Impact and Mitigation of Electromagnetic Interference Between HVTL and Pipelines

Abstract

High-voltage transmission lines transmit bulk power from one place to another and may pass through densely populated areas or forests, causing an economic challenge. While following the right-of-way (ROW) rules, high-voltage transmission lines are forced to share the same corridors with others, like metallic gas pipelines. In this regard, the electromagnetic fields from high-voltage transmission lines will affect neighboring pipelines using inductive, conductive, and capacitive effects. As a result, there will be an induced voltage across the metallic pipes, which will have negative repercussions. An example of this includes corrosion in the pipeline itself and those in direct contact with the pipeline via touch and step voltages. This paper studies the electromagnetic interference for the El-Fayoum-Dahshour gas pipeline, which shares the same route for 72 km with three overhead transmission lines, two of which are 500 kV and the third is 220 kV. Several study cases were done to show the impact of soil resistivity variation on the pipeline-induced voltage. The results conclude that the LG fault is the worst-case scenario. Moreover, mitigating the total induced voltage to the recommended safe limits was achieved by applying the polarization cell method.