Earthing Grid Safety Criteria - IEEE and IEC Comparison

SafeGrid Earthing Design Software Comparison of IEEE and IEC Safety Criteria
ElectroTechnik Pty Ltd www.elek.com.au
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
Purpose..................................................................................................................................4
3.
SafetycriteriaIEEEStd802000............................................................................................4
3.1 Tolerablebodycurrentlimits....................................................................................................4
3.2 Bodyresistance..........................................................................................................................5
3.3 Touchandstepvoltagecriteria.................................................................................................5
3.4 Effectofsurfacelayermaterial.................................................................................................6
3.5 Decrementfactor.......................................................................................................................6
4.
SafetycriteriaIEC60479......................................................................................................7
5.
ComparisonofIEEEandIECsafetycriteria..............................................................................9
5.1 AllowableTouchVoltages.........................................................................................................9
5.2 AllowableStepVoltages.........................................................................................................11
5.3 SurfaceLayerMaterial............................................................................................................12
6.
Conclusion............................................................................................................................14
7.
References...........................................................................................................................15
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
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.
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
(1)
for 70 kg body weight
(2)
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)
(5)
For step voltage the limit is:
(6)
(7)
(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
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:
is the frequency in radians per second (equal to 2f)

is the fault clearing time in seconds
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)
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.
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
For higher probability of fibrillation allowable touch

voltages are increased.
Fault clearing time > 1

second
Fault clearing time <
0.1 second
All methods converge to virtually the same value.

Differences between methods are much greater.
9
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
Observation(s) about body resistances

Fixed value of 1000 .
IEC
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.
10
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
11
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.
12
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.
13
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.
14
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.
15

Earthing Grid Safety Criteria - IEEE and IEC Comparison

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SafeGrid Earthing Design Software Comparison of IEEE and IEC Safety Criteria

ElectroTechnik Pty Ltd www.elek.com.au

1.2 Safety Standards

To compare the safety criteria as prescribed by the Standards:

3. Safety criteria IEEE Std 80-2000

Tolerable body current limits

Fibrillation current is assumed to be a function of a persons body weight. This idea

for 70 kg body weight

Touch and step voltage criteria

Effect of surface layer material

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:

An adjustment factor used to determine the root-mean-squared equivalent of the

is the frequency in radians per second (equal to 2f)

Allowable Touch Voltages

Observation(s) about allowable touch voltages

For higher probability of fibrillation allowable touch

Fault clearing time > 1

All methods converge to virtually the same value.

Observation(s) about body resistances

Variable body resistance value.

Body resistance for IEC method is greater than IEEE.

Allowable Step Voltages

Observation(s) about allowable step voltages

Surface Layer Material

Observation(s) about varying surface layer

Observation(s) about varying surface layer depth

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