* p-lliu@163.com, guojiayang@vip.sina.

com



The Classification Principle of Galloping Probability Distribution Map in North
China Power System

Liang. LIU* 1 Hongbin. LIU 2 Chun. DENG 1 Yichao. YUAN 1 Jiayang. GUO 1
1 North China Electric Power Research Institute Co., Ltd
2 North China Grid Company Limited
Peoples Republic of China








SUMMARY

During the spring of 2010, the north of China was confronted with heavy winds, rain and snow several
times. Due to the poor weather condition, lots of galloping trips of transmission lines happened in
those areas. In order to prevent the damage to the power system caused by galloping in bad weather
condition, State Grid Company of China (SGCC) demands subsidiary companies to develop the
research on drawing the probability distribution map of galloping in each administrative region,
mainly based on the historical data of the galloping trips in the operated transmission lines. The region
would be classified into 4 levels as strong galloping region, medium galloping region, weak galloping
region and no galloping region. Meanwhile, preventive methods of galloping at each level were
studied.

However, galloping was closely related to natural environment. Therefore, the classification method of
galloping probability distribution only based on historical data seemed to be not reasonable. Besides,
there was no historical data in some areas as transmission lines havent been built yet. In order to
represent the possibility of the occurrence of galloping correctly, North China Grid Company limited
(NCGC), which is a subsidiary company of SGCC, researched on the classification principle of
galloping occurrence probability to find a reasonable standard for galloping classification.

In the research, natural condition was thought to be one of the most important factors in the
classification and the parameters of transmission lines should also be considered, while historical data
of galloping should be used for verification of the accuracy of the classification method and principle.
In other words, only when the results of the galloping probability distribution classified based on
natural condition is mostly in accordance with the results based on historical data, the classification
method based on natural condition can be accepted and applied into practice.

In our research, we firstly analysed the statistical data of weather condition and icing characteristic of
some typical galloping areas and determined the major environmental factors, including landform,
wind speed, temperature, humidity and the possibility of rime and glaze. Then, with the cooperation of
meteorological department, we collected a large number of weather data of the areas in north China in
the latest 30 years. After the numerical statement, screening and analysis of these data, the research


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developed two methods to plot the galloping distribution map, one was based on the weighted average
algorithm and the other was based on the statistical information of the galloping day. Then, optimized
by the historical data, the galloping level can be classified and the distribution map can be finally
plotted.

As the meteorological data was collected from the regions of north China, this galloping map can only
be applied into north China. However, the principle and drawing method can be referred to other
areas.











KEYWORDS

Galloping, Distribution Map, Galloping-Day, Meteorology
1

0 Introduction

From 1957 to 2008, only less than 70 cases of galloping happened in China, mostly in Hubei, Henan,
Hebei provinces, and the galloping didnt cause large area blackout. However, during the winter of
2009 to the spring of 2010, galloping of 10-500kV transmission lines happened many times in lots of
provinces in China, including Henan, Shanxi, Hunan, Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Liaoning, Hebei, Shandong,
Shaanxi, Hubei, Anhui and Jiangsu, etc. These galloping faults caused significant damage, which
involved many areas and a large quantity of equipments. According to rough statistics of State Grid
Corporation of China (SGCC), the galloping influenced 441 transmission lines of above 66kV and 318
transmission lines were tripped. Besides, bolts loosening and shed, hardware fittings and insulator
damage, wire injury off shares, tower and base damage were also caused by the galloping [1-4].

After the damage, the researches on galloping were immediately developed by several sub companies
of SGCC, such as China Electrical Power Research Institute, North China Grid Company Limited
(NCGC), Henan Electric Power Corporation, etc. The researches mainly concentrated on the study of
principle, monitoring, prevention, simulation models, pre-warning and test platforms of galloping. In
the research, SGCC organized all the sub companies to draw the galloping distribution map in each
region respectively. In the map, four levels of galloping were defined, classifying the region into the
strong level (III), medium level (II), mild level (I) and zero level (0). Meanwhile, the anti-galloping
measures corresponding to each level were studied. Our paper was carried out based on the above
process.

1 Primary principle

Before the large area galloping faults in 2009-2010, only small area galloping accidents happened in
2007 in NCGC, whose maintenance area contains the north of Beijing, the northern Hebei province
and the junction area of Inner Mongolia, Shanxi and Liaoning. In 2008, NCGC organized some
technical institutes to conduct preliminary research on galloping prevention. So far, some positive
results and experiences have been achieved. After the damage of galloping in 2010, these results
achieved by NCGC were widely used in the SGCC.

Generally, the galloping could be caused by three conditions [5]. Firstly, the conductor should be
coated by ice and the ice thickness had to meet specific limit. Secondly, it must have a certain degree
of wind force. Finally, the parameters of transmission lines should be suitable for absorbing wind
energy. From the above discussion, we found that the cause of galloping was related to the factors of
surrounding environment and the parameters of lines. The ice coating could help the conductor absorb
wind energy easily and increase the tension to make the lines more unstable. Obviously, the wind
provided the energy of galloping. The parameters of the lines include the number of the bundles of the
conductor, the space of each bundle, the material of the line, the diameter of the wire and the length of
the sag, etc. Our paper made lots of studies on these conditions months before, watched the videos of
galloping generated in Shandong, Henan and Hebei, and carried out field researches. The
characteristics of galloping in north China are summarized as following.

1) The thickness of ice coated on the conductor when galloping happened is different between
mountain areas and plain areas. The average thickness in mountain areas is much thicker than that in
plain areas. Some technicists even told us that they found sometimes there were no ice-coating or the
thickness was only 1-2mm in plain areas when the galloping happened. But it should be noted that the
weather was cloudy with high humidity at the same time.

2) The duration of galloping is different between mountain areas and plain areas. In plain areas, the
average duration is much longer than that in mountain areas. For example, a record showed that the
longest duration of galloping in plain areas was near 48 hours. On the contrary, in mountain areas it
always lasted for less than 8 hours, sometimes even less than 15 minutes. Besides, some records stated
that the galloping would continue even when the wind stopped in plain areas.
2

3) The quantities of the sections of the transmission lines involved when galloping happened in plain
areas are obviously more than that in mountain areas. According to the records, the galloping could
happen on more than twenty sections in the same transmission line in plain areas in Shandong and
Hebei, and the span length of each section was above 400 meters. Meanwhile, the galloping sections
were adjacent to each other. However, in mountain areas in Hebei province, galloping happened only
on 5~6 sections and the sections were not always adjacent.

4) Some records showed that galloping happened on multi-bundle conductors more easily under the
condition of slight ice-coating. Generally, the voltage of multi-bundle conductors is high with higher
tower and longer cross arm. Meanwhile, the sag of the multi-bundle conductor is longer than that of
single conductor with large amplitude of galloping. In the galloping accidents happened in 2009-2010,
the newly-built 500kV Double Circuit on Same Tower with Vertical Arrangement Conductors
Transmission Line (DCSTVACTL) was proved to be the most common galloping line type. This line
has quad-bundle conductors and large diameter of the wire, shown in Fig.1. Even a report stated that
when the galloping happened in DCSTVACTL, it didnt happen in the 110kV single conductor
transmission line and the 220kV twin bundle conductor transmission line in the same region.


Fig.1 Photos of the 500kV DCSTVACTL

5) Galloping would not happen obviously on the sections with smaller span length. In China,
regarding the quad bundle even 6 bundle conductors, galloping would seldom happen in the sections
with the span length shorter than 250m. As the span length of 220kV and 110kV are always short, the
occurrence probability of galloping on these transmission lines is lower than that on the 500kV
transmission lines.

6) 500kV compact transmission line with 6 bundle conductor is one of the most common types
susceptible to galloping faults in mountain areas. While 500kV DCSTVACTL is the most common
types of lines susceptible to galloping faults in plain areas. The latter type of transmission line is
seldom built in mountain areas.

7) The frequency of galloping in multi-bundle conductor is lower than that of the single conductor and
twin bundle conductor. The principle of peak point frequency distribution is that the more bundles of
conductor, the longer distance between peak points. The frequency locations of peak points are
relatively fixed in the multi-bundle conductor while the frequency locations of peak points vary in the
single or twin bundle conductor. Its assumed that above phenomena are influenced by the rigidity of
the conductor. Galloping with fixed peak points could last longer than that of single conductor as
observed, which may be caused by the resonance with lower loss of energy.

3

It can be founded that the galloping are different between mountain areas and plain areas from the
cases mentioned above. Therefore, the study on mountain areas and plain areas should be developed
separately. Meanwhile, the primary principles of drawing galloping distribution map can be
established with the analysis of above cases as following.

1) The thickness of ice coating was not the essential factor to generate galloping. This research
preferred to replace the factors of ice-coating by temperature and humidity. According to the cases
mentioned above, we should reduce the impact of the factors of the glaze, rime, wet snow and sleet in
plain areas when drawing the distribution map. But in mountain areas, these factors would be
concerned greatly.

Nowadays, the galloping would be provoked more easily even without the ice coated on the multi-
bundle conductor. The newer transmission line DCSTVACTL has large bundle distance and wire
diameter with larger windward area, and its dynamic response characteristics are assumed to be not
stable. Therefore, the characteristics of tower and conductor system may lead to the wire whip and
galloping easier. In other words, the characteristics of transmission line may influence the process of
galloping more than the ice thickness. So the role of the ice thickness may not be thought as important
as it was before.

2) The wind field was different between mountain areas and plain areas. In the research, the different
standard of the wind in various areas should be considered.

The wind field varied frequently in mountain areas with small wind coverage areas. However, the
condition was different in plain areas. Therefore, the quantities of galloping sections were different
between mountain areas and plain areas. As the wind field in plain areas was more stable than that in
mountain areas, galloping would last longer. As a result, the average speed of wind should be mainly
concerned in plain areas, while average speed and the maximum speed should both be considered in
mountain areas.

3) The galloping records of 500kV DCSTVACTL were the main references for the level of galloping
in plain areas, while the records of 500kV compact transmission line were the main references for the
galloping level in mountain areas.

Galloping distribution map not only include the areas with built transmission lines, but also include the
areas without transmission lines in order to guide the design of the transmission lines in the future.
Therefore, meteorological and geographical parameters should be considered in the process of
drawing galloping distribution map. SGCC issued a guideline on galloping level classification in 2010
[6]. In this guideline, galloping areas were classified into 4 levels according to the statistics data of the
galloping faults in the last 10 years: strong level as galloping faults happened more than 5 times,
medium level 3 to 4 times, mild level 1 to 2 times, and zero level no galloping at all. However, the
service time of transmission line was different from each other, for example, some lines operated for
more than 10 years but some less than 2 years, so the comparison between the above transmission
lines was unreasonable. As a result, our research suggested considering annual galloping rate instead
of the times of galloping faults. Such as, we defined strong level as more than 0.5 times of galloping
per year ( level III), medium level from 0.3 to 0.5 times per year (level II), mild level from 0.1 to 0.3
times per year (level I), and zero level (level 0). After classification of the galloping levels based on
galloping rate, the environmental characteristics of the areas with different galloping levels should be
studied and used to compare with that of the areas without transmission lines to judge the level of
galloping. In this process, the galloping fault records of the transmission lines in which galloping
happened most probably should be used. For example, the record of compact line was used in
mountain areas; the record of DCSTVACTL was used in plain areas.

2 Methods

4

According to the principles, we developed two different technical methods in the drawing process, the
weighted average algorithm (WAA) and the galloping day statistics (GDS). The first one was
invented by the earlier research, and the later one was devised from the recent researches. In our study,
the mountain areas and plain areas were considered separately.

2.1 Weighted average algorithm

The weighted average algorithm (WAA) was essentially a scoring method and had been adopted partly
in the SGCC in 2010. Firstly, several meteorological factors used in the research were determined,
such as mean temperature, mean humidity, average wind speed, maximum wind speed, annual glaze
days and annual rime days, etc. Secondly, the regions were divided into mountain areas (including
hills) and plain areas based on the geographical factors. Thirdly, the meteorological statistics interval
was confirmed, from October to May of the following year (galloping had never happened except this
time interval). Subsequently, the geographical data and the hourly and daily historical meteorological
statistical data in 30 years were transformed into the annual average data. The data adopted in drawing
the galloping distribution map of NCGC were collected from the records of 48 meteorological stations
in the regions that administrated by NCGC. The distribution of the meteorological stations was shown
in Fig.2. This map showed that in the north part of the region, the density of meteorological stations
was relatively low which would make the calculation errors relatively large.


Fig.2 Distribution of meteorological stations

The scoring process is followed afterwards. Firstly, each meteorological factor was classified into 4
levels and the classification standard of each level should be confirmed. Due to the different
environmental characteristics of various areas administrated by sub companies of SGCC, the
classification standard would be different from each other. The classification standard designed by
NCGC was summarized in Tab.1. This standard was concluded by the researches on galloping
meteorological conditions.

Tab.1 Classification standard of meteorological factors
Factor (n) Standard
Annual glaze day 0n1/3 day per year
I11/30n1/2 day per year
II16/30n2/3 day per year
IIIn21/30 day per year
Annual rime day 0n66/30 day per year
I67/30n134/30 day per year
5

II135/30n190/30 day per year
IIIn191/30 day per year
Average temperature 0n5.6 or n-4.6
I5.6n3.2 or -4.6n-2.2
II3.2n2 or -2.2n-1
III2n-1
Average wind speed 0n3.5 m/s or n2m/s
I2.5n2 m/s
II3n2.5 m/s
III3.5 m/sn3 m/s
Maximum wind speed 0n25 m/s or n5 m/s
I5n15m/s
II15n20 m/s
III25m/sn20m/s
Average humidity 0n<40%
I40%n<65%
II65%n<85%
IIIn85%

Secondly, the score of 0 was set to the level 0, score 1 to the level I and score 2 to the level II, and
score 3 to the level III. Thirdly, the weight of each meteorological factor would be confirmed. The
weights adopted by different sub companies were different, and the weight designed by NCGC was
shown in tab.2.

Tab.2 Weight of meteorological factors
Factor
Weight
Plain areas Mountain areas
Glaze 0.5 0.5
Rime 1.0 2.0
Average humidity 3.0 2.5
Average temperature 2.5 2.5
Average wind speed 2.5 1.5
Maximum wind speed 0.5 1.0
Total weight 10 10

At last, the galloping scores of each meteorological station can be obtained by the weighted
quantitative calculation of above-mentioned factors. The meteorological stations were classified into
plain and mountain areas and would be calculated respectively. Then, the scores of the stations and the
areas between each station could be confirmed by Nearest Neighbour Interpolation. Afterwards, the
scores of the regions which had the historical record of galloping were selected and referred to the
levels confirmed by the method of annual galloping rate. Then, the score of each level can be fixed.
Finally, the distribution map of galloping level can be plotted. Meanwhile, the weight and
classification standard can be adjusted on the basis of annual galloping rate method. The distribution
map drawn by NCGC was shown in Fig.3.

Although the above method and relative methods had been adopted by SGCC, there were still some
problems. Moreover, as the weights and classification standards of each sub company were different,
the distribution map was difficult to be applied for lack of uniform standard.
6


Fig.3 Distribution map drawn with WAA method

2.2 Galloping day statistics

In our recent research, the method of galloping day statistics (GDS) was developed in order to achieve
higher accuracy. Firstly, the meteorological and geographical characteristics of more than 20 times
galloping faults since 2007 were summarized and analysed to achieve certain meteorological
principles. Secondly, meteorological data in the past 30 years of all the meteorological stations were
collected. Then the days whose data met the above criteria were selected and defined as the galloping
day. The quantity of the galloping day in each meteorological station would be the basis of the
distribution map. The quantity of galloping day between each station could be also confirmed by
Nearest Neighbour Interpolation. The quantity of the galloping days in the areas which had the
historical galloping records were selected and referred to the levels confirmed by the method of annual
galloping rate.

The GDS method was approved to be more accurate, because the galloping was more probable to
happen when the meteorological conditions met the criteria of galloping day. The crosswise
comparison of the quantity of galloping day between each station was more reasonable as the
galloping probability at the galloping day of each station was similar.

At last, the standards of galloping day in mountain areas were defined as below.

1) At least one rainfall within three days before galloping day.
2) The highest temperature should be above 0, the lowest temperature should be below 2.
3) The average humidity should be above 65%.
4) The average wind speed should be above 3.5m/s, the maximum wind speed should be above 7.0m/s.

The standards of galloping day in plain areas were defined as below.

1) At least one rainfall within three days before galloping day.
2) The highest temperature should be above 0, the lowest temperature should be below 0.
3) The average humidity should be above 70%.
4) The average wind speed should be above 4.0m/s, the maximum wind speed should be above 7.0m/s.

As the locations of meteorological stations in mountain areas are different from the transmission lines,
there would be statistics error just based on the meteorological data of the stations. For example, there
7

were two stations located in different places from the transmission lines. Then, we should measure the
meteorological conditions of the two stations and the transmission lines respectively, analyzed the
discrepancy and adjusted the mountain standard specifically for the above two stations in order to
achieve more accurate statistics results. With regard to the plain areas, as the meteorological
conditions of the stations were similar to the location of the transmission lines, the error was
acceptable.

The process diagram was shown in Fig.4, and the distribution map of the GDS was shown in Fig.5.


Fig.4 Process diagram of GDS method


Fig.5 Distribution map drawn with GDS method

Define the standards of galloping day
Make the statistics of historical data
Reorganize quantity of galloping days according to the standards
reasonable
unreasonable
Draw the final distribution map
Define the level refering to the historical galloping records
Draw the initial distribution map
Compare the level with the galloping rate record
8

3 Analysis and advices

Comparing the distribution map based on WAA method and GDS method respectively, we found that
although the overall trend was quite close, there existed significant difference in certain specific areas.
Regarding the first method, WAA method, the relationship between each factor is ignored and the
score of each factor is defined separately. After analysis on recent three years galloping records in
China, the weather conditions of galloping can be found, that is the joint function of temperature,
humidity, wind speed and precipitation. The second method GDS considers the relationship of the
factors, which makes it more reasonable.

After comparing the galloping levels confirmed by the method of GDS with the levels obtained from
the records of annual galloping rate, it can be found that the levels were approximate to each other
with no need of modification. However, for the method of WAA, the weight and classification
standard had to be adjusted over and over in order to get the approximate results.

The status and formation conditions of galloping in mountain areas and plain were different. Besides
the meteorological and topographic factors, the span length, tension and some other parameters also
influenced galloping. In the relative research, the difference between the mountain areas and plain
areas should be paid more attention.

Certain galloping preventive measurements should be carried out on the main transmission lines in the
regions marked II and III on the map. Meanwhile, the construction of new higher voltage transmission
lines should be avoided in regions marked II and III. If it is inevitable, some line types such as
DCSTVACTL should not be adopted and the length of span and sag should better be reduced.

As the meteorological influences on the power system increasing more and more, Grid Corporation
should consider building more meteorological stations in the low density region and develop more
meteorological monitoring methods as well.


BIBLIOGRAPHY

[1] SGCC. Guides to prevent galloping in transmission line. (Apr,2010).
[2] SGCC. Analysis report of galloping in transmission line in 2009-2010. (Apr,2010).
[3] SGCC. Analysis report of galloping in transmission line on meteorological factors in 2009-
2010. (Apr,2010).
[4] SGCC. Analysis report of galloping in transmission line on the tower of anti-galloping ability
and damages in 2009-2010. (Apr,2010).
[5] Y. L. Guo. Transmission line galloping. (Beijing China Electric Power Press, 2002)
[6] SGCC. Advice for the classification of the galloping areas and mapping rules for drawing the
distribution map. (Jun,2010).