This document provides an overview of substation earthing systems and safety considerations. It discusses the functions of earthing systems to provide a safe path to ground and ensure people are not exposed to electric shock during faults. It describes standards for earthing design and calculates step and touch potentials to limit shock risk. The document also discusses design considerations for earthing grids and conductors to safely dissipate fault currents and potential rises.
This document provides an overview of substation earthing systems and safety considerations. It discusses the functions of earthing systems to provide a safe path to ground and ensure people are not exposed to electric shock during faults. It describes standards for earthing design and calculates step and touch potentials to limit shock risk. The document also discusses design considerations for earthing grids and conductors to safely dissipate fault currents and potential rises.
This document provides an overview of substation earthing systems and safety considerations. It discusses the functions of earthing systems to provide a safe path to ground and ensure people are not exposed to electric shock during faults. It describes standards for earthing design and calculates step and touch potentials to limit shock risk. The document also discusses design considerations for earthing grids and conductors to safely dissipate fault currents and potential rises.
This document provides an overview of substation earthing systems and safety considerations. It discusses the functions of earthing systems to provide a safe path to ground and ensure people are not exposed to electric shock during faults. It describes standards for earthing design and calculates step and touch potentials to limit shock risk. The document also discusses design considerations for earthing grids and conductors to safely dissipate fault currents and potential rises.
IEEE Std 80-2000 Step and touch potential Touch potential Mesh potential Step potential Transferred potential Maximum permitted step and touch potentials Design considerations Earthing design calculations HOT distance
Function of an earthing system The two primary functions of a safe earthing system are: to ensure that a person who is in the vicinity of earthed facilities during a fault is not exposed to the possibility of a fatal electric shock. to provide a low impedance path to earth for currents occurring under normal and fault conditions.
Earthing standards There are a variety of national and international standards available, which provide empirical formulae for the calculation of earthing design parameters and shock potential safety limits. There is some variation in formulae between the different standards. Three standards, which are widely referred to, are: BS 7354 - 1990: Code of practice for Design of high-voltage open-terminal stations.
IEEE Std 80-2000: IEEE Guide for Safety in AC Substation Grounding. Electricity Association Technical Specification 41-24: Guidelines for the Design, Installation, Testing and Maintenance of Main Earthing Systems in Substations. ground potential rise (GPR). The substation earth grid is used as an electrical connection to earth at zero potential reference. This connection, however, is not ideal due to the resistivity of the soil within which the earth grid is buried. During typical earth fault conditions, the flow of current via the grid to earth will therefore result in the grid rising in potential relative to remote earth to which other system neutrals are also connected. This produces potential gradients within and around the substation ground area as depicted in Figure 1. This is defined as ground potential rise or GPR.
The GPR of a substation under earth fault conditions must be limited so that step and touch potential limits are not exceeded, and is controlled by keeping the earthing grid resistance as low as possible.
Step and touch potential In order to ensure the safety of people at a substation, it is necessary to ensure that step and touch potentials in and around the yard during earth-fault conditions are kept below set limits. These maximum permitted touch and step potentials are addressed within various national and international standards. An illustration of touch, step, mesh and transferred potentials is provided in Figure 1.
Touch potential The touch potential is defined as the potential difference between a persons outstretched hand, touching an earthed structure, and his foot. A persons maximum reach is normally assumed to be 1 metre.
Mesh potential The mesh potential is defined as the potential difference between the centre of an earthing grid mesh and a structure earthed to the buried grid conductors. This is For more information about Ground ROD please contact: Stephanie Horton at ERA Technology Ltd Tel: +44 (0)1372 367000 | E-mail: Stephanie.Horton@era.co.uk Ground ROD 2005 - AC substation earthing tutorial effectively a worst-case touch potential. For a grid consisting of equal size meshes, it is the meshes at the corner of the grid that will have the highest mesh potential.
Step potential The step potential is defined as the potential difference between a persons outstretched feet, normally 1 metre apart, without the person touching any earthed structure.
Transferred potential This is a special case of a touch potential in which a voltage is transferred into or out of a substation for some distance by means of an earth referenced metallic conductor. This can be a very high touch potential, as, during fault conditions, the resulting potential to ground may equal the full GPR.
figure 1: basic shock situations
Maximum permitted step and touch potentials The maximum permitted values of step and touch potentials vary widely between the different standards. The value of maximum permitted touch potential has a dominant role in determining the design of the earthing grid. As a general rule, if an earthing grid design satisfies the requirements for safe touch potentials, it is very unlikely that the maximum permitted step potential will be exceeded. The IEEE 80 standard uses the maximum mesh voltage as the touch voltage, and this usually exists at the corner mesh. UK practice defines the touch voltage differently. In practice the voltage at the surface of the ground is a maximum adjacent to a corner of a grid. UK practice is to define touch voltage as the sum of the step voltage plus the voltage difference between the ground surface adjacent to a corner and the grid beneath.
Although the mesh voltage is used as the defining touch voltage in American practice, the maximum permitted touch voltage used is less than that used in British Standards. In practice, compliance with American usage thus also ensures the arrangement will comply with UK requirements. CENELEC have issues a harmonisation document HD 637 S1 containing references to the maximum body impedance and permitted touch voltage.
Design considerations For more information about Ground ROD please contact: Stephanie Horton at ERA Technology Ltd Tel: +44 (0)1372 367000 | E-mail: Stephanie.Horton@era.co.uk Ground ROD 2005 - AC substation earthing tutorial For more information about Ground ROD please contact: Stephanie Horton at ERA Technology Ltd Tel: +44 (0)1372 367000 | E-mail: Stephanie.Horton@era.co.uk The earthing conductors, composing the grid and connections to all equipment and structures, must possess sufficient thermal capacity to pass the highest fault current for the required time. Also, the earthing conductors must have sufficient mechanical strength and corrosion resistance. The earthing of metallic fences around a substation is of vital importance because dangerous touch potentials can be involved and the fence is often accessible to the general public. Fence earthing can be accomplished in two different ways:
electrically connecting the fence to the earth grid, locating it within the grid area or alternatively just outside. independently earthing the fence and locating it outside the grid area at a convenient place where the potential gradient from the grid edge is acceptably low.
In America, the common practice is to extend the grid sides to 1 metre beyond the fence line. The common practice in the UK is to erect the fence away from the grid sides, typically 2 metres, and to earth the fence independently. This will, however, present a problem should the fence inadvertently be connected to substation equipment, and hence the earthing grid.
Earthing design calculations Performing earthing design calculations, using one of the standards above, is an involved and time consuming process and there are various subtleties which need to be considered. The Ground ROD spreadsheet provides an easy-to-use, fast and accurate means to perform these calculations. The program can perform the calculations in accordance with any of the three above standards, but also incorporates a set of newly developed equations providing calculation results which are comparable to the test results published in the EPRI EL-3099 document.
HOT distance The rise of earth potential at and around substations during earth fault conditions can be dangerous to any communication circuits that enter or pass through this zone. The CCITT have specified an acceptable rise of earth potential below which it is not necessary to adopt special protective measures for the communication circuits. These limits are:
430V if the substation has older and slower protection. 650V for substations using modern fast protection devices (<=0.2s tripping time).
If these limits are exceeded at the location of communication equipment and cables around the substation, the operators thereof are to be notified. The HOT distance refers to the distance from the earthing grid perimeter to the 430V or 650V potential rise contour. The formula adopted for the HOT distance relates to a grid on the ground surface. Taking into account the actual burial depth entails using the voltage on the surface above the outer grid conductor in place of the GPR, thus leading to a smaller distance. The Ground ROD program provides both these distances and advises that the latter is best practice.