Materials Used in Transmission lines

Power carrier or link between two buses in the network, Transmission line should be made by a
conductive material (Ag, Au, Cu, Al). Aluminum is preferred over other material for construction of
Transmission Lines due to the following reasons:
● Light in weight due to which it is easier to use it for Overhead Lines.
● More resistivity than copper.
● For same value of resistance, if resistivity is high, then area of cross section is higher. Due to
increased cross sectional area the current density reduces for same value of current and by
Ohm’s Law the Electric Field Intensity also reduces.
● Since electric field Intensity is less in Al, so charge ionization is less & hence corona is less.
Rating of Transmission lines
The following ratings are usually specified for any Transmission Line:
● Voltage rating which is actually Line to Line RMS Voltage for 3-phase systems.

● MVA Rating which is 3 – phase apparent power capacity of Transmission line.

○ S = 3𝑉𝐿 𝐼𝐿 only for balanced 3 phase system
○ S = 3𝑉𝑃ℎ 𝐼𝑃ℎ only for balanced 3 phase system
From MVA Rating and the Voltage rating we can determine the current rating as given
below,
Current rating,
○ 𝐼𝐿 =
𝑆
3𝑉𝐿

● Current Rating
○ Area of cross section of conductor ∝ current rating
Classification of Transmission
● High Voltage [11 – 33 kV]
● Extra High Voltage [66 – 220 kV]
● Modern Extra High Voltage [ upto 400kV]
● Ultra High Voltage [765kV and above]
Types of Over-voltages
● Lightning Overvoltage
Types of Over-voltages
● Switching Overvoltage
Necessity of High Voltage Transmission
● For High Voltages current will be low for constant power transfer
● Power loss reduces increasing efficiency
Types of Conductors Used for
Transmission lines
● Solid Conductor
● Stranded Conductor
● Composite stranded
Conductor
● Bundle Conductor
Sigle Conductor
● A single piece of conductor is used for transmission either made of
Copper or Aluminium
● Distribution of current is non uniform Due to skin effect
Skin effect
Stranded Conductors
● It is used to reduce skin effect
● Number of strands are taken & twisted
together to get the required current carrying
capability.
● Homogenous Stranded Conductor
○ Diameter=same; material=same
● AAC → All Aluminum Conductor (all
conductors are made of Al)
Composite Stranded Conductor
● Central or internal strands of normal AAC will
be replaced with the new strands having
good mechanical & tensile strength.
● Here, the central strand is made of a
different material usually steel.
● ACSR → Aluminum Conductor Steel
Reinforced
● Steel strands only provide mechanical
strength & it will not carry any amount of
current.
Bundled Conductors
● Here instead of a single conductor per
phase multiple conductors per phase
are being used.
● This configuration is used when bulk
power is being transmitted to long
distances at very high voltage level.
Advantages of Bundled Conductors
● Bundling of conductors leads to reduction in line inductance.
● On the similar argument for decrease in inductance of line, we can say that the capacitance
of the line increases.
● Now since we have L decreased and C increased the net SIL of the line also increases.
● The most important advantage of bundled conductors is its ability to reduce corona
discharge.
● Reduction in the formation of corona discharge leads to less power loss and hence
improved transmission efficiency of the line.
● Reduction in communication line interference due to reduction in corona.
● The ampacity i.e. the current carrying capacity of bundled conductors is much increased in
comparison to single large conductor owing to reduced skin effect.
● As the bundled conductors have more effective surface area exposed to air, it has better
and efficient cooling and hence better performance compared to a single conductor.
 GMD
For getting the GMD, first we need to calculate the distance
between the strands of Go and Return conductors.
Let,
● D11 = Distance between the 1ststrand of Go and Return
conductor
● D12 = Distance between the 1ststrand of Go and 2nd strand of
Return conductor
● D21 = Distance between the 2nd strand of Go and 1st strand of
Return conductor
● Dmn = Distance between the mthstrand of Go and nth strand of
Return conductor
 GMR
● For calculating GMR, first we find the distance between the
individual strands. Thus if there are n strands in a
composite conductor then obviously there will be n2
distances between the strands.
 Transposition
● Transmission Lines are transposed to reduce
radio interference on communication lines.
● In transposition the position of conductors will
be changed such that all 3 conductors have to
experience all 3 positional GMDs.
● Transposition makes the GMD of all the
conductors equal.
Equivalent Circuit of Transmission line
Calculation of Resistance
𝜌𝑙
● DC Resistance, 𝑅 =
𝐴
𝑃𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟 𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑠 (𝐼2𝑅)
● Effective Resistance of TL =
𝐼2
● RAC > RDC due to skin effect
1 ∅ Two wire Transmission Line
● Loop resistance = Ra + Rb
Phase Ra

Neutral
Rb
1 ∅ single wire Transmission Line Phase Ra

● Here the resistance is Ra

Ground
Inductance of Transmission line
𝑚𝑎𝑔𝑛𝑒𝑡𝑖𝑐 𝑓𝑙𝑢𝑥
● 𝐼𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑢𝑐𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 =
𝑐𝑢𝑟𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑡
𝜆
● 𝐿= where 𝜆 is Magnetic Flux
𝐼
Significance of ‘L’
● It is used to represent reactive power Q absorbed by the line.
● It represents flux linkages in a conductor. There are two types of flux linkages in conductors
○ Internal magnetic flux linkages
○ External magnetic flux linkages
● For Inductance calculation we neglect skin effect.
Inductance in Single Phase two wire line
Inductance of Stranded Conductors
Three Phase Single Conductor System
Three Phase Bundled Conductor System
Capacitance for Power Line
● The capacitance of a Power Line can be calculated as,
Capacitance in Single Phase two wire line
Effect of earth on Capacitance Calculation
Three phase Single Conductor System
Three Phase Bundled Conductor System
Effect of various parameters on Transmission Line
Effect of various parameters on Transmission Line
Q1 Calculate the CMR of each of the unconventional conductors shown in figure in
terms of the radius r of the individual strand.

(a) 0.95 r
(b) 2.19 r
(c) 1.72 r
(d) 4.95 r
Q2 The presence of earth in case of overhead lines
(a) Increases the capacitance of the line.
(b) Increases the inductance of the line.
(c) Decreases the capacitance of the line.
(d) Decreases the inductance of the line.
Q3 Calculate the GMR of each of the unconventional conductors shown in figure in
terms of the radius r of the individual strand.

(a) 1.67 r
(b) 2.89 r
(c) 0.96 r
(d) none
Q4 Calculate the inductance of a 1-phase transmission line consisting of three
conductors of 2.5 mm radius in the go conductor and two conductors 5 mm radius in
the return conductor. The configuration of the line is as shown

(a) 0.62 mH/km

(b) 0.8 mH/km
(c) 1.42 mH/km
(d) 1.2 mH/km
Q5 A 1 − ϕ composite conductor system is shown in figure.

r1 = 2cm, r2 = 1.155 cm
Conductor ‘a’ forms forward path and b1 , b2 , b3 form return path. Inductance of
forward path will be ____________.
(a) 1.972 mH/km (b) 0.986 mH/km
(c) 0.493 mH/km (d) None
Q6 Bundled conductors in EHV transmission system provide:
(a) Increased corona loss
(b) Increase line reactance
(c) Reduced line capacitance
(d) Reduced voltage gradient
Q7 In a three-phase system, the volt ampere rating is given by
(a) 3VL IL
(b) 3 VL IL
(c) VL IL
(d) Vph Iph
Q8 A three-phase double-circuit line is shown in figure. The diameter of each conductor
is 2.0 cm. The line is transposed & carries a balanced load. Then the capacitance per
phase to neutral of the line is

(a) 0.2046 μF/km

(b) 0.02046 μF/km
(c) 2.046 μF/km
(d) 2.986 μF/km
Q9 A wire placed on the top of a transmission line acts as
(a) A phase wire
(b) Neutral
(c) A transmission wire
(d) Ground wire