The ASPEN Line Database™ is an electronic depository of data related to power lines and cables. It is designed to be a central reference source for overhead lines and underground cables in power system operations, maintenance, and studies. A powerful calculator of line/cable electrical parameters is built-in.
The ASPEN Line Database™ is easy to learn and to use. An interactive graphics interface shows the line/cable construction. It allows you to directly manipulate the lines and cables by pointing, clicking, and dragging with the mouse. Each line in the Line Database is made up of overhead, underground, and impedance “sections” in “corridors”. A corridor can be thought of as a physical right-of-way with one or more sections of different lines. This section-corridor data structure helps you visualize each line as a string of sections on different corridors. It also lets you see clearly the line’s mutual-coupling relationship with other lines that are on those corridors.
The ASPEN Line Database™ calculates electrical parameters of overhead transmission lines and underground cables with unsurpassed accuracy and ease of use.
The program can model overhead transmission lines with:
- One or more single-, 2- or 3-phase circuits on the same or adjacent right of ways.
- One or more ground wires, both segmented and unsegmented.
- Bundled conductors.
- Transposed and untransposed circuits.
- Any number of line sections with phase transpositions between them.
It can model underground circuits with:
- Pipe-type, oil-filled, and plastic cable with single core or three cores.
- Cable sheaths that are single-point bonded, solidly bonded, or cross-bonded.
For both lines and cables, the power frequency can be 25, 50, or 60 Hz. The length measurements can be in English or metric units. The program keeps a permanent record of the lines and cables. At any time, you can open a line or cable, change its configuration and parameters, and ask the program to compute and display the following parameters:
- Branch impedance and admittance matrices in the phase domain.
- Nodal capacitance and susceptance matrices in the phase domain.
- Positive- and zero-sequence self impedance and capacitance.
- Zero-sequence mutual impedance (for transmission lines only).
The program calculates the electrical parameters of overhead lines and underground cables using Carson's formula and Amatani's method, respectively. These methods are well accepted in the electrical power industry, and they are being used within the Electromagnetic Transients Program (EMTP).
Carson's method for overhead lines gives more accurate results than the commonly-used hand formulas, especially for zero-sequence mutual parameters, and for positive sequence parameters when ground wires are present. Amatani's method is known for its ability to model cable circuits with complex sheath and pipe configurations.
The Line Database allows you to maintain a library of overhead towers, wires, and cables so that you can model the line and cable sections using instances of these standard building blocks.
The program lets you store in the database any line-related information, in addition to those needed to calculate the line parameters. The database features are flexible and customizable. The administrator of the Line Database has the ability to customize the data fields’ visibility, labeling, the method of entry (e.g., selecting from a custom list, dates only, or allowing any text entry). The program has a query system that lets you search and retrieve data quickly and effortlessly.
You can store files of any type (e.g., documents, photographs, and drawing files) within the database and be able to recall them at any time.
Data security is built into the Enterprise version of this program. The user must enter a login name and a password to gain access to data. The Administrator can assign form-by-form privileges to different users.