Proceedings of the OAU Faculty of Technology Conference 2015

SOFTWARE FOR CALCULATING ELECTRICAL POWER TRANSMISSION

LINE PARAMETERS

K. N. Erinoso, F. K. Ariyo* and M. O. Omoigui

Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering
Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria.

*Email of Corresponding Author: funsoariyo@yahoo.com

ABSTRACT
This paper presents standalone software programmed in National Instruments-LabVIEW that calculates overhead electrical
power transmission line parameters. The parameters comprise series resistance, series inductance, shunt capacitance, series
impedance and shunt admittance. State machine programming architecture of NI LabVIEW, a graphical programming
environment, is employed in carrying out the routine tasks of different line parameter calculation. The calculated
parameters are important in steady-state power analyses and studies such as short circuit, load flow, transient stability and
steady-state stability studies. The results obtained using the developed software is consistent with previous literature
results.

Keywords - Transmission line parameters; series resistance; series inductance; shunt capacitance; series impedance and
shunt admittance.

INTRODUCTION such as short circuit, load flow, transient stability and

The power system growing into a vast and complex steady-state stability studies.
system represents one of the most vital systems in
developed as well as developing nations. The basic THEORETICAL DEVELOPMENT
purpose of a transmission network, being a branch of The mathematical expressions of this work is given in
power system, is to transfer electrical energy from this section. The expressions were used in programming
generating units at various locations to the distribution in NI-LabVIEW to calculate overhead electrical power
system which ultimately supplies the load. Transmission transmission line parameters (Saadat, 1999; Grainger
line also interconnects neighboring power utilities which and Stevenson, 1994; ELEN 459, 2007; EMTP, 2005;
allows not only economic dispatch of electrical power Lewis and Tuttle, 1959; Carson, 1926; Satsios et al,
within regions during normal conditions, but also 1998).
transfer of power between regions during emergencies
(Das, 2006). The transmitted energy suffers power losses i. Transmission line Resistance
along the transmission line due to its series impedance. ρl Rac T + t2
Series impedance also causes line-voltage drops, I R
2 Rdc =
A
(Ω ) = k = R1 T + t (1)
1
losses, and therefore affects stability limits (Glover et al.,
2008). Transmitted energy is also affected by line-
ii. Transmission line Inductance and Capacitance
charging currents which inject reactive power into the
For Single-phase 2-wire line:
power system (Glover et al., 2008). Line-charging
current is caused by shunt admittance of transmission λp µ0  D 
lines which is primarily capacitive. Shunt admittance LP = = ln  (2)
I π  GMR 
comprises the line conductance and capacitance (Glover
et al., 2008). In other to achieve optimum line design that πε 0
C AB = ( F / m) (3)
meets part of the electrical design criteria at lowest ln[D / r ]
overall cost, the transmission line parameters must be
taken into consideration. The basic transmission line
For three-phase single and double circuit:
parameters, which are often called line constants, are
resistance, inductance, and capacitance. Based on the µ0  D 
L phase = ln  (4)
basic parameters, the series impedance and shunt
admittance are derived. All of these parameters for long
2π  GMRcond 
overhead transmission line are the focus of this paper. qA 2πε 0
The standalone software programmed with NI- C AN = = ( F / m) (5)
LabVIEW calculates these parameters with the V AN D
ln  
consideration of earth effect. These parameters are r
important in steady-state power analyses and studies The GMR bundle is introduced to determine the final
inductance value. Assuming the same separation among
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bundles, the equation for GMR bundle, up to three
conductors per bundle, is defined as:
(
GMRn bundle conductors = d n −1GMRstranded )1/ n
(6)
For two- subconductor bundle:
DSb = 4 (DS ∗ d ) = DS ∗ d
2
(7)
For a three-subconductor bundle:
DSb = 9 (DS ∗ d ∗ d ) = 3 DS ∗ d 2
3
(8)
where
n = number of conductors per bundle
GMRstranded = GMR of the stranded conductor
d = distance between bundle conductors
ρ = conductor resistivity
l = length of conductor
A = conductor cross sectional area
Rac = ac resistance
R1 and R2 = resistances at temperature, t1 and t 2
V AN = phase a voltage
T = temperature constant
t1 and t 2 = conductor temperatures
λ p = flux linkages
I = conductor current
µ 0 = constant permeability, 4π x 10 −7 H/m
ε 0 = permittivity of free space, 8.85 x 1012 F/m
r, D = conductor radius and diameter resp.
q A = charge on conductor A
GMD = geometric mean distance
EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE
A. Architecture
A state programming architecture is a good choice in
carrying out the routine tasks of different line parameter
computation. Sometimes, it may be required to change
the order of the sequence, repeat one item in the sequence
more often than the other items, stop a sequence
immediately, or have items in the sequence that may
execute only when certain conditions are met. Although
a program may not have any such requirements, there is
always the possibility that the program must be modified
in the future. Therefore, state programming architecture
makes future modification an easy task.
A state machine relies on user input or in-state
calculation to determine which state to go to next. Many
applications require an initialization state and a default
state, where many different actions can be performed.
State machines are commonly used to create user
interfaces where different user actions send the user
interface into different processing segments. Each
processing segment acts as a state in the state machine.
Each segment leads to another segment for further
processing or waits for another user action. Enumerated
type controls are used to control the initialization and
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transition of state machines. State machine infrastructure
comprises while loop, case structure, shift register, state
functionality code, and transition code (NI LabVIEW,
2010). This is shown in Fig 1.
Fig. 1. System architecture
B. Flowchart
The simplified flowchart for the program is given in Fig
2. How the software works is enumerated as follows;
• it poses two circuit options (single-phase 2-wire line,
3-phase single circuit and 3-phase double circuit) to
the user.
• based on the circuit type, it requests for the necessary
inputs from the user;
• during the input request, it gives both options of a
solid conductor and stranded/bundled conductor to
the user; and
• based on the inputs, it computes and displays all the
parameters.
C. System Modules
The software calculates each parameter in a separate
module. These modules are interconnected in the sense
that they all fetch inputs from the same source. Each
module is given below. The modules are presented in
graphical codes and not textual codes. NI LabVIEW is
graphical programming environment that simplifies
programming for users just by drag and drop routine.
Due to the complexity and space-limitations of that of 3-
phase single and double circuits, the modules for single-
phase 2-wire line are only presented the next section. The
mathematical expressions were used in programming in
NI-LabVIEW to calculate overhead electrical power
transmission line parameters. The NI- LabVIEW code
for Resistance, Inductance, Capacitance, Series
Impedance and Shunt Admittance are shown in Fig 3 to
Fig 6, respectively.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Tested with some sets of inputs, the software gives out
following results. The snapshots are shown in Figs 7-12.
Fig. 7. shows result of single phase 2-wire line with the
following input parameters: conductor type (hard-drawn
Aluminum), earth type (average damped earth),
temperature ( oC), frequency (60 Hz), line diameter (20
mm2), line spacing (3 m), line height (10 m), solid or
bundled (solid), long line length (250 Km).
 Fig. 2. System Flowchart

Fig. 3. Resistance Module

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Fig. 4. Inductance Module

Fig. 5. Capacitance Module

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 Fig. 6. Series Impedance and Shunt Admittance for Long Lines Module
Fig. 7. Single-phase 2-Wire Line of 250 Km Length
Fig. 8. shows result for single-phase 2-wire line with
following set of input parameters: conductor type (hard-
drawn Copper), earth type (dry earth), temperature (oC),
frequency (50 Hz), line diameter (15 mm2), line spacing
(3 m), line height (15 m), solid or bundled (bundled with
3 strands), strand spacing (100 mm), long line length
(350 Km). Fig. 9 shows result of 3-phase single circuit
line with the following input parameters: conductor type
(annealed Copper), earth type (sandstone earth),
temperature (oC), frequency (50 Hz), line diameter
(20mm2), line height (12 m), number of neutral or shield
wire (1), solid or bundled (solid), long line length (300
Km). Fig. 10 shows result for 3-phase single circuit line
with the following input parameters: conductor type
(hard-drawn Copper), earth type (dry earth), temperature
(oC), frequency (60 Hz), line diameter (20mm), line
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height (15m), number of neutral or shield wire (2), solid
or bundled (bundled with 3 strands), strand spacing
(100mm2), long line length (350 Km). Fig. 11 shows
result for 3-phase double circuit line with the following
input parameters: conductor type (hard-drawn Copper),
earth type (average damped earth), temperature (oC),
frequency (60 Hz), line diameter (25 mm2), line height
(20 m), number of neutral or shield wire (2), solid or
bundled (solid), long line length (350 Km). Fig. 12 shows
result for 3-phase double circuit line with the following
input parameters: conductor type (hard-drawn Copper),
earth type (dry earth), temperature (oC), frequency (50
Hz), line diameter (15mm), line height (25m), number of
neutral or shield wire (2), solid or bundled (bundled with
2 strands), strand spacing (100mm2), long line length
(350 Km).
Fig. 8. Single-phase 2-wire Line with 350 Km Length

Fig. 9. Three-phase Single Circuit Line with 300 Km Length

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Fig. 10. Three-phase Single Circuit Line with 350 Km Length

Fig 11.0 Three-phase double circuit line with 350 Km Length

Fig 12.0 Three-phase Double Circuit Line with 350 Km Length

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CONCLUSION
From Figs. 7 and 8, it is observed that the parameters
reduce more when dry-earth type was selected for the
analysis than the average damped earth type despite
increase in line length, it also shows that bundling reduces
the parameters values and hence loses in the line. Figs. 9
and 10 also show that the parameters reduce more when
dry-earth type was selected for the analysis than the
average damped earth type despite increase in line
length(sandstone/ dry-earth), though different materials
were considered: annealed copper and hard-drawn
copper, while Figs 11 and 12, compare hard drawn
aluminum with hard-drawn copper but different earth
type. The results show that copper (thou a better
conductor) has high line parameters than aluminum
conductor. Other factors contributing to these are:
conductor diameter which increases the inductance. As
evident in the result snapshots above, the standalone
software is capable of calculating transmission line
parameters accurately
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