Recent Improvements in Design Criterion and Specifications of New Technology HTLS Conductors - Utility Perspective

摘要

Indian transmission network has grown by leaps & bounds over the past decade, marked by a whopping 5-fold rise in the inter-regional transmission capacity during the 11th & 12th five year plans. This spectacular growth of transmission network couldn'thave been accomplished without due consideration to right-of-the-way (ROW) conservation and minimization of land use of transmission lines. One of the most effective ways towards conservation of ROW and achieving sustainable development of transmissionnetwork is uprating of existing line using New Technology conductors so as to utilise the existing corridor for wheeling higher quantum of power. Even construction of new high capacity corridors using high temperature low sag (HTLS) conductors, reduces requirement of additional parallel transmission corridors in near future.Various HTLS conductor technologies have proven their worth for re-conductoring & new line operation purpose in different parts of the world. Each type of HTLS Conductor has its own merits & demerits and selection of the right solution involves detailedtechno-economic analysis and precise calculations through latest software tools to ensure compliance of the conductor to myriad electrical & mechanical design considerations & limits.POWERGRID has a vast experience, of more than 15 years, in use of HTLS conductors of various technologies including INVAR, GAP, ACSSand Composite core type. The company has adopted a no-technology-bias selection policy for its Transmission assets andprior to finalization, carries out detailed techno-economic analysis amongst all the participating proven HTLS conductor technologies. POWERGRID s procedure for comparative evaluation of losses amongst the different HTLS conductor solutions is a landmark inthe industry.The paper gives an insight to the step-by-step procedure for selection of the appropriate HTLS conductor technology & evaluation of its performance and elaborates the ingenious methodologies of POWERGRID in this regard.