SafeGrid Earthing Design Software Comparison of IEEE and IEC Safety Criteria ElectroTechnik Pty Ltd www.elek.com.

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Comparisonofsubstationsafetycriteriagivenby theAmerican(IEEE)andEuropean(IEC)Standards
Table of Contents
1. Introduction........................................................................................................................... 2 1.1 HazardousVoltagesDuringEarthFaults.................................................................................. 2 1.2 SafetyStandards ........................................................................................................................ 2 1.3 ThresholdofSafetyFibrillationoftheHeart.........................................................................3 1.4 DefinitionsofSafetyCriteria..................................................................................................... 3 2 3. Purpose.................................................................................................................................. 4 SafetycriteriaIEEEStd802000............................................................................................ 4 3.1 Tolerablebodycurrentlimits.................................................................................................... 4 3.2 Bodyresistance.......................................................................................................................... 5 3.3 Touchandstepvoltagecriteria ................................................................................................. 5 3.4 Effectofsurfacelayermaterial................................................................................................. 6 3.5 Decrementfactor....................................................................................................................... 6 4. 5. SafetycriteriaIEC60479...................................................................................................... 7 ComparisonofIEEEandIECsafetycriteria.............................................................................. 9 5.1 AllowableTouchVoltages......................................................................................................... 9 5.2 AllowableStepVoltages......................................................................................................... 11 5.3 SurfaceLayerMaterial............................................................................................................ 12 6. 7. Conclusion ............................................................................................................................14 References...........................................................................................................................15

SafeGrid Earthing Design Software Comparison of IEEE and IEC Safety Criteria ElectroTechnik Pty Ltd www.elek.com.au 1. Introduction 1.1 Hazardous Voltages During Earth Faults Substation earthing grids are built to ensure that no electrical safety hazards exist within or outside of a substation perimeter both during normal operation and/or fault conditions. This report will focus on safety hazards caused during fault conditions. During an earth fault the flow of current into the earth produces potential gradients in and around the substation. Figure 1 shows a computer simulation the surface potential rise for a 30x30 m grid consisting of four (4) meshes. Design procedures must ensure that the maximum potential gradients and the voltages developed between earthed structures do not pose any dangers.

Figure 1. Surface potential (z-axis) for 30x30 m earth grid. Burial depth = 0.5 m. Top soil layer resistivity (1) = 1000 .m; Bottom soil layer resistivity (2) = 100 .m. Fault current = 1000 A.

1.2 Safety Standards Effect of electric current on the human body depends on a number of factors including the magnitude and duration of the fault and the frequency of the current (IEEE 2000). Derivation of minimum safety criteria is based on fundamental knowledge about these effects and numerous scientific investigations have been undertaken to determine safe limits. Standards have been developed around the science, which provide permissible levels of body current to avoid the deaths of people exposed to electric shocks. The two main safety Standards are IEEE Std 80-2000 and IEC 60479-2005. 2

SafeGrid Earthing Design Software Comparison of IEEE and IEC Safety Criteria ElectroTechnik Pty Ltd www.elek.com.au 1.3 Threshold of Safety Fibrillation of the Heart The most important physiological threshold is that which causes fibrillation of the heart. The magnitude and duration of the current flowing through the human body must be less than the value that can cause ventricular fibrillation. Safety criteria have been developed in the Standards which for a maximum tolerable body current define the tolerable total effective voltage (within a certain degree of statistical certainty). 1.4 Definitions of Safety Criteria Ground potential rise (GPR): Maximum potential that an earth grid may attain compared with a distant point assumed to be the potential of remote earth. Touch voltage: Difference between the GPR and the surface potential at a point where the person is standing while being in contact with an earthed structure. For touch voltages, unless there are concerns regarding transferred potentials to other remote locations via metallic paths such as overhead lines, pipes or railway tracks only the area covered by the grounding system needs to be assessed. Mesh voltage: Maximum touch voltage within a mesh of an earth grid. Step voltage: Difference in surface potential experienced by a person bridging a distance of 1 m with the feet without being in contact with any earthed structure. Step voltages must be assessed both within and for a significant distance beyond the extent of the area covered by the grounding system. Step voltages are not usually a concern within the substation when touch voltages are satisfactory.

SafeGrid Earthing Design Software Comparison of IEEE and IEC Safety Criteria ElectroTechnik Pty Ltd www.elek.com.au 2 Purpose

To compare the safety criteria as prescribed by the Standards: 1. IEEE Std 80-2000 IEEE Guide for Safety in AC Substation Grounding 2. IEC/TS 60479-1 Technical Specification Effects of current on human beings and livestock. The methods for determining safety criteria described by the respective Standards are implemented in software (see Figure 2). The software provides an efficient method for determining safety criteria which complies with these Standards.

Figure 2. Safety Criteria as implemented in SafeGrid earthing software for both IEEE and IEC Standards

3. Safety criteria IEEE Std 80-2000 3.1 Tolerable body current limits

Fibrillation current is assumed to be a function of a persons body weight. This idea comes from studies undertaken by Dalziel (Dalziel 1946). Thus the formulae for allowable body current which can be survived by 99.5% of persons are given for two weights (50 kg and 70 kg): for 50 kg body weight for 70 kg body weight 4 (1) (2)

SafeGrid Earthing Design Software Comparison of IEEE and IEC Safety Criteria ElectroTechnik Pty Ltd www.elek.com.au 3.2 Body resistance

A constant value equal to 1000 is used for body resistance. This represents resistances from hand-to-feet and from hand-to-hand and from foot to foot. Hand and foot contact resistances are neglected as well as glove and shoe resistances assumed equal to zero (the latter is easily incorporated through simple modifications to the forthcoming equations). 3.3 Touch and step voltage criteria

For a person to remain alive (to avoid ventricular fibrillation) the energy which is passed through the human body must be limited to a safe level. This safe level is defined in terms of a set of maximum permissible voltages as follows: For touch voltage the limit is: (3) For 50 kg body weight (4) For 70 kg body weight (5) For step voltage the limit is: (6) For 50 kg body weight (7) For 70 kg body weight (8) Where: is the scaling factor due to the presence of the protective surface layer. Cs s is the resistivity of the surface layer in .m. RA is an optional term to account for the effects of an additional series resistance such as from shoes or gloves. Note if there is no protective surface layer then Cs = 1 and s = 1. 5

SafeGrid Earthing Design Software Comparison of IEEE and IEC Safety Criteria ElectroTechnik Pty Ltd www.elek.com.au 3.4 Effect of surface layer material

Spreading a thin (usually 8-15 cm thick crushed rock) layer of high resistivity material over the surface within a substations increases allowable touch and step potentials. This is because a high resistivity surface layer provides additional series resistance with the body, thereby reducing the body current during a fault situation. The resistivity of the surface layer should be at least 5 times higher than the top soil layer resistivity to have any great benefit (Dawalibi 1982). These effects of the surface layer on allowable touch and step potentials are accounted for with the inclusion of a scaling term (CS) into the foot resistance (RF) calculation. For a uniform soil the foot resistance RF is computed as follows, assuming the foot to be a conductive plate on the earths surface: (9) Where: b is the radius of the plate, usually assumed to be 0.08 m. When a surface layer of resistivity s is introduced the formation becomes: (10)

There have been many proposed methods for the calculation of CS. A summary and comparison is given by Hans and Jagdish (Hans R. and Jagdish K. 2003). The currently accepted as most accurate method for calculating CS is based on the work done by Thaper et al., which is used by IEEE80-2000 (Thapar, Gerez et al. 1994). This factor generally gives higher values of CS compared with the previous formulation given in IEEE80-1986. 3.5 Decrement factor

An adjustment factor used to determine the root-mean-squared equivalent of the asymmetrical current wave for a given fault duration, accounting for the effect of initial DC offset and its attenuation during the fault. The decrement factor is defined as follows (Grainger and Boulton 2005): (12) Where: t is the frequency in radians per second (equal to 2f) is the fault clearing time in seconds

SafeGrid Earthing Design Software Comparison of IEEE and IEC Safety Criteria ElectroTechnik Pty Ltd www.elek.com.au 4. Safety criteria IEC 60479 The Standard IEC 60479 is the technical specification which describes the effects of current on the human body. Two main parts to this Standard are useful for deriving substation safety criteria (i.e. allowable touch and step potentials). 1. Part 1: General aspects, Technical Specification IEC/TS 60479-1 Edition 4 (published 2005) 2. Part 5: Touch voltage threshold values for physiological effects, Technical Report IEC/TR 60479-5 Edition 1 (published 2007) A body impedance model is given with touch voltage thresholds related to the touch current thresholds by the body impedance according to Ohms law. Body impedances are given for the 5th, 50th and 95th percentiles of the population for both wet and dry conditions. The body impedance values corresponding to the 5th percentile (representing greater than 95% of the population) are lower and the most conservative from a safety perspective since they would result in higher current through the body. This is different from IEEE80 which uses a fixed value of 1000 . Another difference is that the voltage limits are defined in terms of voltage across the body rather than prospective voltages, as in the American Standards case. The current threshold for ventricular fibrillation for a current path hand to feet is given in Figure 3. The zones of interest are AC-4 for the boundaries c1, c2 and c3. There is a dramatic reduction shown in tolerable currents (turning point in the graph) at around 400 ms. This is due to the likely interference of the fault current with the Tphase (occurs at around 400 ms) of the heart pulse which is more likely to cause fibrillation of the heart.

Figure 3. Permissible body current versus duration curve (Figure 20 from IEC 60479-1)

SafeGrid Earthing Design Software Comparison of IEEE and IEC Safety Criteria ElectroTechnik Pty Ltd www.elek.com.au While IEEE Std 80 provides a direct method for establishing safety criteria (allowable touch and step potentials) for substations, IEC 60479 does not. The necessary method is explained in the following steps: 1. For a given fault clearing time and assumed probability of ventricular fibrillation determine the value of permissible body current from Figure 20 (IEC 60479 reference). 2. For the permissible body current level determine the corresponding body resistance using the Tables. 3. Compute the foot resistance in accordance with IEEE Std 80-2000. 4. Compute permissible touch and step potentials. Additional notes about IEC 60479: IEEE80 defines safety criteria for a given body weight. IEC 60479 states it has been shown that body impedance is not greatly influenced by body mass. Physically large people have lower internal body resistance due to their large crosssectional area. Physically small people generally have higher body impedance. Impedances external to the body are not considered in IEC 60479-1, hence the approach taken in IEEE80 needs to be taken.

SafeGrid Earthing Design Software Comparison of IEEE and IEC Safety Criteria ElectroTechnik Pty Ltd www.elek.com.au 5. Comparison of IEEE and IEC safety criteria The following sections (5.1-5.10) provide a comparison between the Standards in terms of allowable touch and step voltages for practical ranges of critical design parameters. Section 5.2 gives an insight into the differences with the body resistance models used. Note these curves were produced for decrement factor = 1 and scaling factors (Cs) were calculated using the method from IEEE Std 80-1986. 5.1 Allowable Touch Voltages

Figure 4 shows the allowable touch voltages for varying fault clearing times (synonymous with electric shock duration) from 0.01 10 seconds.

Figure 4. Allowable touch voltages for varying fault clearing time (surface layer resistivity, s = 100 .m and top-layer soil resistivity 1 = 100 .m)

IEEE

Observation(s) about allowable touch voltages Concave decreasing for increased fault clearing time. Higher for 70 kg persons than for 50 kg persons.

IEC Fault clearing time > 1 second Fault clearing time < 0.1 second

For higher probability of fibrillation allowable touch voltages are increased. All methods converge to virtually the same value. Differences between methods are much greater. 9

SafeGrid Earthing Design Software Comparison of IEEE and IEC Safety Criteria ElectroTechnik Pty Ltd www.elek.com.au Figure 5 shows the values for body resistance used by both Standards.

Figure 5. Body resistance values (touch voltages) for varying fault clearing time (surface layer resistivity, s = 100 .m and top-layer soil resistivity 1 = 100 .m)

IEEE IEC

Observation(s) about body resistances Fixed value of 1000 . Variable body resistance value. Lower for higher probability of fibrillation. Two distinct horizontal asymptotes for low and high fault clearance times with transition at around 0.4 seconds.

Fault clearing time > 1 second Fault clearing time < 1 second

Body resistance for IEC method is greater than IEEE. Body resistance for IEC method is less than IEEE.

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SafeGrid Earthing Design Software Comparison of IEEE and IEC Safety Criteria ElectroTechnik Pty Ltd www.elek.com.au 5.2 Allowable Step Voltages

Figure 6 shows the allowable step voltages for varying fault clearing times (synonymous with electric shock duration) from 0.01 10 seconds.

Figure 6. Allowable step voltages for varying fault clearing time (surface layer resistivity, s = 100 .m; top-layer soil resistivity 1 = 100 .m)

General

Observation(s) about allowable step voltages Similar trends to touch voltages (Figure 5) but with increased allowable thresholds. Higher limits than for touch voltages due to reduced likelihood of fibrillation from body current path

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SafeGrid Earthing Design Software Comparison of IEEE and IEC Safety Criteria ElectroTechnik Pty Ltd www.elek.com.au 5.3 Surface Layer Material

Spreading a thin layer of surface material in a substation (when the surface material resistivity is greater than the top soil layer resistivity) increases the contact resistance between a persons feet and the earth which can reduce the current through the body considerably. The reduction depends on the relative resistivites of the surface and the top soil layer resistivities and on the thickness of the surface material, Hs. Figure 7 shows allowable touch voltages for varying surface layer (i.e. crushed rock or ashvalt) resistivity from 100 .m (same as top soil layer, 1) to 10,000 .m.

Figure 7. Allowable touch voltages for varying surface layer resistivity, s (top-layer soil resistivity 1 = 100 .m; surface layer depth, Hs = 0.15 m; fault clearing time, t = 0.3 s)

General

Observation(s) about varying surface layer resisitivity Allowable touch voltage increases with increased surface layer resistivity. Allowable touch voltage is affected greatest when relative surface material and top soil layer resistivities is greater than about 10:1.

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SafeGrid Earthing Design Software Comparison of IEEE and IEC Safety Criteria ElectroTechnik Pty Ltd www.elek.com.au Figure 8 shows the affect of varying the depth of surface layer material (from 0.01 to 0.3 m) on allowable touch voltages. Surface layer resistivity is fixed at 3000 .m.

Figure 8. Allowable touch voltages for varying surface layer depth, Hs (surface layer resistivity, s = 3000 .m; top-layer soil resistivity 1 = 100 .m; fault clearing time, t = 0.3 s)

General

Observation(s) about varying surface layer depth Allowable touch voltage increases with greater surface layer depth.

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SafeGrid Earthing Design Software Comparison of IEEE and IEC Safety Criteria ElectroTechnik Pty Ltd www.elek.com.au 6. Conclusion The safety criteria for IEEE Std 80-2000 and IEC 60479 have been compared and there differences have been quantified. There are cases when IEEE80 is more conservative than IEC 60479, and vice versa. The calculation of safety criteria prescribed in IEC 60479 is not straight-forward whereas for IEEE80 it is. IEC 60479 does not provide any method for calculating foot resistance. IEE80 assumes a fixed body resistance value of 1000 . This simplification may compromise safety in earth grid design. IEEE80 defines safety criteria for a given body weight. IEC 60479 states it has been shown that body impedance is not greatly influenced by body mass. IEC 60479 safety limits based on recent knowledge surrounding interference of the fault current with the T-phase (occurs at around 400 ms) of the heart pulse which is more likely to cause fibrillation of the heart. Recommendation: It can be concluded that the use of IEC 60479 for determination of permissible body current is preferred over IEEE80. A complete solution for calculating safety criteria limits requires a method combining equations from both Standards. SafeGrid earthing software can calculate safety criteria based on both IEC and IEEE Standards.

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SafeGrid Earthing Design Software Comparison of IEEE and IEC Safety Criteria ElectroTechnik Pty Ltd www.elek.com.au 7. References Balda, J. C. (1997). "Measurements of Neutral Currents and Voltages on a Distribution Feeder." IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery. Dalziel, C. F. (1946). "Dangerous electric currents." AIEE Transactions on Power Apparatur and Systems 62: 579-585. Dawalibi, F. (1982). Transmission Line Grounding. EL-2699, Research Project 14941. Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Safe Engineering Services Ltd. 1. Dawalibi, F. (2003). "Effects of the changes in IEEE Std 80 on the design and analysis of power system grounding." Grainger, L. and R. Boulton (2005) A method to apply IEEE Std. 80 safe touch and step potentials to relay coordination. Volume, DOI: Hans R., S. and A. Jagdish K. (2003). "A Comparative Study of Expressions for Reduction Factor for Ground Resistance of Foot." IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery 18(No. 3). IEEE (2000). IEEE Guide for Safety in AC Substation Grounding, The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. Thapar, B., V. Gerez, et al. (1994). "Reduction factor for the ground resistance of the foot in substation yards." IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery 9(1): 360-368.

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