Transposition of conductors in Power Transmission

Lines
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Parameters of Transmission Line:

A transmission line has four parameters, namely resistance, inductance,

capacitance and conductance. The resistance ‘R’ of a line is because of
conductor resistance, series inductance ‘L’ is due to the magnetic field
surrounding the conductors, shunt capacitance ‘C’ is due to the electric
field between conductors, and shunt conductance, ‘G’ is because of the
leakage current between phases and ground.

What is Transposition of Conductors?

The interchange of conductor positions of a transmission line at regular

intervals along the route is known as Transposition of Conductors.

Why transposition is needed?

In the power transmission line when the line conductors are

asymmetrically spaced i.e. not equally spaced, the inductance of each
phase is different causing voltage drops of different magnitudes in the
three phases even if the system is operating under balanced condition
(load currents are balanced in the three phases). Also the magnetic field
external to the conductors is not zero thereby inducing voltages in
adjacent communication lines and causing what is known as
“telecommunication interference”. This can be overcome by the
interchange of conductor positions at regular intervals along the route
and this practice is known as “transposition of conductors”.

How transposition is done?

In a transposed transmission line each of the three conductors occupies

all the three positions relative to other conductors (position 1, position 2,
and position 3) for one-third of the total length of the transmission line.
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Transposition also balances out the line capacitance so that electro-
statically induced voltages are also balanced. Figure shows the
transposition of conductors over a complete cycle.

A complete cycle of
transposition of line
conductors.

Complications of Conductor Transposition:

Frequent transposition usually leads to complication of support

structures (as can be seen by the picture below), increase the cost
because of increased number of insulator strings and total weight of
supports.
Transposition on 400 kV,
double circuit transmission line,
near Bhopal, M.P.

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