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Safety in AC substation grounding systems under transient conditions:

Development of design software

Conference Paper · December 2013

DOI: 10.1109/ICIInfS.2013.6731978

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 Safety in AC Substation Grounding Systems under
Transient Conditions:
Development of Design Software
Asanka S. Rodrigo, Member, IEEE, Nadeesha Akarawita, Priyanga Ambanwala, Nilushka Ariyapala, Charith Chaminda
Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Moratuwa-Sri Lanka

Abstract- In IEEE80:2000-Guide for Safety in AC Substation conditions. They are Circuit approach, Electromagnetic field
Grounding, considers the effect of steady state behaviour of approach, Hybrid approach, Transmission line approach. [9].
grounding grid. However, due to lightning or any other impulses
generated in power system, very high voltages could be built up Out of several methods transmission line method is
for a short period of time. The impact of such transient surges considered to be the best approach for transient studies since
on substation grounding systems is studied in this paper. An it has the advantage of calculating propagation delay, simple
approach based on Transmission Line method is used to design calculations and reasonably accurate results [3].Therefore,
an equivalent circuit to the substation grounding grid. The this particular study has adopted the Transmission Line
developed designs are then simulated for transient behaviour
using PSCAD software and appropriate safety parameters are approach for building a model for the grounding grid.
evaluated to find out whether the designs need any
modifications. An energy based approach which is more II. METHODOLOGY
appropriate for transients was used to define threshold of safety.
A design software incorporating the findings of the studies was
developed as a final outcome. First the grounding gird is designed to satisfy for the steady
state condition to meet the standard, IEEE80 - Guide for
Index Terms—Grounding; transient; grid; software Safety in AC Substations. Once the substation design
parameters are given the grounding grid is designed in a
I. INTRODUCTION 1 single click by the software which we named as
“SmartMesh”. The user can adjust the design parameters to
The primary objective of a grounding grid is to provide a suite the design requirements.
path of least resistance to the traversing current in a faulty
The transient state is modelled separately on PSCAD using
condition so that it is distributed in all directions of the
the electrical models described in 2.1. A large grounding
underlying earth. While serving its purpose, a properly
grid was modelled on PSCAD and simulated by varying the
designed grounding system should also maintain the step and impulse location, waveform shape, peak impulse current, soil
touch voltage in the premises within their safe limits ensuring resistivity and grid spacing. In order to analyse the transient
the safety of the personnel and livestock. IEEE80-2000: behaviour of the grid using SmartMesh a look up table was
Guide for Safety in AC Substation Grounding [1] is the created. This was necessary because the simulation for the
widely adopted standard for grounding system design. This transient state was done using the PSCAD software. These
provides a detailed algorithm for substation grounding design. data was stored in a database for easy reference within our
In IEEE80:2000 the focus is designing the grounding grid grounding grid design software.
by considering the steady state behaviour. However, as in any
other part of the power system, the transient behaviour 2.1 Transmission Line Model for Grounding Grid
Each horizontal segment of the grounding grid is modelled
remains significant in the grounding systems too. Therefore,
as a transmission line. See Figure 1 below.
it is essential to build an accurate model of the grounding grid
in order to study its transient behaviour. With the successful
researches currently completed in the world, majorly four
numerical methods have been identified as effective and
accurate in modelling grounding systems under lightning
1
Asanka S. Rodrigo is a senior lecturer at University of Moratuwa
and Nadeesha Akarawita, Priyanga Ambanwala, Nilushka Ariyapala, and
Charith Chaminda, are undergrstuates of the Department of Electrical
Eng., Univ. Moratuwa.
(e-mail: asanka@elect.mrt.ac.lk,adeeshaakarawita@gmail.com ; Fig 1. T-model for transmission line
priyangaambanwala@gmail.com; nilushka4@gmail.com,
charithchaminda@gmail.com;)
Following are the equations used to calculate the circuit Using these two models for horizontal and vertical rods, the
parameters of series resistance (r), series inductance (l), shunt grounding grid was modelled on PSCAD software.
capacitance (c) and shunt conductance (g), provided in [4].
2.2 Calculation of surface potential
Heppe [6] devised a method of calculating surface potential
= (1a)
by calculating mutual resistances of the segments and their
2 (1b) leakage currents. Same method was extended by the
= ln −1 substitution of transient voltages calculated using the PSCAD
2
simulation described in 2.1.
= (1c)
2
ln −1 2.3 Safety threshold under transient conditions
√2
2 (1d) Commonly used Dalziel’s equation for permissible body
= current is valid only for shock durations between ½ cycle to
2 2
ln −1 + ln −1 5s. Dalziel [2] proposes a threshold of 50J of delivered
2
energy as an appropriate criterion. This research has adopted
that theory in the analysis as explained later.
Where; −
=
+ III. RESULTS
and are the length and the radius of the conductor used
and d is the burial depth of the grounding grid. ρ and ε are the 3.1 Simulation 1: Transient Behaviour of a Buried
conductivity and the permittivity of the medium denoted in Horizontal Conductor
the subscript.
The vertical grounding rod is modelled in a similar fashion
using distributed R-L-C parameters. The circuit diagram is
shown in Figure 2. In this study the vertical rod is divided
into of equal sections (in this case n =10) to increase the
accuracy.

Fig 2. Scenario used in simulation 1

To verify the proposed model described in section 2.1, a

single segment of the grounding grid as shown in Figure 3
was simulated using PSCAD. Following parameters were
used for the simulation in order to compare the results
obtained by Liu [7].

Fig 1. Distributed R-L-C model of vertical rod. Copper rod : length of 15 m and radius of 12 mm
Buried at a depth : 0.6 m
The formulas for parameters used in this study are taken from Soil : = 70 Ω and = 15
reference [5] and the parameters are identical for each section Standard current impulse: ( ) = ( − ),
n = 1, 2, 3…10. where = 36.5 , = 60000 and = 6000000.
4 (2a) The variation of voltage at the injection end (Ea), 3.5m
= log − 1 × ( )
2 from the injection end (Eb) and 7 m from the injection end
(Ec) are shown in the Figure 4.
4 1 (2b)
= log − 1 × ( )
2

4 1 (2c)
=2 log − 1 × ( )
 waveforms were recorded at same points. The results are
shown in the Figure 6.
As in the graph, in the power frequency scenario, the
voltage waveforms of all points are almost identical. This is a
clear indication that the shunt components of the T-model
(capacitance, c and conductance, g) are the dominant
components here and the series components are in negligible
significance to cause any drop of voltage along the conductor.
Next a DC current of 5 kA was injected to the conductor.
Voltage waveforms in similar points as before were observed
and shown in Figure 7. It is clear that the voltage values at all
points are constant throughout the conductor.
This result matching the result in 50Hz AC again shows
Fig 3. Results of simulation 1 that the significant component in DC too is the shunt
components capacitance and conductance.
When comparing, it was found that the selected model is in
good agreement with results of [7] and thus it is able to give
valid results for further analysis of the grounding grid which
are discussed in latter sections of this paper
3.2 Simulation 2: Comparison of Transient and Steady
State Behaviours
The same model described in section 2.1 was used to
analyse the behaviour under three scenarios namely (a)
impulse, (b) power frequency and (c) DC. In all the cases,
same peak amplitude of 5 kA was injected to same point of
the model. The Figure 5, Figure 6 and Figure 7 depict the
results of impulse, power frequency and DC injection
respectively. Fig 5. Response to 50Hz AC

Fig 6. Response to DC
Fig 4. Transient Response Peak voltage variations at each point are summarised in
In the impulse current injection scenario (see Figure 5) the Table 1 below.
results were obtained from four different points, where Ea is
the point where the current is injected and Eb and Ec are TABLE 1
located 3.5 m and 7 m away from point A respectively. Ed is PEAK VOLTAGE COMPARISON
the opposite end point which is 15 m away from the injection A B C
point (A).
It is clearly seen that the peak voltage rises up to 86.6 kV at Impulse 86.6 kV 50.1 kV 33.7 kV
the injection point, whereas it is 50.1 kV and 33.7 kV at 50 Hz AC 33.6 kV 33.6 kV 33.6 kV
points B, C respectively. By analysing the decay of voltage
along the conductor, it can be deduced that the series DC 33.6 kV 33.6 kV 33.6 kV
components of the T-model is dominant in this scenario. In
other words either the resistance r or the inductance l has to By comparing above three cases, it is clear that under
be dominant in the transient condition. transient conditions the behaviour of an earth electrode differs
In the power frequency analysis, a 50Hz AC current was significantly from its steady state behaviour. The voltage in
injected to the same point as described before and the voltage close proximity to the point of injection rises to higher levels
even if it last for a very shorter period. So this analysis further
concludes that the effect from transients and cannot be For the transient analysis a 10/350 µs surge of 120 kA peak
neglected. applied to the top left corner. The energy delivered by the
shock due to the touch and step contacts at various distances
3.3 Simulation 3: Transient Behaviour of a Practical
from the injection point are given below in Table 2.
Grounding Grid
After conducting several more simulations to study the
TABLE 2
transient behaviour a software named SmartMesh was
ENERGY DELIVERED BY THE SHOCK
developed by the authors to benchmark the safety of a
Energy delivered by (J)
grounding grid under transients. Following is the results Point
Touch Step
obtained for a practical grounding grid given in [1].
A 1381.1 107.5
B 89.2 12.3
C 6.6 0.3

3.4 Software Development

SmartMesh software was developed in Java using an object
oriented approach. It is comprised with 4 modules.

1. Basic Grid Design (Core Module)

2. Steady State Voltage Profile Generation
3. Transient Analysis Tool
4. Design Optimizer

It is also equipped with few value added features to improve

the quality and user friendliness.

1. Save/Load Feature
2. Dimensioning
3. Generation of a Detailed Design Report
3.4.1 Basic Grid Design
The boundary specified by the user is the physical limits of
the grounding grid. The program will attempt to design the
grounding grid within these limits. This is done by a method
named “designMesh”.

Figure 9. Preparing the design

Figure 8. Results of simulation 3
 It takes the first point of the array “border” as the reference
and finds all points located within the drawing area with
specified spacing (relative to the reference point) in X and Y
directions. These points are stored in an array named
“allPoints”. The points within the boundary are selected from
“allPoints” array and stored in another array named “points”.
3.4.2 Steady State Voltage Profile Generation
Equations used for the generation of surface voltage profile
developed by Robert J. Heppe [6] used in the software. Prior
to the voltage profile generation it converts the set of points
into set of segments. A segment is an object identified by the
location of its midpoint and the direction. (i.e. whether it is
parallel to X-axis or Y-axis)
These segments are stored in an array named “segments”.
There is a mutual resistance between each pair of segments in
addition to self-resistance. For a grounding grid with n Figure 10. Result of Transient Analyser Tool
number of segments the resistance matrix will be in the form
of; The energy delivered by the touch voltage is calculated and
graphically shown in pink, while the energy delivered by the
step voltage is shown in purple as shown above in the figure
10.

3.4.4 Design Optimizer

[R] = (3)
Design optimizer uses an iterative method to calculate
optimum design. It allows the user to find the most cost
effective grid design while maintaining safety criterions. This
is a novel feature in this software category and it is very
useful for the designers. As an example consider the
Where ; Rii is the self-resistance of ith segment and, Rij is following cost comparison between the original grounding
the mutual resistance between ith segment and jth segment. grid design of Aniyakanda GSS and the optimized design
found using SmartMesh software.
The above matrix is calculated using the equations given
in[3]. In steady state scenario the touch voltage of any point TABLE 3
can be simply calculated by taking the difference between the COST OPTIMISATION
GPR and the surface voltage. Optimized
Table Head CEB Design
Design
To calculate the step voltage at a point the voltage
gradients in X,Y directions at that point are required. These Grid Spacing 10m x10 m 14.5 m x 11.5 m
can be found by finding the surface voltages at neighbouring Conductor
1459 m 1098 m
points. Then the step voltage can be calculated as follows. Length
No. of Rods 13 2
= + Welded Joints 80 47
(4)
Total Cost 6388 units 4492 units
3.4.3 Transient Analysis Tool In this particular design the cost has been reduced by about
A database containing voltage variation was created from 30%. This is just an example, but in most of the designs a
the data obtained by PSCAD simulations. Appropriate lookup significant reduction in cost in similar scale can be achieved
table can be selected from this database according to the using the design optimization.
scenario.

IV. CONCLUSION
This study was carried out to identify any modifications
required to IEEE80:2000 Guide for Safety in AC Substation
Grounding in order to accommodate transient behaviour. The
simulation based studies discussed at the beginning are
mainly focussed on finding out the significance of the
 transient behaviour of the grounding grids. It was found out
that the transient response of a grounding grid is totally
different from its steady state response due to the dominance
of the inductance. Providing an equipotential zone within the
substation area which was one of the main objectives of a
having a grid type structure will not be served under transient
condition. From the simulations conducted it was found that
for surges having a peak higher than about 30kA, transients
become worst case in terms of hazard.
Therefore it is recommended that any grounding grid
designed according to IEEE80 algorithm needs to be assessed
for transient behaviour separately. A design software which
accompanies the above feature along with IEEE80 design
algorithm was developed by the authors. It helps the design
engineers to identify the possible hazardous areas based on
the 50J transient shock safety criterion. These hazards can be
minimized by modifying the grid design. Some of the
possible such modifications are having closely spaced
conductors, adding vertical ground rods, adding a resistive
surface layer, changing the way the equipment are connected
to the grounding grid.
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REFERENCES
[1] IEEE 80: Guide for Safety in AC Substation Grounding, 2000.
[2] Prof.C.F.Dalziel, Deleterious Effects of Electric Shock, pp. 16-17, 1961
[3] Y. Liu, Transient Response of Grounding Systems Caused by Lightning :
Modeling and experiments, Comprehensive Summaries of Uppsala
Dissertations from the Faculty of Science and Technology, 2004.
[4] ] Y. Liu, N. Theethayi, R. Thottappillil, An Engineering Model for
Transient Analysis of Grounding System Under Lightning Strikes:
Nonuniform Transmission-Line Approach”, IEEE Transactions on
Power Delivery, Vol. 20, No.2, pp. 722-730, April 2005
[5] G. Leonid, P. Marjan, On High-Frequency Circuit Equivalents of a
Vertical Ground Rod, IEEE transactions on power delivery, Vol. 20,
No. 2, April 2005
[6] R. J. Heppe, Computation of potential at surface above an energized grid
or other electrode, allowing for non-uniform current distribution, IEEE
Transactions on Power Apparatus and Systems, Vol. PAS-98, No.6
Nov./Dec. 1979
[7] Y. Liu, M. Zitnik, R. Thottappillil, An Improved Transmission-Line
Model of Grounding System, IEEE Transactions on Electromagnetic
Compatibility, Vol. 43, No.3, pp. 348-355, August 2001.
[8] IEC 62305 Protection Against Lightning: Part 3 – Physical damage to
structures and life hazard
[9] Liu, Y. 2004. Transient Response of Grounding Systems Caused by
Lightning: Modelling and Experiments. Acta Univesitatis Upsaliensis.
Comprehensive Symmeries of Uppsala Dissertations from the Faculty
of Science and Technology. 1015.89 pp. Uppsala. ISBN 91-554-6041-0