Noncontact Monitoring of Overhead Transmission Lines Using Space Potential Phasor Measurements

Power system reliability requirements necessitate the development of measurement systems to monitor the operational state of critical transmission lines. In this article, a novel noncontact method for monitoring overhead transmission lines is proposed. The method is based on measuring the amplitude and relative phase of the transmission line's space potential at two or more strategically located points in space along with the use of passive phase shifters to enhance the sensitivity of the measurements. Applications of voltage unbalance and conductor sag measurements are demonstrated along with the results of conductor sag measurements on an operating 230-kV transmission line. It is shown that using enhanced relative phase measurements can significantly improve the sensitivity of the measurements.