BASICS OF FRACTIONAL FREQUENCY POWER

TRANSMISSION SYSTEM
Vaibhav vasant bhosale
Sardar patel college of engineering
Munshi nagar ,andheri (west)
Mumbai 400093
vaibhav9428@gmail.com

Abstract:
The fractional frequency transmission system FFTS is a
very promising long distance transmission approach,
which uses lower frequency (50/3) to reduce the
electrical length of the AC power line, and thus its
transmission capacity can be increased several fold .This
paper introduces the primary proposed results of FFTS,
the system uses the phase-controlled cyclo-converter as
the frequency changer, stepping up 50/3Hz electricity to
50Hz electricity and supplying it to the utility grid.
The paper also illustrates that there is no essential
difficulty to realize FFTS in engineering practice
Keywords: fractional frequency, cyclo-conveters,
transmissions.
I) INTRODUCTION
Increasing transmission distance and capacity is always
the motivation to advance power industry technologies.
In the history of the ac transmission system, increasing
distance and capacity mainly depends on raising voltage
of transmission lines. At present, the highest voltage level
of the AC power transmission line in operation is
750kv.To further up grade; the voltage level encounters
difficulties of material and environment issues.
The high voltage direct current ( HVDC) transmission
that has no stability limit program once become another
approach to increasing electricity transmission capacity.
However, the current converters at two ends of HVDC
are very expensive. In addition, up to now, the HVDC
practices have been limited to the point to point
transmission. It is still difficult to operate a multiterminal
HVDC-system.
The flexible AC transmission system (FACTS) has been
used to improve power system performance and has
become a research field. The FACTS exploits power
electronic techniques to regulate the parameters of the ac
transmission, which can raise transmission capacity to

some degree. This paper introduces the installation of

FFTS and primary results. The system uses the phase
controlled cycloconverter as the frequency changer,
stepping up 50/3Hz electricity to 50Hz and supplying it
to the utility grid. Thus, a new FACTS device is
successfully established in this system. The experiment
results show that a 1200km/500kv transmission line can
transmit more than 200MW electric power when
employing FFTS
II) Flexible AC Transmission systems (facts)
The need for more efficient electricity systems
management has given rise to innovative technologies in
power generation and transmission. The combined cycle
power station is good example of a new development in
power generation and flexible AC transmission system
FACTS as they are generally known, are new devices
that improve transmission systems. Worldwide
transmission systems are undergoing continuous changes
and restructuring .They are becoming more heavily
loaded and are being operated in ways not originally
envisioned .Transmission systems must be flexible to
react to more diverse generation and load patterns. In
addition the economical utilization of transmission
system assets is of vital importance to enable utilities in
industrialized countries to remain competitive and to
survive.
In developing countries, the optimized use of
transmission systems investments is also important to
support industry, create employment and utilize
efficiency scarce economics resources. Flexible AC
transmission systems (FACTS) are a technology that
responds to these needs. It significantly alters the way
transmission systems are developed and controlled
together with improvements in asset utilization, system
flexibility and system performance

III) FRACTIONAL FREQUENCY TRANSMISSION

SYSTEM (FFTS)

The fractional frequency transmission system FFTS is a

very promising long distance transmission approach,
which uses lower frequency (50/3) to reduce the
electrical length of the AC power line, and thus its
transmission capacity can be increased several fold
The AC electricity supplied by utilities has two basic
parameters: voltage and frequency. After the transformer
was invented, different voltage levels could be used
flexibly in generating, transmitting, and consuming
electricity to guarantee efficiency for different segments
of the power systems. In the history of electrical
transmission, besides of 50_60 Hz, many frequencies
were used, such as 25, 50/3and 133 Hz. In 1896, the first
two generators and the transmission line from Niagara to
Buffalo, NY were put into the operation A 25 Hz electric
system had been chosen as the winning design
How ever; since 50_60Hz was selected as the
standard, changing frequency apparently become taboo.
The reason for this might consist in that o transform
frequency is more difficult than to transform voltage. As
new materials and power electronic techniques
continuously advance, different kinds of large_ frequency
changers are developed rapidly. This trend may possibly
lead to more reasonably selecting different frequencies
for electricity transmission and utilization. For instance,
the low frequency electricity can be used to transmit
large power for longer distance, and the high frequency
electricity can be used more efficiently to drive electric
tools
Generally speaking, there are three factors limiting
transmission capability, i.e., the thermal limit, stability
limit, and voltage drop limit. For the long-distance ac
transmission, the thermal limitation is not a significant
impediment. Its load ability mainly depends on the
stability limit and voltage drop limit [6]. The stability
limit of an ac transmission line can be approximately
evaluated by
P (max) = V2/X
Where V is the normal voltage, and X is the Reactance of
the transmission line.
We can see from the above equation that transmission
capacity is proportional to the square of the normal
voltage and inversely proportional to the reactance of the
transmission line.
The voltage drop v% can be evaluated by
v%=QX/V2*100

Where Q is the reactive power flow of transmission line.

Thus, the voltage drop is inversely proportional to the
square of voltage and proportional to the reactance of the
transmission line. Therefore, in order to raise
transmission capability, we can either increase the
voltage level or decrease the reactance of the
transmission line. The reactance is proportional to power
frequency (f).
X=2fl
Where L is the total inductance of the transmission line.
Hence, decreasing the electricity frequency can
proportionally increase transmission capability. The
FFTS uses fractional frequency to reduce the reactance of
the transmission system; thus, its transmission capacity
can be increased several fold. For instance, when
frequency is 50/3Hz, the theoretically transmission
capability can be raised three times.
The principle of FFTS can also view from another
perspective. It is well known that the velocity of
electricity transmission is approximately equal to the
light velocity, 300000 km/s. When electricity frequency
is 50Hz, the wavelength is 6000km; for 50/3Hz, the wave
length enlarges to 18000km. Thus, when frequency is 50
Hz, a transmission line of 1200km corresponds to one
fifteenth of the wave length. Therefore, the
ELECTRICAL LENGTH decreases to one third. This
is the essential reason why the FFTS can increase
transmission capability several fold and remarkably
improve is performance.
IV) FREQUENCY CONVERSION
In industrial applications, two forms of electrical
energy are used: direct current (dc) and alternating
current (ac). Usually constant voltage constant frequency
single phase or three-phase ac is readily available.
However, for different applications, different forms,
magnitude and/or frequencies are required. There are
four different conversions between dc and ac power
sources.
These conversions are done by circuits called power
converters. The converters are classified as:
1) rectifiers: from single phase or three-phase ac to
variable voltage dc
2) Choppers: from DC to variable voltage DC
3) inverters: from DC to variable magnitude and variable
frequency, single phase or three phase AC.
4) cycloconverter: from single-phase or three-phase ac to
variable magnitude and variable frequency, single-phase
or three-phase ac.

A) CYCLOCONVERTER

Single-Phase to Single-Phase Cycloconverter:

Figure 2

B)Types of Cycloconverters:

Figure 1
Understanding of operation principles of cycloconverters
should begin with single-phase to single-phase
cycloconverter. This converter is having back to back
connection of two full wave rectifiers. Suppose for
getting one fourth of input voltage at the output, for the
first two cycles of Vs the positive converter operates
supplying current to the load and it rectifies the input
voltage. In the next two cycles the negative converter
operates supplying current in the reverse direction.
When one of the converters operates the other one is
disabled, so that there is no current circulating between
rectifiers. In the below figure Vs represents input supply
voltage and Vo is the required output voltage which is
one fourth of supply voltage.
Image for One fourth of input voltage at the output using
1-phase to 1-phase Cycloconverter

There are mainly two types of cycloconverters blocking

mode type and circulating mode type. When the load
current is positive, the positive converter supplies the
required voltage and the negative converter is blocked.
Suppose if the load current is negative, then the negative
converter supplies the voltage and the positive converter
is blocked. This operation is called blocking mode
operation. The cycloconverters which are using this
method are called blocking mode cycloconverters.
By chance if the both converters are enabled, then the
supply will be short circuited. To avoid this, an
intergroup reactor (IGR) must be connected between the
converters. If both the converters are enabled, then a
circulating current is produced. This is unidirectional
because the thyristors allow the current to flow in only
one direction. The cycloconverters using this approach
are called circulating current converters.
V) PROPOSED VERIFICATION MODEL OF FFTS

The basic structure of FFTS is illustrated in Fig.3. The

hydro power generator in the figure generates ac power
of fractional frequency (say 50/3 Hz), which is then
stepped up by a transformer and transmitted to the
receiving end of the transmission line where the
fractional frequency ac power is stepped up to the
industrial frequency. The hydro power generator can

easily generate low-frequency electric power because its

rotating speed is usually very low. To generate lowfrequency power, the only change for the generator is to
reduce its pole number. This change has little influence
on cost and efficiency of the hydro power unit.
For the transformer, since the electric power that
has to be stepped up is of low frequency, the core section
area and the coil turn number must be increased.
Therefore, the cost of the transformer in FFTS is higher
than that of the conventional transformer. The
conventional transmission line can be used in FFTS
without any change. The frequency changer is the key
equipment in FFTS, which can be either the saturable
transformer or the power electronic acac frequency
changer, such as the cycloconverter . The ferromagnetic
frequency changer has advantages of simpler structure,
lower cost, and more reliable operation, while the
electronic type is superior in higher efficiency and more
flexible in installation.
50/3 Hz Hydro Generator
1200 Km Transmission line
Harmonic Filter
Frequency Changer
50 Hz Power System

form a network-like conventional ac system. Nowadays,

it is mature to transform power frequency by the
electronic converter (e.g., the cycloconverter).
Therefore, FFTS on/under 750 kV can be completed
without any special technical difficulty.
Further the scope of the works to be done, such as a
study on economic feasibility, analysis of transient and
dynamic stability, optimal control of the cycloconverter,
improvement of transmission efficiency, and restraint of
harmonics.

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Figure 3

V) CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORK

The thesis discusses the simulation that employs the
cycloconverter as the frequency changer to step up 50/3
Hz power to 50 Hz power. The step up frequency of
desired voltage is to be supplied to the utility grid with
the1200 km/500 kV transmission line. The transmission
line can transmit electric power to 2000 MW by using
FFTS. Comparing with the 50-Hz ac transmission line,
the transmission capability increases 2.5 times. It
demonstrates the great potential of applying this new
FACTS device. Comparing with HVDC, the FFTS can
save an electronic converter terminal, thus reducing
investment. In addition, usually HVDC can be used only
for point-to-point transmission, but FFTS can easily

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