2016 Biennial International Conference on Power and Energy Systems:Towards Sustainable Energy (PESTS E)
Laboratory Model to Teach Surge Impedance
Loading
s. Balamurugan N. Janarthanan
Department ofEEE, Department ofEEE,
Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham
Coimbatore, India Coimbatore, India
s_ balamurugan@cb.amrita.edu njanarthanan@cb.amrita.edu
Abstract- This paper explains the development of laboratory
model to teach Surge Impedance Loading to the undergraduate
students. Simulation software used for teaching power systems
fails to give physical sense to the students. The scaled down
model of transmission line is developed at the Electrical
Engineering development of Amrita school of Engineering,
Coimbatore. The flat voltage profile is observed in the line when
the line is loaded to Surge Impedance Loading. Further the Surge
Impedance Loading and phase shift are studied during series and
shunt compensation. Shunt capacitor compensation improves
only Surge Impedance Loading but increases the phase shift.
Series capacitor compensation improves Surge Impedance
Loading and also stability by decreasing the phase shift.
Keywords- surge impedance loading; series compensation;
shunt compensation
I. INTRODUCTION
The power demand on the system is increasing every day.
Erecting New Transmission lines is difficult due to cost and
right of way issues. Utilizing the existing transmission line to
the fullest possible extent is the only possible solution. Power
flow in transmission line is decided by surge impedance
loading of the line. Understanding the importance of surge
impedance loading is very important for an electrical engineer.
This concept must be explained to the student in a practical
manner instead of using simulation studies.
Many colleges do power system teaching through
simulation software. Those simulation based studies fails to
give the understanding of the physical behaviour of the
system. To overcome that difficulty, simulation studies are to
be supplemented with laboratory studies. Or else, the students
will not understand the limitations of the physical components
[1-2]. A model based power system laboratory is developed at
Amrita School of Engineering, Coimbatore to explain the
concepts of power systems.
To study the concept of SIL in the laboratory, the All
Aluminium Alloy Conductor (AAAC) Zebra is considered. To
conduct experiment on that conductor, the line is scaled down
to the laboratory voltage and power ratings. The experimental
set up is developed to do the voltage profile study on the line
during SIL and other loading conditions. This is for making
the students to understand the concept of SIL along with
reactive power and voltage. Later, series and shunt
compensation are done on the line. The experimental set up is
978-1-4673-6658-8116/$31.00 ©2016 IEEE
K.R.M. Vijaya Chandrakala
Department ofEEE,
Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham,
Coimbatore, India
krm_ vijaya@cb.amrita.edu
further extended to analyze the SIL and phase shift during
compensation. This is for making the students to understand
the concept of SIL with stability and loading ability.
The section 2 of the paper explains the development of the
scaled down model of the transmission line. Section 3 presents
the concept of SIL and its importance with the help of St.
Clair's curve. Section 4 presents the experimental set up
developed for explaining SIL. Section 5 explains the impact
of series and shunts compensation on SIL and phase shift '0'
with the experimental setup. Conclusions are derived in
section 6.
II. DEVELOPMENT OF SCALE DOWN MODEL OF TRANSMISSION
LINE
To develop the laboratory model to do Surge
Impedance Loading study, AAAC Zebra is considered. The
conductor is suitable for 220kV voltage transmission. Doing
experiment on such a line in a college laboratory is difficult. It
is to be scaled down to 400V at 5 kV A [3]. The series
resistance (R), series reactance (X) and susceptance (8) of the
AAAC Zebra at 220kV and 100 MVA base are 1.547xl0-4
p.u., 8.249xlO-4 p.u. and 1.42xlO-3 p.u. respectively [4]. The
p.u. values are converted to actual values using equation (I)
_ ( basekV 2 )
X -p.u.x---- (1)
baseMVA
The respective converted values are;
R=0.0748748 o/km; X=0.3992516 o/km;
8=2.933884298 *10-6 n 1 km. These actual values are then
converted to the 400V and 5kV A base using the equation
shown in (2);
( newbasekV 2 )
X= actualvalue(~ )x( newbaseMVA ) (2)
km ( 0idbasekV 2 )
oldbaseMVA
On substitution in equation (2);
X = 0.0263968 o/km; 8 = 4.4374x 10-5 n Ikm
The respective inductance and capacitance values are;
Inductance (L) = 0.084 mR; Capacitance (C) = 0.14132 flF
 In this work, 150 km length line is considered. Therefore,
L = 12.6 mH and C = 2l.l98 flF
The L is distributed into 6 elements and C as 3 elements
for easy fabrication. Therefore the inductance of each L is
designed for 3mH (::::; 12.6/6). The fabricated scaled down
transmission line is shown in Fig. 1.
Fig. I. Scaled down transmission line model. [I], [3]
III. SURGE IMPEDANCE LOADING
Natural reactive power balance occurs in the transmission
line when it is loaded to the Surge Impedance Loading (SIL)
[5]. In the transmission line, reactive power is produced by the
line capacitance and it is consumed by the line inductance.
The reactive power production by the capacitor is decided by
the voltage and the consumption by the line inductance is
decided by the magnetic field strength which is decided by the
current flows [6].
At the point of surge impedance loading, the consumption
and production will be balanced. This balance results in a flat
voltage profile along the line. During balancing;
y 2 wC = 12 wL ~y = (L
Vc
I < SIL
The impedance ..J(L/C) is defined as the Surge Im~edance
and the respective load in Watts is calculated by Y /(Surge
Impedance). The line load ability is decided by this SIL. H.P.
St. Clair introduced this concept [7]. The loadability of the
line can be obtained from his curve presented in Fig. 2. Short
transmission lines can be loaded up to 3 times of SIL which
will be the thermal limit. For medium transmission line,
voltage drop decides the limit that will be 1.5 - 3 times of SIL.
In case of long transmission lines, stability is the limiting
issue. It can be solved by loading the line up to 0.5 - l.5 times
ofSIL[8].
~ 30
o
~ 25
p,
" 20
~ 15
-g 1.0
.9
g 0.5
.J
160 320 480 640 800 960
Line length (km)
Fig. 2. Transmission line loadability curve. [7], [8]
The concept of SIL connecting voltage profile, line loading
and compensation has to be made clear to the power system
graduate by conducting suitable experiments.
IY. EXPERIMENTAL SET UP FOR SURGE IMPEDANCE LOADING
STUDIES
The scaled down transmission line model developed in
section 2 is considered for the experimental set up
development. The line has 18mH of series inductance and
24flF of shunt capacitance. The experimental set up for doing
the SIL is shown in Fig. 3.
300V,lOA,UPF 300V, lOA, UPF
Fig. 3. Experimental set up for SIL studies
The sending end of the line is maintained at 230Y. The
resistive load at the receiving side is varied in steps until the
sending end voltage is equal to the receiving end voltage. The
power flow and voltage at all the nodes at that instant is noted
and tabulated. If the sending end voltage and receiving end
voltage are same, it means that the line neither consumes nor
supply reactive power. The respective loading is SIL. The
readings are noted down for the load greater and lesser than
the SIL. The values are furnished in the Table 1.
TABLE 1. VOLTAGE PROFILE OF THE LINE
LOAD Vs V, V, VR
=SIL 230 230 230 230
> SIL
(3) 230 228 226 224
230 232 234 236
From the Table I, it is evident that when the line is loaded
to the SIL the voltage profile of the line is flat. When the load
is slightly increased, the receiving voltage is less than the
sending end voltage. The series inductance consuming more
reactive power than the reactive power produced by the shunt
capacitance is the reason for reduction in the voltage profile.
When the line is loaded slightly below the SIL, the
receiving end voltage is greater than the sending end voltage.
This is because of more reactive power production by the
shunt capacitor than the consumption of reactive power by the
series inductance.
Y. IMPACT OF COMPENSATION IN SIL
Compensation plays an important role in the power system
for its reliable and stable operation. The series compensation
is used for varying the line reactance and shunt compensation
for balancing reactive power. These in turn control real power
flow and voltage respectively. In general capacitors are used
as the fundamental device for series and shunt compensation.
Both series and shunt compensation have a serious impact on at sending and receiving end using a digital storage
the Surge Impedance and Phase shift (0). oscilloscope.
The series capacitor reduces the line reactance. This in turn The voltage waveforms of no compensation, senes
reduces the surge impedance (~(LlC)). Reduction in surge capacitor compensation and shunt capacitor compensation

-
impedance increases the surge impedance loading (V2j(Surge during SIL are shown in Fig. 5, Fig. 6 and Fig. 7 respectively.
Impedance)). At the same time series capacitor reduces the Tek M Po" -160,0)J' CURSOR
phase shift '0' (~(LC)). 1 Type
This improves the stability limit of the line. To make the
students to realise this concept, series compensation of Source
33.33% is done on the line. 33% ofline inductance is equal to IiiiI
360,Om
6mH. The respective reactance is 1.884Q. To compensate the It- " "" I,
~t
io 2,778kH,
line reactance a capacitor of 1.69 mF is required. ~V 40,OV
Cursor 1
This is a large size capacitor to handle in the laboratory. -160m
To overcome this problem, the turns ratio of transformer is -4,00V

utilized as per the following relation.

t.........,
CH1 10,OV CH2 10,OV M1.00m,
16-0ct-11 10:08
C'H1 f -1.0W
41,8883H,
II
v]

-
N] I]
(4) Fig, 5, Phase shift between Vs and Vr without compensation during SIL
V2 N2 12
Tek JL M Po" -100,0)J' CURSOR
+
N] "'1
Type
V IN 2 =V2 N I ~ VI =-V2 (5)
N2
Source
Similarly; IiiiI
~
~t 300,Om
N2 1" " II I I it 3.333kHz
1]=-12 (6) ~V 32,QV
N] Cursor 1
-800)J'
Therefore from equation (5) and (6); -4,00V

Z = V] =
I I
(~)2 Z
N 2
= (~)2 Z
k 2
(7) CH~ 10,OV CH2 10,OV~M 100 u,
16-001-1101:18
CH2 f 44,OV
48,8142H,
II
I 2

Fig, 6, Phase shift between Vs and Vr with series capacitor compensation

Using the above relation, the size of capacitor problem is

-
during SIL
solved. In the laboratory model, using a series injection
transformer with the turns ratio of 3, the capacitor size can be Tek JL CURSOR
reduced by 9. 1 Type

Instead of using a l.69 mF capacitor, 187.82 flF capacitor

Source
can be used along with 1:3 series transformer [9]. Using this IiiiI
concept, the series capacitor compensation is done at the ~t 520,Om
laboratory using the experimental set up shown in Fig. 4. .. io 1.823kH,
~V 56,OV

EEJI
'1 II Cursor 2

HI
---k
-120)J'
56,OV
CH1 50,OV CH2 10,OV M 1.00m, CH2 f -184mV
Use mUltipurpose knob to move Cursor 1

Fig, 7, Phase shift between Vs and Vr with shunt capacitor compensation

during SIL
Fig. 4. Experimental set up to do series compensation
The SIL and the phase shift are tabulated in Table II for
Similarly, shunt compensation is done by connecting a 8 comparison.
flF capacitor in parallel at the receiving end. It increases the C
value such that SI (i.e., ~(LlC)) value will decrease. This TABLE II. SIL AND PHASE SHIFT OF THE LINE WITH AND WITHOUT
makes the SIL (i.e., V2j(Surge Impedance)) to increase. COMPENSATION

At the same time, phase shift (i.e., ~(LC)) will increase Compensation SIL Phase Shift '0'
during shunt capacitor compensation. The load at the (W) (/1S)
receiving end is varied for both the cases to make the voltage No Compensation 1280 360
Series Capacitor 1480 300
profile flat. The SIL is noted along with the voltage waveform Shunt Capacitor 1680 520

From the Fig. 5, Fig. 6, Fig. 7 and Table 2, it is realized
that the SIL will increase while doing shunt or series capacitor
compensation. The phase shift decreases while doing series
capacitor compensation and increases while doing shunt
capacitor compensation. Series capacitor compensation
improves the line loading and stability whereas; shunt
compensation increases loading ability but creates stability
issues.
VI. CONCLUSION
In this paper, the scaled down model of the AAAC Zebra
is considered. The experimental set up for doing Surge
Impedance Loading study is developed. The voltage profile of
the line is studied when the line loading is equal to, less than
and greater than SIL. The study provides flat voltage profile
during SIL. The flat voltage profile obtained in the experiment
proves that the reactive power requirement of the line is
provided by the line itself. Swell and sag voltage profile is
observed when the line loading is less and greater than SIL
respectively. When line loading is less than the SIL the
reactive power produced by the line is more than the reactive
power requirement of the transmission line so voltage swell is
observed. Similarly when line loading is greater than the SIL
the reactive power requirement of the line is not satisfied by
the line itself which results in sag in the voltage profile.
Further the SIL and phase shift are studied during series
capacitor and shunt capacitor compensation. Both the
compensation improves SIL but series capacitor compensation
decreases phase shift between the sending end and receiving
end whereas shunt capacitor compensation increases phase
shift and creates stability issues.
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