Why do we need to step up voltage for

transmission and step down for distribution?

14 Answers

Prachal Jadeja, M.E. Electrical Engineering, Marwadi Engineering College (2016)

Written 7 Apr 2016
One of the key concerns in the transmission of electricity is the power loss in transmission lines,
dissipated as heat due to the resistance of the conductors.

High-voltage transmission lines are used to transmit electric power over long distances.
Normally, high voltage (HV) transmission power lines are made of high voltage (between 138 and
765 kilovolts) conducting lines of copper and/or aluminum.

Assume the power to be transmitted is P, and the resistance of the transmission line is r.
If the power is transmitted with voltage V, then the current flow through the transmission line is
I=P/V.

Since P and r are fixed conditions, less power will be lost if high voltages V are used.

Some students will raise questions like: From Ohm's law. if the voltage is increased, the current
will increase ,too. Why is the current smaller when high voltage is used to transmit the power.

Textbooks forgot to tell students that the transmission line needs a transformer to step down the
voltage.
And the transformer does not have a fixed impedance. If higher voltage is used to transmit the
power, the ratio of the transformer will also change which will change the impedance of the
transformer.
The following applet was developed to help you understand the high power transmission line.

You can change the Power/Voltage V and resistance r in the transmission line with sliders.
I will show current flow through the transmission line.
Z is the total impedance of the transmission line, Zt is the impedance of the transformer.
N:n shows the ratio of the high voltage transformer (Assume user voltage is 100V).
Efficiency of the power line is also shown at the right side.

To lower the losses. High current generate more heat and need thick conductors for
transmission. Lowering the current would require lesser quantity of conductor which is
economical.

High current generates more heat and would require materials which not only transmit more
current, but also tolerate high temperature. Lesser quantity of conductors means less weight for
the towers to support. Therefore, the towers can be constructed with less material and would
require less space (This is important specially for the towers in Forest regions as it results in
lesser deforestation).

In short, it is more economical and more efficient to transmit power in low current and high
voltage.
10.8k Views View Upvotes Answer requested by Kushal Shree Dhani
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Snehashis Mahato, clearing engineering at MNNIT Allahabad

Written 5 Feb 2016
power ,P=VI * pf.

For a particular P if V is increased I decreased.

suppose V is doubled i.e V'=2V, so I'=I/2. for P=P'.

First case : Ohmic losses =(I^2)/R(=W) where R is the resistance of transmission line.

Second case: ohmic losses =(I'^2)/R =(I^2)/4R =W/4.

As you can see that losses in transmission line decreases significantly as voltage level of
transmission increases . So high voltage is prefered.

now there must be question arises in your mind that why its limited to certain value
,why not we use 10MV or 1000MV voltage level.

that is because as voltage level increases cost of insulation also increases so its not economical to
use such high voltage level.

And also as voltage level increases danger also increasese, so considering the safety factor
230V/220V supply is used in our houses, so distribution voltage level is less.
3.9k Views View Upvotes

Angia Rajarajeswari, works at Students

Written 1 Mar 2015
Need for step up voltage

The generating voltage in India is about 11 kv. This voltage has to be supplied to the consumers
at various places from the generation point. If the generated voltage is transmitted as such then
there will be more losses in the transmission line as a result there won't be any voltage
available at the receiving end (consumer side). Hence in order to transfer the power efficiently
with minimal losses the step up transformer is used where voltage is stepped up from 11
kv to 230 kv and then transmitted.

Need for step down voltage

The voltage requirements at the distribution side varies accordingly depending upon the
consumers at various levels. The voltage requirement at industries differ from that of household
appliances. Industries will have high voltage requirements of about 11 kv and the household
appliances will have voltage requirements of about 230 v.
 Hence now in order to distribute the consumers required voltage levels the step down
transformers are used where the voltage is stepped down from 230 kv to 11 kv or 230v.
5.6k Views View Upvotes

Mustafa Muneer, Electrical Engineer

Written 10 Jan
Points to note:-

1. Electricity is generated usually at 11kV.

2. The basic principle of transformer is that the power remains constant. Also, P= V*I

3. Losses during transmission are usually copper losses.

4. Copper losses=IR. That means Copper losses are directly proportional to current.

Now, at 11kV the current is high. Copper losses will be higher. When voltage is stepped up,
current is decreased so as to keep the power constant. As the current is decreased, copper losses
are also decreased. This increases the efficiency.

For distribution, distance is low as compared to transmission and voltage should be appropriate
for household uses. Thats why step down transformer is used.

Correct me if I am wrong.
753 Views View Upvotes Answer requested by Prabu Ram

Rajesh Kumar Saini, B. Tech. Electrical Engineering, Government Engineering College, Jhalawar
(2017)
Written 10 Jan
The generating voltage in any power plant is about 11 KV or 22KV.

Increasing voltage in Transmission causes to reduce the current so:

1-decreasing cross section of conductors.

2- decreasing power loss.

3-increasing power quality by decreasing voltage drop.

High current generates more heat and would require more material which not only transmit
more current, but also produces high temperature.

Lesser quantity of conductors means less weight for the towers to support.

Hence in order to transfer the power efficiently with minimal losses the step up transformer is
used where voltage is stepped up from 11 kv to 230 kv or 400KV and then transmitted.
594 Views Answer requested by Prabu Ram

Ram Kumar, I am B.tech graduate in electrical engineering.. And avid reader...

Updated Oct 16, 2015
As we all know that :-
P=I^2*R.
Where P= Power Loss
I= Current
R= Resistance of T.Line

So,To minimize the power transmission loss we need to minimze the value of current i.e I and R
But we have not control over R so we reduce the value of current I.

Also
P= V*I
And using above relations we say that to transmit same amount of power we need to maintain
voltage and current value .we can say that to minimize current we need to increase
voltage V.so Voltage is stepped up for transmission purpose.

As we know that at distribution end every firm needs different voltage level so we need to step
down that voltage at required level.
2.9k Views View Upvotes

Bobbili Yaswanth, B-tech

Written Nov 13
Our power system main aim is

To supply the power as to meet customer requirements at the same time maintain negligible
losses or low losses and economical.

Power system has 3 key parts

1. Generation
2. Transmission
3. Distribution
We all know very well that high voltage and low current transmission has less
losses.

In the generation station the voltage level depends on the station capacity generally (11kv). it is
fixed. We can but it's not economical.

In distribution Here we directly connect with load so we need to supply power as to reach
customer requirements. The loads are in low voltage ratings so distribution must in low voltage.

transmission this is the bigger part of the power system and we have high scope to optimize. If
we reduce the losses in this part means we are almost successful. So we must maintain high
voltage in transmission.

So we step up generation voltage to transmission high voltage

Next for meeting customer required voltage we step down the transmission high
level voltage to distribution low level voltage.
If u feel My explanation is write-----> upvote my answer.

Or if u find any mistakes( not in English grammar) please comment below.

I think As a tech - guys we need feedback .

708 Views View Upvotes

Abhishek Anand
Written Mar 3, 2015
Answer lies in this simple equation P = I^2*R and the Ohms law V = R*I
Where, P = power loss, I = current, R = Resistance.
To minimize the power loss during transmission, the I should be kept low. To do this we step up
the V. This minimizes the transmission losses.
For distribution the voltage needs to be stepped down. The loads connected to the distribution
system need power at different voltage levels, which is much less than the voltage at which it was
transmitted.
2.6k Views View Upvotes

Srinuvas, System engineer at Infosys (2016-present)

Written Jan 12
I will give you a brief description, It may be helpful to you.

See let us consider a load needs a Power P at voltage V generated from a power plant L
meters away from the load.

It is similar to this, You have a Water tank ( power plant ) and you are getting water connection
from it. You need water in your home with some constant force (Voltage ) and the amount of
water received is Current and the rate at which you are receiving this water is power. The water is
channelled through pipes (Transmission line)

If you understood that it will be easy for us to understand this :

Now we know P = V .I so I= P/ V; - ( 1 )

Transmission lines are said to be maintained at constant current density in our words water flows
through a pipe ( 35mm pipe) . water can not flow beyond 35 mm as it is a closed one. Similarly
current also it can not flow outside the conductor, if it flows it is a leakage current( similar to
water flowing from a leakage pipe) .

Now current density J = I/ a where a is area of cross section

now from that a= I/ J ( 2 )

we know resistace R = rho. L / a where L is length rho is specific resistance.

so R = (rho . L) / a but from ( 2 ) substitute value of a

R= ( rho . L .J) / I

Now we know I = P/V from ( 1 ) after substituting the values

So R = ( rho . L . J . V )/ P - (3 )

We know loss is given as I square R.

Loss K = I square R
but I = P/V so K = (P square * R) / V square

We have value of R in (3) put that

We get loss K = ((rho * L * J * P)) / V

Now rho, J(Reason I said above) are constants

So we remain with Loss K = P * L/ V

Now Loss(K)/P = Length / Voltage

So Loss inversely propotional to voltage

The more the volatge, the less will be the power loss.

Hence we will prefer more voltage for transmission.

Hope you understand . Please ignore any grammatical or spellings mistakes

346 Views View Upvotes Answer requested by Prabu Ram

Urvish, studied at Electrical Engineering

Written Feb 23
Yes!!!!

For transmission simple definition is we need to transfer supply into minimum cost which is
possible into only high voltage. So don't want to confuse you through formula and all but it's
mainly affected. So better is to transportation it's easy to transfer high voltage where losses
decrease. While in case of distribution we couldn't provide high voltage because all other
equipment working on low voltage or equivalent. So for that purpose require low voltage. That is
the main reason for transmission need stepup voltage and for distribution it's step down. Hope
it's clear into simple language although you need to understand in terms of formula then let me
know. ;)
125 Views Answer requested by Prabu Ram

Anila Khan
Written Sep 16, 2015
The generating voltage in pakistan
is about 11 kv. This voltage has to be suppliedto the consumers at various places from the
generation point. If the generated voltage is transmitted as such then there will be more
losses in the transmission line as a result there won't be any voltage available at the receiving
end (consumer side). Hence in order to transfer the power efficiently with minimal
losses the step up transformer is used where voltage isstepped up from 11 kv to 230
kv and then transmitted.
2.1k Views View Upvotes

Sanjay Singh Rajpurohit, Learning and experiencing

Written Feb 5, 2016
 When voltage is stepped up the current reduces as power remains constant. Due to
this the power loss in the transmission line reduces.
Another important thing is the size of conductor also reduces which saves the
amount of conductor. Because voltage is inversely proportional to cross section area of
conductor.
1.5k Views

Yegor Kolesnik, Thinker, observer. Old man.

Written Oct 25
Because when we step voltage up, we step current down. Conversely, when we step voltage down
we step current up.

That means we don't drive millions of amps thousands of miles cross country. And it means we
don't have 115kv outlets in our houses.
430 Views

Pabitra Das, electrical and electronics engineer

Written Mar 1, 2015
As conservation of power holds good , as we increase the voltage , current decreases as well as
loss (Isquare*R ) decreases . This enhances efficiency .
As we need a minimum voltage of 230-240 for home appliances and greater for industrial
purposes , after coming to substations , it goes through transformer to get converted to required
current and voltage and flows through customers .