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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ELECTROMAGNETIC COMPATIBILITY

Altitude Correction of Radio Interference of HVDC


Transmission Lines Part I: Converting Method of
Measured Data
Li Xie, Luxing Zhao, Jiayu Lu, Xiang Cui, Senior Member, IEEE, and Yong Ju

AbstractIt is a serious problem in the development of power


transmission technology in China that the high-voltage directcurrent (HVDC) transmission lines have to pass through the highaltitude areas. To satisfy the demands of environmental protection,
it is important to predict radio interference (RI) performance of the
HVDC transmission lines in the high-altitude areas. The existing
method to evaluate the altitude effect on RI of the HVDC transmission lines refers to the conclusion of the alternating-current (AC)
transmission lines, because of lack of supporting HVDC test data.
It was found by the measurement data on Qinghai-Tibet 500 kV
DC transmission line built in China that the ac altitude correction conclusion of RI is inappropriate for the HVDC transmission
lines in the high-altitude regions of China. In this paper, RI experiments were carried out on two full-scale HVDC test lines and four
reduced-scale dc test lines at different altitudes in China from 2010
to 2014. The method to convert the data on the test lines with different lengths and terminations into that of the infinite-long lines is
proposed and verified; then the measurement data of the full-scale
and reduced-scale test lines were converted by this method to derive the RI altitude correction of the HVDC transmission lines. It
is proved that the proposed method may provide a feasible way to
obtain RI altitude correction of the HVDC transmission lines.
Index TermsAltitude correction, HVDC transmission lines,
radio interference, test lines.

I. INTRODUCTION
N recent years, the HVDC transmission technology has
developed rapidly in China with the highest voltage promoted from 400, 500, 660, 800 kV to the forthcoming
1100 kV. The origins of these HVDC transmission lines in
China are mostly located in the western high-elevation region
with rich natural resource. For example, the highest altitude of
the 800-kV transmission line conveying the southwestern hydroelectric power to eastern China is close to 4000 m, and that
of the Qinghai-Tibet 500-kV transmission line is more than
5000 m above sea level.
Due to the thinner atmosphere at a higher altitude, the corona
discharges on the conductor surface occur more easily, and RI,
as one of the corona performances, is more obvious than that

Manuscript received May 07, 2016; revised July 01, 2016; accepted July 28,
2016. This work was supported in part by National Basic Research Program
of China (973 Program) under Grant 2011CB209402, and in part by SGCC
Science and Technology Project of China under Grant GY71-16-010.
L. Xie, J. Lu, and Y. Ju are with the China Electric Power Research
Institute, Beijing 100192, China (e-mail: xieli@epri.sgcc.com.cn; lujy@
epri.sgcc.com.cn; juyong@epri.sgcc.com.cn).
L. Zhao and X. Cui are with North China Electric Power University, Beijing
102206, China (e-mail: zhaolx@epri.sgcc.com.cn; x.cui@ncepu.edu.cn).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TEMC.2016.2597300

under the same voltage at a lower altitude [1]. To ensure that


RI of the HVDC lines at high altitudes satisfies the requirement of environmental protection, the line parameters should be
determined in the design process, and it is usually effective to
increase the line height above ground, the subconductor number
per bundle or the cross section of the subconductors. However,
these measures will cause the construction cost of the project
rise significantly. To make a balance between expense saving
and environmental protection, it is of great importance to predict RI performance of the HVDC transmission lines at high
elevations with more accuracy.
Beginning in the 1950s, study of the altitude effect on corona
phenomena and performances has been carried out for the ac
transmission lines, including corona onset voltage, corona loss,
RI, audible noise, and television interference [2][6]. The most
popular altitude correction formula of RI for ac lines is proposed
by Robertson in 1961, that is, RI will increase by 1 dB with 300
m higher in altitude [4]. However, this ac conclusion is also
widely used in the elevation consideration of the HVDC lines
[7], because of lack of HVDC experimental validations. In recent
years, lots of survey results on the Qinghai-Tibet 500-kV DC
transmission line in China indicated that RI of the practical
HVDC lines at an altitude of around 4000 m is much smaller
than that calculated by the ac altitude correction method [8].
To investigate RI altitude characteristics of the HVDC transmission lines, the experiment data are collected on two full-scale
test lines and four reduced-scale test lines established at different altitudes in China, which are used, respectively, to obtain
the RI difference value between altitude 0 and 4300 m and to
describe how RI difference value varies with the altitude. Due
to the variety in lengths and terminal impedances of the test
lines, the RI measurement data on different test lines cannot be
compared directly. The propagation and reflection process of
corona currents along a transmission line with arbitrary length
and terminations are analyzed in the paper, and one method to
convert the RI data from diverse test lines to that of practical
infinite long lines is presented. Furthermore, by comparing the
converted RI data at different elevations, the RI altitude correction of the HVDC lines is derived, which will be reported in the
Part II, which is a companion paper written by the same authors.
II. TEST LINES AND EXPERIMENTAL DATA DESCRIPTION
A. Test Lines
The full-scale and reduced-scale test lines are two kinds of
fundamental utilities in this research. The full-scale ones, using

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Fig. 1.

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Structure of the Yangbajing full-scale test line.


Fig. 3.

Fig. 2.

Structure of the Beijing full-scale test line.

the same bundles as the practical lines, may reach the identical
corona discharge intensity under the voltage of practical lines.
The reduced-scale ones with smaller cross-section subconductor and less splitting number, simulate the corona performance
of practical lines at the same average maximum surface voltage gradient by imposing a lower voltage. Generally speaking,
the full-scale test lines are the most realistic method except of
the consideration of the huge construction cost. To make a compromise, in this research, two full-scale test lines were built at
the altitudes of 50 and 4300 m, and four reduced-scale ones were
built at the altitudes of 50, 1700, 3400, and 4300 m, respectively.
The Yangbajing full-scale HVDC test line, located at an altitude of 4300 m in Tibet China, comprises two spans shown as
Fig. 1. The conductor bundles 8 JL/G1A-720/50 (diameter
3.623 cm) are strung between the first span of 200 m long as
the positive and negative polar power lead wires, where corona
discharges can hardly occur under the test voltage from 500
to 700 kV. The second section with a length of 300 m is the
main part for measurement purpose, which is strung with bipolar
4 JL/G1A-500/45 (diameter 3 cm) bundles with a pole spacing of 22 m and an average height of 20 m above ground.
The trap coils are installed between the power lead section and
the HVDC generators to prevent the high-frequency current of
the generator from flowing to the test line. The other terminal
of the measurement section is open, and the loop antennas to
measure RI data are arranged on the ground in a line in the
middle of measurement section.
The other full-scale HVDC test line is located in Beijing,
China, with the elevation of 50 m. Most dimensions and configurations of the test line are the same with the aforementioned
one, except of two parameters, shown in Fig. 2. One is that the
length of the measurement section is 605 m. The other one is the
situation of trap coils, which are fixed between the power lead
section and the measurement section, instead of the generators.
The test location section is 150 m away from the open end of
the test line.
The structure parameters of the four reduced-scale test lines
in Beijing, and Xiachayu, Bahe, Yangbajing in Tibet China, are
identical, and the altitudes of the four sites are 50, 1700, 3400,
and 4300 m, respectively. Bipolar 4 JL/G1A-95/15 (diameter
1.36cm) bundles with a pole spacing of 6 m, an average height

Structure of four reduced-scale test lines.

of 8 m and an interval of 100 m are adopted on these test lines.


One terminal of all the test lines is open, and the other terminal
is connected with the trap coils. The scheme of the structure
configuration is shown in Fig. 3.
Although the RI altitude correction values of the conductors on the full-scale and reduced-scale test lines are somewhat
different under the same surface voltage gradient, the function
types to describe their nonlinear relations with the change of
elevation can be regarded as the same. Therefore, the purpose
of utilizing two kinds of test lines is to derive the deviation
of RI level between altitude 50 and 4300 m from the data of
the full-scale one, and to obtain the nonlinear function type
of the RI deviation and height above sea level by fitting the 50,
1700, 3400, and 4300 m RI measurement data from the reducedscale ones. Moreover, substituting the difference value between
50 and 4300 m into the derived nonlinear function to determine
the parameters yields the variation regularity of the RI altitude
correction values for the practical transmission lines.
In the following sections, the corona intensities on the conductor surfaces of these two kinds of test lines are supposed to
be identical under the same voltage gradient on the conductor
surface, and the corona performance difference of the two conductors is ignored, which is reasonable within the engineering
range of the conductor surface voltage gradient.
B. RI Measurement Results on Test Lines
The RI frequency spectral curves measured on the test lines
are different with that on the practical lines. The practical ones
may be regarded as infinitely long, so the ideal shape of their
RI frequency spectral curves is monotonic decreasing, and the
attenuation satisfies frequency modified formula [9]. However,
the electromagnetic waves propagating on the test lines with
finite lengths will reflect at both terminals and generate the
standing wave effect, and the RI frequency spectrum oscillates
with the frequency.
Figs. 4 and 5 show the RI frequency spectra under various different voltages measured separately in Beijing and Yangbajing
full-scale test lines, and Fig. 6 shows the measured RI frequency
spectra of the four reduced-scale test lines at different altitudes
under the same voltage.
Shown as these figures, it is obvious that the oscillation characteristics of RI spectra depend neither on the voltage nor on
the altitude, but on the lengths of the test lines and the terminal impedances. Consequently, it is necessary to convert the
measurement data on test lines with different lengths and terminations into RI level of infinitely long lines, instead of comparing them directly. The method to calculate the RI propagation

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XIE et al.: ALTITUDE CORRECTION OF RADIO INTERFERENCE OF HVDC TRANSMISSION LINES PART I

Fig. 7. Injected corona current and induced currents on the n + 1-conductor


transmission line.

on the transmission lines with arbitrary length and terminal


impedances is introduced in section III.

Fig. 4.
50 m).

RI spectra measured on Beijing full-scale test line (at an altitude of

III. METHOD TO CALCULATE THE RI PROPAGATION ON THE


TRANSMISSION LINES WITH ARBITRARY LENGTH AND
TERMINATIONS
Suppose that the HVDC transmission line is a n + 1conductor line with the length of L and the (n + 1)th conductor
is the ground. A single corona source I0i is injected at the position x1 of the ith conductor, shown as Fig. 7. Currents will also
be induced on the other conductors at the same location. The
propagation of currents and voltages on the line can be described
by the following the transmission line equations [10]:
dV (x)
+ (R + jL) I (x) = 0,
dx
dI (x)
+ (G + jC) V (x) = I  0 (x x1 ) .
dx

Fig. 5. RI spectra measured on Yangbajing full-scale test line (at an altitude


of 4300 m).

(1)

R,L,C, and G are the per-unit-length resistance, inductance, capacitance, and conductance matrices of the line, respectively; I 0 is the vector of all the induced current given by
I 0 = CI 0 /20 ; I 0 is the vector of the injected corona current,
where I0i is the ith element and the rest elements are zeroes; ()
is the Dirac function. The terms R + jL and G + jC are defined as the per-unit-length impedance matrix Z and admittance
matrix Y .
The line is connected with the impedances Z 1 and Z 2 on
both terminals, and the following relations exist:
V (L/ 2) = Z 1 I (L/ 2) ,
V (L/ 2) = Z 2 I (L/ 2)

Fig. 6. RI spectra measured on four reduced-scale test lines under the same
voltage.

(2)

where Z 1 and Z 2 are n n matrices.


Assuming that the matrix product ZY is diagonalizable and M is the transformation matrix, it can be written as H = M 1 ZY M . If H = D 2 ,D is also a diagonal matrix. Define the propagation matrix of the line as
 = M DM 1 , the characteristic impedance matrix as Z c =
 Y 1 = 1 Z, and the reflection coefficient matrices at
each terminal of the line as P 1 = (Z 1 Z c ) (Z 1 + Z c )1
and P 2 = (Z 2 Z c )  (Z 2 + Z c )1 . Then, the terminal voltage

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expression is obtained as [11]



1




1 (U + P 1 )
P 1 e L
0
V (L/ 2)
=

0
(U + P 2 ) e L P 2
V (L/ 2)
2
  (x +L / 2)

Z c I 0
e 1
(3)

e (L / 2x 1 ) Z c I  0

Let 0i = i dx1 , then i is the per-unit-length power spectral


density of I0i . Due to the uniform distribution assumption of
injected currents, i is a constant along conductor i. Therefore,
the power spectral density of the RI electric field at (x, yj , z0 )
produced by all the corona sources along conductor i is
 x
|qj i (x1 , x)|2 dx1
j (x) = i
L /2

where U is a unit matrix. Furthermore, the current expressions


at arbitrary point of the line can be written as




I (x) = Z 1
e (x+L / 2) P 1 e (x+L / 2)
c
(U +P 1 )1 V (L/ 2) , x < x1 ,
 

(L / 2x)
 (L / 2x)
I (x) = Z 1
e

e
P
2
c
(U +P 2 )1 V (L/ 2) , x > x1 .

(4)

(5)

L /2

I (x) = G (x1 , x) I0 ,

x1 < x

(6)

I (x) = G (x1 , x) I0 ,

x1 > x.

(7)

Then, the vector consisted of the RI electric field x-axis components at different N points (x, yi , z0 ) (i = 1, 2, . . . , n) above
the ground can be written as [9]
[Ex (x, yi )]m = Z0 KG (x1 , x) I 0 ,

x1 < x,

[Ex (x, yi )]m = Z0 KG (x1 , x) I 0 ,

x1 > x.

Z0 377 , and the elements in the matrix K are



h z
h j +z 0 +2p
1
Kij = 2
(h z ) 2j+(y0 y ) 2 + (h +z +2p)
2
+(y
j

0j

2
0 j y i )

i, j = 1, 2, . . . , n

[Ex (x, yi )]n = Q (x1 , x) I 0 ,




[Ex (x, yi )]n = Q (x1 , x) I 0 ,

x1 < x

(8)

x1 > x.

(9)

Since the corona sources injected into the conductors are


random series pulse signals, which may be regarded as uniform
distribution on the surfaces, their mutual effect can be analyzed
in the term of power spectral density [10], [12]. Define 0i
and j (x) as the power spectral densities of the corona current
I0i injected into the ith conductor at the location of x1 and
produced RI electric field Ex (x, yj ) by I0i at (x, yj , z0 ), then
the relationship between j (x) and 0i are given by
j (x) = |qj i (x1 , x)|2 0i

2
j (x) = q  j i (x1 , x) 0i

L /2

L /2


2
 
qj i (x1 , x) dx1 ,

j = 1, 2, . . . , n.

x1 < x,
x1 > x

where qj i (x1 , x) and q  ji (x1 , x) are the elements of matrices


Q(x1 , x) and Q (x1 , x).

(11)

Assume that the function i corresponds to the power spectrum density i , then i is the RI excitation function of conductor i, with the unit A/m1/2 . i is related to corona discharge
intensity on the conductor surface, so it is approximately equivalent on the whole conductor [13][15].
In this way, the RI electric field may be written as
 x


2
|Ex (x, yi )|
=
|qij |2 dx1
L /2

L /2

+
x

where hj and y0j are the z and y coordinates of the jth conductor center, and p is the penetration depth of the field.
p= [0 /(0 f )]1/2 , where 0 is the resistivity of the earth.
Consequently, RI electric field in the above equations can be
denoted by

(10)

If corona also exists on the other conductors with the perunit-length power spectral densities of 1 , 2 , . . . ,n , the power
spectrum density of their RI electric fields at (x, yj , z0 ) is
 x
n

i
|qj i (x1 , x)|2 dx1
j (x) =

i=1

Substituting the results of (3) into (4) and (5), the relation of
I(x) and I0 can be denoted by


 
qj i (x1 , x)2 dx1

  2
qij  dx1


2i n
m n

i, j = 1, 2, . . . , n.

(12)

If the multiconductor transmission line is infinitely long, the


terminal impedance has no effect on the RI electric field in measurement section. To simplify the analysis, it may be considered
that the line is connected with the characteristic impedance on
both terminals, where exists P 1 = P 2 = 0. According to the
aforesaid process, the RI electric field expression of infinitely
long transmission lines may be obtained.
IV. RI CONVERSION METHOD FROM SHORT TO LONG LINES
A. RI Conversion Method
It has been shown that the RI level mainly depends on two
properties of the lines: RI generation and propagation [16].
Among them, RI generation is the reflection of mean corona
intensity on per-unit-length line, expressed by the RI excitation
function in (12), and RI propagation includes the processes on
the line and in the space, shown by the m n matrix on the
right-hand side of (12). However, the influence of elevation to
RI is mainly embodied in the generation instead of propagation.
Therefore, the premise of RI conversion between long and short
lines is that they have the same RI excitation function.

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XIE et al.: ALTITUDE CORRECTION OF RADIO INTERFERENCE OF HVDC TRANSMISSION LINES PART I

According to (12), at n points in a straight line above ground


perpendicular to the line, the squares of the rms values of RI
electric field may be expressed by the linear combination of the
excitation function squares, that is

2 S
(13)
Ex,i n = F S 2i n ,

2 L
(14)
Ex,i n = F L i n
where F S and F L represent the transfer function matrices from
excitation functions to the RI electric field for short lines and
long lines, respectively. If the excitation functions in these two
equations are identical, the RI electric fields of long and short
lines have the following relationship:

2 S

2 L
Ex,i n .
(15)
Ex,i n = F L F 1
S
Due to the terminal reflection of the lines, the RI electric field
of a short test line vibrates with frequency. However, the frequency characteristics of the RI electric field of practical long
lines are smoothly declining, since the terminal reflection may
be ignored. The effect of these two aspects leads to the oscillation
1
of F L F 1
S with frequency. Theoretically, F L F S at a certain
frequency is the corresponding conversion coefficient matrix,
but the experiment results at a single frequency are subject to be
influenced by the external interference. Especially, at the reference frequency of 0.5 MHz, the unintentional interference from
human activities and natural environment are very common, so
it is a better choice to make the RI conversion in a certain band
of frequency. Moreover, during the process of RI conversion,
a smooth frequency spectral curve related to the oscillating RI
frequency spectrum of the short line is needed as the base line,
representing the overall level of the frequency spectrum. The
maximum and minimum envelope curves are easy to derive.
It was presented in [17] and [18] that RI frequency spectrum
of the long lines is equal to the geometric mean of the maximum
and minimum frequency spectral envelopes of the short openended lines. The result is deduced for the single-conductor lines,
which may cause errors in the case of multiconductor lines.
On the other hand, the method in [17] and [18] adopt modal
transformation for the multiconductor transmission lines and
make inverse transformation after analysis of power spectral
density. However, it is obvious that the latter one is not a linear
transformation, so the order of the two processes cannot be
exchanged anyway.
Additionally, the measurement data show that the maximum
values are more likely to be disturbed, so its envelope is not
suitable to be the base line. As a result, the minimum envelope
is adopted as follows.
The RI conversion method from short lines to long lines
includes the following five steps.
First, measure the RI electric field frequency spectra on a
certain frequency range at n ground points perpendicular to the
line, denoted by ES,1 (f ), ES,2 (f ), . . . , ES , n(f ), where n is the
bundle conductor number generating RI.
Second, calculate the frequency characteristics of every element in the transfer function matrices F S and F L , denoted by
FS,ij (f ) and FL,ij (f )(i, j = 1, 2, . . . , n).

Fig. 8. Diagram of the reference directions of the variables on power lead


wires at Yangbajing full-scale test line.

Third, by comparing the frequency spectral curves of the


elements in F S and the RI electric field, search for the frequencies corresponding to their mutual minimum values, denoted by
f1 , f2 , . . . ,fk , on which the minimum values also have good
frequency attenuation characteristics.
Fourth, make curve fittings based on the values of every
element at these frequencies FS,ij (f1 ), FS, i j (f2 ), . . . , FS,ij (fk ),
then get the minimum frequency spectra envelope
FSM ,ij (f )(i, j = 1, 2, . . . , n); also, make curve fittings
based on the RI electric field values at these frequencies and
get the frequency spectra ESM ,i (f )(i = 1, 2, . . . , n).
Finally, arrange all the values of FSM ,ij (f )(i, j = 1, 2, . . . , n)
at the frequency f0 to form a matrix, denoted by F SM (f0 ), and
arrange all the values of ESM , i(f0 )(i = 1, 2, . . . , n) to form a
column vector, denoted by E SM (f0 ), then the RI electric fields
at all the locations at f0 of the long line may be expressed
by
E L (f0 ) = F L (f0 ) F 1
SM (f0 ) E SM (f0 ).

(16)

It should be noted that, the above RI conversion method from


short lines to long lines is obtained by analysis with rms values,
while the RI measurement and evaluation always use the quasipeak values. According to [19] and [20], when the repetition
frequency of a pulse signal changes within a certain range, the
rate of quasi-peak value and rms value is almost a constant.
Therefore, altitude correction coefficient of RI obtained from
rms values may be regard as the same as that from the quasipeak values.

B. Illustration of RI Conversion From Short to Long Lines


This section will introduce the RI conversion process based
on the measurement data of Yangbajing full-scale test line. The
background RI noise has been filtered out of the measurement
data.
It was found that the difference between RI levels under positive and negative conductors are always over 6 dB
whether in Beijing or Tibet, so the RI measurement should
be mainly carried out under the positive conductor, and the
RI produced by the negative conductor may be ignored in the
data analysis.
According to the structure parameters of Yangbajing fullscale test line, the reference directions of the physical quantities
of the power lead wires are shown in Fig. 8.

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The relationship between the terminal currents and voltages


on both terminals of the lead wires is as follows [12]:
1
  1


Zyc 0
U
 y (Ly )
Iy1
=
Iy2
U
 y (Ly )
0 Z 1
yc




Vy 1
U
 y (Ly )

.
(17)

U
Vy 2
y (Ly )
I y 1 and I y 2 are current vectors on both terminals of the
wires; V y 1 and V y 2 are voltage vectors on both terminals of
the wires; Z y c is the characteristic impedance matrix of the lead
wires;  y (Ly ) is the propagation matrix of the lead wires; and
Ly is the length of lead wires. Let X represents the following
matrix:


X 11 X 12
X=
X 21 X 22

1

Z 1
0
U
 y (Ly )
yc
=
U
 y (Ly )
0 Z 1
yc


U
 y (Ly )

U
y (Ly )

 1
.

(18)

Due to connection with trap coils, on one terminal of the lead


wires there approximately exists I y 1 = 0. Substituting the relationship into (17), we may obtain V y 2 = X 22 I y2 . Moreover,
the equivalent impedance matrix of the power lead wires and
HVDC power supply is
Z 1 = X 22 .

(19)

For the measuring section of the test line, the lead wires
connected to the terminal may be regard as impedance Z1 , and
the another terminal is open.
Assuming that the excitation function of the positive polar
conductor under arbitrary frequency is equal to 0 dB(A/m1/2 ),
the comparison of calculation and experiment frequency spectral curves is shown in Fig. 9(a). It is found that the values of
the excitation functions used in the calculation do not change
with frequency, and part of the minimum values on the frequency
spectral curve remained numerically stable. When the actual excitation function declines with frequency, the minimum values
at the same frequencies on the RI measured curve also decrease.
Thus, it is inferred that the decreasing trend of the values on
these frequencies reflects the attenuation characteristics of the
excitation function, as well as the frequency spectral features
of the RI level of infinite long lines. Therefore, we may select
some minimum values from the calculated frequency spectrum
of transfer function F s s element, which are relatively stable,
shown in Fig. 9(b), and then correspond them to the RI measurement frequency spectral curve shown in Fig. 9(a) to get the
marked frequency points in the figure.
To make the curve fitting for the selected minimum values on
measurement RI frequency spectrum shown in Fig. 9(a), we may
adopt a similar form with the RI frequency modified formula
given by
Em in = a + b(lg 10f )2

Fig. 9. Selection the frequency points of the minimum values based on


the comparison of the calculated and measured data. (a) Comparison of the
calculated and measured RI frequency curves. (b) Selection of minimum values
on FS .

(20)

Fig. 10. RI electric field spectrum of long lines converted from the fitting
curve of minimum values on the measured RI spectrum of the test line.

where f is frequency with the unit MHz, and a, b are undetermined coefficients. The fitting curve for the selected values in
Fig. 9(a) is shown in Fig. 10. Then, using a constant to match
the values selected in Fig. 9(b) and according to the process presented in Section 4.1, the converted RI electric field frequency
spectrum of infinitely long lines is also shown in Fig. 10.
V. VERIFICATION
A. Verification of the RI Propagation Process
To verify the RI propagation process presented in this paper,
the calculated and measured results are compared under the
assumption that the excitation function of the positive conductor
is 0 dB(A/m1/2 ) for any frequency, and that of the negative one

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XIE et al.: ALTITUDE CORRECTION OF RADIO INTERFERENCE OF HVDC TRANSMISSION LINES PART I

Fig. 11. Comparison of the calculated and measured RI spectrums for Beijing
full-scale test line (altitude 50 m).

Fig. 13. Comparison of the calculated and measured RI spectrums for Bahe
reduced-scale test line (altitude 3400 m).

Fig. 14. Comparison of the RI data between the converted data from test line
and measurement data on Hami-Zhengzhou 800-kV transmission line.
Fig. 12. Comparison of the calculated and measured RI spectrums for
Yangbajing full-scale test line (altitude 4300 m).

is minus infinity with the unit dB (A/m1/2 ). The following RI


data are all for the location just under the positive conductor.
The comparisons for Beijing full-scale test line (altitude
50 m), Yangbajing full-scale test line (altitude 4300 m) and
Bahe reduced-scale test line (altitude 3400 m) are shown in
Figs. 1113.
In these figures, the frequencies corresponding to the peak
and valley values of calculated and measured curves are very
close. Since the oscillation properties of RI frequency spectrum
is mainly determined by the propagation, the comparison results
can verify the effectiveness of the analysis method of the RI
propagation.
It should be emphasized that the differences between the amplitudes of calculated and measured curves in Figs. 1113 are
caused by the lack of knowledge of the practical RI excitation
function values in the model, and that it is only assumed as
0 dB(A/m1/2 ) in the calculating process. Therefore, we can
use the proposed minimum values envelope method to describe
the amplitude difference, that is, to determine the spectrum of
practical RI excitation function. If the derived spectrum is substituted into the calculating process again, the calculated and

measured curves will match with each other not only in the
curve trends but also in the amplitudes.
The amplitude difference between calculated and measured
data in Fig. 11 are less than the difference in Fig. 12, which
means the value of the RI excitation function is corresponding
with the elevation. The difference of the RI excitation function
values derived, respectively, from Figs. 11 and 12 reflects the
RI correction factor from altitude 50 to 4300 m. However, the
RI excitation function value derived from Fig. 13 cannot be
compared with Figs. 11 and 12, because it is the value for
reduced-scale test line with thinner conductor. Nevertheless, the
elevation correction factor of the reduced-scale test lines can be
compared with that of the full-scale test lines within a certain
range.
B. Verification of the RI Conversion Method From Short Lines
to Long Lines
The RI conversion method from short lines to long lines is
validated in this section. Shown in Fig. 14, the RI data measured
on a test line are converted to the RI level of a practical long
line, and it is compared with the RI data of Hami-Zhengzhou
800-kV HVDC transmission line in China, which has the same
configuration and parameters as the test line.

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8

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ELECTROMAGNETIC COMPATIBILITY

There are some obvious peak values on the RI frequency


spectrum of Hami-Zhengzhou 800-kV HVDC transmission
line due to the external interference. However, within the range
of 0.152 MHz, the RI frequency spectrum converted from the
experimental results of the short line is in a good consistency
with the undisturbed RI values of the practical long line. Therefore, the effectiveness of the presented RI conversion method is
verified.
In the Part II, which is a companion paper written by the same
authors, abundant RI measurement data on test lines at different
altitudes will be converted by the method proposed in this paper,
and the altitude correction will be discussed in detail.
VI. CONCLUSION
Two full-scale HVDC test lines at the altitudes of 50 and
4300 m, and four reduced-scale HVDC test lines at the altitudes
of 50, 1700, 3400, and 4300 m are utilized to get the RI experimental data in the paper. The experimental data of two kinds of
test lines are used, respectively, to obtain the RI deviation value
between altitude 0 and 4300 m and to describe the nonlinear
relation of the RI deviation to the altitude, then to conclude the
variation regularity of the RI altitude correction values for the
practical HVDC transmission lines.
The oscillation properties of the RI frequency spectral curve
are associated with lengths and terminal loads of the test lines,
and the amplitudes of the curve are related to the test voltages
and altitudes. The RI experimental data of the test lines with
different lengths and terminals should be converted to the RI
level of the infinite long lines before comparing to get the altitude
deviation.
The method to analyze the RI propagation on the transmission
lines with arbitrary lengths and loads is presented. Furthermore,
the RI conversion method from short lines to long lines is discussed. By comparison of the measured and calculated data, the
calculation method and the conversion method are verified. The
presented method to calculate the RI propagation and to convert
the RI data from short lines to long lines will be utilized to get
the altitude correction method in Part II, which is a companion
paper written by the same authors.
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Li Xie was born in Xinjiang, China, in 1980. She


received the B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from Beihang University, Beijing,
China, in 2002, 2005 and 2010, respectively.
She is currently at China Electric Power Research
Institute, Beijing. Her main research interest is electromagnetic environment in power systems.

Luxing Zhao was born in Jilin, China, in 1983. He


received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering from Wuhan University, Wuhan, China, in
2006 and 2008, respectively. He is also currently
working toward the Ph.D. degree in North China
Electric Power University, Beijing, China.
His main research interest is electromagnetic environment in power systems.

Jiayu Lu was born in Hubei, China, in 1957. He


received the B.S. degree in electrical engineering
from Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai, China,
in 1982, the M.S. degree in electrical engineering
from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China in 1986, and the Ph.D. degree in
electrical engineering from Xian Jiaotong University, Xian, China in 1996.
He is currently at China Electric Power Research
Institute, Beijing. His main research interests are the
theory and calculation of electromagnetic fields and
electromagnetic compatibility.

This article has been accepted for inclusion in a future issue of this journal. Content is final as presented, with the exception of pagination.
XIE et al.: ALTITUDE CORRECTION OF RADIO INTERFERENCE OF HVDC TRANSMISSION LINES PART I

Xiang Cui (M97SM98) was born in Baoding,


Hebei Province, China, in 1960. He received the
B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in electrical engineering
from North China Electric Power University, Baoding, China, in 1982 and 1984, respectively, and
the Ph.D. degree in accelerator physics from the
China Institute of Atomic Energy, Beijing, China,
in 1988.
He is currently a Professor and the Vice Director of State Key Laboratory of Alternate Electrical Power System with Renewable Energy Sources,
North China Electric Power University, Beijing, China. His research interests
include computational electromagnetics, electromagnetic environment and electromagnetic compatibility in power systems, insulation, and magnetic problems
in high-voltage apparatus.
Dr. Cui is a Standing Council Member of the China Electrotechnical Society
and a Fellow of IET. He is also an Associate Editor of IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON
ELECTROMAGNETIC COMPATIBILITY.

Yong Ju was born in Jilin, China, in 1977. He received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering from North China Electric Power University,
Baoding, China, in 2000 and 2003, respectively.
He is currently at China Electric Power Research
Institute, Beijing, China. His main research interest
is electromagnetic environment in power systems.

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