In recent years, the possibility for ac and dc transmission lines running p
arallel to each other, sharing the same right-of-way (ROW) or even the same
tower has been increased. Design of such hybrid ac/dc networks requires a
precise calculation of the electric field around and under them. This paper
presents quantitative analysis of the electric field at 1 m height above g
round surface for different hybrid ac/dc transmission lines. Lateral profil
es for typical Egyptian 500, 220 and 132 kV after adding bipolar de lines a
re presented. The gaper also considers reconfiguration of a typical 220 kV
Egyptian double-circuit ac transmission line, in which one of the circuits
is converted into +/-220 kV bipolar dc line. Different reconfiguration alte
rnatives are studied to choose the optimum arrangement. The charge simulati
on method (CSM) employing the superposition principle is used to calculate
the RMS value of the electric field generated by hybrid ac/dc lines at any
point in the space. The RMS values of the held are determined directly with
out dividing the ac supply cycle into a sufficient number of subintervals a
s it has been done before. Satisfactory agreement with the results measured
and calculated before by other techniques, for some typical ac/dc lines, h
as been obtained. Copyright (C) 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.