Sensitivity Analysis of Corona and Radio Noise in EHV Transmission Lines

Prof C S Indulkar, Fellow

In this paper, a sensitivity analysis of corona and radio noise in EHV transmission lines has been carried out with respect to the various parameters and atmospheric conditions near the transmission lines.
Keywords: Corona loss; Radio interference; TV interference; EHV transmission; Sensitivity analysis

INTRODUCTION Corona on transmission lines causes power loss, radio and television interference, and audible noise near the transmission line. At extra-high-voltage (EHV) levels (at 345 kV and higher), the conductor itself is the major source of audio noise, radio interference (RI), television interference (TVI), and corona loss. RI is a noise type that occurs in the AM radio reception, including the standard broadcast band from 0.5 MHz to 1.6 MHz. It does not take place in the FM band. Radio noise (RI or TVI) is usually expressed in mV/m or in dB above 1 V/m. The effects of corona in EHV transmission lines depend on a number of parameters that may not remain constant over a period, and the contributions of each add to the effects in a complex manner. The determination of the disruptive critical voltage requires the assignment of average values for the conductor irregularity factor that may vary considerably with the weathering effects on the conductor. In the Peterson 1 expression for the fair weather corona loss, the corona factor that is a function of the ratio of the operating voltage to the disruptive critical voltage may also vary depending upon the operating voltage. Similarly, the radio and television interference levels depend upon the variations in radial distance from the conductor to the antenna and the line height. Some parameters are known with good accuracy and may be taken as constant, whereas there are others which are affected by errors of evaluation and may vary with time. The usual interest consists in evaluating the disruptive critical voltage and the radio noise due to corona with respect to these variable parameters. Many approaches are available for considering these parameter changes including worst-case analysis, sensitivity analysis, and Monte Carlo simulation. In this paper, sensitivity analysis of the disruptive critical voltage, visual critical voltage, corona loss, and radio noise (RI and TVI) is performed. SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS A sensitivity analysis for the disruptive critical voltage, visual
Prof C S Indulkar resides at B3, Gokel Society, Vasra Road, Baroda 390 015, Gujarat. This paper was received on June 24, 2002. Written discussion on this paper will be entertained till May 31, 2004.

critical voltage, corona loss, RI and TVI is carried out. The normalized sensitivities with respect to the parameters on which these quantities depend are evaluated. The normalized sensitivity of a quantity with respect to a particular parameter on which it depends gives the change percentage in the particular quantity for one percent change in the parameter being considered. Table 1 gives the nominal values of the parameters used in this paper for sensitivity analysis. Disruptive Critical Voltage A transmission line should operate just below the disruptive critical voltage in fair weather, so that, corona only takes place during adverse atmospheric conditions. Therefore, the calculated disruptive critical voltage is an indicator of the corona performance of the line. However, a high value of the disruptive critical voltage is not the only criterion of satisfactory corona performance. The sensitivity of the conductor to foul weather and the fact that corona increases more slowly on stranded conductors than on smooth conductors should also be considered. According to Peek conductors, after making allowance for surface condition of the conductor by using the irregularity factor, the expression for the disruptive critical voltage ( V 0 ) is
. m 0 r ln( D / r ) kV V 0 = 211

(1)

where V 0 is the disruptive rms critical voltage to neutral, kVs r, radius of conductor in centimeters; D, spacing between two conductors, cm; m 0 , irregularity factor ( 0 < m 0 1) (1 for smooth, polished solid, cylindrical conductors; 0.930.98 for weathered, solid, cylindrical conductors; 0.870.90 for weathered conductor with more than seven strands; and 0.80 0.87 for weathered conductor with up to seven strands and is the air-density factor. The air-density factor is:
= 3.9211 p / ( 273 + t )

(2)

where p is the barometric pressure in centimeters of mercury and t is the ambient temperature, C . 197

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Table 1

Nominal values of system parameters Pressure, p, (cm, Hg) 74 Irregularity Factor, m0 0.9 Conductor Radius, r, cm 1.5 Spacing, D, cm 550 Temperature, t, C 10 Operating Voltage, V (Line kV) 345 Supply Frequency, f (Hz) 60

Irregularity Factor, mV 0.9

Visual Critical Voltage The expression for the visual critical voltage, V v , given by Peek2 is:
V v = 211 . mv r 1 +

LM MN

0.3

OP ln( D / r ) kV br g PQ

(3)

where V v is the visual critical voltage in kilovolts, rms; mv , irregularity factor for visual corona ( 0 < m v 1) (1 for smooth, polished, solid, cylindrical conductors; 0.930.98 for local and general visual corona on weathered, solid, cylindrical conductors; 0.700.75 for local visual corona weathered stranded conductors; and 0.800.85 for general visual corona on weathered stranded conductors. It may be noted that the voltage equations (1) and (3) are for fair weather. For wet weather voltage values, the resulting fair weather voltage values should be multiplied by 0.80. For a three-phase horizontal conductor configuration, the factors 0.96 and 1.06 should be multiplied with the calculated disruptive critical voltage for the middle conductor and for the two outer conductors, respectively. The normalized sensitivities of the disruptive critical voltage, V 0 and visual critical voltage, V v are given in Table 2. The normalized sensitivities of both V 0 and V v with respect to the pressure, irregularity factor, and conductor radius,
Table 2 Sensitivity values of disruptive critical voltage and visual critical voltage Irregularity Factor, mV Disruptive Critical Voltage, V0 [Nominal Value = 298.7 kV (line)] Visual Critical Voltage, VV [Nominal Value = 370.9 kV (line)] Pressure, Irregu- Conduc- Spacing, Tempep larity tor D rature, Factor, Radius, t m0 r 1 1 0.830 0.169 0.035

respectively are high and those with respect to the spacing and temperature are low. The values of V 0 and V v increase with an increase in the value of all parameters except the temperature. These values decrease with an increase in the value of the temperature. The smoother the surface of a given conductor, the higher is the disruptive voltage. For the same diameter, a stranded conductor is usually satisfactory for about 80%-85% of a smooth conductor. The air density factor, and hence V 0 and V v depend on the barometric pressure. The barometric pressure in turn is a function of the altitude. Table 3 gives the standard barometric pressure3 as a function of altitude. The values of V 0 and V v increase with a decrease in the altitude. However, the increase in V v is about 10% less than that in V 0 . Corona Loss According to Peterson1, the expression for the fair weather corona loss per phase or conductor, Pc is:
Pc = 10 4 f V 2 F 111066 . ln ( 2 D / d )

(4)

where d is the conductor diameter, cm; f, frequency, Hz; V, line-to-neutral operating voltage in kVs; and F is the corona factor determined by test and is a function of ratio of V to V 0 . Typically, for fair weather corona, Table 4 gives the relationship3 between the corona factor, F and the ratio of the operating voltage to the disruptive critical voltage, V/ V 0 . For wet weather corona, the factor F has to be determined using V/0.80 V 0 . Table 5 gives the sensitivity values of corona loss.
Table 3 Standard barometric pressures as function of altitude Pressure, cm Hg 78.79 77.40 76.00 73.30 70.66 68.10 65.54 Altitude, m 1524.0 1828.8 2133.6 2438.4 3048.0 4572.0 6096.0 Pressure, cm Hg 63.22 60.91 58.67 56.44 52.27 42.88 34.93

Altitude, m 304.8 152.4 1 0.902 .732 .169 .032 0 304.8 609.6 914.4 1219.2

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Table 4 ( V /V 0 ) F Table 5

Corona factor as function of V/ V0 0.600 0.012 0.800 0.018 1.00 0.05 1.20 0.08 1.4 0.3 1.6 1.0 1.8 3.5 2.0 6.0 2.2 8.0

Table 6

Sensitivity values of RI Maximum Electric Field, Em Conductor Radius, r 0.286 Line Height, h 0.147 Lateral Distance from Antenna, R 0.083

Sensitivity values of corona loss Operating Voltage, V Supply Frequency, f 1 Conductor Radius, r .338 Spacing, D 0.284

Corona loss, Pc, (Nominal Value = 1.478 kW/km3 phase)

2.01

RL (Nominal Value = 60.36 dB above 1 V / m )

1.101

from antenna to nearest phase, m; and FFW , 17 for foul weather; and 0 for fair weather. Table 6 gives the sensitivity values of RI. RI is more sensitive to the maximum electric field Em, but less so to the line height and the lateral distance from the antenna. Although the RI is least sensitive to the parameter R, the lateral distance from the antenna, this parameter is the one that can be adjusted to keep the RI within the specified limits. Table 7 gives the RI limits set by various countries4 in the world.
Table 7 Country Switzerland RI limits in various countries in the world4 Distance from Line RI Limit Frequency Remarks Dry Weather 10 C

The sensitivity values of the corona loss are calculated using a value of F = .07 from Table 4 for V/ V 0 = 1.155. The sensitivity values with respect to the operating voltage and supply frequency are quite high and with respect to the conductor, radius and spacing are low. Furthermore, the sensitivity with respect to the spacing is negative. As the spacing increases, the corona loss decreases. The corona loss is proportional to the frequency of the supply voltage. Therefore, the higher the frequency, the higher is the corona loss. Thus, the corona loss at 60 Hz is greater than the one at 50 Hz. Of course, the corona loss at zero frequency, that is, the direct current, is far less than the one for alternating current. Radio Interference The radio interference is a noise type that occurs in the AM radio reception, including the standard broadcast band from 0.5 MHz to 1.6 MHz. It does not take place in the FM band. Radio noise (radio or TV interference) is usually expressed in millivolts per meter or in decibels above 1 V/m. As conductors age, radio noise levels tend to decrease. The RN is measured adjacent to a transmission line by an antenna equipped with a radio noise meter. The standard noise meter operates at 1 MHz (in the standard AM broadcast band) with a bandwidth of 5 kHz. For measurements in the RI range, a rod antenna usually determines the electric field, E and a loop antenna usually determines the magnetic field component H. The approximate value of the RI can be determined from the following empirical formula3:
RI = 50 + K ( Em 16.95 ) + 17.3686 ln( d / 3.93 ) + Fn + 13.8949 + FFW

30 m from outermost 46 dB 500 kHz phase above 1 V / m (= 200 V/m )

Poland

20 m from outermost 57.5 dB 500 kHz 10 phase above 1 V / m kHz (= 750 V/m ) Voltage, kV 220 400 750 Distance from line centre 50 m 55 m 70 m

Air Humidity < 80% Temperature 5 C

Czechoslovakia

40 dB above
1 V / m

500 kHz

Air Humidity = 70% Dry Weather For 80% of the year limit should not be exceeded

(5)
Former USSR 100 m from outermost phase 40 dB 500 kHz above 1 V / m

where RI is the radio noise in decibels above 1 V/m at 1 MHz; K, 3 for 750-kV class, 3.5 for others, gradient limits 15 kV/cm-19 kV/cm; Em , maximum electric field at conductor in kV (rms)/cm; D, (sub) conductor diameter, cm; Fn = 4 dB for single conductor (4.3422 ln (n/4) for n > 1; n, number of conductors in bundle, D, radial distance from conductor to antenna, m ( h 2 + R2 )1/ 2 ; h, line height, m; R, lateral distance Vol 84, March 2004

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Table 8

Sensitivity values of TVI Maximum Electric Field, Em Conductor Line Frequency, Radius, Height, f r h Lateral Distance from Antenna, R

Table 8 gives the sensitivity values of TVI. The sensitivity study of TVI is carried out for an antenna location at 15 m from the three-phase 345 kV line and for a TV channel signal where the carrier frequency is 83.25 MHz. It is observed that the sensitivity value of TVI with respect to the electric field is very high and that with respect to the conductor radius is moderately high. As conductors age, radio noise (RI or TVI) levels tend to decrease. Since, corona is mainly a function of the potential gradients of the conductors and the RN is associated with the corona, the RN as well as corona will increase with higher voltage, other things being equal. CONCLUSIONS Although the theoretical expressions for the corona effects, namely, corona loss and radio noise and the parameters on which they depend have been known in the literature extensively for the past many years, this is the first time that a sensitivity study on corona quantities has been carried out. It has therefore been possible to determine how sensitive are the corona quantities with respect to the parameters on which they depend. Further, work is in progress on the statistical evaluation and Monte Carlo analysis of corona loss and radio noise. REFERENCES
1. W S Peterson. AIEE Discussion. Transactions Am Inst Electrical Engineering, vol 52, no 3, 1933, p 62.

TVI (Nominal Value = 25.15 dB above

1 V / m )

2.643379

0.687

0.35299

0.34355

0.32358

Television Interference In general, power line RN sources disturbing television reception are due to non-corona sources. Such power line interference in the VHF (30 MHz-300 MHz) and UHF (300 MHz-3000 MHz) bands is usually caused by sparking. Since, the sparks usually short out during rain, sparking is a fair weather problem rather than a foul weather one. The expression for the foul weather TVI in terms of the RI of a transmission line5 is:

TVI = RI 20 log 10

LM MM f e1 + b R / hg j MN e1 + b15 / hg j

1 2 2

1 2 2

OP PP + 3.2 PQ

(6)

2. F W Peek, (Jr). Dielectric Phenomena In High Voltage Engineering. McGraw-Hill, New York, 1929. 3. T Gonen. Electric Power Transmission Engineering: Analysis and Design. Wiley Interscience, New York, 1988, p 538. 4. R D Begamudre. Extra High Voltage AC Transmission Engineering. Wiley Eastern Limited, New Delhi, 1986, p 153. 5. Electric Power Research Institute. Transmission Line Reference Book: 345 kV and Abpve. 2nd edition, EPRI, Palo Alto, California, 1982.

where TVI is the television interference, in decibels (quasipeak) above 1 V/m at a frequency f, MHz; RI, radio interference, in decibels (quasi-peak) above 1 V/m at 1 MHz and at standard reference location of 15 m laterally from outermost phase; f, frequency, MHz; h, is the height of closest phase, m.

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