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Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 191 (2015) 179 – 184

WCES 2014

Advantages of Using MatLab Simulink in Laboratory Lessons on

Operating Conditions of Overhead Power Lines
Alexandru Baloi a *, Adrian Pana a, Florin Molnar-Matei a
a
Politehnica University Timisoara,Piata Victoriei, No.2,Timisoara, 300006, Romania

Abstract

The electrical power transmission is realised in most of the cases by overhead power lines long of hundred of kilometres and
operating at different high voltage levels. The load of these overhead power lines is widely varying depending both on the
evolution of consumers (the consumers load curve) and on the operating conditions of the power system elements. For
experimental analysis of the operating conditions of transmission overhead power lines, the equivalent diagram П, T or Γ,
generally symmetrical, are used. The paper presents the particular operating conditions of the overhead power lines: no load and
short circuit, which are important in practice, because to their associated phenomena. A 400 kV overhead power line is modelled
using MatLab Simulink and the above-mentioned operating conditions are analyzed. The presented model is used in teaching
activity during the power grids laboratory lessons for power engineering students of our university. The paper includes the
conclusions related to the studies and the detailed results.
© 2015
© 2014TheTheAuthors.
Authors.Published
Publishedbyby Elsevier
Elsevier Ltd.Ltd.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the Organizing Committee of WCES 2014.
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the Organizing Committee of WCES 2014
Keywords: Electrical engineering education, MatLab Simulink, transmission overhead power lines, particular operating conditions;

1. Introduction

For long-distance electricity transmission, high voltages and very high voltages overhead power lines are used.
These lines present a range of particular functional features, which are different than normal short lines used in
electricity supply. The power flowing on an overhead power line, during the operation, can vary within relatively
wide range. Corresponding to this variation, the values of voltages and currents vary. In order to appreciate the
variation of voltage and current along the line in a certain situation, is very useful to know what is happen in some

* Alexandru Baloi. Tel.: +40-256-403-428

E-mail address: alexandru.baloi@upt.ro

1877-0428 © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the Organizing Committee of WCES 2014
doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.04.367
180 Alexandru Baloi et al. / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 191 (2015) 179 – 184

critical situations, characterized by limit values of voltage, current, or even transferred power and length. For these
extreme conditions, quantitative conclusions regarding the variation of voltage and current can be found. So, to a
certain regime depending how close is to one of those extreme regimes, qualitative assessments of changes in
voltage and current can be done. The most common particular regimes are: no load and short-circuit. In the field of
electrical engineering education, in addition to classical methods of teaching and testing the students’ knowledge
(Smaill et al., 2012), engineering laboratories have become more and more complex, including simulation tools
(Molnar-Matei et al., 2013). There are many simulation environments which can be used both for teaching several
phenomena and also for research. In modern education methods, on line educational tools have an important role. In
(Rodríguez et al., 2012) is presented an on-line mathematical tool for electrical circuits assessment and the results of
motivating the students to use it. A student feedback is presented and the conclusion is that they agree to use such
kind of mathematical tool. Nowadays, one of the most used simulation environments is MATLAB/Simulink.
Technical education literature presents many publications about methods of MatLab Simulink modeling. A
modeling technique for practical switched-mode power supplies design course is described in (Liao et al., 2012). In
order to validate the correctness of the proposed method, four prototype circuits were studied and the conclusion is
that the modeling technique can be successfully applied for switched-mode power supplies design. The feedback
from students was also positive. MatLab GUI like mathematical tool to facilitate the study of interference and
optical diffraction phenomena is used in (Francés et al., 2012). Another application of MatLab like a mathematical
tool for teaching the autocorrelation function and noise concepts is presented in (Jovanovic Dolecek, 2012). In the
field of electrical engineering, the most appropriate tool of Matlab Simulink is the SimPowerSystems library. In
(Choi & Saeedifard, 2012) is presented a new educational power electronics laboratory that was developed primarily
to reinforce experimentally the fundamental concepts presented in a power electronics course. In this paper, the
particular operating conditions of overhead power lines are analysed using a Matlab Simulink model. Elements for
electrical source, three phase distributed parameter line and measurements are used from SimPowerSystems Library.
The results of the study and the conclusions are presented in detail in the paper.

2. Particular Operating Conditions of Overhead Power Lines: No Load, Short-Circuit, Natural Load

Transmission overhead power lines are characterized by the fact that in the analysis of operating conditions
should be considered a uniform distribution of electrical parameters (resistance and inductive reactance longitudinal
conductance and transverse capacitive Susceptance) along the line. Because the line is usually the same throughout
its construction, electrical parameters can be considered constant, resulting a homogenous line with the parameters
Ru, Xu, Gu, Bu uniformly distributed. But, in steady state operating conditions, transmission overhead power lines
are loaded balanced, so, the following phenomena can be followed on a single phase. Three-phase symmetrical line
lossless can be characterized by the same equations as the homogeneous single phase line:

U f1 U f2 cos 2S Lr  jI 2 Z c sin 2S Lr
U f2 (1)
I1 I 2 cos 2S Lr  j sin 2S Lr
Zc

Where:
Uf1, I1 are voltage and current at the begin of the line;
Uf2, I2 – voltage and current at the end of the line;
Zc – wave impedance (characteristic impedance);
Lr – relative length of the line.
2.1. No load operating condition
 Alexandru Baloi et al. / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 191 (2015) 179 – 184 181

For this operating condition I2 = 0 and Z2 = Ğ. Following, equations (1) corresponding to lossless line becomes:

U f1  x  U f2 cos 2S Lr
U f2 (2)
I 1  x j sin 2S Lr
Zc

In Fig.1 a) is presented the voltage and current variation along the line corresponding to no load operating
condition.
Analyzing expressions (2) and Fig.1 a) results:
• the voltage at the beginning of the line and at every point of it is in phase with the voltage at the end of the line and
the voltage at any point;
• voltage and current vary sinusoidal along the line, and the current lead the voltage with a phase shift of π/2
electrical radians;
• at the end of the line voltage is greater than at the beginning of the line, a phenomenon known as the Ferrantti
effect (increase of voltage that occurs along the line at no load condition due to the capacitive character of the
current which passes through the inductive reactance of the line);
• the current varies sinusoidal along the line and is zero at the end of the line;
• active power flowing on the line is zero, as in any section of line the current lead the voltage with a phase shift of
π/2 (the real line absorbs from the source the active power necessary to cover losses).

2.2. Short-circuit operating condition

For this operating condition Uf2 = 0 and Z2 = 0, following equations (1) corresponding to lossless line becomes:

U f1 jI 2 Z c sin 2S Lr
(3)
I 1 I 2 cos 2S Lr

a) b)
Fig. 1. Voltage and current variation along the line for the extreme operating conditions: a) no load, b) short-circuit
In Fig.1 b) is presented the voltage and current variation along the line for short-circuit operating condition.
The analysis of relations (3) and Fig.1 b) show the following results:
• current at the beginning of the line and current at any point of the line is in phase with the current at the end of the
line;
• current and voltage varies sinusoidal along the line and to the end of line (at the short-circuit point) the current is
maximum;
182 Alexandru Baloi et al. / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 191 (2015) 179 – 184

• in any section of the line the current is inductive, the current lag the voltage with a phase shift of π/2 electrical
radians;
• active power flowing on the line is zero.

3. Case Study

In order to analyze the phenomena presented above, a 400 kV lossless overhead power line having 500 km
length was modeled. The characteristic impedance for this line is ZC=320.87 Ω, and equivalent corresponding
electric parameters per unit has the following values: Ru = 0,0345 Ω/km; Xu = 0,3446 Ω/km; Bu = 3,347•10-6
S/km; Gu = 0; Cu = 10,66•10-9 F/km. Considering the nominal voltage at the beginning of the line (Section 1) and
applying the expressions (2) and (3) for the entire length of the line, the corresponding values for phase to neutral
voltage and for the current corresponding to the end of the line (Section 2) are obtained. Also active and reactive
powers can be determinate in the two sections of the line. The obtained values are presented in Table I. A MatLab
Simulink model is used. The overhead transmission line is modeled using three phase PI section line element which
is defined in SimPowerSystems Library. The line parameters presented above are used and the electrical source is
modelled using the voltage level and the short-circuit power level. In Fig 2 and 3 are presented the MatLab Simulink
models corresponding to no load respectively short-circuit operating conditions.

Table 1. Application results

Line Electrical Operating Conditions

Section Amounts No Load Short-Circuit
V [kV] 230 230
I [kA] 0.415 1.08
Begin
P [MW] 0 0
Q [MVAr] 287.52 745.2
V [kV] 266.66 0
I [kA] 0 1.443
End
P [MW] 0 0
Q [MVAr] 0 0

At the begging of the overhead power line, in case of no load operating conditions, the current has a capacitive
character due to the natural capacities of the line and it produce to a negative voltage drop which will lead to an
increase of the voltage at the end of the line, phenomena known as Ferrantti effect. For the study case presented in
the paper, in can be remarked a voltage increase of about 15%, from 230 kV to 266.66 kV. In practice this voltage
increase can become dangerous for the insulation and in order to avoid it, shunt inductive reactive compensation is
done. In the case of short-circuit operating condition; the current has an inductive character.
 Alexandru Baloi et al. / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 191 (2015) 179 – 184 183

Fig.2 . Simulation results for no load operating condition.

Fig 3. Simulation results for short-circuit operating condition.

The character of the reactive power can be easy observed from the MatLab simulation diagram: the reactive
power is positive for the inductive case, and negative for the capacitive case. This is a major advantage against the
physical model, being very intuitive for the students. In the case when is need to know the values of the electrical
amounts (voltage and current) in any section of the line, a simulation using two PI section lines can be done.

4. Conclusions

Simulation software become more and more important in electrical engineering education due to some
advantages against the hands-on models, but the later remains also very useful due to the similitude with the real
industry installation.
The paper presents the particular operating conditions of overhead power lines. The line is modelled using
MatLab Simulink. A PI section line element is used here and the values of the electrical amounts at the beginning
and at the end of the line are presented. The advantage against the classical physic model is that here it can be
modelled the lossless line. The capacitive character of the reactive power at the beginning of the line in the case of
184 Alexandru Baloi et al. / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 191 (2015) 179 – 184

no load operating condition can be remarked thanks to the three phase measurement block from SimPowerSystems
Library, which displays a negative value. The voltage increase in this operating condition can become dangerous for
the insulation line, and in practice shunt inductive reactive compensation is done in order to avoid it.
A simulation using many PI section line can be done if the user desire to measure the voltage and current in any
section of the line. In this case, when measurement blocks on the diagram become numerous, MatLab Simulink give
the results centralized in a list which is accessible using powergui button, and there is the possibility to export it in
other useful files format like xls spreadsheets.

References

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