be drawn

(1) The corona onset voltage l/0(i//) is calculated, for the first time
around the periphery of each subconductor of the bundle It
changes from point to point at the subconductor surface in
agreement with experimental findings An expression of the
onset voltage around the periphery of the subconductors has
been developed
(2) The monopolar corona equation is formulated and solved
taking into account the variation of ion mobility with its life
time [3] Starting from the subconductor surface, the charge
density along a flux line increases at first reaching a maximum
and then decreases This is in agreement with previous find
ings [4]
(3) Recent approaches reported in literature have been critically
reviewed It has been checked that the adjustment of the mean
charge density along flux line does not entail a satisfaction of
the boundary conditions at its ends, namely, the voltage at the
coronating and non-coronating electrodes
(4) A method of tracing the flux lines emanating from each subconductor of the bundle is developed
(5) The corona current contributed by each subconductor of the
bundle is calculated and compared with the corresponding
measured values on laboratory model for the first time Pre
vious calculations have never been checked against the
measured corona current per each subconductor [5] The cor
responding V-l characteristics for each subconductor of the
erected EPRI-DOE Project UHVtest line are provided
(6) Values of the charge density, the current density and the field
enhancement factor at both the bundle subconductors and the
ground plane are also provided for the EPRI-DOE test line

can

References
1] M P SarmaandW

[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]

718-731,1969

Janischewskyj,/7>a/7s, vol PAS-88, pp

Y SunagaandY Sawada, IEEE Trans, vol PAS-99, pp 605-615,

1980
J P Vereshchagm and V E Litvmov, Elektnchestvo, no 3, pp
30-37, 1978
K Arai and Y Tsunoda, Paper No 35 07 Third International
Symposium on High Voltage Engineering, Milan 1979
M P Sarma and W Janischewskyj, / Trans, vol PAS-89, pp

860-^867,1970

82 WM213-7
October 1982, p 4090

A Comparison of Methods for

Calculating Audible Noise of
High Voltage Transmission Lines

A report prepared by a Task Force of the Corona and

Field Effects Subcommittee
Introduction
The audible noise produced by corona is one of the many con
straints in the design of high voltage transmission lines To aid the
line designer in selecting a suitable conductor geometry, many utili
ties and research organizations have developed procedures for cal
culation of audible noise levels Several of these procedures have
been previously published in connection with the reporting of
measured noise levels of operating lines or experimental test lines
Often, however, one finds that insufficient detail concerning ele
ments of the procedure are given for general usefulness, and one
may be left with a bewildering array of calculation methods without
knowing which is most suited to a particular design problem at hand
Recognizing this situation, a Task Force of the Corona and Field
Effects Subcommittee gathered together all the currently available
audible noise calculation methods for the purpose of documenting
them all for convenient reference in one paper The Task Force

60

conferred with the originators of the various methods to ensure that

the procedures were clearly and unambiguously described In order
that this paper would serve as worthwhile a reference as possible, it
was decided that examples of the use of the various methods would
be included In particular, the calculation methods were exercised on
a number of example line configurations which corresponded to
transmission lines, either operating or test lines, for which data from
long-term audible noise measurements are available This resulted
in a relative comparison between the various methods for particular
types of line geometry, and in an absolute comparison of the levels
calculated by each method with results of field measurements
A total of nine methods for ac lines and four methods for de lines
were compared The ac methods were applied to 20 different threephase and single-phase line geometries, and the de methods were
applied to 4 different bipolar line geometries
Calculation Methods
All methods predict the noise levels in terms of A-weighted sound
level, dB(A) The A-weighted level is a widely used noise measure
that takes into account the entire frequency spectrum of the noise
but which gives more "weight" to the mid-frequencies (500-3000
Hz), where the human ear is most sensitive, than to lower or higher
frequencies It is generaly recognized that audible noise from ac
transmission lines is a concern in foul weather only, principally in
rain Consequently all ac methods predict some measure of the
noise

during ram

For the case of de lines, it is generally recognized that if there is any

concern with audible noise it is during fair weather In ram the
audible noise generally decreases somewhat from the levels in fair
weather Thus the de calculation methods predict some measure of
noise during fairweather
Most of the methods are based on a generalized formulation of the
noise level of each phase of the line (or positive pole in the case of de)
given by
AN

*, fy {g) + k2f2(n) + k3f3(d) + kAf4(D)

+ AN0 +/C

(1)

where

fy(g),f2(")
f3(d), f4(D)
k<\, k2, k3, k4
AN0(dB{A))
K
and

gikV/cm)

ave functions

of the parameters g, n, d, D

are constant coefficients

is a reference
is an
factor

A-weighted sound level

depending on value of
adjustment
specific parameters

surface gradient of conductor or conductor

bundle
is the number of subconductors in a phase (or pole)
n
bundle
is the diameter of subconductors
d(cm)
is the distance from line to point at which noise level
D(m)
is to be calculated
Once the noise level of each phase has been calculated, the total
noise level of the line can be found by summing the contributions
is the

according to

SL

where P

is

10 log

j 104 Nily

the total number of

and AN, is the

three-phase line)
from(l)

(2)

phases (eg
noise

6 if a double circuit
level of phase /, calculated

Results
It was not the intent of this paper to recommend a particular
calculation method over any other but to provide an objective com
parison between currently available methods Results of applying
the methods to the different line geometries are given in tabular
form In addition, the deviation of calculated noise levels from re
ported measured levels are presented It is generally concluded that
most ac calculation methods give acceptable results for transmis-

PER OCT

line voltages up to 765 kV and number of conductors per phase

of 4 or less For higher voltages and greater numbers of subcon
ductors fewer methods appear reliable The accuracy of de methods
appears much poorer than that of ac methods It is clear that
reliability of calculation methods is directly related to the amount of
experimental data available
sion

82 WM 214-5

October 1982, p 4100

Control Design of an Active and

Reactive Power HVDC Modulation

System with Kaiman Filtering

C. E. Grund, Senior Member IEEE, and R. V. Pohl,

Senior Member IEEE
General Electric Co., Schenectady, NY
J. Reeve, Fellow, IEEE
Electric Power Research Institute, Palo Alto, CA
This paper discusses results of an EPRl contract on control design
for an ac/dc transmission system to increase power transfers limited
by dynamic stability The control is achieved by modulating the
rectifier de current or power and the inverter de voltage Coordinated
active and reactive power modulation is accomplished by Linear
Quadratic (LQ) control design Improved performance is realized by

utilizing

reactive power

coupling

between de and

ac

networks to

modulate de and ac active power For the demonstration system,

power modulation with coordinated voltage modulation is shown to
be about ten times more effective than power modulation alone
Control interactions between electromechanical modes of oscilla
tion are eliminated by Kaiman filtering Filtering permits excellent
control performance with a minimum of system measurements
Modern control technology is applied within realistic system con
straints, such as measurements
The dynamic performance capability of HVDC systems has been
utilized extensively to augment the dynamic performance of the
adjoining ac systems For instance, the Pacific DC Intertie provides
damping of a low frequency north-south mterarea oscillation by
modulating the de current in response to the power deviation on the
parallel Pacific AC Intertie Performance limitations have been en
countered in the form of reactive power interactions with the ac
systems and control interactions with an electromechanical oscilla
tion of a relatively close generation complex [1 ] The reactive power
constraint implies that the modulation of the DC Intertie results in a
demodulation of the parallel AC Intertie, thereby reducing the net
effectiveness of the dc/ac system Adverse reactive power inter
action can be especially severe with highly voltage dependent load
characteristics
Control interactions with electromechanical modes of oscillation
of nearby plants act as the gain constraint on the de modulation
system The control interaction may be reduced by notch filtering in
series with the de modulation channel Since the ac/dc system
coupling is dependent on the area load voltage sensitivity, the re
active power interaction affects the control interactions System
control robustness can be improved by gain reduction
This paper proposes two distinct solutions to the above men
tioned performance limitations First, the reactive power interaction
can be used advantageously by coordinating the de current or power
modulation with de system voltage modulation Reactive power
modulation can be utilized to control ac voltage [2] or parallel ac tie
power flow [3] In this discussion, active and reactive power modu
lation are coordinated via multivariable control design Second, the
adverse control interactions are circumvented by providing damp
ing at all controllable electromechanical modes of oscillation This is
accomplished by applying the linear quadratic control design meth
odology for regulator and Kaiman filter design [4] Coordinated
modulation has been shown to be effective for a remote generation
ac/dc transmission system [5] This paper extends the application to
multimodal sending and receiving ac systems

PER OCT

The paper covers general as well as specific control design im

plications for ac/dc systems The overall control design process
includes model derivation utilizing controllability/observability
concepts The numerical results of the control design methodology
are used for illustration purposes A modulation system is designed
for a three machine ac/dc system
The proposed control designs utilize a steady-state Kaiman filter
to reconstruct the states of the electromechanical modes for gen
erating the feedback signals Commutation bus frequency has been
found to be effective as an input signal to the filter Thus, the HVDC
modulation system may have only one input and two outputs The
effectiveness of the controller design has been demonstrated by
digital computer simulation
The controllability of HVDC systems can significantly improve the
dynamic performance of ac systems especially with active and re

active power coordination However, it should not be overlooked

that additional communications, controller hardware and increased
dynamic control range of the de terminals to utilize the control
capability of the HVDC system increases the cost of the de system
Based on cost/benefit analysis, the benefit would be increased
power transfer capability of the ac system with a dynamic stability
limit With a trend toward greater power interchanges among large
power pools for operational flexibility and to minimize production
costs, dynamic stability considerations may increase in importance

the future
This paper has given theoretical and practical demonstrations of
the feasibility of advanced control design for large scale power
systems There are significant remaining issues before application
to power systems can be realized Effort is in progress to perform
thorough robustness evaluations of the controller and to evaluate
the hardware implementation on an HVDC simulator Robustness
evaluations in progress will determine controller effectiveness with
changes in the loading of important generators and changes in the
network structure due to line switching and generator removals or
additions Large signal nonlinear performance will be simulated by
faulting the rectifier commutation bus
This work was sponsored by the Electric Power Research Institute
as EPRl contract RP 1426-1 "Unified Active and Reactive Power
Modulation Control of HVDC Systems", with Stig Nilsson and Dr
John Reeve as successive project managers S M Chan (Massa
chusetts Institute of Technology) provided valuable assistance in the
use of the control design software
in

82 WM 218-6

October 1982, p 4112

A New DC Breaker Used as Metallic

Return Transfer Breaker
A. L. Courts and J. J. Vithayathil
Bonneville Power Administration, Portland, OR
N. G. Hingorani and J. W. Porter
Electric Power Research Institute, Palo Alto, CA
J. G. Gorman and C. W. Kimblin
Westinghouse R&D Center, Pittsburgh, PA
In case of fault in
could be operated

pole of the bipolar system the other pole

monopolar mode With de side neutrals
grounded, monopolar earth return operation is achieved auto
matically from the de-energization of the faulted pole If the failure is
in the terminal equipment or if the line is still capable of low voltage
transmission, an alternate mode of monopolar operation would be
to use the conductor on the faulted pole as the low voltage return
circuit
The switching to change from earth return mode to metallic return
mode could be done by de-energizing the de system Complete
shutdown of the system to change the mode of monopolar opera
tion is undesirable especially if the monopolar operation is the result
of a forced outage that would have reduced half the transmission
capacity The major difficulty in carrying out the changeover without
61
one
in