Safety Parameters of Grounding Devices at An Electric Power Plant

Electrical and Electronics Engineering: An International Journal (ELELIJ) Vol 2, No 1, February 2013
1

SAFETY PARAMETERS OF GROUNDING DEVICES AT
AN ELECTRIC POWER PLANT

Yury Chikarov
1
Tek Tjing Lie
1
and Nirmal Nair
2

1
Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Auckland University of
Technology, Auckland, New Zealand
yury.chikarov@aut.ac.nz, tek.lie@aut.ac.nz

2
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Auckland,
Auckland, New Zealand
n.nair@auckland.ac.nz

ABSTRACT

Grounding provides safety and in some cases a return circuit for load currents and also an uniform
distribution of the voltage on the surface of the earth at power plants. If grounding conductors are
damaged, it may cause unintended protective relay operation causing feeders to be tripped. It can also
result in failure of the grounding device itself, secondary circuits cables and structural elements. The
circuits may attain unacceptable voltages when short-circuit fault currents occur in these devices. This
paper proposes analysis of possible values of safety in terms of Touch and Step Voltage under malfunctions
of electric power plants and damaged horizontal elements of the grounding devices. The information
described in the article can be referred to an electric power plant with the grounding device made as a grid
with a number of meshes in it.

KEYWORDS

Grounding, Safety, Touch and Step Voltage, Distribution, Short Circuit.

1. INTRODUCTION

The grounding grid elements are hidden in depth of the soil structure and because of influencing
factors like soil structure, dampness, presence of salts and acids, electric corrosion, freezing
process etc., some elements may become damaged. This can lead to failures in operation of
secondary commutation circuits in case of short circuits under abnormal operating conditions and
also to high voltage hazards on electrical equipments frames, damages of insulation, thermal
destructions that can potentially cause hazardous situation in and around the electric power plant.

The main parameters of safety for electric power plants are the mesh (touch) and step voltages
[1]. Value of the second criterion is almost always lower than the first one [2]. But it is necessary
to take into account Step Voltage in situations when a person does not touch any enclosure of
equipment but is standing on the conductive earth. More over in case of horizontal elements
damages the uniform distribution of the potential on the surface of the earth is may not be
maintained which can lead to hazardous situation for people.

During abnormal situations such as insulation failures of equipment, lightning strokes and etc.,
high currents flow to the earth through the grounding grid. The highest value of voltage will be on
the edge elements of the grounding device. In practice, these high values are not experienced by a

2

person standing on the top stratum of soil. Since the earth is a conductor, some of the energy will
still be perceived on the surface of earth by people standing on it (see Figure 1). Thus, the touch
and step voltages will have other values as explained below.

Fig. 1. Touch and Step Voltage Exposure

It is shown in the Figure 1 that if the horizontal elements of the grid do not have any failures, the
potential distribution curve within a territory of the electric power plant will have an ideal
distribution. Thus, the magnitudes of V
touch
and V
step
will not be dangerous for staff or equipment
(shown as V
touch1
and V
step1
in Figure 1). Ideally the best option is to have a straight line as the
potential distribution curve but it will take a lot of labour and capital investment. On the other
hand if damaged elements occurred, the V
touch
and V
step
values will be very high and not safe
anymore (shown as V
touch2
and V
step2
in Figure 1). From Figure 1, the dashed lines are for the case
with damaged horizontal element which affects the overall integrity of the grounding system.

The mathematical models of the current and potential distribution in the grounding grids are
developed based on the graphs theory and matrix algebra [3, 4]. These are - a versatile
combination of tools for electric networks calculations and can be used for the grounding grids as
well.

The main contribution of this paper is to analyze and present the most hazardous potentials that
can arise in the grounding grids and on the surface of earth due to failures of its horizontal
elements. The information presented in this paper describes the worst case scenario of the
potential distribution on the surface of earth in most hazardous regions of the grounding grid.

2. NETWORK MODEL AND ITS ANALYSIS

There are a number of mathematical [5-8] and computer [9, 10] models of the processes with
respect to the grounding grids potential exposure to touch and step potentials. More often they are
based on the circuit theory or electromagnetic field theory of the processes. The common
approach of these models is to firstly calculate currents following which an evaluation of the
potentials above the grounding grids conductors can be made. It is possible to evaluate grounding
performance parameters such as current distribution, potentials and touch and step voltages at
various parts of a power plant. However there are no specifics about possible changes of the earth
surface potentials in case of breaks or damages to the bonding of the horizontal elements.

All horizontal and vertical elements shown in Fig. 2 represent not only self resistance of
conductors itself (steel, copper, copper clad etc.) but also lumped resistances to earth of the buried
in soil conductors. It consists of three parts: (i) a self resistance of the conductor material, (ii)

3

contact resistance between material of the element and soil and (iii) soil resistivity itself. Thus,
the full resistance to the current which leaks from the element to earth can be presented as

soil cont me ver hor
R R R R + + =
.) .(
. (1)
Please note the first two elements (R
me
and R
cont
) have very small values and often can be
neglected.

Fig. 2. Equivalent scheme of the horizontal and vertical elements in the soil

In accordance with standards [1], [12-13] and [14] the resistance of the vertical and horizontal
elements in the soil can be calculated as

|
|
\
|
+
+
+
=
t l
t l
d
l
l
R
ver
ver
ver
ver
ver
v e
ver
7
7 4
ln 5 , 0
2
ln
2
.
.
.
.
.
. .
.
, (2)

where
. .v e
equivalent resistance of earth for the vertical elements, m; t depth of the

grounding grid; l
ver
. length of the vertical element; d
ver
. diameter of the vertical element.

.
2
.
.
. .
.
ln
2
hor
hor
hor
h e
hor
d t
l
l
, (3)
where
. .h e
equivalent resistance of the earth for the horizontal elements, m; l

hor.
length of the
horizontal element, d
hor
diameter of the horizontal element.

The resistance of earth R
soil
depends on the resistivity of different soil stratums (1, 2, 3 etc.).
The number of layers (stratums) can differ from one area to another depending on the soil
structure. With an acceptable level of accuracy often multilayer structure of the earth is
substituted with its two-layer soil equivalent (1, 2). Eventually, the resistivity of the both layers
(1, 2) in the mathematical model is usually replaced with the resistivity of so called
equivalent earth or its analogue (depending on techniques).

For the purpose of modeling it is assumed that the structure of non-homogeneous earth is a two-
layer soil. A real structure of soil is a multilayer structure. Each layer (stratum) has its own
characteristic. To have the most accurate calculations one can operate with all layers of the soil. It
will demand not only a lot of time but also it is very laborious. On top of that, it will not give a

4

dramatic improvement in terms of accuracy. It is a common practice [1] to substitute this
multilayer structure by a two-layer soil. The length of the vertical elements is 3 meters with a
diameter 16 mm. The length of the horizontal elements is 5 meters. Horizontal elements are
located in the upper layer of earth 1, while vertical elements cross both layers 1 and 2.
Resistivity of the soil stratums are 1=250 m and 2=30 m respectively. The thickness of the
upper layer (h1) is 2 m. The thickness of the lower layer (h2) is . The values of the elements
dimensions and soil characteristics were chosen as one of the common used examples.

After substitution all values in above-described equations one can obtain

R
hor.
= 45.048 , R
ver.
= 25.741 .

As one can see values of the resistance mainly depend on the resistivity of soil so they may vary
in a wide range of magnitudes depending on local characteristic of the soil structure.

Computer simulation studies were conducted using a well established MULTISIM software
package. Figure 3 depicts the circuit used in the simulation studies. Figure 4 depicts the
equivalent circuit and the values of R
hor
and R
ver
are calculated using equation (2) and (3)
respectively. Voltages at nodes of the circuit were measured by means of voltmeters as shown in
Figure 4.
k
l
c
a
b e
f
g
h
i
j
I
q r s
n
o p
m
t

Fig. 3. Circuit for Multisim Software Simulation

Fig. 4. Equivalent Circuit for Multisim Software Simulation

5

Node Potential, V Potential, % Node Potential, V Potential, %
a 2362 100 k 29.1 1.2
b 561 24 l 37.4 1.6
c 561 24 m 29.1 1.2
e 218 9 n 180 7.6
f 507 22 o 93 4
g 218 9 p 43.8 1.8
h 71.4 3 q 180 7.6
i 120 5 r 93 4
j 71.4 3 s 43.8 1.8

TABLE 1. VOLTAGE DISTRIBUTION IN THE NODES OF THE GROUNDING DEVICE

As one can see the maximum voltage is at node a and then decreases with the distance from this
node.

The simulation results show that the magnitudes of current and voltage at points on the grid
farther than those taken into account were less than 0.5% of the initial value (3 kA) so they can be
neglected

The major part of the current dissipates in the vicinity of 6 meshes from the point of injection.
The potential level at the node t for instance equals 9V which is just 0.38% of the maximum
potential.

As indicated in [1] and [11] the corner mesh voltage is higher than in the centre mesh and it is
considered to be the worst-case scenario. This is because the grounding grid has less elements
joined together at this point which results in increase of resistance and voltage. Thus for future
calculation of the worst safety scenario the point of current injection was chosen at node a as
shown in Figure 5.

The example of six meshes grounding device for analysis is presented in Figure 5. The graph for
analysis is shown in Figure 6. This number of meshes has been chosen as an optimal number for
calculation due to the above-described features of the current and potential distribution.

6

Fig. 5. Scheme of the Grid for Analysis (I= 3000 A)

After determining the reference node which is node d (remote earth), matrix analysis of the
scheme is conducted. Matrix analysis is used in order to simplify the calculation process because
of the large number of the branches and nodes of the scheme.

Fig. 6. Graph of the Grid for Analysis

By using graph theory, Kirchoffs and Ohms Laws, matrices M and N are formed where
M is the matrix of branches joints at the nodes and N is the matrix of branches joints in the
independent loops.

The number of rows in matrix M equals to the number of nodes in the scheme except the
reference node. The number of columns in the matrix determines by the number of branches in
the circuit.


7

The number of rows in matrix N is the same as the number of loops in the scheme. The number
of columns in the matrix determines by the number of branches in the circuit.

The next step is to develop impedances Z
n
or admittances Y
n
matrices of the horizontal and
vertical elements joined at the nodes of the grounding device.
The matrix of admittances
n
Y
of the horizontal and vertical elements joined at the nodes
of the grounding device is as follows:


8

The mutual impedance among elements in the grid can be presented by multiplication factor "F"
from [15].

( ) 1
4
ln
4
2
1
\
|
+
+ =
a
l
d
l
N
F
s
, (4)

where N the total number of rods in rodbed; d
s
the smallest distance between the adjacent
rods, m; l the length of each conductor; and a radius of the conductor.

This F factor increases the resistance of each element of the grid or finally the value of voltage on
the grid. It happens because electromagnetic fields of all elements of the grid influence on each
other due to the small distance between them as shown in Figure 7. Thus, it artificially increases
the value of resistance of each element.

Fig. 7. Influence of the elements on each other

Setting the value of the short circuit current injected in the grid I
sc
, the current distribution of
individual elements and the voltage at the grid nodes can be determined.

There are two possible ways to calculate the current and voltage distributions through the
elements of the grounding device. First, determine
n
Y after that, inverse matrix
1
n
Y .

From the above-mentioned matrix, one can define the voltage drop from each of the grounding
devices nodes to the reference node d.

J Y U
n
& &
=

1
, (5)

where J
&
is the matrix of currents injected in the grounding devices nodes. In this case, it is just

9

one node (a) where we inject the short circuit current I
sc
.

After determination of the matrixs
U
&
components, it is necessary to define inverse diagonal
matrix of the elements impedances
1
b
Z . This matrix is obtained from the above calculated
values of the elements resistances. So that the final equation for the current distribution
calculation can be written as follows:

= U M Z I
T
b b
& &
1

(6)

The second way of the currents determination is to create a combine matrix A as follows:

(
=
b
Z N
M
A . (7)

The last step is to calculate current in the elements as follows:

J A I
b
& &
=
1
. (8)

The results of current and potential distribution based on graphs theory and matrix analysis are
presented in Table 2 and Table 3 respectively.

The values in Table 2 and Table 3 represent voltages and currents in the grid of the grounding
device in soil. Despite the fact that these values can have high magnitudes (kV) inside of the soil
there will be lower values on the top of the soil structure due to the resistivity of earth. They also
may appear to be dangerous for staff and equipment especially in case of damaged horizontal
elements of the grid.

Node Potential, kV Node Potential, kV
a 29.283 i 0.975
b 7.150 j 0.975
c 7.150 k 0.602
e 1.838 l 0.421
f 2.827 m 0.502
g 1.838 n 0.421
h 0.602 - -

TABLE 2. Voltage Distribution in The Nodes of the Grounding Device


10

Branch Number Current, kA Branch Number Current, kA
1 0.492 16 0.041
2 1.138 17 0.110
3 0.492 18 0.012
4 0.118 19 0.010
5 0.278 20 0.038
6 0.096 21 0.016
7 0.027 22 0.019
8 0.071 23 0.027
9 0.019 24 0.071
10 0.004 25 0.010
11 0.023 26 0.038
12 0.096 27 0.020
13 0.118 28 0.004
14 0.278 29 0.02
15 0.041 30 0.012
- - 31 0.016

TABLE 3. CURRENTS DISTRIBUTION THROUGH THE GROUNDING DEVICE ELEMENTS, KA

3. TOUCH STEP AND VOLTAGE ANALYSIS

The actual mesh voltage E
m
(maximum touch voltage) [1] can be evaluated as

m
G i m
m
L
I K K
E

=

. (9)

The geometrical factor K
m
, is as follows:

(
(
|
|
\
|

+
|
|
\
|

+
+

=
) 1 2 (
8
ln
4 8
) 2 (
16
ln
2
1
2 2
n K
K
d
h
d D
h D
d h
D
K
h
ii
m

(10)

For grids with ground rods along the perimeter, or for grids with ground rods in the grid corners,
as well as both along the perimeter and throughout the grid area,

1 =
ii
K
, (11)

0
1
h
h
K
h
+ =
(12)

where h
0
= 1m (grid reference depth).

Using four grid shape components, the effective number of parallel conductors in a given grid, n,

11

can be made applicable to both rectangular and irregularly shaped grids that represent the number
of parallel conductors of an equivalent rectangular grid:

d c b a
n n n n n =
, (13)

where

p
C
a
L
L
n = 2
(14)

and n
b
= 1 for square grids; n
c
= 1 for square and rectangular grids; n
d
= 1 for square, rectangular,
and L-shape grids.

Otherwise,

A
L
n
p
b
=
4
, (15)

y x
L L
A
y x
c
A
L L
n
|
|
\
|
=
7 . 0
, (16)

2 2
y x
m
d
L L
D
n
+
=
, (17)

where, L
C
is the total length of the conductor in the horizontal grid in m, L
p
is the peripheral
length of the grid in m, A is the area of the grid in m
2
, L
x
is the maximum length of the grid in the
x direction in m, L
y
is the maximum length of the grid in the y direction in m, D
m
is the maximum
distance between any two points on the grid in m, D is the spacing between parallel conductors in
m, H is the depth of the grounding grid conductors in m, d is the diameter of the grid conductor in
m.

The irregularity factor, K
i
, used in conjunction with the above defined n is:

n K
i
+ = 148 . 0 644 . 0
. (18)

For grids with ground rods in the corners, as well as along the perimeter and throughout the grid,
the effective buried length, L
m
, is:

R
y x
r
C m
L
L L
L
L L
(
(
(
|
|
|
\
|
+
+ + =
2 2
22 . 1 55 . 1
, (19)

where L
r
is the length of each ground rod in m.
Substituting values in the above described equations one can obtain:


12

m 2 . 157 39
15 15
3
22 . 1 55 . 1 90
2 2
=
(
(
|
|
\
|
+
+ + =
m
L

Since the shape of the grounding device example for calculation is not square: n
d
= 1; n
c
= 1;

1 . 1
150 4
60
=
=
b
n
,

3
60
90
2 = =
a
n
, 3 . 3 1 1 1 . 1 3 = = n ,

132 . 1 3 . 3 148 . 0 644 . 0 = + =
i
K
,

2 . 1
1
5 . 0
1 = + =
h
K
,

738 . 0
) 1 3 . 3 2 ( 14 . 3
8
ln
2 . 1
1
02 . 0 4
5 . 0
02 . 0 5 8
) 5 . 0 2 5 (
02 . 0 5 . 0 16
5
ln
14 . 3 2
1
2 2
=
(
(
(
(
(
|
|
\
|

+
+
|
|
\
|

+
+

=
m
K

The mutual impedance factor "F"

49 . 1
1 )
008 . 0
3 4
ln(
5
3
4
13
2
1 =
\
|
+
+ = F ,

In (9) multiplication of
G
I
is voltage at the node of the grid. So by using the values from Table
1 and taking into account F factor one can obtain the maximum touch (mesh) voltage:

8 . 231 49 . 1
2 . 157
132 . 1 738 . 0 283 . 29
=

=
m
E
V.

By doing the same calculations for all nodes of the grid results can be presented in Table 4.
Results are presented in both units and percentages.


13

Node V
TOUCH
, V V
TOUCH
, % Node V
TOUCH
, V V
TOUCH
, %
a 231.8 100 i 7.7 3.3
b 56.6 24.4 j 7.7 3.3
c 56.6 24.4 k 4.7 2.0
e 14.6 6.3 l 3.2 1.5
f 22.35 9.7 m 4.2 1.8
g 14.6 6.3 n 3.2 1.5
h 4.8 2.1 - - -

TABLE 4. RESULTS OF THE TOUCH VOLTAGE CALCULATION AT NODES, V

The maximum Step Voltage values are obtained as the product of the soil resistivity (), the
geometrical factor K
s
, the corrective/irregularity factor K
i
, and the average current per unit of
buried length of grounding system conductor (I
G
/L
S
):

S
G i s
s
L
I K K
E

=
. (16)

For the usual burial depth of 0.25 m < h < 2.5 m, then

(
+
+
+
=

) 5 . 0 1 (
1 1
2
1 1
2 n
S
D h D h
K
. (17)

For grids with or without ground rods, the effective buried conductor length, L
S
, is written as
follows:

R C S
L L L + = 85 . 0 75 . 0
(18)

By substituting values in (16), (17) and (18) and taking into account (4) one can obtain the
followings.

65 . 100 39 85 . 0 90 75 . 0 = + =
S
L m,

414 . 0 ) 5 . 0 1 (
5
1
5 . 0 5
1
5 . 0 2
1
14 . 3
1
2 3 . 3
=
(
+
+
+
=

S
K
,

V E
S
2 . 203 49 . 1
65 . 100
132 . 1 414 . 0 283 . 29
=

=

By doing the same calculations for all nodes of the grid, the results are presented in Table 5 in
both units and percentages.


14

Node V
TOUCH
, V V
TOUCH
, % Node V
TOUCH
, V V
TOUCH
, %
a 203.2 100 i 6.7 3.3
b 49.6 24.4 j 6.7 3.3
c 49.6 24.4 k 4.2 2.1
e 12.8 6.3 l 3.0 1.5
f 19.7 9.7 m 3.6 1.8
g 12.8 6.3 n 3.0 1.5
h 4.2 2.1 - - -

TABLE 5. RESULTS OF THE STEP VOLTAGE CALCULATION AT NODES

The calculation results V
TOUCH
and V
STEP
can be presented as a graph in percentages of the
maximum voltage value (see Figure 8). The graph is a diagram where x-axis represents 0
potential level. The y-axis (V) is relative magnitude of voltage in percentage. The curve in the
Figure 8 shows the voltage distribution throughout the grounding grid when the failure current is
injected in the corner mesh. As one can notice this y-axis may be applied to both V
TOUCH
and V
STEP

in terms of percentages since both of them are functions of the same current. This example
represents the safety parameters distribution of the integral grounding grid without damaged
elements in it.

During the experimental part with respect to the elements failures resistance, the current source S
was connected to two vertical steel elements buried in soil at 50 cm the horizontal grid depth, as
shown in Figure 9. Ends of both electrodes (7 cm) had a good contact with soil (generally it was
loam) while the rest of the electrodes length did not have any contact. A diameter of the
electrodes was 10 mm. A distance between electrodes was varied in a wide range from 1 cm up
to 60 cm.

Fig. 8. Touch and Step Voltage Distribution on the Surface of Soil


15

These distances were chosen as possible values of the gap between two electrodes. Smaller values
refer to such factors as corrosion and freezing processes in the soil when the gap between
electrodes may have some centimetres value. Larger values (some dozens centimetres) may be
caused by possible mechanical accidents during construction works.

Fig.9. Experimental Study on the Failure Resistance.

From the experiment, one can see that the Ohmic value increases as the distance between
electrodes increases (see Table 6).

Distance between
electrodes, cm
R, k
1 0.226
2 0.445
4 0.100
6 0.120
26 1.100
60 4.260

TABLE 6. RESISTANCE OF FAILURE

If there is a damaged element in the mesh of the grid it will result in increase of the potential at
this point since soil resistance in the gap can be substantially higher than the resistance of the
integral element. So it is vital to conduct such an analysis with damaged elements presence in the
grid. It will be helpful for prediction of possible dangerous variations of touch and step voltage.
The results below provide information about the potential distribution of V
TOUCH
and V
STEP
in case
of the failure presence. By failure one can mean break or rupture of the horizontal element due
to mechanical, freezing, corrosion or other causes.

As a worst-case scenario the element 1 was chosen as a damaged one since it is one of the closest
elements to the point with the highest potential.

16

Table 7 shows the results for the case with 90 failure. It is the Resistance of the gap in the
damaged element of approximately 0.6 cm due to corrosion. The values in the Table 7 are
presented for both touch and step voltage as a percentage of the potentials of the grid without
failures. The values in the table show fluctuation of the voltage in percentage of the initial voltage
without damaged elements.

Node Voltage Fluctuation, % Node Voltage Fluctuation, %
a +16.1 i -7.9
b +12.8 j -29.2
c -50.0 k -45.0
e +10.2 l -1.9
f -18.5 m -18.5
g -47.3 n -35.4
h +8.1
- -

TABLE 7. RESULTS OF TOUCH AND STEP VOLTAGE DISTRIBUTION IN CASE OF ONE HORIZONTAL
ELEMENT FAILURE (R=90 )

Results of the Table 7 are plotted as a graph in Figure 10.

Similar to Figure 8 the graph is a diagram where x-axis represents 0 potential level. The
vertical axis (V) is relative magnitude of voltage in percentage. The curve in the Figure 10 shows
the voltage distribution throughout the grounding devices grid when there is a damaged element
in the corner mesh element 1. The voltage distribution with the failure is shown in solid lines
when dashed curve means the case without damaged elements. As it may be observed the
maximum voltage at the node a when the element #1 is damaged is 16.1% higher in
comparison with the voltage in case of the integral grid.


17

Fig. 10. Touch and Step Voltage Distribution When Failure Resistance Equals 90

Another example of modelling with R=250 (the gap is more than 1 cm due to freezing or
mechanical causes) is presented in Table 8 and Figure 11 respectively.

Node
Voltage
Fluctuation, %
Node
Voltage
Fluctuation, %
a +22.7 i -11.1
b +18.2 j -41.3
c -70.7 k -63.8
e +14.4 l -2.4
f -26.2 m -30
g -66.9 n -49.9
h +11.3 - -

TABLE 8. RESULTS OF STEP VOLTAGE DISTRIBUTION IN CASE OF ONE HORIZONTAL ELEMENT FAILURE
(R=250 )


18

Fig. 11. Step Voltage Distribution When Failure Resistance Equals 250

As one can see from Figure 11, the voltage magnitude under such a scenario is 22.7% higher
compared with the case without damaged elements in the grid.

By analyzing above-described calculations the main results can be summarized as follows:

1. Values of the main safety criteria at Electric Power Plants (step and touch voltages) may
vary depending on the features of malfunctions but it is vital to anticipate their possible
magnitudes. Even if the grounding device was designed according to all safety criteria it
may happens that in some period of time due to corrosion and other reasons some damaged
element appearance will result in increase in touch and step voltage.

2. Due to high values of voltage in the grounding devices grids dangerous potentials on the
surface of earth may also appear.

3. Failures of the horizontal elements of grids may result in substantial increase of potentials
especially at edge meshes of the grounding device. This increase may be up to some dozens
of percents compare with the scenarios without damaged elements.


19

4. CONCLUSIONS

The mathematical model presented in this paper enables the evaluation of hazardous
voltage rise on the surface of earth with or without damaged horizontal elements. The
safety condition parameters in terms of touch and step voltage for worst scenario of
failures are described.

Graph theory and matrix analysis are used as the main basis for the mathematical
treatment. It is shown that the grounding device voltage and ground potential rise on the
surface above the grid are not the same due to soil impedance. But the surface potential
can be dangerous for staff in some cases especially due to damaged elements of the
earthing grid.

The mathematical analysis explains the case when there is one damaged horizontal
element in the corner mesh of the grounding grid. The results of the experimental
investigation of the failures possible resistance in the real outdoor conditions were used
for the mathematical model verification. It is shown that depending on the soil resistance
in the area of failure hazardous voltage picks can be some dozens percent higher compare
to a similar situation but without damaged elements.

Even if the grounding device initially was made in accordance with all the standards
permissible requirements it can have damaged horizontal elements with passage of time
and be the source of a hazard.

REFERENCES

[1] IEEE Std.80-2000:IEEE Guide for Safety in AC Substation Grounding. The Institute of
Electrical and Electronic Engineers, New York, 2000.
[2] Haddad, A. Warne, D. F. Advances in High Voltage Engineering. The Institution of
Electrical Engineers, London, United Kingdom, 2004.
[3] Skiling, H. H. Electrical Engineering Circuits, 2 edition, New York : Wiley, 783 p., 1967;
[4] Skiling H. H. Electric Networks, New York : Wiley, 483 p., 1974.
[5] Giannini, R., Dzapo, H. Earth Surface Potentials Measuring Device for Large Grounding
System Testing. Proceedings of the Instrumentation and Measurement Technology
Conference, IMTC 2004, pp. 2132-2136.
[6] Grcev, L.D. Computer Analysis of Transient Voltages in Large Grounding Systems. IEEE
Transaction on Power Delivery, v. 11(2), pp. 815-823, 1996.
[7] Dzapo, H., Giannini, R. Program. Support for Earth Surface Potentials Measuring System.
Measurement Science Review, 3(3), pp. 25-28, 2003.
[8] Yang, H. Pan, D. A Numerical Calculation Method of Substation Grounding Grids Based
on a New Mathematical Model. Proceedings of the IEEE 8th International Symposium on
Antennas, Propagation and EM Theory, ISAPE 2008, pp. 807-810.
[9] Li, Z., Chen, W., Fan, J., Lu, J. A Novel Mathematical Modeling of Grounding System
Buried in Multilayer Earth. IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery, v. 21(3), 2006.
[10] Selby, A., Dawalibi, F. Determination of Current Distribution in Energized Conductors for
the Computation of Electromagnetic Fields. IEEE Trans. on Power Delivery, v. 9(2), pp.
1069-1078, 1994

20

[11] Grigsby L.L., The Electric Power Engineering Handbook, 1. Electric Power Production,
2001 by CRS Press LLC, Auburn University, Auburn, Alabama.
[12] IEEE Std.81-1984: IEEE Guide for Measuring Earth Resistivity, Ground Impedance, and
Earth Surface Potentials of a Ground System, IEEE Press, New York, 1984.
[13] IEEE Std. 142-1991 (2007): IEEE recommended practice for grounding of industrial and
commercial power systems, IEEE Press, New York, 1991, GREEN BOOK.
[14] Yacobs, A. I. (1981). Electrical safety in agriculture, Moscow: Kolos.
[15] El Sherbiny M., Simple Formulas for Calculating the Grounding Resistance of Rodbed
Buried in Non-Uniform Soil. Proceedings of the 37th Midwest Symposium on Circuits and
Systems University of Waterloo, Waterlo, Ontario, Canada N2L 3Gl, 1954, pp. 1281-1284.

Authors

Y. Chikarov obtained his first degree in Electrical Engineering from Far Eastern Transport University
(Khabarovsk), Russia in 2001. He had worked at the same University from 2001. In 2006, he graduated
with a Master in Electrical Engineering from Far Eastern Transport University (Khabarovsk), Russia. He
was a Lector, Senior Lector and Assistant Professor at the University conducting classes and scientific
research in power engineering. He is currently pursuing his Ph.D. degree at Auckland University of
Technology, New Zealand. His major interests are power system study, safety and automatics.

T. T. Lie (S89-M92-SM97) received his B.S. degree from Oklahoma State University, USA in 1986.
He then obtained his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Michigan State University, USA in 1988 and 1992,
respectively. He had worked in Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Dr. Lie is now a Head of
Department and a Professor in the Dept. of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Auckland University of
Technology, New Zealand. His research interests include power system control, deregulated power
systems and renewable energy systems.

Nirmal-Kumar C. Nair (S01M04SM10) received his BE in E.E. from M.S. University, Baroda,
India and ME in E.E with specialization of High Voltage Engineering from Indian Institute of Science,
Bangalore, India. He received his Ph.D. in E.E. from Texas A&M University, College Station, USA.
Presently, he is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering in University
of Auckland, New Zealand. His current interest includes power system analysis, protective relaying &
optimization in the context of smart grids, electricity markets and integration issues of DG/renewable
sources.

Safety Parameters of Grounding Devices at An Electric Power Plant

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Electrical and Electronics Engineering: An International Journal (ELELIJ) Vol 2, No 1, February 2013

equivalent resistance of earth for the vertical elements, m; t depth of the

equivalent resistance of the earth for the horizontal elements, m; l

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