28 Technical considerations

when carrying out voltage calculations on a long cable for example, when a K or
tee equivalent circuit with capacitive shunt branches should be used. In special
cases such as an earth fault on a network operating with an isolated neutral, the
phase-earth (ground) capacitances of short lines can also be significant and need
to be included. Table 3.1 includes typical electrical parameters of a selection of
overhead lines and underground cables for distribution systems.

Table 3.1 Typical electrical parameters of overhead lines and underground cables
Type System Phase Resistance, Reactance,
voltage, conductor Q/km n/km
kV Al/Fe, ( + 20°C) (50 Hz)
mm2

Overhead line 0-4 25/0 1-06 0-30

Overhead line 0-4 50/0 0-64 0-28
Overhead cable 0-4 35/0 0-87 0-10
Underground cable 0-4 120/0 0-25 0-07
Overhead line 11 50/0 0-64 ~0-4*
Underground cable 11 185/0 0-16 0-08
Overhead line 20 54/9 0-54 ~0-4*
Underground cable 20 120/0 0-25 0-11
Overhead line 110 242/39 0-12 -0-4*

* Value depends on spacing and crossarm construction

Transformers can be represented by shunt and series impedances. The smaller

distribution transformers have a larger series resistance than reactance, while the
larger power transformers have negligible resistance compared with reactance.
In the latter case neglecting resistance has little effect on voltage-drop studies,
but resistance should be taken into account when calculating real power and
energy losses. The manner in which the phase windings are connected to each
other and to earth has a significant influence on non-symmetrical fault currents.
This aspect will be discussed in Section 3.7.
When modelling small generators and motors it may be necessary to take
resistance into account. However, for most studies only the reactances of
synchronous machines are used. Three values of positive sequence reactance are
normally quoted: subtransient, transient and synchronous reactances, denoted
by Xst, Xt and Xs. In fault studies the subtransient and transient reactances of
generators and motors must be included as appropriate, depending on the
machine characteristics and fault-clearance time. The subtransient reactance is
the reactance applicable at the onset of the fault occurrence. Within 0-1 s the
fault current falls to a value determined by the transient reactance and then
decays exponentially to a steady-state value determined by the synchronous
reactance.