Capacitance of High Voltage

Overhead Power Lines

1. Line Capacitance

• Transmission line conductors exhibit capacitance with respect to

each other due to the potential difference between them.
• The amount of capacitance C, between conductors is a function of
conductor size, spacing and height above ground.
0 A
C
d
• Where A is the surface area of the conductor, d is the distance
between conductors and 0 = 8.85 x 10-12F/m is the permittivity of
free space.
• By definition capacitance is also the ratio of charge q to voltage V.

q
C
V
• Consider a round conductor of
length l .
• The charge on the conductor
gives rise to the Electric field with E - Field
d1
radial flux lines.
x
• The electric field intensity at any q
point is defined as the force per
unit charge E.
d2
D
E
0

• The concentric cylinders surrounding the conductor are

equipotential surfaces and have the same electrical flux density D.
• From Gauss’ law the electrical flux density at radius x is:

q q
D 
A 2x  l
• For a 1 meter length of conductor this results in:

q
E
2 0 x

• The work done in moving a unit charge of 1 coulomb from d2 to d1

through the E-field is the potential difference V12. This is given as:

d2 d2 q q d2
V12   E.dx   .dx  ln
d1 d1 2 0 x 2 0 d1
2. Capacitance of single phase lines

• Consider the two round conductors r r

q1 q2
of radius r. Separated by distance d
and carrying charges of q1 and q2 d
respectively.

• Voltage between conductor 1 and 2 due to charge q1 is:

q1 d
V12 ( q1 )  ln
2 0 r
• Voltage between conductor 2 and 1 due to charge q2 is:
q2 d
V21( q2 )  ln
2 0 r
• Since vectors give, V12 ( q2 )  V21( q2 ) you have:

q2 r
V12( q2 )  ln
2 0 d
q1 d q2 r
• Thus: V12  V12 ( q1 )  V12 ( q2 )  ln  ln
2 0 r 2 0 d

• For a single phase line you have that q2  q1   q

q d
• Thus: V12  ln
 0 r

• Thus the capacitance between two conductors is:

 0
C12  F/m
d
ln
r
3. Capacitance and Neutral Planes

• As previously defined for capacitance between two conductors you

have C12.
C12
1 2

• For the purpose of modelling transmission lines it is

convenient to define a capacitance C between each conductor
and a neutral.
C C
1 2
n

• The voltage to neutral is half V12 because of half the distance

between conductor 1 and 2.
• Hence the capacitance to neutral C = 2C12
2 0
2C12  C  F/m
d
ln
r
• Recalling e0 = 8.85 x 10-12 F/m and converting to F/km:

0.0556
C F/km
d
ln
r
• For a three phase bundled conductor line you have that:

0.0556
C F/km
GMD
ln
GMR
• Where GMD is the Geometric Mean Distance and
GMR is the Geometric Mean Radius of bundled
conductors.
4. Capacitance of a double circuit line

• The per phase capacitance to neutral is:

0.0556
C F/km, where GMRC  3 rA  rB  rC
GMD
ln
GMRC
• GMRC is the GMR for calculating the per phase capacitance
to neutral and calculated by considering the following circuit.

a1 c2
d1 rA  GMRbundle  d1
b1
d2 b2 rB  GMRbundle  d 2

c1
d3
a2 rC  GMRbundle  d 3
5. Effect of Earth Proximity

• Assume the earth surface to be at same

potential as neutral point of three phase
system (abc). The earth can then be
represented by three equivalent phase
conductors (a’b’c’). Each at a depth equal to
the height of the corresponding conductor.
• This is known as Lord Kelvin’s Method of
Images.

• For a three phase bundled conductor line you then have:

0.0556
C F/km
GMD
ln  ln 3 (d ab '  d bc '  d ca ' / d aa '  d bb'  d cc ' )
GMR
• The effect of earth is to increase the Capacitance, but due to
the height being large compared to the distance between
conductors it is normally negligible.
6. The Ferranti Effect

• A long transmission line draws a substantial quantity of

charging current – Leading Mvars.
• If such a line is open circuited or very lightly loaded at the
receiving end, the voltage at receiving end may become greater
than voltage at sending end.
• This is known as Ferranti Effect and is due to the voltage
drop across the line inductance (due to charging current) being
in phase with the sending end voltages.
• Therefore both capacitance and inductance is responsible for
producing this phenomenon.
• To counter this effect, connect shunt reactors in parallel to the
end of the line – Adds lagging Mvars
7. Effect of Capacitance on pipe lines
• Voltage from overhead power lines can be induced in pipe lines by
a capacitance effect (electrostatic voltage).
• This is a form of capacitive coupling operating across the
capacitance between the AC transmission lines and the pipeline, in
series with the capacitance between the pipeline and adjacent earth.

• These potentials are normally not induced on a buried pipeline

since the capacitance between the pipeline and earth is negligible.
• However, during installation, a voltage can be produced by the
influence of a strong electrical field on an insulated pipe when
located above and insulated from the ground.
• The electric field tends to move electrons from the earth to the
pipe and also from the pipe to the overhead power line.

• In some cases, the voltage can be above maximum safe voltage

limitations for a pipe; however, in normal situations, contacting the
pipe will only result in a slight electrical shock and the pipe voltage
is immediately reduced to zero.
• During construction, safety precautions can be established
during pipe installation to protect construction personnel from the
hazard of electric shock. These include grounding straps, chains
attached to vehicles with rubber tires to provide a ground etc