Electric Network Power Transfer Flexibility — Focusing on Power Conductors Electro-Mechanical Behavior

Abstract

Power and energy utilities are obliged to tackle the inevitable results of the transformation strategies involving integrating high-shares of clean energy sources. The traditional solution of building new OHLs has been substituted by re-conductoring through bigger size or high-temperature conductor technologies to maintain the OHL system clearances. Existing literature models conductor vibration and fatigue based on a homogenized conductor structure. This paper establishes a Finite Element Model (FEM) in COMSOL© to enable examining vibration and fatigue of the different sizes and types of the OHL conductor's complex geometries. The simulations of the free vibration and tension-strain of the modelled geometry are corroborated with the experimental data. The FEM simulations for the single and multi-layered composite conductors show that conductor vibration and fatigue responses are not always linear with the change in vibration amplitudes. Hence, re-assessing the flexibility of the network capacity by re-tensioning conductors depends on the conductor type and operating conditions.