Computation of the Electromagnetic Coupling of Parallel Untransposed Power Lines

M. Albano"'l, R. Turri(l', S. Dessanti(2), A. Haddad(3), H. Griffiths(3) and B. Howat(4)

(1) Padova University, Italy (2) AREVA T&D S.p.A., Italy (3) Cardiff University, UK (4) National Grid, UK

ABSTRACT

Computation of capacitive and inductive coupling between parallel circuits of power lines allows determination of
induced currents and voltages on the non-energised circuits due to the voltages and currents on the adjacent energised
circuit(s). Various computer tools are now available for these computations. However, there is still some uncertainty
with regards to accuracy of results and capabilities of each software. For example, some programs have limitations with
the maximum number of circuits that can be analysed. These programs first require the line parameters to be determined
and then implemented in circuit simulation of the lines including the effect of span length and number and line
terminations.
In this study, various approaches have been considered and compared namely: SimPowerSystem, EMTP, MicroTran
and newly developed routines to calculate the line parameters (R, L, C and Z) required for circuit studies. The
calculation principles for each method were examined and correlated to the error analysis.
Keywords: Induced currents and voltages, parallel power lines and electromagnetic coupling.

1 INTRODUCTION inductance matrix, it is necessary to take into account

the ground resistivity.
When overhead line circuits run parallel to each others, Equations for the calculation of the line parameters were
voltages and currents are induced on unenergised developed for telephone circuits by J.R. Carson in 1926
conductors that are adjacent to energised conductors. If [1], introducing some correction terms in the
the energised circuit is loaded, both capacitive and expressions of the external parts of self and mutual
inductive components are induced on the adjacent impedances. Presently, these formulae are used for a
circuit. The aim of this work is the computation of the precise evaluation of power lines parameters in some
inductive and capacitive currents of parallel circuit of specialised program.
power lines, where the first circuit is energised and the
second one could be earthed, or not. In this particular 2.1 Basic Carson's formulae
case, it is necessary to evaluate the steady-state For completeness, the basic equations are recalled here:
parameters of all conductors, (earth ground wire and The internal impedance can be calculated as:
live conductors when earthed), in order to determine /_4 A
limit conditions for safe maintenance work. Zoi Ri±i210w 42) [Q1km] (1
The steady-state analysis of such overhead line systems The external part of the self impedance is:
can be performed with various computer programs. In Po h.
practice, however, this can be relatively complex and
capabilities of each software are different. In this paper,
ZEi= w ln 2
2T rio
r++2(A Rii+ jA Xii) (2)
the calculation principles for each method have been and the expression for the mutual impedance is given
examined and results compared. In addition, a new by:
program for the computation of the inductive and Zii.=jw 2Tm ln d `+2(\Rii+jA\xi)
capacitive currents in steady-state condition has been
developed. where
Dij: distance between i-th conductor and j-th
conductor image
2 CALCULATION PRINCIPLES hi: average height above the ground
Ri: DC resistance
The evaluation of the line parameters, such as the series d..: direct distance between i-th and j-th conductors
impedances and the shunt capacitance matrices is the pto: permeability of free space (4 21 10-4 H/km)
first step required for this type of circuit study. 6o: permittivity of free space (8.8542 10-9 F/kin)
The conductor resistance matrix at a particular /\ii AXiS : correction terms, real and imagenary
frequency depends on the DC resistance of the component of the external part of the self impedance
conductor, corrected for skin effect and ground with earth return
resistivity. In addition, for a precise evaluation of the /\ij A\Xi: correction terms of the mutual

303
impedance.
The first terms of equations (2) and (3) give the
jw2104(InDe\F&2
u Rearth+I w2 O nJ51[ J
=R

impedances in the case of a perfectly conductive earth.

The second ones are the correction terms introduced by
Carson to take into account the finite conductivity of the
earth.
In the original Carson's formulae, these correction terms
are given in the form of infinitegiven
are
integrals. formoinfinteintgralThe
in theSo, a numeric
evaluation of these terms is necessary. In the literature,
various simplified expressions have been proposed, it
should be distressed, that in many practical situation, the
correction terms could be predominant, so their
evaluation can affect the results.
The Carson-Clem's formulae can be applied when the
separation between the conductors is less than 15% of
the equivalent earth return distance De. Using this
assumption the result is affected by less than 2.5%.
unit length resistance of the equivalent earth return
codtrisgvnb
.i
Rearth=T2 f i-4 (6)
L ]
The equivalent depth of the hypothetical return path of
the earth current, is given by the following expression:

2.2 Multiconductor calculation procedure (RoMo) De = 659 , [i ( )

A multiconductor procedure, implemented in Matlab', The capacitive self and mutual susceptances matrix of
has been developed in order to analyse the steady-state the n-conductor system are evaluated according the
of a power system formed by any number of conductors, well-known Maxwell's potential coefficients:
without the hypothesis of symmetric voltage and 2h
balanced load. With this procedure, it is possible to Pii= n (8)
evaluate any type of load and to earth any conductor at (27TCo) ri .
any section.
In order to take into account the sag and to have an p I(9)
actual model for complex conductor configuration, the ' 27TCO) dij F .

catenary curve of each span is evaluated. Subsequently, The capacitance matrix is then found by matrix
each span is discretized into short multiconductor inversion.
elements. In this way, each span is represented as a
series of "nominal Pi" blocks (cells) where it is possible
[HPT-1,
[
FF1
(
km
to apply the hypothesis that conductors are parallel to The procedure evaluates the R, L and C parameters for
the ground. The number of cells for each span can be each cell of all conductors [3, 4]. Cascade connections
adjusted easily. The catenary tool can be very useful in of multiphase Pi-circuits can be easily used to model
particular evaluations, such as long lines with different each span and, consequently, the full length of the line
span lengths and tower heights. Once the tower type and without any limits in the number of phase conductors
the tension force have been defined, the actual sag is and in particular, for parallel untrasposed lines on the
calculated. same right of way.
The evaluation procedure of resistance R, inductance L The load is represented by an equivalent shunt
and capacitance C for each cell, is explained in the impendance in cascade with the last cell of the system
previous section. obtained. If thereare constant-power loads, an iterative
The internal, external and mutual impedance of each method would be necessary to evaluate the equivalent
conductor are obtained according to Carson's formulae current injection depending in turn on the nodal voltage.
with the following assumptions: the conductors are Forrour purposes, theecurrentnisuestimated withlreferene
parallel to each other and the earth is homogenous to the nominal vtae.
within a span. The correction terms AR and AX have The generation block is described by the nodal applied
been programmed in order to change easily the number voltage vector [B]. This complex vector is formed by
of terms taken into account. two parts, the first one defined by voltage (in magnitude
An alternative method has been introduced in the RoMo and phase angle) applied by generators, the second is
procedure, according to Carson-Clem's formulae [2], unknown.
reported below, in order to compare the accuracy of
both methods under different conditions . 1 2I__l
Carson - Clem's Formulae 2 2
These simplified expressions are the first term of series 3 Lines 3
of AR and and the first two term of the series of AX. .........
The internal and external reactance of a conductor is son ri n
given by: Ge Res) Re G
Load r

Zi=Ri+f2. 1W4f +jco2.1W4lInK LIl R8t8 3l

Figure 1 Model representation.

The mutual impedance of a conductor is:

304
The induced electromotive forces and consequently special cases, measured values can be used instead,
currents at the sending and receiving-end are calculated overcoming this approximation.
by studying the equivalent nodal admittance matrix Y SimPowerSystem operates in the Simulink®
(2nx2n). environment [5], and it allows the power system
The network is described by the linear system: transient and steady state to be simulated.
[I]=[Y][E] (11) The line model adopted in the case study was the n-
where phase distributed parameter line model with lumped
[I]: the nodal injected currents losses. The model is based on one used by the
[E]: the nodal applied voltages Electromagnetic Transient Program (EMTP) [6]. The Pi
By partitioning the nodal admittance matrix [Y] into model in Simpower was not used because it uses only
"known" and "unknown" voltage nodes ("k" and "u" the symmetrical components.
suffixes) the system can be described by: Instead, in EMTP and MicroTran [7], the n-phase
kIk ] [Ykk
= Yku ]0Ek 0 ( l2 ) nominal Pi model was adopted in the case studies.
iu uk Yu,_Eu
Y
i
(~~~~~~12)
3 CASE STUDIES
This system yields the following expressions of the
unknown voltages [E.]: Basic case
[E.l I = k.u1] I,u]- k ][Ek ]} ( 13) The first case
circuit.
study is a single span of a 400 kV double
It is known that the vector Iuu is equal to 0, because the Span Length: 0.366 km,
[Y] matrix represents the whole passive system Geometrical tower data: L2 configuration.
including the loads. Hence, it is possible to obtain the Conductors: Zebra (phase conductors), Lynx (earth
following expression: wire).
Eu- K-.Yuu yuk Ek ( 14) The load at receiving end of 1St circuit is assumed to be
a simple resistive load (1750 MW ).
Then, assuming that the equivalent nodal admittance One circuit is energised while the second one and the
matrix [Y0] represents the whole network without any earth ground wire are earthed to ground with a 0.2 ohm
load, it is possible to evaluate the currents at the resistance (typical value for a substation earthing system
receiving-end port, with the following expression resistance) at the sending-end and receiving-end.
[I]=[Yo][E] ( 15 ) The evaluation of line parameters for all programs is
[T]e[Yr]ce]ure be easily appliedat
(15)
section to
shown in Table 1. The relative error in all comparisons
ection.is
can

Thaluateproedure
evaluate voltagecandburreneasilytapp
and current at anyat span.
any s very small. The smallest one is between MicroTran
and EMTP, as it was expected since the two programs
are developed by the same authors. The skin effect is
2.3 Aspects of calculations in EMTP, Simpower and
not taken into account in RoMo, but it affects at
MicroTran MicroTran
In these programs, the resistance and the inductance are
~~~~~~~~~~nominal
condt
system frequency (50 Hz) with
sistance.Tsncrease
an increase of
with respet oD
evaluated taking into account the ground resistivity and conductor resistance. This increase with respect to DC
frequency and introducing some correction terms .anc lu s, the ma.xImum erowh wr s
accordng to Carson's Caron's
accordinto formulae.and
formulae.effect is
C evaluations, the maximum error without skin
0.7%.
In all programs, the catenary curve is not evaluated. The
conductors are assumed parallel to the ground at an Table 1 RLC parameters comparison.
average height given by: MicroTran Relative Relative Relative
(2 Ymin + Ytwr) Vs Resistance Inductance Capacitance
Yave =
where
3 [in]1
(16)% RoMo
Error

1.02
Error

0.04
Error

0.02
Ymin is the height of conductor at mid span Simpower
EMTP
0.64
0.01
0.05
0.01
0.09
0.03
Ytwr is the height of conductor at tower.
So, it is necessary to evaluate with the other program In addition some practical configurations can affect the
the actual span or use an average one. above values in real power line, e.g. the presence of
The EMTP ( Electromagnetic Transient Program) and joints, the actual length of the conductor due the
SimpowerSystem programs allow the user to define the catenary curve. The increase of DC resistance can be up
network easily with a graphical interface. A specific 2% for these factors.
routine is provided for tower geometric definition and The steady-state evaluation with RoMo gives the results
RLC parameter evaluation. shown in Table 2. In this example the conductor are
All these programs can take into account the skin effect, overloaded in order to cause a larger value in the
the steel-reinforced aluminium cables (ACSR) are induced voltages and currents, making easier the
approximated as tubular conductors. However, for comparison between the two programs.

305
Table 2 RoMo output, straight conductor configuration. (G bus RoMo are shown in Table 4. The relative error between
name at sending end, GW earth ground wire) MicroTran and SimpowerSystem for the 14-phase
RoMo _ conductor is less than 9%.
v I
Conductor Magnitude Phase Angle Magnitude Phase Angle Table 4 Voltage and current at receiving-end with
[VI [degrees] [Al [degrees] RoMo procedure. (E bus name at receiving end)
08 230900.0 -0.1 2525.5 -0. _ RoMo Receiving end
G9 230880.0 119.9 2525.3 119.v
G10 230840.0 -120.1 2524.9 -120.1 Conductor Magnitude Phase Angle Magnitude Phase Angle
G11 10.7 -86 53.4 -8 IV] [degrees] [A] [degrees]
G12 3.0 26.8 14.9 26. E1 0.82 43.8 4.10 43.
G13 11.8 97.7 59.0 97. E2 1.21 39.6 6.04 39.
GWG14 | 18.1 -95.9 90.7 -95| E3 2.00 41.6 10.00 41.
E4 0.97 49.0 4.86 49.
E5 1.52 43.1 7.62 43.1
The relative error between voltage and current E6 2.55 43.7 12.74 43.
magnitude and phase angle respectively of each GWE7 0.45 69.4 2.23 69.
conductors are shown in Table 3. As can be seen, good E9 229230 117.5 2507.20 117.
agreement is obtained. E10 228130 -122.7 2495.10 -122.
Eli 22.78 -140.6 113.89 -140.
Table 3 Voltage and current at receiving end E12 10.88 -20.5 54.41 -20.
comparison, MicroTran vs. RoMo (relative error). E13 33.17 38.5 165.84 38.
GWE14 38.61 -143 193.02 -14
Receiving end
AV% Al%
Magnitude Phase angle O°Magnitude Phase angle 0 For this configuration, the induced voltage and current
0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.00/ values in the first line placed 100 m apart from the
0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.00/ second line (Ist and 2nd circuits) are very small. Table 5
-0.1% 0.2% -0.1% 0.20/ shows a good accordance between MicroTran and
-0.5% 1.1% -0.5% 1.1 RoMo results in this case too.
0.0% 0.1% 0.0% 0.1
-0.8% -0. 1% -0.8% -0. 1 Table 5 Voltage and current at receiving end comparison,
MicroTran vs. RoMo (relative error).
Extended case Correction Term DR and DX
Another case study is undertaken using two parallel Receiving end
overhead lines, each defined as a typical 400 kV L2 AV% Al%
Magnitude Phase ang. Magnitude Phase ang.
double circuit overhead line. The lines are 10 km long, 5.8% 2.6% 5.8% 2.6%
with no transposition. The axial distance between the 3.2% 0.6% 3.2% 0.6%
2.0% -0.5% 2.0% -0.5%
two double circuits is 100 m. 6.6% 1.9% 6.6% 1.9%
3.6% 0.8% 3.6% 0.8%
1st circuit 2.3% 0.0% 2.3% 0.0%
-8.9% 5.0% -8.9% 5.0%
_ _, jj __ 0.0% -0.1% -0.1% 2.7%/
2nd circuit 0.0% 0.0% -0.1% 0.1%
__| 0.0% 0.0% 0.1% 0.0%
: ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~-1.4%
0.1% -1.4% 0.1%
100 m 0.4% -10.2% 0.4% -10.2%
0.9% 0.8% 0.9% 0.80/
-3.4% -0.2% -3.4% -0.2%
0 3rd circuit
._..............................................................
rL In order to investigate the sensitivity of the method
lI4th4th circut circuit adopted in the evaluation of induced voltages and
Figure 2 Representation of the case study. currents due to changes of the value of the soil
resistivity, some computer simulations were performed.
Tower footing resistance:1.0 Q The comparison of results shows a relative error of 30%
Earth substation resistance: 0.2 Q between RoMo with 24 correction terms of AR and AX
Span length: 0.366 km, no. of spans: 27 and RoMo with Carson-Clem's formula in case of a low
Conductors and tower configuration: (as above in basic earth resistivity (20 Q m). Indeed, during the
example). sensitivity analysis the assumptions in Carson-Clem's
In this case, only the 3rd circuit is energised, while all formulae (ratio dmax and De less than 0.15) was not
the other three circuits are earthed at both end. fulfilled in this case. For the case of 20 Q m earth
The load at the receiving end of the 3rd circuit is resistivity, the ratio was 0.30, double the limit. In this
assumed to be a simple resistive load of 1750 MW, case the results are affected by a larger error, and the
The earth ground wires are earthed at the sending and first method is needed.
receiving ends through the substation earth resistance, In SimPowerSystem, it was easy to monitor all currents
and they are earthed at each tower along the spans. The that flows through the tower footing resistance. The
tower footing resistance is assumed to be 10 Q2 for all distribution of the earth current along the tower line is
towers. shown in Figure 2. The currents through the first 14
The results obtained with the developed procedure towers have a different direction than the others. In the

306
middle, the current is almost zero. This evaluation was The proposed procedure is flexible, easy to use and it
possible adopting MicroTran, SimpowerSystem and has shown speed and accuracy in the evaluation.
RoMo, and results with a good accordance were A comparison with well established software packages
obtained. for power systems studies has shown satisfactory
E W condutor: 2 agreement.
4 , The limitation of approximate formula is confirmed in
2- the extended case. Indeed, in order to investigate a wide
E
range of earth resistivity values and in case of wide
-2- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~insCaronsserie
separation, edd
more terms in Carson's series are needed.
10 15 l llAlfurther step of this work will be the comparison
0 5 10 15 20 25 between simulation results and measurement data of
100 operating electrical power line.

C_
t -100-
/REFERENCES

-200 15 25 1. Carson, J. R., 'Wave propagation in overhead wires

with ground return', Bell System Technical Journal,
5, pp. 539-554, 1926.
Figure 2 Magnitude and phase angle current profile of the earth 2. CCITT Directives Vol. II and Vol. III, "Calculating
wire conductor (line 2) along the spans, through the induced voltages and currents in practical cases",
tower footing resistance.
Geneva 1989.
3. Butterworth S. Electrical characteristic of overhead
4 PROGRAM COMPARISON lines, Technical Report Ref. O/T4, The Electrical
Research Association, 1954.
The GUI of EMTP, ATPDRAW, helps the user to 4. R.H. Galloway, W.B. Shorrocks and L.M.
define the network easily; however, it is limited because Wedepohl, 'Calculation of electrical parameters for
the maximum number of phase conductors that can be short and long poly phase transmission lines', Proc.
analysed is 9. In the case study considered in this work, IEE, Vol. 111, ,No. 12, December 1964.
the total number of conductors is 14. For this reason, 5. SimPowerSystems User Guide, Hydro-Quebec,
this program cannot be used. TransEnergie Technologies, The MathWorks,
As in EMTP, the Simpower GUI is an easy way to 2004.
define the model. Besides the graphical construction 6. Dommel, H. W., Electromagnetic Transients
helps to introduce quickly the current probe in the tower Program Reference Manual (EMTP Theory Book),
footing resistance and anywhere in the model. However, 1986.
the graphical construction is a time consuming 7. MicroTran and MtLine Reference Manual,
procedure and for a large number of spans is not a MicroTran Power System Analysis Corporation,
trivial task. January 2002, Canada.
The MicroTran program and its procedure Mtline for
line parameters evaluation is a powerful tool, fast in the
evaluation and in the construction of the model. The AUTHORS' ADDRESSES
various possibilities offered by these programs and the
need of editing the data file in fixed format structure Maurizio Albano can be contacted at
required some time by the user to be used. Department of Electric Engineering
The comparison with the other programs shows that the University of Padova
developed multiconductor procedure RoMo can be Via Gradenigo, 6/A,
applied with a good accuracy in these studies. The data 35131 Padova, Italy
input for the RoMo procedure, a Matlab file email albano@die.unipd.it
automatically produced by an excel file, offers a better
compromise, it is user-friendly and fast in the or
construction in long line with a large number of spans.
HIVES Group,
School of Engineering,
5 CONCLUSION Cardiff University,
The Parade,
A new calculation procedure, RoMo, has been presented Cardiff CF24 3AA, UK
in the paper for the steady-state analysis of parallel email albanom@cf.ac.uk
circuit of power lines.

307