Influence of High Voltage Bundle Configurations on Human Exposure

The paper is mainly dedicated to determining the influence of bundle conductors configurations on the electric and magnetic field levels determined at the standard height of 1 m above the ground. The technical-economic advantages are concisely presented, but also the inherent disadvantages of implementing such solutions. One of the main advantages is theoretically analyzed: the reduction of the risk of initiating corona discharges, as a result of the decrease of the potential gradient from the conductor surface, implicitly meaning the increase of the electric field strength near the ground. The theoretical approaches were reinforced by simulations performed with the help of ANSYS and EMFACDC software. It was considered the real case of a 400 kV network through which phase currents of 1050 A are transported, in three distinct variants: single conductor, double bundle and triple bundle. Electric field increases were found by 37% in the case of triple bundles, taking as reference a single conductor per phase. If the same total current is considered, the chosen bundle configurations have no influence on the generated magnetic field.