Impact of Transmission Lines on Stray Voltage

By Nagy Abed, Member, IEEE, Sasan Salem, Member, IEEE, and Jim Burke, Fellow, IEEE

Abstract-- The purpose of this paper is to study the effect of transmission system parameters and operating conditions on stray voltage levels. This includes the transmission line conductor configurations, line loading levels, grounding system parameters, and unbalance loading. Excessive stray voltages levels may have a negative effect on dairy farm cows and endanger personnel safety. EMTP-RV was used to model the coupled electromagnetic- power circuit system. EMTP models of the poles and wires were built to represent the transmission line electromagnetic behavior and the stray voltage generation mechanism. The parameters of the proposed models were obtained from the technical literature. Different simulations were conducted by varying the system parameters and operating conditions. Calculations and field tests, which included the effect of earth contact resistance, indicated that most measured values of stray voltage may be incorrect and that the safety hazard to humans and animals may be greatly exaggerated.  A discussion of these results is presented. 

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