sion was first proposed by P. H. Thomas in 1909. The electrical characteristics of bundle conductors were then recognized to be superior in many respects to the characteristics of comparable single conductors. However, it was also known at that time that bundle conductors had higher initial costs and a more com plex mechanical structure than single conductors. Therefore, no significant applications of this new con cept were made in the next 40 years, although in 1931 C. A. Boddie proposed a 500-kv line with four con ductors in a bundle. As a result of extensive investiga tions made in the last 10 years of the electrical and mechanical characteristics of bundle conductors, many transmission lines have been and are being built all over the world utilizing this type of construction. At present, extra-high-vol tage transmission lines (volt ages of 275 kv and above) use one, two, three, and four conductors per phase. It is not clear, therefore, what the optimum configuration of future extra-high-voltage lines will be. In fact, it will depend most probably upon the system characteristics, cost data, and also upon the willingness of the utility management to try out new types of construction. For these reasons, in planning the General Electric Extra-High-Voltage (EHV) Project it has been decided to investigate one, two, and three con ductors per phase at 460 kv, and three and four con ductors per phase at 650 kv. OPTIMUM CONFIGURATIONS
IN ORDER to determine the optimum configurations
and cross section for the various test conditions of the Project EHV line, an economic study was initiated in 1957 by the authors, inasmuch as no criteria were avail able in the literature at that time. A digital computer program has been prepared for the IBM (International Business Machines Corporation) 705 data-processing machine, with the following objec tive: "To determine the optimum configuration and cross section of extra-high-voltage lines (345 kv and above), as a function of all the parameters having economic significance." In order to obtain a fair comparison of the relative economics of using one, two, three, or four conductors Digest of paper 60-53, "Economics of Single and Bundle Conductors for Extra-High-Voltage Transmission," recommended by the AIEE Trans mission and Distribution Committee and approved by the AIEE Techni cal Operations Department for presentation at the AIEE Winter General Meeting, New York, N. Y., Jan. 31-Feb. 5, 1960. Published in AIEE Power Apparatus and Systems, June 1960, pp. 138-53. P. A. Abetti and C. A. Lindh are with the General Electric Company, Pittsfield, Mass.; H. O. Simmons, Jr., is with the General Electric Com pany, Schenectady, N. Y.
574
H. O. SIMMONS, JR. MEMBER AIEE
per phase for a given transmission line, it is necessary
to compare alternative solutions using the same assump tions for all cases. In the program all operating and investment costs, evaluated at an appropriate rate, are added up in order to determine the total annual charges for each configuration. By varying the cross section over an appropriate range, the optimum cross section, cor responding to minimum cost, may be determined for each line configuration. Then the individual optimums are compared to establish the over-all optimum bun dling configuration for a given circuit loading. All im portant factors in which bundle and single conductors differ are taken into account in the program, according to criteria which evaluate the annual cost of each fac tor. The range of the economic evaluation of certain factors is quite extensive, depending upon the require ments of the system considered, the cost structure in volved, and other considerations. It is then necessary to study the effect of varying these factors on the over all results. SYSTEMS INVESTIGATED T H E SYSTEMS investigated consist of a generating sta tion with step-up transformation supplying a subtrans mission load bus through the transmission system and receiving-end step-down transformation. Series-capacitor compensation was assumed to be 40 and 50 per cent at distances of 250 and 500 miles, respectively. At 100 miles, zero series capacitor compensation was assumed, but transformer impedances and transformer costs were varied to compensate for the differences in line re actances for the various bundle configurations. The following system parameters are used to present the results of this study:
1. Distance (100, 250, and 500 miles)
2. Transmission voltage level (345, 460, and 650 kv) 3. Load factor (50 and 80 per cent) 4. Loading per circuit (depending upon distance and voltage) RESULTS T H E RESULTS of this investigation are presented in the form of annual cost differentials with respect to an arbitrarily selected base configuration, as a function of the total conductor cross section per phase and line con figuration. It is concluded that these cost differentials may be quite important, both if expressed in dollars or in percentage of the total annual cost. Each system, however, must be investigated on its own merits, ac cording to the method advanced here, in order to deter mine its optimum configuration.