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A New Method for Real-Time Monitoring of High-Voltage Transmission-Line Conductor Sag

Robert G. Olsen, Fellow, IEEE, and Kenneth S. Edwards, Member, IEEE
AbstractThe amount of power flowing through a high-voltage transmission line is proportional to its voltage and the current flowing through it. To increase power flow without modifying the line to support increased voltage, the current must be increased. There is a limit to this, however, since increasing the current causes the conductor temperature to increase and, hence, the conductors to elongate and sag. In this paper, a method to simply and inexpensively measure the amount of conductor sag and, through simple calculation, the average conductor core temperature is described, and the results of a field test are summarized. The method involves attaching two ends of a grounded wire of high electrical resistance to an appropriate location on each of two transmission-line towers and measuring the current induced on the wire by the nearby transmission-line conductors. Information from this measurement is a critical input to any method for dynamically rating transmission lines. Index TermsDistributed parameter circuits, electromagnetic coupling, power generation dispatch, power system monitoring, power transmission lines, transmission-line measurements.

I. INTRODUCTION HE amount of power flowing through an electric power transmission line is proportional to the voltage of the line and the current flowing through it. The simplest way to increase power flow is to increase the current. There is a limit to this, however, since increasing the current causes the conductor temperature to increase.1 This, in turn, causes two problems. First, the conductors and associated hardware may age prematurely and fail due to high temperature. Second, higher temperature also causes the conductors to elongate and sag to possibly unsafe heights above the ground. The relationship between conductor sag and average conductor core temperature is relatively simple and requires only well known data and a few usually reasonable assumptions. The details of this calculation can be found in Section VI [2], [3]. Thus, if conductor sag can be measured, average conductor core temperature can be easily calculated and vice versa. In contrast, the calculation of conductor temperature distribution from the knowledge of power-line current is very difficult.

Manuscript received November 7, 2001. This work was supported in part by Avista Corp. under Contract R-11959. R. G. Olsen is with the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164 USA (e-mail: olsen@eecs.wsu.edu). K. S. Edwards is with Bonneville Power Administration, Vancouver, WA 98666 USA (e-mail: ksedwards@pba.gov). Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TPWRD.2002.804015
1For longer transmission lines, power flow may be limited by system stability criteria [1]

This is because the temperature is determined by a balance between heating from the current and weather conditions such as incident solar radiation, ambient temperature, as well as wind speed and direction that may either heat or cool the conductor [4], [5]. The calculation is made even more difficult since these weather conditions vary along the transmission line and with time. Finally, it should be noted that there is a gradient of temperature inside the conductor so that the conductor core and surface temperatures are generally not the same. Thus, unless a utility can directly or indirectly (without requiring knowledge of local weather conditions) measure the average conductor core temperature and/or sag, it is constrained in its ability to increase power flow by the use of very conservative assumptions about weather conditions. The resulting ratings are called static ratings. A knowledge of sag and/or average core temperature is an important input for the dynamic rating of lines. This, in turn, would allow existing transmission lines to transfer higher average power levels and reduce the probability of transmission bottlenecks. Presently, there are at least five existing devices that can be used to measure power-line conductor sag and/or temperature. Two of these are on the market, one will be soon, and the other two are under development. The first is a device called a power donut with a surface temperature monitor that can be placed on a phase conductor [6]. This device is expensive, measures surface rather than core temperature, and provides a measurement of temperature at only one point along the conductors length. It also requires that the device be mounted on a phase conductor. The second is a tension monitor that is installed in series with a dead-end insulator on a power-line conductor [7]. From a measurement of tension, it is straightforward to calculate the sag and temperature as outlined in [2], [3]. While this device works well, it is expensive to purchase and install. A system that will be available soon uses a target placed on a phase conductor at the point of maximum sag and a video camera that images the target [8]. Using image-processing software, the position of the target with respect to the earth is identified and sag calculated. While the device works well, it is expensive, may require regular maintenance, and requires mounting the target on the phase conductor. Finally, there are two devices that are still under development. The first uses a global positioning system (GPS) receiver mounted on the conductor to directly measure the sag [9]. One question about this device is the vertical position accuracy available from a measurement that is based on transit time to a distant satellite and local correction signals. Early laboratory experiments indicate that this error may be less than 20 cm. However, field tests have not yet been conducted to verify this. Another issue is that the GPS receiver must be mounted on the phase conductor. Thus (like the power donut), it must be

0885-8977/02$17.00 2002 IEEE

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installed in a rugged, shielded package and, hence, may be expensive. Also, its performance may be compromised by electromagnetic interference (EMI) from corona on the phase conductors. A second recently developed device is an inclinometer that measures the angle of the phase conductor sag (with respect to horizontal) at the tower [10]. Measurements of this angle must be very accurate in order to calculate sag accurately. Since the measurement accuracy is not discussed in [10], it is not known how accurately sag can be calculated. As with several of the other devices, it must be located very close to the phase conductor. It is thus subject to high electric fields and will need to be appropriately shielded. II. NEW IDEA The idea described here is a simple method to inexpensively measure the amount of conductor sag and, hence (using the method described in [2], [3]), an indirect measurement of the average conductor core temperature. It involves attaching two ends of a grounded wire of high electrical resistance to an appropriate location on each of two transmission-line towers. The current induced on the wire by the nearby transmission-line conductors is then measured with a simple ammeter. Since it is not necessary that the ammeter be located near the phase conductors, its package can be made simple and, hence, relatively inexpensive. Finally, the entire system can be installed while the line is energized. A. Background It was shown in [11] that the phase and amplitude variation of the electric space potential near a high-voltage transmission line depends upon conductor sag. It is this space potential that drives induced current and, hence, causes dry band arcing on a wet/contaminated all-dielectric self-supporting (ADSS) optical-fiber cable that is colocated on transmission-line towers. It was also shown in [11] that under certain conditions, the current induced at the tower end of the ADSS cable is very sensitive to conductor sag. This sensitivity of induced current to conductor sag suggests that a measurement of current might be the basis for a method to measure conductor sag. Given this insight, it is clear that conductor sag can be measured in the following way. First, the ADSS cable is replaced with a resistive wire of known resistance per unit length. Each end of the resistive wire is grounded at the tower. Second, the current induced on this wire by the transmission-line phase conductors is measured at the tower attachment point. If all other relevant parameters (e.g., voltage, resistive wire sag, etc.) are constant, then sag can easily be inferred from this measurement of induced current. The technique can be illustrated by considering the example shown in Fig. 1. The resistive wire is placed on a delta configured 500-kV transmission-line tower (in this case a Bonneville Power Administration 238 series tower). The attachment points of phase conductors and resistive wire are shown in Fig. 1. Tower spacing (i.e., span length) was selected to be 304.8 m (1000 ft). The resistive wire sag was set to 0.5% of the span length and its resistance to 100 000 m. The use of these values optimized the sensitivity of induced current to sag. To simulate the normal variation of phase conductor elongation, the phase

Fig. 1. Resistive wire on a 500-kV BPA 238 series tower. All dimensions are in meters. Each phase conductor is a three-conductor bundle with 33.07-mm subconductor diameter and 43.3-cm spacing. A, B, and C are the phases 0 , 120 , and 120 , respectively. The diameter of the resistive wire is 1.65 cm.

Fig. 2. Induced current as a function of phase conductor sag at the tower end of the resistive wire. Other parameters are listed in Fig. 1 and the text.

conductor sag was assumed to vary between 0.5% and 5% of the span length. The induced current on the resistive wire was then calculated using the method described in reference [11] that is also introduced later in this paper. As shown in Fig. 2, the induced current (as measured at the tower) varies over a range that exceeds a factor of ten. Of special interest is the fact that there is a minimum in the induced current at a sag of 1.75%. The reason for this and how it is useful for design will be discussed in the next section. The current is easy to measure and (using Fig. 2) can be used to determine sag. Once this is completed, the average conductor core temperature can be calculated according to the method described in Section VI [2], [3]. With this new technique, a utility can easily determine if a transmission line is close to exceeding its power-transfer capacity. In addition, it may be possible to estimate the additional power-transfer capacity for a line that does not operate at capacity.

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B. TheoryGeneral Case The purpose of this section is to identify conditions for which the induced current on a resistive wire is most sensitive to phase conductor sag. Of specific interest are the conditions for which the induced current is nearly zero since (as illustrated in Fig. 2) this condition is associated with increased sensitivity to sag. To this end, a model will be developed that can be used to design a measurement system for maximum sensitivity to sag. Consider first the expressions in (11)(14) of [12] for induced current on a resistive wire that is grounded at both ends and immersed in the electric field of a transmission line with a spacing of 2 between towers.2 The towers are assumed to be on level ground with identical attachment points for phase conductors and resistive wires at each tower.3 In (1), the current is evaluated (i.e., the tower attachment at the end of the resistive wire, points).4

assumed here that the line parameters (i.e., and ) are approximately constant along the wire so that the transmission line can be approximated as uniform. Equation (1) has been generalized to the case for sagging phase conductors and resistive wires by with to indicate that the inte1) replacing gration is along the resistive wire; with since the electric field must be inte2) replacing grated to midspan when the sag of the phase conductors is different from that of the resistive wire [11]. Equation (1) can be evaluated to give (2), shown at the bottom of the page, which can be written in terms of the space potential by recognizing that 50/60-Hz quasistatic electric fields can be written as (3) is the space potential at the location of the resistive where wire (but again in its absence). This substitution, the use of intebecause the gration by parts along with the fact that wires are grounded at the towers and substitution of the definiand in (1) yields, (4), shown at the bottom of the tions for page. Clearly, minimizing the value of (4) is an important design step. However, an application of a numerical method to minimize the value of (4) without further simplification provides little insight into the conditions necessary to do so. Developing this insight is the subject of the next two subsections.

where C. TheoryShort Span Case (1) and are, respectively, the characteristic impedance and characteristic length of the transmission line formed by the repF m and are, resistive wire above earth. spectively, the capacitance and resistance per unit length of this transmission line where and are, respectively, the height and is the electric field along the radius of the resistive wire. is the radian direction of the wire (but in its absence). frequency of the system where is usually 50/60 Hz. It has been
2Justification for the use of transmission-line theory for this calculation has been given in [13]. 3It is possible to generalize this procedure to the case for nonhorizontal spans. 4Although (1) includes electric and magnetic field coupling, the latter is neglected here due to the electrostatic approximation used for E . This is normally acceptable in higher impedance systems [14].

A simpler expression than (4) that provides a condition for to be zero can be obtained by assuming that . This means that the span length is short compared to the transmission lines characteristic length as defined in (1). Given this assumption, (2) reduces to

(5) Note that in the expression on the right, the space potenhas been written explicitly in terms of its amplitude tial in order to emphasize the importance of phase. and phase Clearly to minimize the induced current, the integral of the space

(2)

(4)

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Fig. 3. Discrete model for calculating the current induced on a resistive wire immersed in an electric field. The resistive wire is divided into N segments of length L.

potential along the resistive wire (but in its absence) from the tower to midspan must be minimized. It is interesting to note that except for the condition , the result in (5) is independent of the wire resistance per unit length . It has been shown in this work, however, that the slope of the current-sag curve is controlled by the value of . Additional insight can be gained by referring to the coupling model of [11] that is reproduced in Fig. 3. For this model, the discrete T sections of length system is divided into where and . Each T section consists of a voltage generator (with a voltage equal to the space potential) in series with a capacitor C connected to two resistors of value R/2 that form the top of the T. As before, the capacitor and resistor values are assumed to be approximately identical along the transmission line. (i.e., equivalent to small values for If ), then (using the current divider theorem), the current on the resistive wire at the tower on the left is equal to

Fig. 4. Dashed lines show possible vertical locations of the resistive wire along the span relative to the three-phase conductor locations for vertically and horizontally configured lines, respectively. The graphs show approximate space potential phase along these lines.

This value is the discrete equivalent of (5) and again provides insight into a condition for which (5) is minimized. More specifically, the current at the tower is zero if the sum of the space potential induced, capacitively coupled currents is zero. For a given maximum phase conductor sag, the design issue is to identify a catenary curve for the resistive wire that has the minimum value of

(9) (6)

If

, then (6) can be separated into two series, and

(7)

In order for this to occur, one of two things must happen. along the entire catenary curve or the Either phase of the space potential must vary by more than 180 deg. along the catenary from the tower to midspan so that some parts of the integral will cancel others. In order to avoid contact with the phase conductors, it is expected that the catenary will be restricted to a vertical plane that is parallel to the phase conductors as shown by the dashed lines in Fig. 4. Given this and the fact that the space potential phase is dominated by that of the closest phase conductor, it is more likely that a transmission line configured vertical or delta will have a 180-deg. phase shift along the catenary than a line that is configured horizontally. This is illustrated in the graphs of Fig. 4 for the vertical and horizontal cases. It is clear that there is more phase variation for the vertical case than for the horizontal case. D. TheoryLong Span Case is larger than one, then minimizing (5) or (8) is not If for the case considered in Figs. 1 appropriate. Since should also be and 2, the special case for which considered. Of course, it is always possible to minimize (4) directly. However, more insight is gained by using an approximate . method valid for large values of

but

by symmetry. Thus,

(8)

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If and (4) reduces to

, then since ,

(10) has been written explicitly in Again, the space potential in order to emphasize the terms of its amplitude and phase importance of phase. segBy dividing the resistive wire between 0 and into , assuming that and assuming ments, each of length the space potential to be approximately constant along each segment of the wire, a discretized version of (10) can be written as
Fig. 5. Photograph of the site (looking west Moscow, ID in the distance).

(11)

. In reference to Fig. 3, (11) can be given the where following physical interpretation. Each term represents the capacitively induced current in the end (tower) wire of Fig. 3 by one of the space potential sources shown in the same figure. The current from each source splits evenly to its right and left. The current to the left propagates to the tower with its amplitude and phase modified by the term (12) At the tower, the current is doubled due to the fact that the current reflection coefficient at the short-circuited tower is 1. This doubling of the current cancels the factor of due to splitting of the current to the left and right and explains why there is no such factor in (10) or (11). Again, for a given maximum phase conductor sag, the design issue is to identify a catenary curve for the resistive wire that has the minimum value of (13) In order for this to occur, one of two things must happen. Eialong the entire catenary curve or the phase ther of the space potential multiplied by the phase shift between the source and the tower must vary by more than 180 deg. along the catenary from the tower to midspan so that some parts of the integral will cancel others. III. EXPERIMENT The second part of the work was to validate the idea by conducting an experiment on an operating transmission line. The line chosen was a delta-configured portion of the Avista Corp. Moscow (Idaho) 230 Sub Moscow City Sub 115-kV line that runs east to west just south of Idaho State Highway #8. The specific span used (shown in Fig. 5) was approximately one mile

Fig. 6. Cross-section of the Moscow 230 Sub Moscow City Sub 115-kV line (looking toward the west) using average heights above an assumed horizontal earth for the east and west attachment. All dimensions are in meters. The phase 2:17 cm (0.856). conductor diameter

west of the substation and has a span length of 106.7 m (350 ft). Access to the site is through an abandoned railroad right-of-way shown in Fig. 5 just to the north of the line. The cross-sectional dimensions of the line are given in Fig. 6. Note that the span was not quite horizontal; the elevation of the attachment points on the west end was 0.82 m (2.7 ft) lower than those at the east end. Thus, the attachment points shown in Fig. 6 and Table I are the average of those at the two ends. Preliminary calculations of the expected sag for this span as a function of ambient temperature were made assuming a cloudless sky, 0.6-m/s (2-ft/s) wind and zero load current. The sag was calculated to vary between 0.96 and 2.30 m (3.61 and 7.55 ft) or 1.0 to 2.1% of span length for an ambient temperature variation between 18 and 32 C (0 and 90 F). For this line, a peak loading of 300 A will cause up to 0.15 m (0.5 ft or 0.14%) additional sag. Clearly, the largest changes in sag occur due to the changes in ambient temperature. Nevertheless,

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TABLE I DESIGN PARAMETERS FOR THE RESISTIVE WIRE SENSOR

Fig. 8. Schematic of the experiment from the south. Crossarms and phase conductors are not shown.

Fig. 7. Calculation of current induced on the resistive wire as a function of phase conductor sag percentage. Parameter values are shown in Fig. 6 and Table I.

calculations indicate that normal variations in sag due to loading would be measurable. A resistive wire measurement system was designed. More specifically, the location of the pole-attachment points, the resistance per unit length, and sag of the resistive wire were selected for an average phase conductor sag by minimizing the integral given in (5) or, alternatively, the sum in (8). The results are listed in Table I. For this set of parameters, the capacitance is 0.41. The per unit length is 6.1 pF/m and the value of fact that this value is relatively small, validates the use of (5) and (8). The current induced in the wire (measured at the east pole) as a function of resistive wire sag percentage has been calculated and is plotted in Fig. 7. It is clear that the phase conductor sags expected for this line will cause induced currents that will span the entire range from 0.1 to 1.0 mA, a factor of ten. Differences in current of this magnitude are relatively easy to measure. Note also that the minimum in the induced current occurs when the phase conductor sag of 2.7% is approximately equal to the resistive wire sag of 2.5%. It can be shown in this case along the catenary from tower to midspan. that The details of the experiment are shown in Fig. 8. A polypropylene rope in parallel with a wire that has a lumped 3900 series resistor every 0.61 m (2 ft) yields a resistance per m (determined as the resistance of the unit length of 6121 entire string divided by the span length) was installed between the two poles on the south side of each pole at a height near that of the phase conductors. Note also that (although probably not needed in this case) guy wires were placed on each pole as a precaution due to force on the pole from the rope/wire.

The rope passed across travelers installed on each pole at an average height of 15.88 m (52.1 ft) and down the side of each pole to anchors in the ground. At the traveler on the west pole, the resistive wire was connected to a copper wire that followed the pole down to a ground rod. The rope was attached to the ground with an anchor. At the east pole attachment point, the resistive wire was connected to the center conductor of a coaxial cable. At this end, the coax shield was unconnected. The center conductor of the coaxial cable was grounded through an ammeter in order to measure only the current induced on the resistive wire. The outer conductor was grounded directly so that current induced on the vertical portion of the wire was not measured. Between the rope and the anchor, a turnbuckle (for fine adjustment of tension), load cell, hand hoist (for coarse adjustment of tension), and an anchor were connected in that order. The sag of the rope/resistive wire was adjusted by the turnbuckle and hand hoist and the tension measured with the load cell. From this value of tension, sag was calculated using the weight per unit length of the resistive wire/rope and the catenary curve given in [2], [3]. The sag at midspan was independently measured using a transit at 19.8 m (65 ft) from centerline. Measurements made at the time of the experiment included temperature, wind speed, wind direction, time/date, cloud cover, precipitation, power-line current, lowest phase conductor and rope/resistive wire sag, and current induced on resistive wire. For all measurements, the temperature ranged from 19-29 C (6684 F), the wind speed was less than 2 m/s (5 mi/h), and the sky condition ranged from clear to slightly hazy. IV. RESULTS The tests were conducted on Wednesday, May 16, 2001. The first experiment consisted of measuring the current induced on the resistive wire as a function of its sag percentage (for a fixed sag of 2.22% on the phase conductors). This was done by adjusting the tension on the rope and measuring the resulting sag (using a direct transit measurement and an indirect calculation using a tension measurement) and induced current on the resistive wire. For each sag step, the measured current was compared to calculated results. The comparison is shown in Fig. 9. Also shown in Fig. 9 is a sixth-order polynomial fit to the measured sag data. For this test, the phase conductor current was zero. Note that the sag measurement reported here is that measured

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Fig. 9. Measured and calculated induced resistive wire currents as a function of resistive wire sag.

(a)

with the transit. The sag determined using the load-cell measurement was not as accurate. The shapes of the measured and calculated current-sag curves are very similar. The only difference between the two plots is a small horizontal offset of approximately 0.2% sag. This could easily be attributed to small differences between the assumed parameters of the model and that of the experiment site. It also might have been associated with the perturbed electric field due to a second, parallel 115-kV transmission line (visible just to the left of the road in Fig. 5). It was noted at the conclusion of testing that when the subject transmission line was deenergized to dismantle the experiment, there was a small residual current (i.e., 0.052 mA) that can be attributed to capacitive coupling from the parallel 115-kV transmission line that was approximately 18.3 m (60 ft) to the north. It should be noted that the computed and transit measured curves can be reconciled if it is assumed that the phase conductors have an additional sag of 0.7 ft or 0.2% (i.e., 2.42% rather than 2.22%) to account for the fact that the power line is not exactly horizontal. With this correction, the agreement between theory and measurement is very good. In the second experiment, the sag of the rope/resistive wire was adjusted to 2.48% for maximum sensitivity to phase conductor sag and held at that value. Initially, the current through this transmission line was zero. Following an initial measurement of phase conductor sag (i.e., 2.22%), the entire loads from several towns in the vicinity of the experiment were switched to be supplied through the experimental transmission line. The resulting current was 274 A. The purpose of this experiment was to quickly heat the phase conductors and, hence, induce additional sag to determine whether the changes in sag could be measured. During the heating process, the sag increased and both it and induced current were measured several times. The results are shown in the curve labeled during heating in Fig. 10. After the maximum sag had been achieved (approximately 1520 min), the load current was again switched to zero. Following this, measurements were again taken as the conductor cooled to the ambient temperature

(b) Fig. 10. Comparison between measured sag and induced current.

and the sag was reduced. The results are shown in the curve labeled during cooling. Two conclusions can be made from Fig. 10(a). First, the measured sag was within 0.2% of the actual sag.5 Second, although the change in phase conductor sag during this experiment was only 0.1%, it was in reasonable agreement with the predicted value of 0.14% given earlier in this section and was measurable. In fact, sag changes of only 0.05% were easily distinguished. From the expanded curve in Fig. 10(b), it is clear that the slope of the measured curve essentially matches the slope of the calculated curve. It is also shown in this figure that the small (i.e., 0.2%) difference between calculated and measured results can be reduced if a correction of 0.2 in sag of the resistive wire (i.e., from 2.48 to 2.28%) was used. This is equivalent to the 0.2 correction applied to the phase conductor sag in Fig. 9 because both corrections move the relative positions of phase conductors and resistive wire in the same direction. The result of adjusting the calculations in this way is shown as the curve
5This error estimate was made using raw data. It will be shown shortly that the error can be reduced by adjusting the data in a systematic way.

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Fig. 12.

Geometry for sag-tension-temperature calculation.

Fig. 11. Induced current as the phase conductor sag is varied.

calculated after adjustment shown in Fig. 10(b). With this adjustment, the agreement between theory and experiment is now excellent. Finally, the sag at the end of the experiment was not exactly the same as that at the beginning. This is likely due to a slight change in weather conditions between the beginning and end of this experiment. V. EXPECTED SYSTEM DESIGN AND USE The system is expected to be designed and used used in the following way. The first design issue is to identify the maximum allowable sag of the phase conductors. For this level of sag, the resistive wire is designed so that (4) [i.e., the induced current at the tower] is minimized. The system parameters are then adjusted to maximize the slope of the current/sag curve over the range of sags to be measured. Under normal circumstances (i.e., normal phase conductor sag), the induced current in the resistive wire is relatively high and insensitive to sag changes.6 Of course, these levels can be monitored at regular intervals and information sent back to the utility using a system such as that described in [14]. If, however, the phase conductors begin to sag to levels that cause concern, the induced current in the resistive wire begins to decrease rapidly. At some level determined by the utility, the sag of the phase conductors can be monitored more closely and used to determine both the potential effect of additional loading on the line and the case for which no additional loading can be allowed. At an even lower level determined by the utility, reduced loading of the line can be mandated in order so that the line sag and core temperature be reduced. The results for an example using the line configuration of the test site are shown in Fig. 11. For this example, the maximum allowable sag is 4.1% because at this level of sag, the height of the lowest phase conductor is 10.67 m (35 ft) above the ground. The attachment points for the resistive wire are set to 13.4 m
more sensitivity is desired for normal sag levels, it is possible to shift the resistive wire position to increase the induced current/sag curve slope in that region or adjust the system parameters to obtain a linear induced current/sag curve over a wider range of sags.
6If

and its sag is set to 1% of span length. The wires resistance per m maximizes the slope of the induced unit length of 6121 current/sag curve. Normally expected sags for this line range up to 3%. These are indicated by the lightweight bar on Fig. 11 and correspond to induced currents larger than 0.9 mA. An induced current between 0.25 and 0.9 mA corresponds to sag values between 3% and 4% of span length. These values are indicated by the medium weight bar in Fig. 11. Readings in this range could trigger closer monitoring of the line and more careful decisions about whether to add or reduce load. At 0.25 mA or below, the line is sagged at nearly its maximum allowable amount and load should be removed. This condition is indicated by the heavyweight bar in Fig. 11 VI. CALCULATION OF AVERAGE CONDUCTOR CORE TEMPERATURE As mentioned earlier, a measurement of sag can be used to calculate average core conductor temperature [2], [3]. The method by which this can be done is outlined here. Consider the cable that is mounted between two equal height towers, a distance 2 apart as shown in Fig. 12. As shown, the cable sags a distance from its attachment position at the towers at midspan. The conductor tensions at the to a height and , respectively. attachment point and midspan are Suppose that the following information is known: length (2 ) of the span; conductors weight per unit length ( ); conductors temperature coefficient of linear expansion ( ); conductors cross-sectional area ( ); conductors effective modulus of elasticity ( ) Each of these values is reasonably well known and is either independent of or relatively independent of all relevant environ, then the tension is mental variables. If (14) and the total length of the cable is (15)

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If it is assumed that stress and thermal expansions are linear with respect to both tension and temperature, then (16) is the total length of the cable, where is its unstressed length at the reference temperature , and is the average conductor core temperature. Substituting (14) and (15) into (16) and dropping second-order terms yields (17)

time constants on the order of tens of minutes. Knowledge of conductor temperature at one point in time does not necessarily mean that it is a steady-state value even if all environmental parameters remain unchanged. Finally, due to the spatial variation of the environmental variables, the conductor temperature may not be uniform along its length. Although dynamic rating is an active area of research and development and much progress had been made [16][20], it will not be considered further here. It is a problem common to all methods used to measure conductor sag and/or tension and not the specific purpose of this work. VIII. ISSUES RAISED BY THE DESIGN

It is next assumed that the sag ( ) has been measured for the conductor core temperature equal to the reference temperature. Thus (18) Substituting (18) into (17) yields the following expression for the average conductor core temperature: (19) It is interesting to note that for nearly linear with sag. , the temperature is

VII. ON USING THE DEVICE FOR DYNAMIC RATING OF TRANSMISSION LINES Once the sag and temperature of a transmission line are known at a point in time, it is desirable to determine the additional current carrying capacity of the line. To do this, it is necessary to know the relationship between changes in current and conductor temperature rise. This relationship can be found from the heat balance equation [5]. (20) and represent, respectively, the conductive and where and radiative heat transfer away from the conductor while represent the solar and ohmic heat gains where and are the conductor current and resistance, respectively. is the total heat capacity of the conductor. The functional dependence of , , and on conductor temperature ( ) and ambient temperature ( ) are indicated. Unfortunately, solving (20) is not simple for several reasons. First, a number of variables needed to find , , and are difficult to obtain and/or temporally and/or spatially varying. , for example, is a function of wind speed and direction that varies with time and location along the transmission line. is a function of the conductor emissivity that varies with conductor age and surface condition and, hence, may not be well known. is a function of solar absorptivity that is related to emissivity and, hence, is also difficult to ascertain. It is also a function of the local solar flux that can vary considerably with time and location in cloudy weather. Second, the heating process is dynamic with

A number of legitimate questions can be raised about this method. These will be outlined here. Following each question is a response based on what has been observed or what is expected to happen. 1) Are there any problems associated with the fact that the resistive wire cable passes through the phase space? It is necessary that the clearance satisfy the NESC code. This should not be an issue at the pole since the resistive wire is mounted on the pole and the distance from wire to the phase conductors is the same as between the pole and the phase conductors. It is possible, however, that the clearance might not be sufficient at midspan. This case, however, can be analyzed by considering the worst case that contact is made at midspan between one of the phase conductors and the resistive wire. This possibility is considered in the next paragraphs. It is expected that the resistive wire will consist of discrete resistors separated by appropriate lengths of conductor in series with the resistors. This series combination will be inserted inside a hollow dielectric rope that will provide the required tensile strength. If this cable comes into contact with a phase conductor at 66 kV (RMS), approximately this entire voltage will be across the dielectric jacket (based on calculations of the voltage drop across the jacket and that across the cable to ground). If the jacket is 5 mm thick and is constructed of XLPE material that has a breakdown strength of 217 kV(peak)/cm, it is not likely to breakdown upon momentary contact with the phase wire. If it does not (and if the resistors survive the induced current) there is no safety hazard and the episode will end when the contact is broken and the phase wire swings clear. If there is breakdown of the dielectric, the current that will flow on the resistive wire is k mA, where 346 k is the approximately kV total resistance of the wire between midspan and the pole. The power dissipated in each resistor (if 2000 resistors are used) will be 72 W. If the resistors are 0.5-W resistors, they will act as a fuse and break the current. Finally, it should be noted that for typical designs such as that discussed in Section V, the resistive wire would be located well below the phase conductors unless the phase conductors sag excessively. Thus, there will be little chance for contact between the phase conductors and resistive wire. 2) If there is wind perpendicular to the transmission-line conductors, will it cause errors due to changes of the space potential and of coupling between the conductors and the resistive wire?

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The coupling errors are expected to be small because of the logarithmic dependence of the coupling capacitances on spacing. Further, the worst-case scenario for excessive conductor heating occurs when the wind is calm and there is no conductor motion. 3) What is the effect of nonuniform terrain under the power line? This effect should be small since the resistive wire is closer to the phase conductors than to the earth. 4) Is the induced current on the resistive wire affected by magnetic coupling due to the phase conductor currents? This can be shown to be very small because the high impedance of the resistive wire reduces the magnetically coupled currents to very small values. Data from the experiment reported here corroborate this assertion. 5) Will changes in the sag of the resistive wire with ambient temperature cause significant errors? These are expected to be small compared to changes in the conductor sag. They also can be minimized by choosing the resistive wire materials carefully. If necessary, the changes can be compensated for by using a tension monitor on the resistive wire to measure its sag. 6) Will there be errors in the measurement due to line voltage changes? These are not expected to be large since the line voltage generally changes over time by less than 5%. 7) Will there be a problem with corona on the resistive wire? A reasonable sized wire should not be expected to go into corona. In addition, the high resistance will limit the current available to the corona and, hence, suppress it. 8) Are there any safety hazards to workers who touch the resistive wire while working on the transmission line? Initial studies in [12] indicate that there will not be a problem. However, further studies will be conducted. Also, the resistive wire may be coated with an insulator without affecting the measurement. 9) Will the system violate any utility design standards? It is likely that a location can be found for the wire that does not violate design standards because all-dielectric self-supporting optical-fiber cable is now being positioned in locations similar to those proposed here. 10) Will the idea work for types of line configurations other than delta? Initial calculations using horizontal configurations are encouraging. 11) Will the system be influenced by electric fields from other transmission lines nearby? It is possible that this will occur. However, our measurements indicate that the effect will be small and that, in any case, the very large changes in induced current will not be masked by the small effect of a parallel line.

A simple, inexpensive, and accurate method that uses the current induced in a resistive wire to measure conductor sag has been described. Changes in conductor sag of 1% have been shown to produce nearly a 10:1 change in the induced current. Procedures for designing resistive wire sag measurement devices have been described. A successful experiment on an operating 115-kV transmission line showed that the resistive wire measurement system is practical. ACKNOWLEDGMENT The authors would like to thank Avista engineers G. Casey and D. Waitt, who provided technical assistance and encouragement throughout the project. They would also like to thank T. Olson, the Manager of Operations for Pullman/Moscow, and the crew that assisted with the measurements. This crew consisted of T. Parkins, Foreman; D. Flanagan, and B. Shrope, Journeyman Linemen; and C. Smith, Groundman. REFERENCES
[1] A. R. Bergen, Power Systems Analysis. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1986, p. 95. [2] R. Thrash, G. Hudson, D. Cooper, and G. Sanders, Eds., Southwire Company Overhead Conductor Manual, First ed. Carrollton, GA: Southwire Co.. [3] P. F. Winkelman, Sag-tension computations and field measurements of Bonneville power administration, AIEE Trans., vol. 78, pp. 15321548, Feb. 1960. [4] H. E. House and P. D. Tuttle, Current carrying capacity of ACSR, AIEE Trans., vol. 77, pp. 11691177, Feb. 1959. [5] Standard for Calculating the Current-Temperature Relationship of Bare Overhead Conductors, IEEE Std. 738, 1993. [6] Power-Donut Sensors, Nitech, Inc. (a division of Underground Systems, Inc.), Milford, CT. [7] Tension Monitor [Online]. Available: http://www.cat-1.com/ [8] B. Clairmont, Video Sagometer. Lenox, MA: EPRI Solutions. [9] C. Mensah-Bonsu, U. Fernndez, G. T. Heydt, Y. Hoverson, J. Schilleci, and B. Agrawal, Application of the global positioning system to the measurement of overhead power transmission conductor sag, IEEE Trans. Power Delivery, to be published. [10] R. M. Hayes and A. Nourai, Power Line Sag Monitor, U.S. Patent 6 205 867, Mar 27, 2001. [11] M. W. Tuominen and R. G. Olsen, Electrical design parameters of all-dielectric-self- supporting fiber optic cable, IEEE Trans. Power Delivery, vol. 15, pp. 940947, July 2000. [12] R. G. Olsen, An improved model for the electromagnetic compatibility of all dielectric self supporting fiber optic cable and high voltage power lines, IEEE Trans. Electromagn. Compat., vol. 41, pp. 180192, Aug. 1999. [13] , An improved model for studying dry band arcing on all dielectric self supporting fiber optic cable located near high voltage power lines, in Proc. Conf. EMC, Rome, Italy, Sept. 1998. [14] R. G. Olsen and K. C. Jaffa, Electromagnetic coupling from power lines and magnetic field safety analysis, IEEE Trans. Power App. Syst., vol. PAS-103, pp. 35953607, Dec. 1984. [15] Telemetric [Online]. Available: http://www.remoteconnection.com. [16] Real time monitoring, Electra, no. 197, pp. 3547, Aug. 2001. [17] T. O. Seppa, Net Radiation Sensor, U.S. Patent 5 559 430, Sept. 24, 1996. [18] D. A. Douglass and A. Edris, Real-time monitoring and dynamic thermal rating of power transmission circuits, IEEE Trans. Power Delivery, vol. 11, pp. AU: Please provide page numbers for this paper, July 1996. [19] , Field studies of dynamic thermal rating methods for overhead lines, in Proc. IEEE T&D Conf. Rep., New Orleans, LA, Apr. 7, 1999. [20] T. O. Seppa et al., Use of on-line tension monitoring systems for real time ratings, ice loads and other environmental effects, CIGRE, Rep. 102-22, 1998.

IX. CONCLUSIONS The ability to measure conductor core temperature and/or conductor sag can result in increased average power flow through a given transmission line.

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Robert G. Olsen (F92) received the B.S. degree in electrical engineering from Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, in 1968 and the M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Colorado, Boulder, in 1970 and 1974, respectively. He has been a member of the electrical engineering faculty at Washington State University, Pullman, since 1973. His research interests include the electromagnetic environment of power lines and electromagnetic compatibility. Dr. Olsen serves as chair of the IEEE Power Engineering Society Corona Effects Working Group and is an Associate Editor of the IEEE EMC SOCIETY NEWSLETTER.

Kenneth S. Edwards (M92) received the B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in electrical engineering from Washington State University, Pullman, in 1999 and 2000, respectively. Currently, he is an Electrical Engineer with Bonneville Power Administration, Vancouver, WA. His research interests include high-voltage substation equipment, high-voltage transmission, and the electromagnetic environment of power lines.