance of the circuit due to current in
conductor 2 only
−7 𝐷
𝐿 2=2 × 10 𝑙𝑛 ′ ❑
𝑟 ❑2

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For the complete circuit (Loop inductance of the
circuit)
−7 𝐷
𝐿=𝐿1 + 𝐿2=4 ×10 𝑙𝑛
√ 1 2
𝑟 ′
❑
𝑟 ′
❑

If
−7 𝐷
𝐿= 4 × 10 𝑙𝑛
𝑟′

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Flux Linkage of One Conductor in a Group

𝑛
𝐼 1+ 𝐼 2 + …+ 𝐼 𝑛= ∑ 𝐼 𝑗 =0
𝑗=1
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Flux linkage of conductor k due to current in
conductor k:
−7 𝐷 𝑘𝑝
𝜆 𝑘𝑝𝑘=2 ×10 𝐼 𝑘 𝑙𝑛
𝑟 ′𝑘
Flux linkage of conductor k due to current in
conductor k:
−7 𝐷 𝑗𝑝
𝜆 𝑘𝑝𝑗=2× 10 𝐼 𝑗 𝑙𝑛
𝐷 𝑗𝑘

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The flux linkages with conductor k due to the currents
in all conductors of the group except the flux beyond
point p:
𝜆 𝑘𝑝= 𝜆𝑘𝑝 1 + 𝜆𝑘𝑝 2 + 𝜆 𝑘𝑝 3 +…+ 𝜆𝑘𝑝 𝑛
𝑛
𝐷 𝑗𝑝
𝜆 𝑘𝑝=2× 10 ∑ 𝐼 𝑗 𝑙𝑛
−7
𝑊h𝑒𝑟𝑒 : 𝐷𝑘𝑘=𝑟 ′ 𝑘
If p 𝑗=1 𝐷 𝑗𝑘
𝑛
1
𝜆 𝑘=2 ×10 ∑ 𝐼 𝑗 𝑙𝑛
−7

𝑗=1 𝐷 𝑗𝑘
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Inductance of Composite Conductor Lines
All the strands are identical and share the current
equally.

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Flux linkages of filament a in conductor X.

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Similarly, the inductance of filament b:

The average inductance of the filaments of conductor

X:

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The inductance of conductor X:

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 is called Geometric Mean Distance (GMD or Mutual
GMD).
 is called Geometric Mean Radius (GMR or Self GMD).
The inductance of the line is:

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Example:
A stranded conductor consists of seven identical
strands each having a radius r as shown below.
Determine the GMR of the conductor in terms of r.

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-
Solution

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 Inductance of Three Phase Lines with
Equilateral Spacing
Balanced three phase currents.

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 Inductance of Three Phase Lines with
Unsymmetrical Spacing

Flux linkages of a in position 1:

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Flux linkages of a in position 2:

Flux linkages of a in position 3:

The average value of the flux linkages of a:

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The average inductance per phase is:

Where:

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 Inductance Calculation for Bundle
Conductors
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.

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For a two bundle conductor

For a three bundle conductor

For a four bundle conductor

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Inductance of Three Phase Double
Circuit Lines

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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.
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Transposed double circuit line.

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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:

The equivalent GMD per phase is then:

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Similarly, the GMR of each phase group is:

The equivalent GMR for calculating the per phase

inductance is:

The inductance per phase in millihenries per

kilometer is:

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Capacitance
Shunt admittance of a transmission line consists of
conductance and capacitive reactance.
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.
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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 )

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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.

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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

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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.

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For array of M solid cylindrical conductors

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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

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Capacitance of single phase two wire line
ra rb

a b
D

V
F/m

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 Capacitance of a Three-phase Line with
Equilateral Spacing
I f 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

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76
The capacitance-to-neutral per line length is:

Due to symmetry:

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 Capacitance of a Three-phase Line with
Unsymmetrical Spacing

Since we have a balanced three phase system:

𝑞 𝑎+𝑞 𝑏 +𝑞 𝑐 =0
Assume that the line is transposed.

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For section I of the line:

For section II of the line:

For section III of the line:

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The average vab is:

𝐷 𝑒𝑞=¿
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Similarly,

Adding the two, we have:

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Since,

The capacitance per phase to neutral is:

The capacitance to neutral in μF/km is:

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Effect of Bundling
Two bundle three phase line:

𝑞 𝑎+𝑞 𝑏 +𝑞 𝑐 =0
Assume that the conductors in each bundle, which are
in parallel, share the charges equally.
Also assume that the phase spacings are much larger
than the bundle spacings.
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This equation is the same as the equation of vab when the line
is without bundle, except that D aa and Dbb are replaced by .

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Therefore, for a transposed line, derivation of the
capacitance would yield:
2 𝜋𝜀
𝐶 𝑎𝑛 = 𝐹 /𝑚
𝐷𝑒𝑞
ln ⁡( 𝑏 ❑ )
𝐷❑ 𝑠𝑐
Where: for a two bundle line.
Similarly:
for a three bundle line
for a four bundle line

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 Capacitance of Three Phase Double
Circuit Line

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 is used instead of

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