PROPERTIES OF POWER STATIONS GROUNDING SYSTEMS

SUBJECTED TO LIGHTNING CURRENTS

Renata MARKOWSKA, Leszek AUGUSTYNIAK
Bialystok Technical University, Poland

Abstract. This paper deals with large power stations

grounding systems subjected to lightning currents, such
as ground grids of various dimensions and fulfilment
levels as well as more complicated real structures. The
main parameters, such as ground impedances for power
frequency, surge resistances and potentials between
various points at the earth surface have been evaluated
numerically by using of two different software tools.
Influence of various parameters, such as the properties
of earth, have been also determined.

dimensions of these grids were from 40x40 m to

100x100 m. The different levels of filling up the meshes
have been also investigated.
In all cases the grounding grids were assumed to be
burried at a depth of 80 cm in a soil with different properties, i.e. different resistivity and relative permittivity.
The current was injected in the middle of the grid or in
the corner.
a)

b)

1. Introduction
The grounding systems for power stations are designed
to provide a common ground reference for normal
operation of electrical equipment and associated station
control, automation and measurement systems.
Additionally, the grounding system should be able to
ensure the safety for the personnel and to prevent the
insulation or devices from damage. These tasks are
very important especially during any faults, like power
supply fault or lightning stroke, that are very likely to
occur at the power stations.
To fulfil these terms, the station grounding system
should be characterized by an appropriate ground impedance at low (power) frequency as well as at higher
frequencies, that are specific for lightning or switching
impulses. Additionally, the design procedure should
minimize the maximum values of voltages between
different points at conductors and at the earth surface.
The behaviour of grounding systems for power frequency can be quite easily determined. However, for
surge currents, it is considerably different and the
knowledge about the surge resistance is still not at a
sufficient level.
2. Analysed grounding systems
The analysed grounding systems are presented on fig. 1
and 2. Fig. 1 presents different grounding meshes, that
were used basically as reference configurations to show
some general view on the behaviour of large grounding
grids for the given shape of the current surge. The

10 m

c)

d)

Fig. 1. Analysed grounding grids

In the next step the more realistic structure, that is shown

on fig. 2 has been analysed. The static impedances as
well as the surge resistances seen from various points of
the system, as indicated on the figures 2a) and 2b), have
been determined. In addition, the potentials at the earth
surface, particularly the voltage drop along with some
profiles, have been evaluated.
The system from fig. 2 is buried at a depth of 1 m in a
soil with resistivity of 100 m. Large resistivity of 1000
m were also applied for this case.

a)

51.5 m

Some results of these computations are summarized in

tab. 1, where and are the resistivity and the relative
permittivity of the soil.
As it can be seen from the results shown here the static
impedance depends clearly on the number and the length
of the separate elements of the system (the modulo of the
impedance for the system from fig. 1c) is about 6% less
than that for the system from fig. 1a)) and does not depend in fact on their locations. So it does not depend also
on the current injecion point. But it depends on the size
of the network.
Of course, the main influence is connected with the
ground resistivity.
Table 1. Static impedances of different grounding systems

76 m

System description

Modulo
[]

Phase
[deg.]

7.95

-0.48

0.78

-1.38

7.95

-0.42

0.78

-0.75

0.78

-0.75

0.78

-0.79

0.73

-0.9

0.77

-0.83

Grounding system from fig. 2a)

=100m, =10

0.71

-1.4

Grounding system from fig. 2b)

=100m, =10

0.71

-1.43

b)

Fig. 2. Analysed grounding systems for different ways of

current injection.

3. Numerical modelling
The properties of station grounding systems have been
analysed in time and in frequency domain. For determining the impedances, the computer program TRAGSYS [2] has been used. The computational algorithm
applied in this program uses a rigorous mathematical
formulations derived from the complete set of Maxwells equations, numerically solved by the method of
moments.
According to this method the network of conductors is
divided in small segments and the resulting quantity is
expressed as the sum of the contributions from all of
the segments [1], [4], [5].
The program allows for the computations in relatively
wide frequency range, from 0 to 5.5 MHz. The computations are done basically in frequency domain, but the
typical surge current shapes, such as lightning may be
expressed as a simple harmonics and the results are
obtained by using of Inverse Fourier Transform.
In all cases, the calculations have been performed with
one, double exponential waveform of the lightning
current: 1/50 s and with amplitudes of 100 kA or 20
kA.
4. Static impedance
The static impedances of analysed grounding systems
have been computed for the power frequency 50Hz.

System from fig. 1a), current injected at the middle of the grid,
=1000m, =9
System from fig. 1a), current injected at the middle of the grid,
=100m, =36
System from fig. 1a), current injected at the corner of the grid,
=1000m, =9
System from fig. 1a), current injected at the corner of the grid,
=100m, =36
System from fig. 1a), current injected at the corner, =100m,
=10
System from fig. 1b), current injected at the corner, =100m,
=10
System from fig. 1c), current injected at the corner, =100m,
=10
System from fig. 1d), current injected at the corner, =100m,
=10

5. Surge resistance
As it was said earlier, the behaviour of grounding system
subjected to lightning current is much different than that
at low frequency. Apart from the shape of the lightning
current, the properties of the grounding system itself
strongly depend on the frequency. The properties of the
grounding system are best expressed by its surge resistance for the given lightning current shape.
Fig. 3 presents the computed surge resistances of the
grounding grid from fig. 1a), where the current surge was
injected in the middle of the grid for different soil parameters.
Tab. 2 summarizes some computation results of the peak
values of the surge resistances for the analysed grounding configurations.

the case when it is injected at the corner the surge resistance is about 45% less.
As we can see from the table, enlarging the simple system with additional horizontal conductors can reduce the
surge resistance, but only if the additional elements are
located relatively close to the current injection point. The
reduction, in case of system from fig. 1d) in comparison
with the system from fig. 1a) is about 8%.
In other words, there is some effective area on which it is
possible to reduce the surge resistance and achieve the
best draining off the surge current. This effective area
depends of course on the frequency spectrum of the
current. For power frequencies this area is larger than the
area occupied by the whole grounding system, and that is
why the static impedance does not depend on the current
injection point.

a)

b)

6. Potential distributions

Fig. 3. Surge resistances of the ground grid from fig.

1a) in case of surge current of 1/50 s injected
at the middle of the grid: a) for =1000m,
=9; b) for =100m, =36.

As we have seen from the comparison of surge resistances for various grounding systems, the effective area
for which we are able to reduce significantly the surge
resistance is relatively small in comparison with the area
occupied by whole grounding system. Therefore the
surge resistance can not be a sufficient parameter for
evaluation of real threat to people and devices, especially
relatively far away from the current injection point,
where we are not able to reduce the voltage differences
by reducing the surge resistance. The detailed analysis of
potential distribution on the whole area of interest is
needed. So, the next step of our considerations is the
evaluation of these potential distributions.

Table 2. Peak values of surge resistances of various grounding systems in case of lightning current shape of
1/50 s.
System description
System from fig. 1a), current injected at
the middle of the grid, =1000m, =9
System from fig. 1a), current injected at
the middle of the grid, =100m, =36
System from fig. 1a), current injected at
the corner of the grid, =1000m, =9
System from fig. 1a), current injected at
the corner of the grid, =100m, =36
System from fig. 1a), current injected at
the corner, =100m, =10
System from fig. 1b), current injected at
the corner, =100m, =10
System from fig. 1c), current injected at
the corner, =100m, =10
System from fig. 1d), current injected at
the corner, =100m, =10
Grounding system from fig. 2a)
=100m, =10
Grounding system from fig. 2b)
=100m, =10

Surge resistance
[]
20.58
6.096
39.477
11.061
11.142
11.035
10.986
10.299
7.494
7.727

Unlike in case of the static impedances, the surge resistance depends on the current injection point even for
the simple systems. For the case when the current is
injected at the middle of the grid in comparison with

Fig. 4. Potential distribution on the earth surface in case of

20kA, 1/50 s current surge injected into the grounding
system from fig. 2a) at the moment of reaching the
maximum value of potemtial.

Fig. 4 presents the potential distribution on the earth

surface for the complex grounding system from fig. 2a).
In this case the current surge of amplitude of 20 kA was
applied. The presented result relates to the time moment
at which the potential on the area of interest reaches the
maximum value. The soil resistivity, in this case, was
1000 m.

Finally, fig. 5 presents some computation result of

voltage difference between various points for the complex grounding system from fig. 2a). The voltage drop
along with the path marked on fig. 2a) as dashed line is
presented. The current sutge of 100 kA, injected into
the point marked on the fig. 2a) was applied.
150

100

8. References

kV
50

reduction of the surge resistance we get better currents

draining off and the voltage differences are also reduced.
Particularly, in the area located relatively far away from
the current injection points, additional earth electrodes
do not change the surge resistances seen from that points,
but can cause some reduction of voltage differences at
this area. In conclusion, the proposed method, involving
the analysis both the resistance and the potential distributions, seems to be worthwhile for the efficient design of
the best grounding configuration for electric power stations.

0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8

1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8

s

Fig. 5. Time domain voltage drop along with the dashed line
for the system from fig. 2a) in case of the current
surge of 1/50 s, 100 kA.

7. Conclusions
To sum up, the calculations of various station grounding arrangements show, that the additional horizontal
earth electrodes located in the vicinity of the current
injection points, significantly reduces the surge resistances seen from that points. So, together with the

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Manual.
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Services & Technologies Ltd., Montreal Canada
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large grounding systems; 1995 IEEE/PES Summer
Meeting, Portland, OR, IEEE Paper 95 SM 363-2
PWRD.
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pp. 393399.