Umdorman Islamic University

Faculty of Engineering
Electrical & Electronic Eng. Dept. Semester #9
Power System stability
Lecture 9
Transmission
Line Stability

Dr. Kamal Ramadan; UofK 0

Preliminaries:
 Generators and loads are connected together
through transmission lines transporting electric
power from one place to another. Transmission
line must, therefore, take power from
generators, transmit it to location where it will
be used, and then distribute it to individual
consumers.
 The power capability of a transmission line is
proportional to the square of the voltage on the
line.
 Therefore, very high voltage levels are used to
transmit power over long distances.

Dr. Kamal Ramadan; UofK 1

  Once the power reaches the area where it will
be used, it is stepped down to a lower voltages
in distribution substations, and then delivered to
customers through distribution lines.

Distribution line with no ground wire.

Dual 220 kV transmission line

There two types of transmission lines:

• Overhead lines and
• Buried cables.

Dr. Kamal Ramadan; UofK 2

  An overhead transmission line usually consists
of three conductors or bundles of conductors
containing the three phases of the power system.
 The conductors are usually aluminum cable
steel reinforced (ACSR), which are steel core
(for strength) and aluminum wires (having low
resistance) wrapped around the core.

 In overhead transmission lines, the conductors

are suspended from a pole or a tower via
insulators.

Dr. Kamal Ramadan; UofK 3

  In addition to phase conductors, a transmission line
usually includes one or two steel wires called
ground (shield) wires.
 These wires are electrically connected to the tower
and to the ground, and, therefore, are at ground
potential.
 In large
transmission lines,
these wires are
located above the
phase conductors,
shielding them from
lightning.

Transmission line models

 Unlike the electric machines studied so far,
transmission lines are characterized by their
distributed parameters: distributed resistance R,
inductance L, and capacitance C.
 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.

Dr. Kamal Ramadan; UofK 4

  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.
 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.

Dr. Kamal Ramadan; UofK 5

  The total series resistance, series reactance, and
shunt admittance of a transmission line can be
calculated as
R  rd (1)
X  xd (2)
Y  yd (3)
 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.

 Fig.3 shows the per-phase

IS IR
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 (4)
 We can relate voltages through the Kirchhoff’s
voltage law
VS  VR  ZI  VR  RI  jX L I (5)
VR  VS  RI  jX L I (6)
which is very similar to the equation derived for a
synchronous generator.

Dr. Kamal Ramadan; UofK 6

 Short transmission line: phasor diagram
AC voltages are usually expressed as phasors.

Load with unity power

Load with lagging factor.
power factor.
 As seen for a given source
voltage VS and magnitude of
the line current, the received
voltage is lower for lagging Load with leading
loads and higher for leading power factor.
loads.

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.

Dr. Kamal Ramadan; UofK 7

 a) 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.

 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 (6)

Dr. Kamal Ramadan; UofK 14

voltage drop across reactance jXLI will stretch

between VR and VS.

Therefore, when a lagging load increases, the

received voltage decreases sharply.
b) An increase in a unity PF
load, on the other hand, will
slightly decrease the received
voltage at the end of the
transmission line.

Dr. Kamal Ramadan; UofK 8

 c) Finally, an increase in a
load with leading PF
increases the received
(terminal) voltage of the
transmission line.

2. The voltage regulation of a transmission line is

VnL - VfL
V  Regulation  100% (7)
Vf L
where Vnl and Vfl are the no-load and full-load
voltages at the line output.

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 VReg.
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 VReg.
3.If leading (capacitive) loads are added at the end
of a line, the voltage at the end of the
transmission line increases – negative VReg.

Dr. Kamal Ramadan; UofK 9

 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 I S cos  S (8)
 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  3VLLR I R cos  R (9)

The reactive power input to a 3-phase transmission

line can be computed as
Qin  3VS I S sin  S  3VLLS I S sin  S (10)
And the reactive output power is
Qout  3VR I R sin  R  3VLLR I R sin  R (11)
The apparent power input to a 3-phase transmission
line can be computed as
Sin  3VS I S  3VLLS I S
(12)
And the apparent output power is
Sout  3VR I R  3VLLR I R (13)

Dr. Kamal Ramadan; UofK 10

 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 XLI
cos. Therefore:

3VSVR
I cos   sin  (11)
XL
Then the output power of the transmission line
equals to its input power:
3VSVR
P sin  (12)
XL
Therefore, the power supplied by a transmission
line depends on the angle between the phasors
representing the input and output voltages.

Dr. Kamal Ramadan; UofK 11

 The maximum power supplied by the transmission
line occurs when  = 900:
3VSVR
Pmax  (13)
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.

Dr. Kamal Ramadan; UofK 12

 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% (14)
Pin
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.

Dr. Kamal Ramadan; UofK 13

 5. Transmission line limits
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 L2 R (14)

The greater the current flow, the greater the

resistive heating losses.

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 (15)
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.

Dr. Kamal Ramadan; UofK 14

  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
f actor.

2-port networks and ABCD models

 A transmission line can be
represented by a 2-port
network – a network that
can be isolated from the
outside world by two
connections (ports) as
shown.
 If the network is linear, an elementary circuits
theorem (analogous to Thevenin’s theorem)
establishes the relationship between the sending
and receiving end voltages and currents as

Dr. Kamal Ramadan; UofK 15

 VS  AVR  BI R
(16)
I S  CVR  DI R
 Here constants A and D are dimensionless,
 The constant B has units of ,
 The constant C is measured in siemens.
 These constants are sometimes referred to as
generalized circuit constants, or ABCD constants.
The ABCD constants can be physically interpreted as:
 Constant A represents the effect of a change in the
receiving end voltage on the sending end voltage;

 Constant D models the effect of a change in the

receiving end current on the sending end current.
Naturally, both constants A and D are
dimensionless.
 The constant B represents the effect of a change
in the receiving end current on the sending end
voltage.
 The constant C denotes the effect of a change in
the receiving end voltage on the sending end
current.
Transmission lines are 2-port linear networks, and
(9.51.1)

they are often represented by ABCD models.

Dr. Kamal Ramadan; UofK 16

 For the short transmission line model,
IS = IR = I,
and the ABCD constants are
A  1; B  Z ; C  0; D  1
 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
I C 2  VR (17)
2

And the current through the series impedance

elements is
Y
I ser  VR  I R (18)
2

Dr. Kamal Ramadan; UofK 17

 From the Kirchhoff’s voltage law, the sending end
voltage is
VS  ZI ser  VR  Z ( I C 2  I R )  VR
 YZ 
  1VR  ZI R (18)
 2 

The source current will be

Y Y
I S  I C1  I ser  I C1  I C 2  I R  VS  VR  I R
2 2
(19)
 ZY   ZY 
 Y  1VR    1 I R
 4   2 

Therefore, the ABCD constants of a medium-length

transmission line are
ZY
A 1
2
BZ
ZY (20)
C 1
4
 ZY 
D  Y  1
 2 
 If the shunt capacitance of the line is ignored, the
ABCD constants are the constants for a short
transmission line.

Dr. Kamal Ramadan; UofK 18

 Long transmission line
 For long lines, it is not accurate enough to
approximate the shunt admittance by two
constant capacitors at either end of the line.
 Instead, both the shunt capacitance and the
series impedance must be treated as
distributed quantities;
 the voltages and currents on the line should
be found by solving differential equations of
the line.

 However, it is possible to model a long

transmission line as a  model with a modified
series impedance Z’ and a modified shunt
admittance Y’ and to perform calculations on
that model using ABCD constants.
 The modified values of series impedance and
shunt admittance are:
sinh d
Z' Z
d
tanh d  (21)
Y ' Y  2
d
2

Dr. Kamal Ramadan; UofK 19

  Here Z is the series impedance of the line; Y
is the shunt admittance of the line; d is the
length of the line;  is the propagation
constant of the line:

  yz (22)

where y is the shunt admittance per kilometer

and z is the series impedance per km.

 As d gets small, the ratios approach 1.0 and

the model becomes a medium-length line
model.
 The ABCD constants for a long transmission
line are
Z 'Y '
A 1
2
B  Z'
Z 'Y ' (23)
C 1
4
 Z 'Y ' 
D  Y  1
 2 

Dr. Kamal Ramadan; UofK 20