Earthing Design and Modelling Guide for

Solar Farms
 Published on June 30, 2021

Large-scale solar farm PV cells and structures

Jayson Patrick → Electrical Software

Electrical Power Engineer | Software Developer | Director at ELEK.com.au

6 articles Follow
Overview
Solar farms can cover large areas (up to tens of square kilometres) which presents both
safety and economical challenges for design of their earthing/grounding systems. 

!          The cost of large-scale solar farm earthing systems can reach millions of
dollars hence a small percentage of overdesign will introduce a significant extra
cost.

In this article we are dealing with solar farms of 5 MW or greater in capacity.

Meticulous design of the solar farms earthing system is required to ensure a functional
system as well as personal safety during faults. Standard rules and guides apply for the
practical earthing layout designs while the assessment of safety involves software
modelling. For large solar farms modelling the earth grid will usually involve
compromises such the use of as partial, limited, or approximate models (even with the
most powerful and sophisticated software), however accurate results are still
achievable.

Note that the same practical approaches to earthing used for safe earthing system
design of a substation cannot be used for solar farms which is due to their very large
size, which results in comparatively higher touch and step voltage hazards.

The modelling results in this article were performed using SafeGrid Earthing

Software.

Description of solar farm electrical systems

The typical electrical system of solar power plants consists of several PV panels
forming an array size of capacity 1-2 MVA that are connected to a common DC
collection point which is then inverted to low-voltage AC to be transformed via a step-
up transformer to medium voltage (commonly 11-35 kV). The AC power is transferred
through a collector system of medium voltage cables to either switchgear panels or for
large farms, back to a central substation.

Typical solar farm earthing systems

The standard earthing system of a solar farm is as follows:

The DC and AC sides of the system are galvanically (functionally) isolated. The DC side
of the PV system may be either grounded or ungrounded. When it is grounded it is
done at the ground fault protection device of the inverters. The DC and AC grounding
systems of the solar system are usually bonded to improve the overall earthing system
performance.

The main earthing system consists of buried bare copper conductors and rods
(Note: earthing rods are rarely beneficial for solar farms), along with the above-
ground interconnected metal panel support structures, support posts and cable trays.
Unlike for a typical substation earthing system, the very large area covered by a solar
farm makes it impractical to install buried meshes of conductors to achieve a near
equipotential plane nor is it practical to install crushed blue metal rock everywhere on
the surface to increase safety.
Each row of the solar panel array equipment and support structures is bonded to the
main earth system either at each end or in some designs a continuous copper earth
cable will be run from end-to-end of a row either above or below ground level.

!          Note if the support structures are relied on as part of the earthing systems, then:

-       The path between panels and supports must be truly electrically continuous.

-       Support posts must be protected from corrosion through galvanising.

-       Galvanic corrosion caused by contact between dissimilar metals such as copper

and steel must be avoided otherwise “tinned” connections may be used.

Figure 3 below shows a sample PV panel support structure (part of the auxiliary
earthing). The red mark-up on the figure depicts how these structures have been
included in the earthing model – the section of metal post in the ground is treated as a
rod and these rods have related to insulated conductors.

In general, the amount of buried earthing conductor installed for solar farms is
minimised; just enough to bond each block of the arrays between the individual
inverters and step-up transformers. A buried grading ring is typically run around the
outside of any inverter/transformer equipment to reduce touch voltages.

If the solar farm has a substation for power grid connection, then this earthing system
may be bonded together with that of the solar farm. 

!          Note that if the substation earth grid is interconnected with that of the solar farm,
then faults from the HV side of the substation transformers need to be used in the
modelling which will likely result in higher touch and step voltages.

Metal fences which surround the solar farms will typically require additional earthing
and the fence earthing should be bonded to and installed as near as reasonably
possible to the main earthing system to minimise the touch voltage hazards caused by
nearby faults, transfer potentials or induction from transmission systems. For more
information on safe fence installation, read our article Touch Voltages on Substation
Metallic Fences.

Personnel safety hazards during earth faults

Similar safety concerns which occur during faults for substations exist for solar farms.
The following hazards should be investigated for solar farms faults [1]:

1.    Touch voltages on all electrical equipment or earthed objects.

2.    Touch voltages on any nearby metallic fences whether connected or otherwise due
to possible transfer voltages.

3.    Touch voltages earthed structures or equipment in the vicinity of the solar farm
which may be affected by transfer voltages.

4.    Step voltages throughout and just beyond the entire solar farm installation.

Soil resistivity measurements and modelling

An accurate model or set of models of the soil electrical resistivity is required across
the entire solar farm site in accordance with the methodologies described in IEEE Std.
81 [2].

Multiple sets of soil measurements should be taken for short probe spacings (from 0.5
m up to about 30 m) across the entire site with separations between testing locations
typically in the order of 500 m. These measurements at short spacings will help
establish the soil model for the shallower soil layers.

It is also essential to get an understanding of the very deep soil layer resistivity. For
substations, according to IEEE Std 80 [3], we use probe separations up to the overall
diagonal width of the solar farm which would be impractical in the case of a solar
farm. The IEEE Std 2278 recommends probe separations up to 300 m be used for solar
farms or at least taking measurements until the of the resistivity of the very deep layer
flattens out.

!          It is always recommended to use a multilayer soil resistivity model to closely

match the actual soil structure for increased accuracy. 

All measurement sets should be analysed separately, and an overall conservative

model should be selected or derived. Table 1 of IEEE Std 2778 gives sample soil model
development for a combined 3-layer soil model.

Earth fault current level

An earth fault level investigation should be performed to establish a worst-case fault
level scenario including magnitude, X/R ratio and clearing time which will be used for
assessing safety. It turns out this investigation for a solar farm is not too dissimilar to
that for a substation, with some important differences to be considered.

Faults on the LV AC systems including on step-up transformers or inverters may be

high in current magnitude, but the ground potential rise (GPR) is limited to the LV
system phase-to-earth voltage. Hence, in general faults on the HV or MV systems
produce the worst-case scenario for personal safety in a solar farm and all the
scenarios should be investigated.

Software modelling
As described earlier, the total solar farm buried earthing system comprises of various
components. These include:

1.    Main PV grid – connects the earthing of groups of arrays and includes the
transformer/inverter earthing.
2.    Auxiliary earthing – consists of the PV panel metal support posts which are buried
and electrically interconnected with support structures or cables or both.

3.    Fence earthing system – consists of buried fence posts and grading conductor.

4.    Substation grid (if applicable) – typical meshes of buried conductor.

Having all the above components included into a software model for the earthing
systems will result in the most accuracy, obviously. However, there will be a serious
trade-off with the calculation time. It also may be impossible to model all the
components, especially for extremely large and complicated solar farms in which case
the modelling can be limited to a sample section of the total earthing system.

Note that including the auxiliary earthing in the model, especially, results in a
significant reduction in the amount of earthing needed for the main PV grid
component. The fence and the substation earthing also help with achieving a safe
design.

Example calculations
In the following example calculations, we will present grid resistance, Grid Potential
Rise (GPR) and touch voltages for three main cases:

Case 1.    Main PV earthing system only.

Case 2.    Main PV and auxiliary earthing (PV array post and support structures).

Case 3.    Main PV, auxiliary, substation, and fence earthing combined.

The grid conductor models which were drawn in CAD and imported into SafeGrid for
modelling are shown in the Appendix.

Common inputs:

Soil model – 3 layers (this is “Combined local model” from Table 1 in IEEE Std 2778-
2020)

Top layer resistivity – 50 Ohm.m; thickness 2 m. Middle layer resistivity – 120 Ohm.m;
thickness 33 m. Bottom layer resistivity – 65 Ohm.m.

Conductors – 70mm2 bare copper conductor. Earth fault current – 1000 A, 50 Hz

Case 1. Main PV earthing grid
This case will have a grid size of 31,600 m2 consisting of the main PV grid only. The
calculated grid impedance is 0.829 Ω with a GPR of 828.9 V.

Figure 4 below shows that the maximum touch voltage is quite high at 732.3 V, caused
by the large spacing between conductors (gaps) in the grid.

Case 2. Main PV grid with auxiliary post and supports

The array of auxiliary posts and supports was added to the main grid from the previous
test. The posts were modelled as buried at a depth of 2 m and separated by 9 m. The
spacing between array lines is 5.4 m and the total number of posts used is 506 posts.

The calculated grid impedance is 0.288 Ω with a GPR of 287.6 V.

Figure 5 below shows that the maximum touch voltage is much lower than the previous
case at 163.1 V caused by a flattening in the surface voltage profile.
Case 3. Main PV grid, supports, substation and fence
In the final case a typical medium voltage 20 m × 20 m, 16-mesh substation earth grid
was added to the main grid and auxiliary earthing as well as a metallic fence placed 5 m
away (as suggested by IEEE Std. 2778-2020 for solar farms) from the main grid, and the
separate fence earthing was bonded to the main grid at regular intervals.

The calculated grid impedance is 0.216 Ω with a GPR of 216.1 V.

Figure 6 below shows that the maximum touch voltage was significantly reduced to
58.1 V. 

Summary of modelling results

Table 1 below provides a comparison of the results for the three previous test cases. 
The calculation results show that including the auxiliary earthing, the substation and
the fence earthing together in the model will help reduce touch voltages significantly.  

Conclusions and recommendations

This article presents the recommended design for solar farm earthing systems with
reference to the IEEE Std 2778-2020 and modelling techniques using software. 

We have the following recommendations:

1.    Obtain accurate soil resistivity measurements along multiple traverses and derive
an overall multilayer soil resistivity model.

2.    Model the solar farm earthing arrangement as closely as possible to the actual
installation and make sure you include the auxiliary earthing system including PV
array support posts and structures.

3.    Review the relevant IEEE standards (refer to the References section herein).

Note that due to the large size of that post-construction validation testing of the
modelling results (actual grid impedance, touch, and step voltages) is often not
practical. Therefore, accurate software models are required to confirm our earthing
system which will be safe.
Thank you for reading.

Jayson Patrick - Technical Director @ Electrotechnik.

Jayson.Patrick@elek.com.au
References
[1]       "IEEE Guide for Solar Power Plant Grounding for Personnel Protection," in IEEE
Std 2778-2020 , vol., no., pp.1-24, 17 April 2020, doi: 10.1109/IEEESTD.2020.9068514.

[2]       "IEEE Guide for Safety in AC Substation Grounding," in IEEE Std 80-2013

(Revision of IEEE Std 80-2000/ Incorporates IEEE Std 80-2013/Cor 1-2015) , vol.,
no., pp.1-226, 15 May 2015, doi: 10.1109/IEEESTD.2015.7109078.

[3]       "IEEE Guide for Measuring Earth Resistivity, Ground Impedance, and Earth
Surface Potentials of a Grounding System," in IEEE Std 81-2012 (Revision of IEEE Std
81-1983) , vol., no., pp.1-86, 28 Dec. 2012, doi: 10.1109/IEEESTD.2012.6392181.

Appendix: CAD drawings for software modelling

Case 1: Main PV grid earthing

Case 2: Main PV grid + auxiliary support posts and structures earthing

Case 3: Main PV grid + auxiliary + substation + fence earthing