Electric Field Reduction in an EHV Substation for Occupational Exposure via Transposition of Conductors

An attempt is made to reduce the maximum value of rms electric field (E-field) via the transposition of conductors in a 765-kV substation with reference to the occupational exposure. The method is applied to a extra-high-voltage substation, which is under construction. The effect of transposing the bay conductors (alone) and the bus conductors (alone) on the E-field distribution (at 2 m above the ground) over the area of the substation is discussed. Also, the topology of substation conductors that results in the minimum value for the maximum of rms E-fields is obtained via simultaneous transpositions of the bus and bay conductors. The area of the substation where the rms E-field exceeds the reference value of 10 kV/m (International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection occupational exposure limit) is also reported for the existing topology. For this topology, the computed maximum value of the rms E-field over the area of the substation is 13.06 kV/m. This E-field is reduced to 7.999 kV/m with the best configuration of substation conductors obtained via transposition. The charge-simulation-method-based generalized algorithm for obtaining the best topology (among all permutations) of substation conductors, which results in the minimum value for the maximum of rms E-field magnitudes over the substation area is also reported.