Suppression of Corona on EHV Transmission Line with Bundled

Conductors and Spacers

Gene S. Ng
SN# 20114802
August 4
th
2004
This paper contains copyrighted material, design specications and standards that may not be distributed outside of Hydro One
Networks Inc. or its intended audience without the written consent of the publisher. Condentiality shall be maintained.
Suppressing Corona on EHV Transmission Line with Bundled
Conductors and Spacers
Gene S. Ng
SN# 20114802
August 4
th
2004
Abstract
This report discusses the eect on corona on transmission lines. Corona, as dened by IEEE, is
a luminous discharge due to the ionization of air surrounding an electrode cause by a voltage gradi-
ent exceeding a certain critical value. This paper will describe the signicance of corona, relate it to
the breakdown of air surrounding transmission lines, more specically bundled conductors, line spacers
and the general design criteria regarding such equipment. Femlab is used to visually show the eld
enhancements surrounding extremely high voltage transmission lines and spacer hardware.
1 Introduction
Designing transmission lines, especially extremely high voltage (EHV) lines, is a complex engineering task.
There are numerous design considerations to make not only in the structural and civil engineering elds,
but also in the electrical engineering eld. These electrical considerations consist of designing conductors,
insulators, and skywires. Electrical design for transmission lines can be generalized into three fundamental
aspects: air insulation, insulators and corona [1].
The rst aspect, air insulation, is the insulation for transmission lines. Air clearances, both phase to
phase and phase to ground must be established. The electrical breakdown characteristics of air must also be
known, alongside its withstand characteristics within various line and tower congurations. Air insulation
properties during the occurrence of surges, both system faults and lightning, must be well understood.
1
The selection of insulators, which hold the transmission line conductors in place, must be determined.
This includes the type of insulators, e.g. the dielectric properties of glass, porcelain or even polymer, and
the length and mechanical capabilities of the string of insulators.
Lastly, the corona aspect of the transmission line needs to be investigated. Corona can be generally
regarded as the phenomena when a high electric eld strength at the conductor surface causes the air to
become electrically ionized and to conduct. Such understanding is extremely important, which will control
the design of the conductor type and diameter. Corona needs to be controlled for several reasons, to lower
power loss e.g. corona loss, radio interference, electromagnetic interference and audible noise.
Generally, EHV transmission line design utilizes more than one conductor per phase. Such a conguration
is called a bundle. Bundles may consist of 2, 3 or 4 conductor bundles. The purpose of this conguration is
to lower the electric eld strength at the conductor surfaces, thereby controlling corona.
This paper will examine the signicance of the eect of corona on transmission lines and methods of
controlling the problems associated with corona.
2 Principle Properties of Corona on EHV Lines
Corona occurs at the surface of a conductor and hardware such as line spacers. Under the intensity of an
electric eld, the formation of electron avalanches occurs after it exceeds a certain value. From cosmic rays
and radioactive material from the earth, free electrons are prevalent in the air. During the AC cycle of
the conductor, the electric eld created by the energization of the conductor excite and accelerate the free
electrons towards and away from the conductor during the positive and negative half cycles respectively [2].
The acceleration and velocity gained by the free electrons is dependent on the electric eld from the
conductor. The free electrons have the probability of colliding with other molecules in their vicinity. If
such free electrons do not gain enough velocity, the collisions between air molecules, mainly nitrogen and
oxygen molecules would be elastic. That is, the electrons would bounce right o without any energy transfer.
However, if the eld is large enough for the free electron to gain past a critical velocity, any collision with
the oxygen and nitrogen molecules in the air may knock one of their valence electrons out. This process is
known as ionization.
As two free electrons are now available, they have the ability to gain velocity and continue the process of
producing more free electrons. This avalanche eect has the ability of accumulating electrons exponentially.
However, due to the non-uniformity of the electric eld around a line conductor or even spacers and the
2
AC cycles, the avalanche of electrons more towards the conductor and gain in size during the positive half
cycle. Conversely, during the negative half cycle, the avalanche of electrons move away from the surface and
weaken in the lower eld gradient. The positive ions left as the byproduct of ionization attract back the
electrons. This release in energy can be seen as radiation in the visible light range.
3 Transmission Line Problems Associated with Corona
Major problems associated with corona performance of a transmission line are corona loss, radio interference,
electromagnetic interference and audible noise.
3.1 Corona Loss
Corona loss contributes to the reduction of eciency in power transmission. Any transfer of energy from
the electric elds to charged particles such as electrons result in corona loss. Most of this energy transfer is
in the form of thermal energy, while some is converted into noise, radiation and electrochemical energy to
create ozone. The rate of the energy drawn away from the transmission line conductor is considered power
loss or rather, corona loss.
3.1.1 Factors Aecting Corona Loss
The amount of corona loss generated from a transmission line is dependent on the conductor, conductor
hardware properties and the physical environment. Specically, corona losses are dependent on the conductor
and its hardware surface properties. To mitigate corona, it is important to have a large, clean conductor
surface without any voids or sharp imperfections. Any voids or imperfections along the conductor and
hardware generate eld stress enhancement, therefore increasing the corona loss. [3]
Weather plays an important role in the production of corona. Environmental deposits such as pollution
can change the properties of a transmission lines surface. These deposits, along with rain, and snow, can
distort the electric eld. Water drops falling close to the conductor surface may give rise to microgap
discharges between the passing drops and the conductor surface. In eect, this increases corona loss and
electromagnetic interference. [1]
Another factor that aects the amount of corona loss is the ow of load current on the transmission
line conductors. Load current increases the temperature of the conductor above the ambient temperature,
3
increasing the air surrounding the conductor. This warmer air increases the corona loss. [4]
3.2 Electromagnetic Interference
With high voltage transmission of power, corona has an impact on the eciency of power transmission due
to the electromagnetic interference (EMI) caused to broadcast radio reception. With EHV transmission, it
has been known to cause broadcast television interference since the broadcast band is strongly represented
in corona radiation.
During normal operations, transmission lines produce over a wide range of frequencies of electromagnetic
emissions. These range from 60Hz to up to 1GHz. Corona discharges act as current sources, where current is
injected back into the conductor. As these discharges pulse back into the conductor, they undergo distortion
and attenuation. With large amounts of corona discharges along the line, the summation of pulses of dierent
amplitudes radiate electromagnetic elds in the surrounding space interfering with radio and television
broadcasts. [5] The analysis of corona based EMI is mathematically and computationally intensive.
3.3 Audible Noise
Another issue surrounding transmission line design is audible noise. Since the introduction of EHV lines,
audible noise from lines alongside with environmental noise have been a prime concern with the public.
The generation of audible noise during the positive and negative half cycles is produced from onset
streamers and Trichel pulses respectively. As these types of corona discharge transfer energy between air
molecules through collisions, the sudden transfer during the short time interval can produce an acoustic
wave [1]. Each area along the line that is a source of corona emits pulses of acoustic waves with random
amplitudes, intervals and duration. The hum that is prevalent along lines is the movement of space charges
between the three phases of the line. The transfer of energy to air molecule through collision produces the
acoustic tone of the constant hum.
Weather also plays a role in audible noise. As water accumulates on the conductor and begins to separately
as a droplet, a streamer forms from the water droplet and the water group. These streamers produce the
crackling noise experienced during light and heavy precipitation. [6]
4
4 Line Design based on Corona
Corona performance is dependent on mainly two criteria, line design and environmental/weather conditions.
4.1 Line Design
One principal design process for designing transmission lines is the calculation of electric eld generated from
the conductor. The electrical gradient at the surface of an innitely long single phase, single conductor line
can be determined by [7]
E =
_
2
3
U
r ln
D
r
kV/cm (1)
U = nominal phase to phase voltage
r = radius of the conductor
D = geometric mean distance between phases
The geometric mean of the three distances between phases when inuenced by the earth surface can be
calculated by [7]
D =

d
12
d
23
d
31
D
11
D
23
D
33

D
12
D
23
D
31

(2)
Transmission lines above a certain voltage are subjected to corona discharges as a result of the excessive
electric elds at the conductor surface. In addition, weather and surface imperfections play a role in the
amount of corona discharges. Peeks Law predicts the corona onset electric eld for cylindrical conductors
from empirical observations.
In general, the corona onset gradient E
c
is determined by
E
c
= 3m
_
1 +
0.301

r
c
_
kV/cm Peeks Law (3)
m = conductor surface irregularity factor
= relative air density factor
r
c
= conductor radius (cm)
The conductor surface irregularity factor m is ideally equal to 1 for a perfectly smooth clean conductor.
Values of m vary from 0.75 to 0.85 for a stranded, dry conductor, 0.6 to 0.8 for aged conductors with surface
5
imperfections, 0.3 to 0.6 for conductors in heavy foul weather and 0.2 or lower conductors heavily polluted
with uneven soiled surface [1]. Table 4.1 provides typical conductor surface factor values.
Surface Factors
Conductor Conditions Corona Type Probable Surface Factor m
New, clean and dry Glow 0.880.96
Weathered, dry Streamers 0.680.82
New, unweathered Steamers 0.530.73
Wet Streamers 0.120.23
The relative air density factor in 3 can be determined by
=
273 +t
o
273 +t
p
p
o
(4)
t = ambient temperature in

C
p = ambient pressure (torr)
t
o
= reference temperature ( 25

C)
p
o
= reference pressure (760 torr)
Equation 3 shows that the corona onset gradient is somewhat proportional to the relative air density
[1].
Thus, for the general elimination of corona discharge, the following condition must be satised:
E < E
c
(5)
That is, the electrical gradient of the single conductor E must be less than the corona onset gradient E
c
to theoretically limit corona discharge.
For voltages under 230kV, single conductor congurations per phase can normally used in transmission
lines under fair conditions. If the electrical gradient is greater than the corona onset gradient, it is recom-
mended to use bundled conductors to limit the losses generated by corona. Bundled conductors achieve this
by providing generous radii on all outside surfaces, helping keep the voltage stresses to a minimum thereby
controlling corona.
4.2 Bundled Conductor Design
Corona becomes a major concern for voltages above 230kV if the transmission line a single conductor is used
per phase. Thus, to limit corona in EHV lines, bundling of conductors is a technique used to prevent corona
6
discharges around the conductors. In 1910, J.B.Whitehead [8] led a patent for the use of bundled conductors
as an eective means of controlling the electric eld around a conductor surface, thereby controlling corona.
Bundled conductors can range from 2 subconductors to over 16 for UHV lines. However, all bundled con-
ductors are comprised of a number of cylindrical subconductors arranged equidistant from each other around
a perimeter of circle. A bundle is normally described by the number and diameters of the subconductors
and the whole bundle diameter. The spacing between conductors is sometimes also mentioned.
The voltage gradient distribution at each subconductor in an n subconductor bundle evenly spaced can
be determined from
E() = E
sub
_
1 +
2(n 1)r
o
S
sin

n
cos
_
(6)
= angle determining position of eld at point
r
o
= sub conductor radius
E
sub
= average voltage gradient at subconductor surface
The average voltage gradient at the subconductor surface can be determined by
E
sub
=

2
3
U
nr
o
ln
D
req
(7)
U = nominal phase to phase voltage
r
eq
=
n

nr
o
R
n1
(equivalent radius of bundle)
R =
S
2 sin

n
(bundle circle radius)
S = spacing between subconductors
The maximum gradient at the surface of the conductor, where = 0 can be calculated by setting to
zero in E() in Eq. 6. That is, after substituting in Eq. 7, the maximum gradient is given as
E
max
=
_
2
3
U
1 +
2(n1)ro
S
sin

n
nr
o
ln
_
D/
n
_
nr
o
_
S
2 sin /n
_
n1
_ (8)
U = nominal phase to phase voltage
Again, similar to a single conductor, the theoretical controllability of corona discharge must satisfy this
condition:
E
max
< E
c
= 3m
_
1 +
0.301

r
c
_
Peeks Law (9)
7
A good bundled conductor design is one where the equivalent bundled conductor can fulll the exceed
requirements of an equivalent single conductor.
4.2.1 Conductor Design Considerations
Naturally, corona performance of a line is one of the main inuences on design. However, there are many
criteria that dictate the subconductor and spacing requirements.
Many other factors must been taken account for. These include the power (I
2
R) losses and the nancial
cost of the stranded conductors. Line length and load carrying capabilities for stability and overvoltage
during heavy, light and no load are a calculation requirement. Generally, a bundle is preferred since it has
a lower inductance than an equivalent single conductor, enabling more power to be transferred.
4.3 Corona Performance during Weather Conditions
Weather conditions can inuence the eect of corona. Several atmospheric conditions such as air density,
humidity and wind aect the generation of corona. Air density plays a role in determining the corona onset
gradient as seeing in equation 3. Humidity and air density inuence the number of water and air molecules
the free electrons can collide with. Wind is another condition that inuences the eect of corona. Wind
increases positive streamer activity since the space charges produced in the negative cycle are blown away
[9].
To properly compare data with other utilities and experiments, IEEE [10] describes the various dierent
types of weather conditions. Denitions include fair, foul weather, precipitation intensity, rain, fog, etc.
5 Mechanical Properties of Lines and Spacers
The dynamic behaviours or bundled conductors due to wind induced vibrations have been a major concern
for transmission line engineers. Although this paper mainly focuses on the electrical aspects, more specically
the corona issues with bundled conductors and spacers, the mechanical issues with transmission line design
should be briey mentioned.
Wind forces on a line produce many design and safety issues. This includes the vibration behaviour
from wind induced vibrations acting on the bundled transmission lines. These mechanical vibrations can
be divided into three main types; aeolian vibration, subspan oscillation and galloping. Aeolian vibration is
8
where the resonant oscillation caused by vortex shedding from the leeward side of the conductor in a steady
wind [11]. The phenomenon most commonly encountered can cause clamp loosening and wear and fatigue
to the conductors. Subspan oscillation is the galloping-like motion on closely spaced conductors such as
bundled conductors. Again, this can reduce the life of the line by wear and fatigue of the conductor and by
damaging the spacers, dampers and support clamps. The large motion gained from galloping can bring the
phase conductors suciently close to each other to cause arcing and power interruptions. These mechanical
conditions can be limited with the use of dampers and limiting conductor tensions [12].
6 Design Considerations for Spacers
The basic required for spacers on bundled conductors is to maintain the geometry of the bundle under
wind loads, short circuits and twisting of the conductor. Spacer dampers are required to prevent mechanical
clashing and consequent damage to subconductors by controlling the aeolian vibration and subspan oscillation
modes of the subconductors. From an electrical point of view, spacers need to preventing any introduction
of corona discharges. [12].
6.1 Design Features of Spacers
There exist a variety of spacers available commercially. Many important mechanical design features such
as articulation mechanisms for damping vibrations. Electrically, clamp design is most important for corona
mitigation.
The clamps that grip the conductor may cause issues when conductor movement is present. Too tight
of a grip may cause damage to the conductor as the outer stranded aluminum conductors inside the metal
clamp rub. In eect, small particles of the aluminum displace and can oxidize. This may cause corona
discharges and distort the outer conductor surface. There exist many dierent types of clamps from metal
to metal clamps, rubber-lined clamps and boltless clamps.
Metal to metal clamps use galvanized steel bolts and Belleville washers and steel spring keeper designs
as energy retention devices. Rubber lined clamps use elastomer liners with metal clamps for metal to rubber
clamping. The elastomer is formulated for ozone, ultraviolet rays and weathering resistance. The rubber
lining provides energy retention and also provides electrical continuity in the conductor clamping system.
Boltless clamps use springs as the clamping force to grip and maintain contact with the conductor. The
9
spring force provides the gripping force on the conductor [12].
Another important design of a spacer damper is the contour and outline for electric purposes. There
must not be any sharp edges or voids in the damper, which will cause eld enhancements. All nuts, bolts
and various clamping hardware that extend outwards must be round in nature to limit eld enhancements.
By providing generous radii on all outside surfaces, this will help to keep the voltage stresses to a minimum.
7 Industry Practice
Currently within the industry, there exist many dierent types of subconductor sizes and spacing to mitigate
corona and its various factors associated with corona losses. Many utilities have dierent specications for
high voltage line design. The following design results are from a survey compiled from [12] given to various
utilities in Canada, US, Europe, Asia and Australia.
7.1 2 Conductor Bundles
Within the industry, a high usage of 2 conductor bundled lines is used primarily in the 200-400kV voltage
range [12]. These sizes range from 25-30mm in diameter with a horizontal spacing of 400-450mm. Most
commonly, the conductor material used is ACSR.
7.2 4 Conductor Bundles
According to [12], 4 conductor bundled lines are primarily used at the 500kV voltage level. The subconductor
sizes are typically 25-32mm in diameter with 400-500mm square spacing in a horizontal conguration for
ACSR, TACSR, and AAAC subconductors.
However, 6 conductor bundles are used by one utility in Japan for TACSR conductors of 28.5mm in
diameter with a 800mm hexagonal spacing.
7.3 Damper Design
Most spacer dampers used in the industry are of an elastomer-type damping mechanism with bolt type
clamp system. Rubber lined clamps appear to be used equally as much as the bolted-type metal-to-metal
clamps.
10
8 Hydro One Utility Requirements
Obtained from [13], Hydro One has a specication that covers the test procedures and test parameters to be
used in determining whether transmission line hardware and station bus hardware meets corona requirements
of the utility. The purpose of this specication is that any item hardware in service by Hydro One shall
be free from positive polarity corona at 60Hz. This specication covers the design requirements for spacer
dampers.
8.1 Corona Test Procedure
Hydro One test procedure includes using a research developed technique known as a sphere calibrator.
The sphere calibrator method is based on the corona onset principle. When a small sphere is placed on a
cylindrical conductor, it takes place at the same value of the conductor surface gradient irrespective of the
actual conductor conguration.
The bundled subconductor and hardware of appropriate diameter is supported with a minimum clearance
to the reference ground plane supplied in the specication. This enforces it to be suciently far from any
other ground planes or objects. The bundle is connected at one end to the test transformer. The reference
ground plane is positioned parallel and centered to the test bundle and hardware and maintains a length at
least 30% greater than that of the test conductor.
A small steel sphere, ranging in size from 1.6mm to 12.7mm in diameter, is used as the calibrator. It is
attached to the test subconductor surface by means of a thin wire clip. The sphere is positioned as far away
from the centre of the bundle possible.
Voltage is applied to the bundle and steadily increased to the calculated minimum value at which positive
polarity corona occurs at the calibration device, e.g. the sphere. The voltage at which positive polarity
corona is observed is recorded. To determine the positive polarity corona inception voltage, the corona test
is required to be tested in a darkened room.
Table 8.1 shows the Hydro One acceptable corona test data for conductor hardware.
Corona Test Data for Conductor Hardware
11
Conductor Diameter Conductor Surface Conductor Diameter Conductor Surface
mm Voltage Gradient at 230kV mm Voltage Gradient at 550kV
kV/mm (rms) kV/mm (rms)
27.9 1.74 20.3 2.00
28.1 1.74 21.6 1.97
30.5 1.70 22.9 1.94
34.0 1.65 25.4 1.89
35.6 1.63 27.9 1.83
40.6 1.45 30.5 1.79
44.4 1.35 35.6 1.71
45.7 1.31 40.6 1.65
50.8 1.20 45.7 1.60
55.9 1.11 50.8 1.55
61.0 1.03 63.5 1.47
Specic information regarding the test procedure can be obtained from [13].
8.2 Bundle Specications
Hydro One 500kV transmission lines use a 4 conductor bundle with 0.95, 1.108, or 1.2 inch diameter ACSR
subconductors in a 20-inch square conguration [14]. The specication indicate a need for articulated joints
and a 5
1
2
clamp arm for the spacer damper. All spacer damper designs are to subjected to the above corona
test procedure to ensure a corona-free design when installed on Hydro Ones three phase bundle transmission
line at an operating voltage of 550kV phase-to-phase. To limit corona, all corners and edges are to be blended
smoothly with indicated radii from the specication.
9 Femlab Simulation
9.1 Introduction
Conductor diameter has a signicant eect on potential corona problems. The larger the diameter, the lower
the surface voltage gradient for a given test voltage. The smaller the diameter of the conductor, the more
susceptible it is to corona than a larger one. However with the advent of technology, the creation of faster
12
processors and more competitively intensive software has become available making it easier to calculate the
eld enhancement around conductors.
To benet from this technological advancement, a high performance solver software called Femlab was
used. Femlab is a nite element modeling program. It was used to model and simulate the eld enhancements
around the bundled conductors. Femlab models and simulates this problem based on partial dierential
equations for the electrostatic problems surrounding bundled conductors by approximating the solution of a
mesh of elements.
Note There exists various types of spacer damper and bundle congurations available in the market. How-
ever, rather than choosing a foreign spacer and bundled design, it was in the best interest of the author to
base all Femlab simulations on the current transmission lines designs in Ontario by Hydro One.
9.2 Two Conductor Bundle
In Ontario, 230kV transmission lines leading into stations may utilize a two conductor bundle. The spacer
is known in the eld as a dogbone for its contour. One manufacturer of this spacer is Burndy Electric, a
subdivision of FCI. A drawing of the spacer can be seen in Figure 1.
The spacing between the parallel conductors is 450mm across and is designed for an aluminum conductor
diameter size of 24.8mm. Drawn and imported from AutoCAD, a window size of 2 metres was applied.
The 2 bundle conductors were given an electrical potential of 230kV. This is the nominal operating
voltage these bundles experience within the Hydro One transmission grid. The electrical potential gradient
can be seen in Figure 2.
To compare the voltage gradients between the 2 bundle conductor, a conductor of equivalent geometric
mean radius (GMR) was modeled. The electrical potential gradient can be seen in Figure 3.
9.3 Observations
Figure 2 and Figure 3 show the electrical potential gradients of the 2 conductor bundle with the single
equivalent bundle respectively. As one can see, the gradient of the 2 bundle conductor seems more spread
out than of the single equivalent bundle. That is, near the surface of the bundle there seems to be less
electrical stress. Since the strength of the electric eld is based on the spacing of the equipotential surfaces,
that is, higher eld is generated from closer potential gradient spacing, the electric eld on the surface is
13
Figure 1: 230kV - 2 Conductor Spacer (Courtesy - Burndy, FCI Inc.)
smaller in the conductor bundle. This means the corona loss is smaller than the equivalent single bundle.
With the 2 conductor bundle, one should noted the smooth contours of the surface to limit corona by
eliminating any sharp points.
9.4 Four Conductor Bundle
All 550kV transmission lines in Ontario use a 4 bundle conductor design. There are several dierent versions
of this Hydro One spacer damper. Thus, two of the spacer dampers currently in service have been modeled.
Under Hydro One specication [14], a 20 inch square spacing conguration is to be used for a 4 conductor
bundle. Normally, 585kcmil ACSR subconductors are used.
Figure 4 is one type of spacer damper used. This damper is manufactured by Slacan, a division of Tridem
Inc. Figure 5 is another type of 550kV spacer in service along the Hydro One transmission grid. This damper
is manufactured by Burndy Electric, a division of FCI Inc. The correlating electrical potential gradient plots
are shown in Figures 6 and 7 respectively. Both congurations were simulated under a window size of 3
metres by 3 metres. Moreover, they were given an electrical potential of 550kV, the nominal voltage of
Hydro Ones 500kV transmission system.
14
Figure 2: Electrical Potential - 230kV 2 Conductor Spacer
Figure 3: Electrical Potential - Equivalent 230kV Conductor
15
Figure 4: 550kV - 4 Conductor Spacer Damper (Courtesy - Slacan, Tridem Inc.)
Figure 5: 550kV - 4 Conductor Spacer Damper (Courtesy - Burndy, FCI Inc.)
16
Figure 6: Electrical Potential - Slacan 550kV 4 Conductor Spacer
9.4.1 Observations
Similar to the 2 conductor bundle, for both the 4 conductor bundles, the electric potential gradients are
spread out. This in eect lowers the eld enhancement when compared to a lone single conductor.
9.5 Limitations with Femlab
Femlab provides a formidable image of the eld enhancements encountered in high voltage transmission
lines. However, with all models, they all have limitations.
Limitations with using Femlab include its inability to show contamination, wear and age and various
atmospheric conditions encountered with high voltage transmission line. Thus, laboratory work and eld
tests are mandatory to verify the results produced by Femlab. Even laboratory work cannot truly model the
atmospheric conditions these lines endure. However, Femlab provides an excellent and cost eective starting
point to further backup laboratory work and eld studies.
17
Figure 7: Electrical Potential - Burndy 550kV 4 Conductor Spacer
10 Conclusion
In conclusion, it is common practice within the transmission industry to use bundled conductors with spacers
to suppress the electric eld enhancements to limit corona. Corona needs to be controlled and limited since
it can cause power loss, radio interference, electromagnetic interference and audible noise. The purpose of
bundled conductors is to limit eld enhancements by providing generous radii on all outside surfaces, helping
keep the voltage stresses to a minimum thereby controlling corona.
Mathematically theoretical bundled conductors can be calculated to eliminate corona. Models can be
generated in Femlab to solve the issues surrounding corona on transmission lines. However, with environ-
mental conditions, the aging of a conductor, and various other uncontrollable factors, it is dicult to truly
model corona suppression by the use of bundled conductors. Field work and laboratory research needs to be
performed to genuinely nd a solution to mitigate corona problems.
18
11 Acknowledgements
Special acknowledgement must be given to Burndy Electric and Slacan Industries for providing shop drawings
of their various dampers.
19
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[12] Ontario Hydro Technologies. State of the art report on spacerdampers. 480 T 1048, Canadian Elec-
tricity Association, 1997.
[13] Hydro One Networks Inc. Corona testing of transmission line hardware and station bus hardware.
LS-21-006 R0, Hydro One Networks Inc., 1979.
20
[14] Hydro One Networks Inc. Line procurement specication - spacer damper for 4-conducotr bundle.
LPS-X4S-51052-0653-87, Hydro One Networks Inc., 1987.
21