GROUNDING SYSTEM DESIGN FOR HV TRANSMISSION

SUBSTATION

by

Appiah Wiafe

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April 2016

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A thesis submitted to the
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Faculty of the Graduate School of
the University at Buffalo, State University of New York in
partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of
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Master of Science

Department of Electrical Engineering

 ProQuest Number: 10127835

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 Abstract

Substation grounding is plays a vital role in the overall electric power system. The design

of substation grounding is a challenging task. It must be properly designed to be to able

disperse currents into the ground without exceeding the normal operating limits of the

substation equipment, and as well ensure a safe environment for substation personnel and

people around its surroundings.

In this thesis, design of a proper substation grounding system is discussed as well as

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performing of careful analysis necessary to ensure a safe design. A typical 115/69kV

transmission substation is used as an example for better understanding of the design.

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Relevant factors to be considered for a good substation grounding system such as soil

resistivity measurements, tolerable limits calculation of current to the human body, tolerable
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touch and step voltages, ground potential rise(GPR), maximum fault current, grid current,

total grid resistance, and benefits of surface materials will be discussed. A Windows Based
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Integrated Grounding System (WINIGS) design software will be used and concurrence with

the IEEE Std 80-2000 to carry out the grounding design to ensure more accurate and efficient

design of the substation grounding.

Keywords: substation grounding, substation preliminary design, ground grids, WINIGS.

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 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to express my true appreciation to my advisor, Dr. Alexander Domijan, for his

insightful instructions and valuable experience he has given me to help grow to become a

professional engineer. I would also like to thank Dr. Ilya Grinberg for his composed guidance,

valuable time, and support towards this project. I also thank Prof. Edward Furlani for his

understanding and support.

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I would like to thank New York State Electric and Gas for the support provided, especially, Mr.
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Joe Sopata and Marco Mendez from Substation engineering group. I thank you so much for the

materials and data you issued me toward this project

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Finally, I am grateful to my parents for their support and advice to overcome all the challenges as

I grow. And also thanks to my friends who have made valuable impacts in my life.
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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter Page
Abstract ii
List of Tables vi
List of Figures vii
Nomenclature viii
1. INTRODUCTION 1
1.1 Background Introduction 1
1.2 Study Objective 1
1.3 Thesis Organization 2

2. LITERATURE REVIEW 3
2.1 Overview of Substation Grounding 3

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2.2 Tolerable Human Body Current during a Fault 3
2.3 Tolerable Voltages in Substation Vicinity
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2.4 .4 Characteristics of the Soil. 5
2.5 Soil Resistivity Measurements 6
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2.5.1 Wenners Four-Pin Method 7
2.5.2 Interpretation of Resistivity Measurements 9
2.6 Area of the Ground Grid 10
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2.7 Protective Surface Material l1

2.8 Selection of Materials 12
2.9 Grid Connections 13
3 THE GROUNDING DESIGN ALGORITHM 14
3.1 Introduction 14
3.2 Tolerable Human Body Current Limits 14
3.3 Circuit Equivalents for Common Shock Situations 15
3.3.1 Human Body Resistance 15
3.3.2 Touch and Step Voltage s 16
3.4 Tolerable Step and Touch Voltage 19
3.5 Sizing of Conductors 21
3.6 Decremental Factor 22
3.7 Soil Resistivity Measurements 23

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 3.8 Ground Resistance 24
3.9 Maximum Grid Current 25
3.10 Fault Currents 25
3.11 Ground Potential Rise (GPR) 26
3.12 Maximum Mesh Voltages 26
3.13 M a ximum Step Voltage 29
4 DESIGN OF SUBSTATION GROUNDING SYSTEM 31
4.1 Introduction 31
4.2 Ground Grid Design Flow Chart 33
4.2.1 Soil Resistivity Field Data 34
4.2.2 Selection of Conductors and Connections 37

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4.2.3 Creating Preliminary Design 39
4.2.4 Determination of grid resistance 41
4.2.5
4.2.6
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Ground Return Fault Current
Touch and Step Criteria
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4.2.7 The Ground Potential Rise (GPR) 51
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4.2.8 Mesh Voltage and Step Voltages 53
4.2.9 4.2.9 Em vs. Etouch and Es vs. Estep 56
4.2.10 Design Simulation from WINIGS 56
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5 CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORKS 60

5.1 Conclusions 60
5.2 Future Works 61

References 62

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 LIST OF TABLES

Tables Page
2.1 The Effects of Alternating Current on the Human Body 4
2.2 Basic Range of Soil Resistivity 6
2.3 Typical Surface Material Resistivities 11
3.1 Material Constants 21
3.2 Typical Values of Df 23
4.1 Measured Soil Resistance Data 34
4.2 Approximate equivalent impedances of transmission line overhead 44
shield wires and distribution feeder neutrals.

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4.3 Interpolation Impedances of Six Transmission Line with No Distribution 44
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4.4 Em vs. Etouch and Es vs. Estep 56
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 LIST OF FIGURES
Figures Page

2.1 Basic Shock Scenario 5

2.2 Wenners Four-Pin Method 7
2.3 The Four-Point or Wenner Method Configuration on Site 8
2.4 Typical Resistivity Curves 9
3.1 Body Current vs. Time 15
3.2 Cs versus hs 19
4.1 Equipment Foundation Layout 32

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4.2 Ground Grid Flow Chart 33
4.3 Soil Type Selection IE 35
4.4 (a)Wenner Method Data Entry & Analysis 35
(b) Wenner Method Data Entry & Analysis contd. 36
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4.5 Wenner Method 2-Layer Soil Model Parameters Report 37
4.6 Ground Grid Conductor Library 38
4.7 Ground Rod Conductor Library 39
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4.8 Preliminary Grounding System Design 41

4.9 Measured Conductor Length in Design 43
4.10 WINIGS Single Line Fault Diagram 47
4.11 Surface Material Reduction Factor WINIGS, Cs versus hs 49
4.12 WINIGS Tolerable Touch Voltages, Etouch Vs Distance 50
4.13 4.12 WINIGS Tolerable Step Voltages, Estep50 Vs Distance 50
4.14 WINIGS Tolerable Touch and Step Voltages 51
4.15 Grounding System Report Form WINIGS 52
4.16 Grounding System Voltage and Current Report 52
4.17 Safety Assessment for Touch Voltage 57
4.18 3D View of Touch Voltage 58
4.19 Safety Assessment for Step Voltage 59
4.20 3D View of Step Voltage 59

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NOMENCLATURE

1 Upper Layer Resistivity in ohm meters

2 Lower Layer Resistivity in ohm meters
a Soil resistivity, m
s Surface layer resistivity, m
If Symmetrical fault current in substation
A Total area enclosed by ground grid, m2
Cs Surface layer derating factor/ Reduction Factor
d Diameter of grid conductor, m

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D Spacing between parallel conductors, m
Df Decrement factor for determining IG
Dm
Em
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Maximum distance between any two
Mesh voltage at the center of the corner
Es Step voltage between a point above the outer corner of the grid and a point
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1 m diagonally outside the grid for the sim- plified method, V
Estep50 Tolerable step voltage for human with
Etouch50 Tolerable touch voltage for human with
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h Depth of ground grid conductors, m

H Upper Layer Thickness in meters
hs Surface layer thickness, m
IG Maximum grid current that flows between ground grid and surrounding
earth (including dc offset), A
Ig Symmetrical grid current, A
K Reflection factor between different resistivities
Kh Corrective weighting factor that emphasizes the effects of grid depth,
simplified method
Ki Correction factor for grid geometry,
Kii Corrective weighting factor that adjusts for the effects of inner conductors
on the corner mesh, simplified method

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Km Spacing factor for mesh voltage,
Ks Spacing factor for step voltage,
Lc Total length of grid conductor, m
LM Effective length of Lc + LR for mesh
LR Total length of ground rods, m
Lr Length of ground rod at each location,
LS Effective length of Lc + LR for step
LT Total effective length of grounding system conductor, including grid and
ground rods, m
Rg Grid Resistance in ohms
Sf Current Division Factor

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tf Fault Duration in seconds
tc Fault Clearing Time in seconds
Tm
Ta
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Maximum Allowable Temperature in C
Ambient Temperature in C
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 CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background Introduction

Grounding system for a substation play a very important role in our electric power system

stability. According to IEEE Std 80-2000, the main goals to be achieved by a substation

grounding under normal as well as fault conditions are:

a. To provide means to dissipate electric currents into the earth without exceeding any

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operating and equipment limits.

b. To assure that a person in the surroundings of substation grounding system is not

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exposed to the danger of severe electric shock [1].
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With the increase of power system capacity and voltage grade, the fault current is also

increased. Therefore a proper grounding system should be designed for every substation.

Design of substation involves many parameter which is also difficult obtain accurate values
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for some parameters. For example, values of soil resistivity is affected by temperature and

moisture conditions that can cause huge variations in the values. These parameters

therefore need to be taken into consideration using different methods of approximations

and practice engineering judgment. A proper grounding system is one that ensure less

resistance to ground minimizing the ground potential rise.

1.2 Study Objective

The aim of the thesis is to design proper grounding systems such that, in case of high

fault currents, the acceptable levels of step and touch voltages are hedged below their

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maximum tolerable or permissible levels. The scenario used in this master thesis based on

grounding studies performed in typical 115/69kV transmission substation.

The design procedures presented in this project are primarily based on IEEE Std. 80-2000

in conjunction with WINIGS training guide to meet the required safety criteria for

substation grounding.

Before designing grounding systems, the two-layer soil model parameters (with upper and

lower layer soil resistivity, and upper layer thickness) must be calculated. This will be

accomplished using computer based software knows as WINIGS, which also conducts to

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get the error bound to confidence level of 90 percent. IEEE Std. 80-2000 and conjunction

with WINIGS will serves as the basis for maximum GPR analysis, ground grid evaluation,
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and the design simulation of the grounding system.
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1.3 Thesis Organization

In addition to the introduction and conclusion, there are three main chapters covering,
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respectively, literature review of substation grounding, numerical calculations of

grounding systems metrics and substation grounding design.

Chapter 2 presents literature review of substation grounding studies

Chapter 3 presents the procedure of calculating grounding systems metrics

Chapter 4 presents the design procedures to meet the safety substation grounding

requirement for a typical 115/69kV transmission substation.

Chapter 5 presents conclusions and potential future work that can be conducted.

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 CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Overview of Substation Grounding

Substation grounding is considered an important part of every modern substation.

The goals of substation grounding system are: to ensure safety of operators and the

public, to reduce hazards from transferred voltages, to provide flow path for lightning,

to protect equipment and to yield a less resistance path to remote ground. A safe

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grounding system should have a less resistance to ground to reduce ground potential rise

(GPR) [1,6].
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For a substation to be safe, the grounding system needs to dissipate currents

into the remote ground under all normal and fault conditions. Also, it must guarantee
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that a person in the surroundings would not be in danger. However, people assume that

every object grounded can be safe to touch, but that is not always guaranteed. A less
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or small ground resistance in substation does not guarantee safety [6]. Because the

relation between the grounding resistance and maximum shock current human body can

be exposed is complex, a critical analysis must be conducted to consider many different

factors such as characteristics of the soil, etc [2]

2.2 Tolerable Human Body Current during a Fault

Humans are hypersensitive to alternating currents ranging from 50-60 Hz. The

upshots of this current flowing through human body depend on the duration, magnitude

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as well as frequency [6]. The threshold of consciousness for the human body is about

1mA. The effects of alternating current on the human body are listed in table 1.

Table 2. 1: The Effects of Alternating Current on the Human Body

Current in milliamperes Effects

1 or less No sensation; probably not noticed

1 to 3 Mild sensation not painful

3 to 10 Painful shock

10 to 30 Muscular control could be lost or muscle clamping

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30 to 75 Respiratory paralysis

75 to 100 Ventricular Fibrillation

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2.3 Tolerable Voltages in Substation Vicinity.
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There are five voltages that human body can be exposed in the surroundings of a

substation. These circumstances are: metal-to-metal voltage, Emm, step voltage, Es,
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touch voltage, Etouch , mesh voltage, Em, and transferred voltage, Etrrd [1,2]. Substation

metal-to-metal touch voltages occur when a one is touching or standing on a grounded

object comes in contact with a metallic object inside the substation that is not

connected to the ground grid. This can be prevented by bonding likely danger spots

to the substation grid. The step voltage is considered as the difference in surface

potential that is experienced by a person connecting a distance of 1m without coming

in contact any other grounded object [1,2]. The touch voltage is the difference of

potential between the GPR and the surface potential at the point where a person is

standing while having his/her hand touching a grounded object [1,2]. Mesh voltage

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can be described as the maximum touch voltage within a mesh of the ground system

[1,2]. A case of the touch voltage where a voltage is transferred in or out of the

substation from an external substation or a remote site is called the transferred voltage

[2]. Figure 2.1 graphically shows the different shock scenario that can occur in the

surroundings of the substation.

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Figure 2.1: Basic Shock Scenario

Ref. IEEE Std. 80-2000 Figure 12. Copyright 2000. IEEE. All rights reserved

2.4 Characteristics of the Soil

The earths soil can be considered as pure resistance and thus is the final point

that a fault current is discharged. Soil resistance can hold a current up to a critical

value which varies depending on soil texture and the point of the current [1]. Wet soil

has less resistance than dry soil, so ideally the ground rods and ground grid should be

run in moist areas of the earth. Typically soil resistance increases when its wet