Our Reading of Earth Resistivity is Coming Avarage

2800 Ohm Meter ? We are Designing 11/33 KV Co-

generation Substation. What are the next steps
required for designing Earth Mat for 70 X 33 Meter
Area of Switch Yard?

Hi Milind,

Thank you for your question regarding the design of earth mats at high voltage substation
switch yards, it is our pleasure to help.

These high-voltage substations are very dangerous places for personnel to work in. There
are numerous electrical hazards to be concerned about, including Arc-Flash hazards, Step &
Touch Voltage hazards, and more. The grounding grid is an important part of not only
providing a safe working environment, but also in providing an effective electrical system.
2,800 ohm-meter soil is very resistive which can be both good and bad. Its good for
corrosion as your system will suffer very little from the corrosive effects of conductive soil.
It can also be very good for Step Voltage Hazards, however it can be very bad for Touch
Voltages. Were assuming that when you say you have 2,800 ohm-meter soil you are
referring to the very top layer of earth down to some very shallow depth? Do you know how
deep this layer of soil goes? What about as you go deeper in to the earth? Does the soil get
more conductive or less? You should really have an understanding of your soil conditions
down to a depth of at least as wide as your substation is at its widest point (the diagonal
distance). Obviously, the conductivity of the soil will change as you go deeper into the earth,
for either the benefit of your grounding system, or for its detriment.

For your facility (70m X 33m with a diagonal distance of 78m) you should have conducted a
series of Wenner 4-point soil resistivity tests with A spacings out to at least 78-m (256-ft)
which would be a linear run of 234-m (768-ft), with a multitude of spacings ranging from
less than a 1-m all the way out to the end. Please see the link below:

http://www.esgroundingsolutions.com/about-electrical-grounding/what-is-soil-resistivity-
testing.php
The data collected from the Wenner soil resistivity tests can then be modeled using
computer software to determine where the electrically conductive soil layers lay at your
facility. It could be that down 20 meters in the earth you have some great soil. If that is the
case, your ground grid design should include ground wells. You wont know this of course
until you conduct the soil resistivity test and use computer modeling software to analyze the
data.

Once you have an understanding of the soil, you can now start the process of designing a
grounding grid. You will also need to know the physical site plan of the substation (fences,
gates, blockhouse, transformers, towers, etc.), and the electrical fault data of the busses,
including clearing time and X/R ratio factors. So how do you provide proper protection? It is
a combination of removing electrical energy from the grid (electrodes), balancing electrical
energy (grids), bringing electrical energy closer to people and equipment in certain cases
(bonding), and taking it away in other cases (insulation). Frankly, it can get very complex.
Much more than we could ever really cover in a simple blog.

The bottom line is, you need highly sophisticated software capable of modeling an electrical
fault on your designed grounding grid in your local soil conditions. There are many
software packages available, but only a few that accurately model Step & Touch voltages.
We recommend the CDEGS software package from Safe Engineering Services ltd in Canada
(www.sestech.com). To our knowledge, they have the only software package that
accurately calculates the individual Step & Touch Voltages, all other programs only provide a
theoretical maximum that inevitably leads to over engineering in the safer areas, and under
engineering in the dangerous areas.

For example, the Touch Voltage hazard is far greater for a person who is actually touching a
transformer, than it is for a person touching the block house. Both places do in fact have
touch voltages, but obviously the transformer is far more hazardous. To our knowledge,
only CDEGS properly addresses this issue. All other programs merely provide a touch
voltage based on a theoretical maximum across the entire grid, and do not have the ability
to even find these hot spots. In fact most of these programs calculate touch voltages at all
points across the grid, when in fact touch voltages are only viable at 1-meter from any
object. This is why other programs show touch voltages in open areas of the compound,
where there is actually nothing to touch! Areas beyond one-meter can only be impacted by
step voltages!

One of the quickest and easiest ways to know if your software is accurately calculating Step
& Touch Voltage hazards is in the time it takes the computer to make the calculations. The
inaccurate programs perform the calculations in the blink of an eye, seconds of calculating
time at best. A proper analysis can take a high-powered computer from 10-15 minutes to
several hours of calculating time! Obviously one program is really doing an analysis, the
other is just giving you some maximums which can result in serious life-threatening errors.

The bottom line is this, to properly design a grounding grid for a switch yard, you need a
good electrical fault computer simulation software program. We here at E&S Grounding
Solutions are of course more than happy to help you design your grounding grid, but if not
us, please get someone with the proper software and experience to help you with this
critical life-saving process.

Feel free to give us a call at 310-318-7151 California time, and someone will be happy to
speak with you about your project, free of charge.

Best regards,

The Engineering Team at E&S Grounding Solutions