9/1/2019 Why Electric Power Transmission is Multiple of 11 i.e 11kV/22kV/66kV etc?

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Basic Concepts EE Questions / Answers Electrical Design Over Head Lines

Power System

Why Electric Power Transmission is

Multiple of 11 i.e 11kV, 22kV, 66kV
etc?
Electrical Technology 2  5 minutes read

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Why are all the Transmission Line Voltages Multiple of

11kv? Not 10kV?

Table of Contents [Hide]

1 It is not due to Form Factor (1.11)

1.1 What is Form Factor?
2 If it is not related to the form Factor, What is it then?
3 FAQs

Obliviously, this is an interview type question for electrical engineers

especially related to power engineering. Now, we are going to explain
the simple logic behind the story.

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9/1/2019 Why Electric Power Transmission is Multiple of 11 i.e 11kV/22kV/66kV etc?

First of all, It is not true that all the transmissions and distribution
voltages are multiple of 11. In most case, they are multiple of 11 such
as 11kV, 22,kV, 33kV, 66kV & 132kV. But 400kV, 765kV and 800kV etc
are not multiple of 11 in case of electric power system (generation,
transmission and distribution) in power lines from the generation station
to the receiving point.

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Plug?

It is not due to Form Factor (1.11)

Most of you may opt for form factor (1.11) which is nothing to do related
to this question. How? Lets see below:

What is Form Factor?

Form Factor is the ratio between the R.M.S (Root Mean Square) value
and average value of electric quantity (Current or Voltage).
Mathematically, It can be expressed as

For a sinewave, the form factor is given below:

This way, the value of form factor is 1.11.

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9/1/2019 Why Electric Power Transmission is Multiple of 11 i.e 11kV/22kV/66kV etc?

Now, we know that 400kV and 800kV are not the multiple of 11. Also,

10kV x 1.11 = 11.1kV

20kV x 1.11 = 22.2kV
30kV x 1.11 = 33.3kV
60kV x 1.11 = 66.6kV
120kV x 1.11 = 133.2kV (But the transmitted voltage are 132kV)

The above calculation clearly shows that the results are different then
the general values i.e. in case of 132kV, with the from factor
multiplication, it is 133.2kV.

In addition, We use 230V instead of 220V (Single Phase) and 400V

instead of 440V (Three Phase).

Also, alternator and generator with terminal voltages are available i

range of 10kv – 15kV which is not to do with multiple of 11.

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Lines For?

If it is not related to the form Factor, What is it then?

Now back to the point, the voltage at the receiving end are generally:

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9/1/2019 Why Electric Power Transmission is Multiple of 11 i.e 11kV/22kV/66kV etc?

10kV
20kV
30kV
60kV
120kV and so on…

But we already know that there are some voltage drop due to the
resistance of the transmission lines. For this reason, they transmit 10%
extra voltage. For example:
Sending Voltage = 10kV x 10% = 11kV. While the receiving end voltage
are 10kV due to voltage drop. More examples are given in below table.

Sending Voltage Receiving Voltage

10kV x 10% = 11kV 10kV

20kV x 10% = 22kV 20kV

30kV x 10% = 33kV 30kV

60kV x 10% = 66kV 60kV

120kV x 10% = 132kV 120kV

200kV x 10% = 120kV 200kV

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Cable?

FAQs
Well, this is not the end as some serious questions arise here. If this is
the reason mentioned above, then:

1. Why the transformer and substation rating are mentioned in

33kV / 11kV , 11kV/440V and so on.

In case of no load, there may be negligible voltage drop and we may

get 110% (i.e. Sending + 10% extra which is 11kV) voltage at the
receiving point. For this reason, transformer and substation should be
rated at full 110% which is 11kV, 22kV and so on.

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9/1/2019 Why Electric Power Transmission is Multiple of 11 i.e 11kV/22kV/66kV etc?

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Series and Parallel & Why?

2. Why only 10% extra ? why not more or less % ?

Valid point. But we dont know the exact value of voltage drop as it
depends on the value of current where the current is not constant i.e.
voltage drop may be less or more than the 10%. So the engineer pick
the nearest and appropriate fig as 10% instead of 7 or 13 or so on. But
for the updated and higher voltage level transmission (400kV – 800kV),
the point of 10% is no more valid as voltage drop are compensated in
these modern higher transmitted levels of voltage (due to capacitor
banks for power factor improvement, voltage correction systems etc)
as it is a separate topic that why the voltage drop are low in high
voltage and low current transmission due to line losses (I²R loss). For
the same rating of kVA, the higher the voltage and lower the current will
reduce the line loss as well as voltage drop in the transmission line.
This is the same case with corona i.e. for higher voltage level
transmission, corona and voltage drop becomes insignificant.

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3. What about 800kV, 765kV, 400kV Voltage Levels (Which is not

multiple of 11)

Same answer given for question number 2. i.e. the 10% is also not
applicable for higher transmission voltage levels (400kV, 765kV, 800kV
etc) due to compensation of voltage drop.

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4. Why not 44kV, 55kV, 77kV and so on Voltage levels for

transmission?

Yes, we can make it i.e any level of voltages, but Why?. why to make
the system so complex. In the initial, engineers considered the 11kV,
22kV, 33kV, 66kV, 120kV etc based on the transmission distances
(from generation point to the receiving end) and the system and these
level were satisfactory for different transmission distance. So no need
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9/1/2019 Why Electric Power Transmission is Multiple of 11 i.e 11kV/22kV/66kV etc?

to make changes or make additional level of voltages due to high cost

as new rating breakers and switchgears are needed to manage the
new system even the whole pattern may need to change. So they want
to keep is simple.

Related Post: Why Transformer Rated In kVA, Not in KW?

5. Why we dont generate power in 1kV, 2kV, 3kV or 33kV, 66kV etc
instead of 11kV at generating station?

That is the valid point as well. Before the concept of distributed

generation system, receiving end was far away from the generation
station (e.g. Your home appliance or factory machines too far from the
hydroelectric power plant). This is why it was needed to generate and
transmit the power through transmission line and the voltage level were
high as compared to the current where the power rating in kVA were
same. The high voltage transmission has some advantages as
compared to low voltage and high level of current transmission i.e. low
power factor, corona loss, skin effect, l2R (Line losses), Heat etc. The
only disadvantages of high power transmission is distance, insulation
of the line and height of towers. Overall, High Level of Voltages
transmission is more prefer over high current transmission while the
rating of power in kVA is same. Due to this problem, We may not
transmit very high level of voltage i.e 1MV or 10MV transmission is not
possible due to insulation of the transmission lines, height of the towers
and distance.

But in recent days, We have distributed generation system. This way,

we may generate 1kV, 2kV, 3kVand so on instead of 11kV in form of
wind power, solar power etc. So this rule is also eliminated.

Related Post: Why Motor rated in kW instead of kVA?

6. Why we transmit High Voltage levels, Why to not transmit the

High Level of Current and low voltage while keeping the kVA
rating of power is same?

Same answer mentioned for question number 5. If we transmit high

current as compare to high voltage while the rating of power in kVA is
same, We will have to need more size of conductors to handle the

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9/1/2019 Why Electric Power Transmission is Multiple of 11 i.e 11kV/22kV/66kV etc?

current. The more current, The more Line Losses (I2R), more heat, low
power factor, skin effect, more distance between lines mean more
materials for towers and poles and we would have need large number
of rating machines like power and distribution transformer to handle
this case. This is why we only transmit high level of voltage instead of
high level of current while the power rating in kVA is same.

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 Tags 11kV Form Factor Overhead lines Power System

2 Comments

Felix Oyim
What a tutorial?

Reply

SISIRENDU NASKAR
why corona loss does not affect to high-level voltage transmission?

Reply

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