Snow data acquired at 1075 kV line-to-ground indicate that the effect of high altitude on high voltage ac transmission line

audible noise and corona loss during snow are less than in corona phenomena. Past research at Leadville, Colorado
rain. indicated that the critical onset gradient for corona varied as
1/2 power of relative air density. Altitude correction terms for
Prediction of Audible Noise in Rain on a 3-Phase Line radio noise prediction formulas were developed from the
Leadville and other data by Westinghouse and Italian engi¬
Calculations of the audible noise in rain of an assumed neers. These terms are 40 (1 ô/ôO) and qr/300 m for the
horizontal 3-phase line (phase spacing of 19.8 m and average Westinghouse and air Italian radio noise formulas, respectively,
conductor height of 28.0 m), based upon the single-phase where ô is relative density and q is altitude.
test line measured data, show that an ¿50 level of slightly less
than 54 dB(A) may be expected at a lateral distance of 15 m Experimental Description
from an outside phase at 1400 kV line-to-line. Compared to a
9-conductor bundle of 30.8 mm subconductors at about The objective of the project was to monitor on a long-term,
1400 kV, a decrease in audible noise of approximately 10-11 continuous, unattended basis the AN/RI/TVI performance of
dB was found with 10 conductors of 46.3 mm subconductor a double-circuit 500-kV line at a high altitude test site in
diameter. Montana. A test site at an altitude of 1935 m was selected.
At 1620 kV line-to-line, the Z.50 levels in rain of corona loss Because of the remoteness of, the lack of access to, and the
and audible noise at 15 m laterally from an outside phase of severe winter conditions at the test site, it was important to
the assumed 3-phase line are predicted at 199 kW/km and design the instrumentation system so that no regular mainte¬
67.4 dB(A), respectively. nance or service would be required. The goal was to have the
Discusser: V. L. Chartier system survive the winter with no breakdowns or malfunc¬
tions, since it was a completely unattended test site.
The system was controlled by an HP 991 5 computer with
cassette tape capable of four days of data storage at the
selected sampling rate (23 channels, 2-min sampling rate).
a
¡L The onsite computer was programmed to turn on calibration
ê signals for the AN, Rl, and TVI instruments at midnight each
CM day. Therefore, the status of each instrument could be
LU determined once all the data were transferred to BPA's
>
O laboratories, which was done every two or three days over a
m commercial telephone line.
< This system has been found to be very reliable with the
CD
¦o major problems occurring with the rural power and telephone
lines during severe winter weather.
To gain comparative data, a similar AN/RI/TVI instrumenta¬
> tion was installed on a similar 500-kV line in Oregon at a test
site located 277 m above sea level.
Z3
O Results and Analysis
co
o
The primary objective of this project was to collect enough
LU data so that the effect of altitude could be determined.
t-
X However, another objective was to collect a minimum of one
o year's worth of data in the Montana environment so that
annual day-night sound levels (Ldn) could be calculated,
which is the basis for the recently adopted Montana noise
< code. Montana has adopted an annual Ldn limit of 50 dB(A) at
o the edge of the right-of-way in residential and subdivided
areas unless the landowner waives this condition. The
0.3 0.5 1.0 3.0 5.0 10 original project plan was to determine the altitude effect by
comparing the data obtained in Montana with predictions
RAIN RATE (mm/hr) using BPA prediction formulas, which have been found to be
quite
Fig. ¿so A-Weighted audible noise at 15 m as a function of data on a similar line decided
/. accurate. It was later to obtain some actual
closer to sea level for comparison
rain rate. purposes and to increase the confidence level in determining
the altitude effects.
The Montana weather is quite different from that of
western Oregon, which is where most of the BPA long-term
86 WM 160-6 monitoring had taken place and which is the basis for the BPA
January 1987, pp. 225-237 prediction techniques. Montana is a dry state with most of
the foul weather, which is primarily snow, occurring in the
winter months. Oregon is a wet state with most of the foul
weather being rain or wet snow. Therefore, the data collected
Effect of High Altitude on High in Montana had to be studied very carefully. For example, it
was determined that AN levels during measurable, stable,
Voltage AC Transmission Line foul-weather conditions were not affected by temperature,
which AN levels were the same in snow and rain.
Corona Phenomena means
However, this was not the case for radio noise.
Table 1 shows the measurable, stable foul-weather data
V. L. Chartier, Fellow, IEEE, collected at both test sites along with the predicted levels
L. Y. Lee, Senior Member, IEEE, using the BPA prediction techniques. The data from Montana
L. D. Dickson, and K. E. Martin covered a period of one year (1984), whereas the data from
Bonneville Power Administration, Vancouver, WA Oregon covered a 5-month period. The TVI data were notthe as
reliable as the AN and Rl data, but it was possible to use
data by comparing the L50 all foul-weather TVI levels rather
This paper describes an experiment conducted on a double- than the ¿50 levels during measurable, stable foul weather.
circuit 500-kV line at 1935 m above sea level to determine The difference between measurements and predictions
54 IEEE Power Engineering Review, January 1987
should be 6.4 dB using the 1 dB/300 m altitude correction
term, whereas the difference using this same term when
comparing data from the high altitude station with data from
the low altitude site should be (1935-277)/300 = 5.5 dB.
The data in Table 1 show that this altitude correction term is
still valid for Rl and is also valid for AN and TVI.
The annual Ldn for this line in Montana at 1935 m above sea
level at the average operating voltage of 530 kV was 53.5
dB(A), which is only 3.5 dB(A) above the Montana noise limit.
The test site was neither a residential nor a subdivided area.
Discussers: N. Kolcio, J. V. King, D. N. March, C. H. Gary,
R. Cortina, and E. Jeffers
TABLE 1
and Data from
Comparison of Montana Data with PredictionskV*
Lower Elevation Test Site at 530
Test Sites Predictions
Phenomena Montana Oregon Montana Sea Level
ANdB(A) 55.5 49.3 55.3 48.9
Rl dBuV/m 75.0 76.9 69.5
TV! dBuV/m 21.5 15.0 22.5 16.1
*
AN and Rl: L50 levels during measurable foul weather; TVI:
L50 levels during all foul-weather conditions.
86 WM 159-8
January 1987, pp. 238-248
Impact of Recent Developments in
Biological Electrical Shock Safety
Criteria
J. E. Bridges, Fellow IEEE
HT Research Institute, Chicago, IL
M. Vainberg, Member, IEEE
Ontario Hydro, Toronto, ON, Canada
M. C. Wills
Ontario Hydro, Toronto, ON, Canada
Several years ago it became apparent that important
electrical safety developments that had evolved in Europe
during the previous decade were not widely known in other
parts of the world. Electro-biological safety criteria developed
recently in Europe are significantly different from those used
in many North American standards. Grounding standards
used by the utility industry have caused concern because of
the increasing levels of short circuit currents, the expanding
use of transmission rights-of-way, and a number of unre¬
solved biomédical uncertainties. As the first step in address¬
ing these issues, Ontario Hydro, the Electric Power Research
Institute, and the Canadian Electrical Association sponsored a
symposium1 with the participation of electrical safety re¬
searchers from North America and Europe. The primary
objective of the symposium was to establish the state-of-the-
art in the field of electrical shock biological safety criteria as
applied to electrical power utilities. A second objective was to
have utility experts meet with academic and industrial
researchers to identify directions for future work.
It was found that major discrepancies exist between the
recently developed electro-biological safety criteria2 and
similar criteria3-4 currently used in North America in the area
of body impedance, body-current pathway, and dependence
of the ventricular fibrillation (VF) threshold on the applied
waveform and the size and weight of the exposed individual.
IEEE Power Engineering Review, January 1987
While the more recently developed safety criteria suggest the
possibility of both major over and under designs relative to
the older criteria, many crucial aspects of both the recent and
old criteria remain to be resolved.
Table 1 summarizes the basic discrepancies between
several existing or contemplated standards. The "Z curve"
electrocution equations as employed by the I EC2 have two
ventricular fibrillation (VF) body-current thresholds, one at
about 500 mA for shock durations less than the period of a
heartbeat and a second threshold at about 40 mA for 60 Hz
shock durations considerably longer than the duration of a
heartbeat. For many shock prevention considerations, there
is little practical difference between the electrocution equa¬
tion developed by Dalziel3 and by the International Electro-
technical Committee (IEC) if only 50 kg healthy adults are to
be protected from hand-to-foot shocks. A major divergence is
that the IEC standards2 do not lower the safe fibrillation
threshold for small persons or children; in contrast, most of
the shock safety literature3'4-5 readily available in North
America suggests that this be done.
Another major discrepancy is the influence of the body-
current pathway on the VF safe current threshold. The IEC,
Underwriters Laboratories (UL), and Consumer Product
Safety Commission (CPSC)5 approaches take into account
that the human is more susceptible to shock if one point of
shock current application is placed nearer the heart. As a
consequence, according to the IEEE Standard 80, VF safe-
current thresholds are 3 to 4 times greater than IEC thresh¬
olds for exposure times of 0.01 or 1.0 s and a left-hand to
chest body current pathway. On the other hand, the implied
IEC VF safe-current threshold for foot-to-foot body current
pathway is significantly greater than comparable IEEE Stand¬
ard 80 VF thresholds.
Both the IEC2 and the UL/CPSC5 approaches also consider
the effect of the body current pathway on the body impe¬
dance, and these approaches also consider the time-and-
amplitude dependent nature of the body impedance as well.
For example, the IEC approach notes body impedance values
of 1750 Q for low-voltage shocks of long duration for hand-
to-foot current pathways and only 125 Í2 for very short
duration shocks with a both-hands-to-chest current pathway.
On the other hand, it is common practice in North America to
recommend a single-valued body impedance, such as 500 to
1000 Q for safety studies.
From the design viewpoint of grounding systems, the
maximum safe ventricular fibrillation (VF) shock voltage as a
function of duration can be computed based on criteria
available in the IEC and IEEE Standard 80 documents. These
computations show that major variations exist between the
hand-to-foot or hand-to-trunk situations for the voltage VF
thresholds for exposure times near 0.01 or 1.0 s. For these
conditions, the IEC safe-voltage thresholds are about one-
fourth to one-seventh of the IEE". Standard 80 voltage
thresholds. In other time regimes for the same scenarios, the
differences between IEEE Standard 80 and IEC derived VF
voltage thresholds are not as great but can still be signifi¬
cant.in the order of 2 to 3 times.
Thus, grounding systems based on IEEE Standard 80 shock
criteria appear to be under-designed relative to an IEC-derived
grounding system for body current pathways from hands-to-
feet or from hand-to-trunk, especially where shock durations
are in the order of 0.01 or 1.0 s or where minimal series
impedance external to the human body can be anticipated.
On the other hand, IEEE Standard 80 shock criteria based
designs are overdesigned relative to an IEC-derived design for
foot-to-foot current pathways. This apparent overdesign is
justified because little data exist on foot-to-foot, body-current
knock-down phenomena and subsequent possible shock
efforts experienced in the prone position.
As a consequence, the reliability of the existing data was
explored at the symposium and this led to the following
assessments:
VF Current Thresholds
A main issue at the symposium was whether or not a body-
weight scaling relationship should apply. As of today, one
55