ELX214 – Electrical Power Systems & Machines

Questions for Students to Complete Page 14 of 41

7. POWER SYSTEMS MODELS: Capacitance of Transmission Lines

Question 1
The charge on a long, straight cylindrical conductor is a uniform q C/m. State Gauss's Law as
it applies to this situation, and write down the mathematical relationship between the electric
field intensity, E and q.

Question 2
What are the units of electric field intensity E? Use these units to explain why work is done
when moving a unit charge in an electric field. If potential difference is defined to be the result
of the integration:

where R1 and R2 are the radii of cylindrical shells surrounding the conductor of question 1,
what are the basic units of potential difference or voltage?

Question 3

a) A single-phase transmission line has two conductors spaced 2 m apart. At a certain

instant in time the charge on one conductor is 50 μC/km and the charge on the other
is –50 μC/km. The radius of each conductor is 1 cm. Neglecting the effect of ground,
find the voltage between the conductors at the instant specified. (Hint: Use the
equation developed to give the potential difference between two lines in the section
on capacitance of a single-phase line.)

b) What is the capacitance/km between the conductors of part (b)?

ELX214 Electrical Power Systems & Machines

Questions for Students to Complete
School of Engineering
Faculty of Technology
University of Sunderland

Last Modified: 9th October 2018

 ELX214 – Electrical Power Systems & Machines

Questions for Students to Complete Page 15 of 41

Question 4

Show that the equation for the capacitance-to-neutral in farads per metre of a single-phase
line, taking into account the effect of ground, is:

Question 5
If an earth plane is near the single-phase line of question 3, what would be the capacitance
between the conductors? The earth plane is 6 m from the two conductors forming the single-
phase line.

ELX214 Electrical Power Systems & Machines

Questions for Students to Complete
School of Engineering
Faculty of Technology
University of Sunderland

Last Modified: 9th October 2018