Dissertation Phase - 2

DESIGN & DEVELOPMENT

OF SOFTWARE FOR OPTIMIZED
DESIGN OF
GROUNDING SYSTEM
Prepared by:
Pranav Jani
En. No.: 1202607370006
4th Semester,
M. E.(E. P. S.)

Guided By:
Mr. Ankit Gajjar
Asst. Prof.
Electrical Engineering Department,
KIT & RC,
Kalol.
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Flow of Presentation
Grounding System: An Introduction
Importance of Grounding
IEEE Methodology for Grounding System
Numerical Analysis of Grounding System
Development of Software
Software Validation
Conclusion
Future Planning
References

Grounding System: An Introduction

On its way from generating station to the end consumer,

electrical power passes through different kinds of
substations.
Successful operation of complete power system depends
to a considerable extent on efficient and satisfactory
performance of substations.
Hence substations in general can be considered as heart of
entire power system.
In any safe and reliable substation a well designed
grounding plays vital role.
This can be easily visualized from following points

Importance of Grounding System

Grounding system provides a place for connecting system

neutral points, equipment body and support structures to
the earth.
It also ensures safety of working personnel within the
substation and enables earth fault detection and
protection.
It provides path for discharging the earth currents from
neutrals of equipments, faults, surge arrestors, overhead
shielding wires etc.
It keeps step and touch potential within tolerable limits.

Importance of Grounding System

Hence properly designed and installed grounding system

ensures
Reliable performance of electrical substation
Safety of persons working within or near substation
from the dangers of electric shock under fault
conditions
Ground potential rise (GPR) limited within the
acceptable levels
Electrical current dissipated into earth without
exceeding operating limits of equipment

Basic Shock Situations [1]

In the substation there are basically five type of different

shock conditions
Touch Voltage
Step Voltage
Mesh Voltage
Metal to metal contact Voltage
Transferred Voltage
Out of these five , first two conditions are of main interest
because of frequency of their occurrence
Following figures show Touch and Step voltage scenario
and their equivalent circuits.

Step Voltage Scenario & Equivalent Circuit [1]

Touch Voltage Scenario & Equivalent Circuit [1]

IEEE Methodology for Grounding System

Design [1]

Main thing to be taken care of while designing grounding

system is that actual mesh and step voltages should be
less than the tolerable voltages.
There are main two design goals to be achieved by any
substation grounding system under normal as well as
fault condition.
Design goals
To assure that a person in the vicinity of grounded
facilities is not exposed to the danger of critical
electric shock.
To provide means to dissipate electric currents into
the earth without exceeding any operating and
equipment limits.

IEEE Methodology for Grounding System

Design [1]

Main objective while designing grounding system as per

IEEE guide is that
actual step and touch voltages must not exceed the
maximum permissible step and touch voltages
defined by following equations even in the worst
case.
Safety criteria given by IEEE are as follows:

Safety criteria given by IEEE 80 2000 [1]

For Body weight of 50 kg

Estep 50

0.116
(1000 6 s C s )
ts

Etouch 50

0.116
(1000 1.5 s Cs )
ts

For Body weight of 70 kg

Estep 70
Etouch 70

0.157
(1000 6 s Cs )
ts
0.157
(1000 1.5 s Cs )
ts

Safety criteria given by IEEE 80 2000 [1]

Where,

Estep = Step Potential

Etouch = Touch Potential

s = Surface Material Resistivity

Cs = Surface Layer De-rating Factor
t s = Duration of Current Exposure in Second

Numerical Analysis of Grounding System[2]

Figure (a) shows the simple

Grounding System.

Figure (b) shows the small

segments of the ground grid in
which current is emanate from
the segment.

Figure (c) shows the point source

of the current and the voltage at
the surface of the segment

Numerical Analysis of Grounding System[2]

The voltage Vi of segment i at point A,

n

Vi f ( xAi, yAi, zAi, xj , yj , zj , ) Ij

j 1

Where,

1
f ( xAi, yAi, zAi, xj , yj , zj , )
4
{[( xAi xj ) 2 ( yAi yj ) 2 ( zAi zj ) 2 ] 0.5
[( xAi xj ) 2 ( yAi yj ) 2 ( zAi zj ) 2 ] 0.5 }

( xAi, =
yAcoordinates
i , zAi )
of point A located on
the surface of segment i
( xj=
, ycoordinates
j , zj )
of the center of
segment j
Ij electric current emanating
= total
from the surface of segment j

Numerical Analysis of Grounding System[2]

The voltage V(x,y,z) at any point (x,y,z) in the earth can be

computed by below equation,
n

V ( x, y, z ) f ( x, y, z , xj , yj , zj , ) Ij
j 1

Numerical Analysis of Grounding System[2]

The figure shows two earth

embedded conductor
segments of length 2L1 and
length 2L2.
Problem 1: Voltage at point
(x,y,z) due to flow of the
current I1.
Problem 2: Voltage transferred to conductor segment 2
because of the flow of the current I1.
Problem 3: Voltage of the conductor segment 1 due to the
flow of its own current I1.
Due to above problems we need to know the Voltage
Distribution Factor(VDF),
Between two x-Directed Conductor Segments.
Between an x and y Directed Conductor Segments.
Self VDF of an x-Directed Conductor.

Numerical Analysis of Grounding System[2]

Development of Software

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Development of Software

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Development of Software

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Development of Software

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Development of Software

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Development of Software

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Development of Software

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Software Validation
Sample

Sr. No.

Ground Grid Design Data[3]

Quantity

Value

Unit

Fault current

18

kA

Shock duration

0.5

sec

Fault duration

sec

Surface layer resistivity

3000

.m

Surface layer thickness

0.1

Soil resistivity

40

.m

Depth of grid

0.6

Length in X direction

63

Length in Y direction

33

10

Conductor material for rods

Zinc coated steel rod

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Software Validation

Particular
L * L (m)
N*N
R ()
E
(V)
Max. V
% of
Tolerable
Safety
x

touch-tol

touch

IEEE
80-2000
63 * 33
21 * 11
0.41
915.22
452.4

FE
Method
63 * 33
21 * 11
0.344
915.22
891.16

ETAP
GGS
63 * 33
21 * 11
0.380
915.22
783.9

49.43 % 97.37 % 85.65 %

Safe

Safe

Safe

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Software Validation

ETAP Results

GSA Results

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Conclusion
This research describes the development of software named
Grounding System Analyzer that can be used for the design
of substation grounding systems. It is capable of analyzing
performance of grounding system located in uniform soils
with the help of rigorous analysis method.
Sample problem has been solved with this software.
Comparison of results obtained using this software with that
given by GGS Module of ETAP validates the performance of
this software.

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Future Planning
The software developed gives the analysis of uniform single
layer soil only. So in future the software can be developed for
the analysis for grounding system in the multi layer soil.
This software analyzes the grounding system with equally
spaced grounding grid. In future, software can be designed
which can analyze unequally spaced grounding grid.
Fault current calculation module also can be added in future.

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References
[1] Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, IEEE
Guide for Safety in AC Substation Grounding - IEEE
standard 80, IEEE, Piscataway, NJ, 2000.
[2] A.P. Sakis Meliopoulos," Power System Grounding and
Transients " (1988, Hard-cover).
[3] Kaustubh A. Vyas-Optimal Design of Substation
Grounding Systems,M.Tech. Thesis, Nirma University,
Ahmedabad, 2012.

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THANK YOU
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Back up Slides
02/25/16

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Estep 50

0.116
(1000 6 s Cs )
ts

Etouch 50

0.116
(1000 1.5 s Cs )
ts

Estep 70 (1000 6 s Cs )

0.157
ts

Etouch 70 (1000 1.5 s Cs )

02/25/16

0.157
ts

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TCAP=Thermal capacity of copper

Tf= duration of fault current
r=temp co-efficient of resistivity

r=Resistivity of conductor material

K0= 1/A0 at 0 C
Tm=Max. allowableTemperature
Tamb=Ambient Temperature

Df= Decrinment factor

Sf= Split factor
If=Total fault current
Ta=DC offset time constant
in sec

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