BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus

CHARACTERISTICS AND
PERFORMANCE OF POWER
TRANSMISSION LINES
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TRANSMISSION LINE MODELS

• The transmission line parameters include

series resistance and inductance and shunt
capacitance The line models are classified
by their length.

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ABCD Parameters

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ABCD Parameters

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 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.

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 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 50 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 and are to be discussed
later.

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

R  rd
X  xd
Y  yd

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.

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 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
We can relate voltages through the Kirchhoff’s voltage law

VS  VR  ZI  VR  RI  jX L I

VR  VS  RI  jX L I
which is very similar to the equation derived for a synchronous generator.

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BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus
BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus
Short Transmission line
 In the case of a short transmission line the
capacitance and conductance to earth may be
neglected.
 Leaving only the series resistance and inductance to
be taken into consideration.
 The current entering the line at the sending-end
termination is equal to the current leaving at the
receiving-end, and this same current flows through
all the line sections.
 The R and L parameters may therefore be regarded
as ' lumped ' .
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Short Transmission line

• The currents IS and IR will be equal in magnitude

but not in phase.
• Since there is a phase-shift of voltage along the
line.
• R is obtained from a knowledge of the line length
,the size of conductor and the specifics resistance
of the conductor material ,
• while XL is calculated from the conductor
spacing and radius using the formula derived
earlier.

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Short Transmission Line

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 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.

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 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.

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 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
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.

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 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%
V fl
where Vnl and Vfl are the no-load and full-load voltages at the line output.
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 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

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

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

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 Transmission line characteristics
And the reactive output power is

Qout  3VR I R sin  R  3VLL, R I R sin  R

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

Sin  3VS I S  3VLL,S I S

And the apparent output power is

Sout  3VR I R  3VLL, R I R

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 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  
XL
Then the output power of the transmission line equals to its input power:

3VSVR sin 
P
XL
Therefore, the power supplied by a transmission line depends on the angle between the
phasors representing the input and output voltages.
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 Transmission line characteristics
The maximum power supplied by the transmission line occurs when  = 900:

3VSVR
Pmax 
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.

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 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%
Pin

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 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.

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

Ploss  3I R 2
L

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

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 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
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 factor.

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Problem - 1

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Problem – 1(solution)

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Problem – 1(solution)

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 Medium Transmission line

• The capacitance of medium length lines is

significant.

• When the effect of capacitance is not negligible , it

may be assumed to be concentrated at one or more
definite points along the line.

• A number of localized capacitance methods have

been used to make approximate line performance
calculations.
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Medium Transmission line

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Medium Transmission line

• The following methods are more commonly used :

• These methods of calculation give reasonably

accurate results for the solution of most
transmission-line problems .
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BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus
BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus
BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus
BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus
 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
2
And the current through the series impedance elements is

Y
I ser  VR  I R
2
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 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
 2 
The source current will be
Y Y  ZY   ZY 
I S  I C1  I ser  I C1  I C 2  I R  VS  VR  I R  Y   1 VR    1 I R
2 2  4   2 
Therefore, the ABCD constants of a medium-length transmission line are
ZY
A 1
2
BZ
 ZY 
C Y   1
If the shunt capacitance of the line is ignored,  4 
the ABCD constants are the constants for a ZY
short transmission line. D 1
2
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