INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENERGY RESEARCH

Int. J. Energy Res. 2002; 26:45}55 (DOI: 10.1002/er.762)

Magnetic "eld of high-phase order and compact

transmission lines

Hanafy M. Ismail*R
Department of Electrical Engineering, College of Technological Studies, Shuwaikh, P.O. 42325, Kuwait 70654, Kuwait

SUMMARY

Research has been conducted in high phase order (HPO) power transmission wherein 6 or 12 phases are
used to transmit power in less physical space and with reduced environmental e!ects than conventional
designs. In this paper, existing 3-phase double circuit transmission lines (TL) are recon"gured to 6-phase
systems for the purpose of calculating and comparing the magnetic "eld of both systems. The magnetic "eld
of several single-phase con"gurations; #at, vertical, delta and inverted-delta with the same degree of
compaction is calculated and analysed at 1 m height above the ground level. The magnetic "eld of the
inverted-delta arrangement, which showed the lowest "eld pro"le, is compared with the magnetic "eld of 6-
and 12-phase TLs having the same degree of line compaction and current loading conditions. The three
systems are analysed when their lowest conductors had the same clearance to ground in one case and when
their highest conductor positions were matched in another case. A comparison between 12-, 6- and 3-phase
double circuit TLs having the same degree of compaction, the same phase voltage, the same clearance to
ground and the same current per conductor is made to demonstrate if HPO lines reduce "elds or not. The 6-
and 12-phase lines are raised while keeping their conductors within the space, which would be taken by the
conductors of the double circuit line. In this case, the highest conductor positions of the two systems are
matched and the magnetic "eld is recomputed to conclude the results. The vector magnetic "eld potential
concept, as extended to HPO transmission lines, together with a #exible developed computer program are
used to calculate and present the magnetic #ux density components pro"les around the mentioned systems.
Copyright  2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

KEY WORDS: magnetic "eld; conventional transmission lines; recon"guration; high phase order lines; line
compaction; vector magnetic potential

INTRODUCTION

As the power demand increases, transmission of bulk amounts of power from the power stations
to load centres increases accordingly and the need for higher voltages for transmission becomes
a must. It is very necessary to study the electrical environmental e!ects of power transmission
lines as the load and voltage of transmission increases. In recent years, one of the important

* Correspondence to: Hanafy M. Ismail, Department of Electrical Engineering, College of Technological Studies,
Shuwaikh, P.O. 42325, Kuwait 70654, Kuwait.
RE-mail: hismail@paaetms.paaet.edu.kw

Received 14 November 2000

Copyright  2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Accepted 16 January 2001
46 H. M. ISMAIL

factors that control selection of transmission line and right of way is the electric and magnetic
"eld e!ects. For example, the regulatory sta! in New York has restricted the maximum allowable
electric and magnetic "eld values to be 1.6 kV/m and 200 mG, respectively at the edge of right of
way for new power transmission lines. Others adopted electric and magnetic "eld values (Stewart
et al., 1993) of 2 kV/m edge of right of way electric "eld and 150, 200 and 250 mG edge of right of
way magnetic "eld for 230 and 500 kV and double circuit 500 kV lines, respectively. The
regulations stated by the regulatory sta!s determine the width of right of way required for a given
line design, or conversely, what lines can be constructed on a given right of way. Reduction of
"elds at the edge of right of way by choosing the proper line design or by using shielding design
methods (Ismail, 1999a) will allow either narrower rights of way or larger capacity lines on the
same width of right of way.
The environmental e!ects have been a topic of research in the development of higher transmis-
sion voltages, compact lines and high phase order transmission lines. High phase order power
transmission, using more than 3-phases, was conceived as a means for increasing the power
density achievable in right of way space. Technical feasibility of high-phase order transmission
lines has been veri"ed by calculations and tests performed on 365-m long prototype test line
(Stewart and Grani, 1982). Higher voltages allow transmission of greater amounts of bulk power
with fewer circuits. Compact high-voltage transmission lines allow transmission of equivalent
amounts of power to conventionally designed lines of the same voltage while taking up less space
than the conventionally designed lines. Since increasing the phase order reduces the conductor
surface electric "eld, all other things being equal, six-phase is a possible technique to allow voltage
uprating of existing double circuit three-phase lines (Stewart et al., 1992) or construction of more
compact con"gurations. High phase order is an additional design variable, which under some
circumstances may be used to reduce ground level "eld (Stewart et al., 1993).
Converting of an existing double circuit 115 kV overhead transmission line to 93 kV phase to
ground 6-phase operation had provided a commercial demonstration of high phase order power
transmission (Stewart et al., 1992). In that system, the power #ow increased by 40 per cent but
edge of right of way ground level magnetic "eld only increased by 21 per cent which was less than
half of the New York states maximum allowable limits.
Measurements of magnetic "elds produced by a 6-phase experimental power transmission line
have been made to verify the "eld behaviour of high phase order lines. The results of measure-
ments have agreed very well with those predicted from calculations (Stewart et al., 1993).
Additional calculations based on the design of the 12-phase test line were also made to provide
a comparison with existing 3-phase lines. Tests performed on a 6-phase line operating on a utility
transmission system have veri"ed existing analytical prediction methods for electric and magnetic
"elds, radio noise, and audible noise (Stewart et al., 1998).
Experimental and theoretical studies of the electric and magnetic "elds produced by compact
transmission lines have been described in a very recent paper (Miguel et al., 1999). The lateral
and longitudinal "eld pro"les at ground level within right of way have been analysed in this
paper. Analysis of the magnetic "elds around existing 3-phase, single and double, circuits
bundle conductors have been presented using the concept of vector magnetic "eld potential, as
extended to multiphase, multiconductor transmission lines (Ahmed et al., 1995; Ismail, 1999b).
Graphs for magnetic "eld distribution at ground and at 1-m height above ground level for
di!erent loading line currents for the above-mentioned systems are given. Rephasing of the
existing transmission lines are evaluated based on the magnitude of the magnetic "eld reduction
(Ismail, 1999b).

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 MAGNETIC FIELD OF HPO AND COMPACT TRANSMISSION LINES 47

A preliminary study of this work is to analyse the magnetic "elds produced by existing 3-phase
double circuit lines after being recon"gured into 6-phase lines keeping the voltage to ground, the
current loading and the minimum clearance to ground the same in both cases. Analysis of the
magnetic "eld produced from di!erent 3-phase, single-circuit con"gurations (#at, vertical, delta and
inverted-delta con"gurations) having the same degree of compaction with all other parameters the
same is also conducted. A main objective of this paper is to calculate and analyse the magnetic "elds
of high phase order (HPO) transmission lines. A comparison is made between the magnetic "eld
produced from the 3-phase single-circuit system which gives the minimum magnetic "eld values
(inverted delta) and that is produced from HPO; 6- and 12-phase lines. All of the three systems
have the same degree of compaction, the same current per conductor and the same phase voltage.
Additional calculations based on the design of 6- and 12-phase lines to occupy the same space
occupied by 3-phase double circuit line is made to provide a comparison of the magnetic "eld and
to state if high phase order transmission could reduce ground level magnetic "elds.
The concept of vector magnetic "eld potential, as extended to multiconductor 6-phase and
12-phase lines, together with a developed interactive Fortran program, is used to calculate and
plot the magnetic #ux density components around the mentioned transmission line systems.

MAGNETIC FIELD CALCULATION TECHNIQUE

The vector magnetic potential A is a function de"ned at a point in free space surrounding
a current carrying conductor by (Ramon et al., 1984):



I dlM
AM "  (1)
4R
The integral is over the entire length of the conductor, I is the current in the di!erential current
element of length dl, R is the distance from the current element vector dl to the point at which A is
to be determined.
stands for the permeability of free space surrounding the current-carrying

conductor. The magnetic #ux density B can be calculated from Equation (1) as
B" AM (2)
For a two parallel wire transmission line of in"nite length located in free space with a current
I goes through one of the conductors and returns through the other, the magnetic "eld potential
A at any point in the space is given by (Ismail, 1999b):


A "  [!I ln [(x!x )#(y!y )]!(!I) ln [(x!x )#(y!y )]] (3)
X 4    
where x , y and x , y are the co-ordinates of the current carrying conductor and its return;
   
x and y are the co-ordinates of the point where A is to be calculated. The x and y components of
X
the magnetic #ux density are given by

 
A !
y!y y!y
B " X"  I  #(!I)  (4)
V y 2 (x!x )#(y!y ) (x!x )#(y!y )
   

 
A
x!x x!x
B "! X"  I  #(!I)  (5)
W x 2 (x!x )#(y!y ) (x!x )#(y!y )
   
Copyright  2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Energy Res. 2002; 26:45}55
48 H. M. ISMAIL

Using Equation (3) it can be proved for N conductors, each carrying a current I, that the total
vector magnetic potential is expressed as

,
A "  (1L ) ln [z #[(x!x )#(y!y )#z ]]* (6)
X 2 G G G G G 
G
As the length of the conductor ¸ tends to in"nity, A will have the form:
X

 
,
,
A "R IL #  (!IL ) ln [(x!x )#(y!y )] (7)
X G 4 G G G
G G
For 3-phase system TL
The balanced currents of 3-phase TL are equal in magnitude and frequency but shifted by 1203 in
space such that

IL "IL03#IL1203#IL2403"0 and A is reduced to
G X
G

,
A "  (!IL ) ln [(x!x )#(y!y )] (8)
X 4 G G G
G
For 6-phase system TL
The balanced currents of 6-phase TL are also equal in magnitude and frequency and have phase
shift in space of 603 such that

IL "IL03#IL603#IL1203#IL1803#IL2403#IL3003"0 and
G
G
A reduces to the formula given in Equation (8).
X
For 12-phase system TL
Twelve-phase balanced TL has 12 balanced currents equal in magnitude and frequency but have
phase shift of 303 in space such that

IL "IL03#IL303#IL603#IL903#IL1203#IL1503#IL1803
G
G
#IL2103#IL2403#IL2703#IL3003#IL3303"0 and
A reduces also to the formula given in Equation (8).
X
Taking the curl of Equation (8), the x and y components of the magnetic #ux density B and
V
B for 3-, 6- and 12-phase balanced current systems are given by
W

   

, (y!y )L
, (x!x )L
B "!  G G B"  G G (9)
V 4 (x!x )#(y!y ) W 4 (x!x )#(y!y )
G G G G G G
A computer program is developed to calculate and plot the di!erent components of
magnetic #ux density in space for the di!erent systems under study. The program is written in

Copyright  2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Energy Res. 2002; 26:45}55
 MAGNETIC FIELD OF HPO AND COMPACT TRANSMISSION LINES 49

an interactive mode and it works successfully with a minimum of input data entry required
to describe the system con"guration together with its conductor's current loading
conditions.

3-PHASE DOUBLE CIRCUIT LINES RECONFIGURED TO 6-PHASE LINES

Figure 1(a) shows a 132 kV, 3-phase double circuit TL existing in Kuwait. The conductors
are arranged in a low-reactance arrangement that yields minimum magnetic "eld at ground
level. The system is recon"gured to 6-phase line with 132 kV phase-to-ground voltage
(Figure 1(b)). The minimum conductor distance to ground is kept the same for both systems.
The current per conductor is assumed at 1000 A, which is higher than the maximum
loading condition. It is obvious from the spacing between conductors that the degree of
compaction, which is de"ned as the voltage between phases divided by phase-to-phase distance,
is not the same in both systems. Figure 2 presents the magnetic #ux density pro"les at 1 m

Figure 1. (a) 3-Phase double circuit 132-kV TL; (b) TL of (a) as recon"gured to 132-kV, 6-phase TL;
(c) 3-phase double circuit 275-kV TL; (d) TL of (c) as recon"gured to 275-kV, 6-phase TL.

Figure 2. Magnetic "eld lateral pro"le of 132 kV, 3-phase double-circuit TL before
and after recon"guration to 132 kV, 6-phase line.

Copyright  2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Energy Res. 2002; 26:45}55
50 H. M. ISMAIL

Figure 3. Magnetic "eld lateral pro"le of 275 kV, 3-phase double circuit TL before
and after recon"guration to 275 kV, 6-phase line.

height above ground level that results from the two lines. It is clear that the magnetic "eld
lateral pro"le of the 6-phase line is higher than that of the 3-phase, double circuit line. For an edge
right of way magnetic "eld value of 200 mG the width of right of way for the six-phase line is
9.3 m.
Figures 1(c) and (d) show an existing 275 kV, 3-phase double circuit before and after recon-
"guration to 6-phase line, respectively. The recon"gured system has a 275 kV phase-to-ground
voltage, a current of 1000A/conductor and a minimum conductor distance to ground as that of
the double circuit line. It has to be noted also that the degree of compaction is not the same for
both systems. Figure 3 presents the magnetic #ux distribution at 1 m height above ground level. It
is also clear from the graphs that the lateral pro"le of the 6-phase line is higher than that of the
3-phase double circuit line. For 200 mG maximum allowable magnetic "eld at the edge of right of
way of 6-phase 275-kV line, the width of right of way is 15.5 m.

3-PHASE FLAT, VERTICAL, DELTA AND INVERTED-DELTA

STANDARD TL CONFIGURATIONS

Figure 4 shows four di!erent transmission line con"gurations; #at, vertical, delta and
inverted-delta. For a proper comparison of the magnetic "eld, the lines used have the same
degree of compaction, phase-to-ground voltage, minimum conductor clearance to ground and
the same current per conductor. The lateral magnetic "eld pro"les of the four systems are
calculated at 1 m height above ground level and presented in Figure 5. It is clear from the "gure
that the #at arrangement has the highest magnetic "eld pro"le while the inverted-delta arrange-
ment has the lowest one with a maximum value of 41.0 mG at the centre of the line corresponding
to 100 A conductor current. The maximum values of the "eld under the centre of the line for #at,
vertical, delta and inverted delta are 76.9, 47.8, 50.3 and 41.0, respectively. Since the relation
between the magnetic #ux density and the current per conductor is linear, researchers can
determine the width of right of way corresponding to a certain current per conductor and
a certain maximum allowable magnetic "eld at the edge of right of way as imposed by the
regulatory sta!s.

Copyright  2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Energy Res. 2002; 26:45}55
 MAGNETIC FIELD OF HPO AND COMPACT TRANSMISSION LINES 51

Figure 4. 138 k, 3-phase transmission line con"guration with the same degree of line compaction, same
number of conductors and same current per conductor: (a) #at, (b) vertical, (c) inverted delta, (d) delta.

Figure 5. Magnetic "eld lateral pro"le of 132 kV, 3-phase #at, vertical, delta
and inverted-delta TLs having the same degree of compaction.

HPO VERSUS 3-PHASE SINGLE CIRCUIT TRANSMISSION LINES

Figure 6 shows four representations of transmission lines; delta, inverted-delta, 6- and 12-phase
lines. The four lines have a same voltage to ground of 138 kV and a same current per conductor of
100 A. The conductors of each TL are arranged in a circular con"guration of diameter
D"3.66 m. The distances between phases of delta, inverted-delta, 6- and 12-phase lines are 3.17,
3.17, 1.83 and 0.945 m, respectively. These distances result in a voltage gradient between phases of
approximately 75 kV/m. The lines are chosen to have the same degree of compaction for a proper
comparison of the resultant magnetic "eld. Each phase of the 12-phase TL contains only one
conductor while each phase of the 6-phase line consists of two conductors or a conductor twice as
large with a current of 200 A. Also, each phase of the delta and inverted-delta lines contains four
conductors each carrying a current of 100 A or a conductor four times larger so that current per
phase is 400 A. Figure 7 shows the lateral distribution of the magnetic "eld at 1 m height above

Copyright  2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Energy Res. 2002; 26:45}55
52 H. M. ISMAIL

Figure 6. Four di!erent transmission line con"gurations having the same degree of line compaction, total
number of conductors and loads: (a) 12-phase, (b) 6-phase, (c) 3-phase inverted-delta, (d) 3-phase delta.

Figure 7. Magnetic "eld lateral pro"le for 3-phase delta, inverted-delta, 6- and 12-phase TL arrangements
having the same degree of line compaction.

Figure 8. Magnetic "eld lateral pro"le for the con"gurations shown in Figure 6 with all
highest conductors positions Matched.

ground level for the four lines. The maximum values of B for the delta, inverted-delta, 6- and
12-phase lines are 50.3, 41.1, 39.8 and 39.8 mG, respectively. It is clear from the "gure that three of
the pro"les are almost coincident on each other while the delta does not, which means that the
magnetic "eld is the same for inverted-delta, 6- and 12-phase lines. It should be noted that the
minimum clearance between the lowest conductors of the four systems is kept "xed at 8 m.
Figure 8 shows the "eld pro"les of the four systems when all the top conductors are matched in

Copyright  2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Energy Res. 2002; 26:45}55
 MAGNETIC FIELD OF HPO AND COMPACT TRANSMISSION LINES 53

location such that the distance between the top conductors and the ground is 11.66 m in all
systems. The maximum values of B in this case are 40.4, 33.6, 39.8 and 39.8 mG for delta,
inverted-delta, 6- and 12-phase lines, respectively. In this case, the pro"les of the 6-, 12- and
3-phase delta lines are approximately coincident on each other, while that of the inverted-delta
line is lower, especially under the centre line.

HPO VERSUS 3-PHASE DOUBLE CIRCUIT LINES

3-Phase double circuit transmission line con"gurations have been proposed to replace single-
circuit lines to give lower "elds. Therefore, it is of importance to compare the magnetic "eld
pro"le of these lines with that of HPO lines having the same degree of line compaction, the same
phase-to-ground voltage and the same total current loading. Since the magnetic "elds of 6- and
12-phase lines have been found the same, therefore, it is su$cient to compare the magnetic "eld of
3-phase double circuit line with that of the 6-phase line only. Figure 9 considers two types of lines
with the following characteristics:

6-Phase line
E Voltage to ground is 138 kV.
E Conductors are arranged in a circular con"guration of diameter D"3.66 m.
E Distance between phases is 1.83 m which gives a voltage gradient of 75 kV/m.
E Two conductors per phase, each carries 100 A so that current per phase is 200 A.

3-Phase double circuit line

E Same voltage to ground of 138 kV.
E Circular con"guration of diameter D"6.34 m.
E Distance between phases is 3.17 m to give the same degree of line compaction.
E Four conductors per phase so that current per phase is 400A.

Figure 9. 6- and 3-phase double-circuit transmission line con"gurations with the same degree
of line compaction, total number of conductors, and loads: (a) 6-phase, (b) 3-phase double-
circuit*lowest conductors positions are matched, (c) 6-phase, (d) 3-phase double-circuit*
highest conductors positions are matched.

Copyright  2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Energy Res. 2002; 26:45}55
54 H. M. ISMAIL

Figure 10. Magnetic "eld lateral pro"le for 6- and 3-phase double circuit lines when their lowest conductor
positions are matched as shown in Figure 9(a) and (b).

Figure 11. Magnetic "eld lateral pro"le for 6- and 3-phase double circuit lines when their highest
conductors positions are matched as shown in Figure 9(c) and (d).

The lower conductor positions of the two systems are matched with a minimum conductor
clearance to ground of 8 m. The double circuit scheme is arranged in a low-reactance phasing
arrangement. Figure 10 shows the magnetic "eld distribution for the two lines at one 1 m height
above ground level. It is clear from the graph that the double circuit line in this case has lower
"eld pro"le than the 6-phase line.
The space of the 6-phase line with which it is occupied is so smaller than that occupied by the
3-phase double circuit line. Therefore, it is possible to raise the 6-phase line while keeping its
conductors within the space, which would be taken by the conductors of the double circuit line.
Taking this to the extreme, it would be possible to match the highest, rather than the lowest,
conductor positions without increasing the height of the structures. The minimum conductor
clearance to ground for the 6-phase arrangement in this case will be 10.68 m. The e!ect of
matching the top of the conductor arrays on magnetic "eld pro"les is given in Figure 11, where
the double circuit line has still lower "elds under the line and at all distances from the centre line.
The "gure also indicates that the magnetic "eld of the 6-phase line in this case has decreased by
a very signi"cant value from that case where the lowest conductors of this line were matched with
the lower conductors of the double circuit line. The magnetic "eld of the 6-phase line in this case is
about 59 per cent of the 6-phase magnetic "eld shown in Figure 10.

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 MAGNETIC FIELD OF HPO AND COMPACT TRANSMISSION LINES 55

CONCLUSIONS

High phase order and compact transmission lines were designed essentially to transmit larger
amounts of power in less space than the conventional 3-phase systems. In this paper, the vector
magnetic "eld potential concept is extended and applied successfully to calculate the magnetic
"eld of high phase order and compact transmission lines. Two existing 3-phase double circuits are
recon"gured to 6-phase in order to examine the e!ect of recon"guration on the resultant
magnetic "eld. A comparison is made between four systems; #at, vertical, delta and inverted-delta
having the same degree of compaction, the same voltage, and the same loading conditions with
the conclusion that the inverted-delta line has the lowest magnetic "eld pro"le. Magnetic "eld of
6- and 12-phase line arrangements has been computed and compared with that resulted from
3-phase single circuit inverted delta arrangement. It has been found that for the same power and
the same degree of line compaction, the magnetic "eld is the same and there is no "eld reduction
in going to high phase order lines. It has also been found that the magnetic "eld resulting from
split-phase lines of the low-reactance double circuit TL con"guration is much less than that
produced by HPO line of the same degree of compaction and the same current loading. Raising
the HPO line while keeping its conductors within the space which would be taken by the
conductors of the double circuit line lowers the magnetic "eld pro"le by a signi"cant amount, but
the reduced pro"le is still higher than that of the double circuit line.

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Copyright  2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Energy Res. 2002; 26:45}55