Examination of thermal behavior of high voltage conductors

Due to the increasing energy demand, new questions raise for engineers such as how to achieve high utilization of the existing transmission system. For this purpose, the investigation of network equipment and elements is indispensable. Dynamic line rating (DLR) is a cost-efficient way to raise the transmission power capacity of the existing high voltage overhead lines. DLR technology is based on the real-time thermal equilibrium of the conductors, which is the basis of the ampacity calculation of the given line. Therefore, the investigation of the thermal behavior of wires is essential to fine tune the existing calculation methodologies. The aim of this paper is to present the research regarding to the thermal behavior of high voltage conductors performed in the High Voltage Laboratory of Budapest University of Technology and Economics. In this research the time constant of a wire was determined both in case of different static and dynamic thermal processes, thus the heating and cooling mechanism of the conductor can be described in a more precise way in case of thermal monitoring of the wires.