Minimization of Losses on Electric Power Transmission Lines

Abstract

Availability of electric power has been the most powerful vehicle for facilitating economic, industrial and social developments of any nation. Electric power is transmitted by means of transmission lines which deliver bulk power from generating stations to load centres and consumers. For electric power to get to the final consumers in proper form and quality, losses along the lines must be reduced to the barest minimum. In this paper, a mathematical model of losses along electric power transmission lines was developed using a combination of ohmic and corona losses. The resulting model, which is a nonlinear multivariable unconstrained optimization problem, was minimized using the classical optimization technique. From the results, we were able to see that power losses on transmission lines will be minimized if we transmit electric power at a very low current and at an operating voltage that is very close to the critical disruptive voltage. Also the spacing between the conductors should be large in comparison to their diameters. These results, gotten by the use of an analytical method, conform to the existing results for power transmission.

Keywords: Power Losses, Minimization, Transmission, Classical Optimization, Mathematical Model.