High voltage (EHV and UHV) transmission facilitates transfer of large amount of power over long distances. However, due to the inherent geometry, the line and substation hardware of EHV and UHV class generate high electric fields, which results in local ionisation of air called corona discharges. Apart from producing audible noise in the form of frying or hissing sound, corona produces significant electromagnetic interferences in the radio range. The limit for this corona generated Radio Interference (RI) has been stipulated by international standards, which are strictly to be followed. In line and substation hardware, corona control rings are generally employed to limit or avoid corona. Standard dimensions of corona rings are not available for EHV and UHV class. In most of the cases, their design is based on either a trial and error method or based on empirical extrapolation. Only in certain specific cases, the dimensioning of the rings is carried out using electric field calculations. In any of these approaches, the unavoidable surface abrasions, which can lead to corona, are not considered. There are also efforts to account for nominal surface irregularity by using a surface roughness factor, which is highly heuristic. In order to address this practically relevant problem, the present work was taken up. The intended exercise requires accurate field computation and a suitable criterion for checking corona onset. For the first part, the Surface Charge Simulation Method is adopted with newly proposed sub-modelling technique. The surface of the toroid is discretised into curvilinear patches with linear approximation for the surface charge density. Owing to its high accuracy, Galerkin’s method of moments formulation is employed. The problem of singularity encountered in the numerical approach is handled using a method based on Duffy’s transformation. The developed codes have also been validated with standard geometries. After a survey of relevant literature the ‘Critical Avalanche Criteria’ is chosen for its simplicity and applicability to the problem. Through a detailed simulation, the effect of avalanche space charge in reducing the corona onset voltage is found to be around 1.5% and hence it is not considered further. For utilities not interested in a detailed calculation procedure for dimensioning of corona rings, design curves are developed for circular corona rings of both 400 kV and 765 kV class with surface roughness factor in the range 0.8 – 1. In the second part of the work, a methodology for dimensioning is developed wherein the inevitable surface abrasion in the form of minute protrusions can be accounted. It is first shown that even though considerable field intensification occurs at the protrusions, such localised modification need not lead to corona. It is shown that by varying the minor radius of the corona ring, it is possible to get a design where the prescribed surface abrasion does not lead to corona onset. In summary, the present work has successfully developed a reliable methodology for the design of corona rings with prescribed surface abrasions. It involved development of an efficient field computation technique for handling minute surface protrusions and use of appropriate criteria for assessing corona inception. It has also provided design curves for EHV and UHV class corona rings with surface roughness factor specified in the range 0.8 – 1.0.

Ever increasing demand for electricity, exploitation of large hydro and nuclear power at remote location has led to power evacuation by long EHV/UHV transmission systems. This thesis concentrates on transient analysis of EHV/UHV transmission systems for improved planning and protection. In this thesis, the uncontrolled and controlled switching methods to limit the switching surges during energization of 765kV and 1200k VUHV transmission lines are studied. The switching surge over voltages during the energization of series compensated line are compared with uncompensated line. A Generalized Electromagnetic Transients Program has been developed. The program incorporates specific models for studying the effectiveness of various means for control of switching surge over voltages during UHV transmission line energization and also simulation of various types of faults. Since power grids may adopt next higher UHV transmission level 1200kV, these studies are necessary for insulation coordination as well as transmission line protection relay settings. A new fault detection/location technique is presented for transmission line using synchronized fundamental voltage and current phasors obtained by PMUs at both ends of line. It is adaptive to fault resistance, source impedance variation, line loading and fault incidence angle. An improved Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) algorithm to estimate and eliminate the decaying dc component in a fault current signal is proposed for computing the phasors. The settings for digital distance relays under different operating conditions are obtained. The relay should operate faster and be more sensitive to various faults under different conditions without loosing selectivity. An accurate faulted transmission line model which considers distributed shunt capacitance has been presented. The relay trip boundaries are obtained considering transmission line model under realistic fault conditions. For different loading conditions ideal relay characteristic has been developed. The obtained trip boundaries can be used for proper settings of practical relay. An adaptive relaying scheme is proposed for EHV/UHV transmission line using unsynchronized/synchronized fundamental voltage and current phasors at both ends of line. For fault location, the redundancy in equations is achieved by using two kinds of Clarke’s components which makes the calculations non-iterative and accurate. An operator for synchronization of the unsynchronized measurements is obtained by considering the distributed parameter line model. The distance to fault is calculated as per the synchronized measurements. Support Vector Machine(SVM) is used for high speed protection of UHV line. The proposed relaying scheme detects the fault and faulted phase effectively within few milli seconds. The current and voltage signals of all phases at the substation are fed to SVM directly at a sampling frequency of 1.0kHZi.e20 samples/cycle . It is possible to detect faulted phase with in 3msec, using the data window of 1/4th cycle. The performance of relaying scheme has been checked with a typical 765kV Indian transmission System which is simulated using the developed EMTP.

Les demandes pour la préservation de l'environnement ainsi que les préoccupations pour un développement durable, ont augmenté considérablement ces dernières décennies à travers le monde. Ce souci environnemental est également présent dans l'industrie électrique et les approches d’éco-conception sont de plus en plus présentes dans la conception et la réalisation des composants et systèmes de transmission et de distribution (T & D) de l’énergie électrique. Cette étude est menée, dans le but d'analyser les impacts des systèmes de transmission de l’énergie électrique sur l’environnement, de localiser les principales sources de pollution environnementale. Les impacts environnementaux d'un cas réel du système de transmission à 765 kV AC du Venezuela sont étudies, à l'aide de l'Analyse du Cycle de Vie (ACV). Les principales sources de pollution de l'environnement du système de transmission sont localisées, qui sont les pertes d'énergie dans les lignes de transmission et les transformateurs de puissance ainsi que les émissions de SF6 des disjoncteurs. En outre, l’analyse des impacts environnementaux de l'Ultra Haute Tension (UHV) et Très Haute Tension (THT) de lignes de transmission est menée, concernant l'efficacité énergétique d'une série de lignes de transmission (500 kV AC, 765 kV AC, 1200 kV AC, ± 500 kV DC et ± 800 kV DC) et les émissions de CO2-équivalent en raison des pertes d'énergie dans les lignes de transmission ; et l’ACV d'une ligne de transmission à 1000 kV AC nouvellement construite en Chine. / The demand to preserve the environment and form a sustainable development is greatly increasing in the recent decades all over the world, and this environmental concern is also merged in electrical power industry, resulting in many eco-design approaches in Transmission & Distribution (T & D) industries. As a method of eco-design, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a systematic tool that enables the assessment of the environmental impacts of a product or service throughout its entire life cycle, i.e. raw material production, manufacture, distribution, use and disposal including all intervening transportation steps necessary or caused by the product's existence. In T & D industries, LCA has been done for a lot of products individually, in order to see one product’s environmental impacts and to seek for ways of improving its environmental performance. This eco-design for product approach is a rather well-developed trend, however, as only a single electrical product cannot provide the electrical power to users, electrical system consists of a huge number of components, in order to investigate system’s environmental profile, the entire environmental profiles of different composing products has to be integrated systematically, that is to say, a system approach is needed. Under this philosophy, the study “Eco-design of Power Transmission Systems” is conducted in this thesis, with the purpose of analysing the transmission systems’environmental impacts, locating the major environmental burden sources of transmission systems, selecting and/or developing methodologies of reducing its environmental impacts.