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Wind Turbine Foundation

Grounding Considerations
IEEE Wind and Solar Plant Collector System Design Working Group
(WandSPCSDwg)
Task Force on Wind and Solar Plant Grounding for Personal Safety
http://grouper.ieee.org/groups/td/wind/;
http://grouper.ieee.org/groups/td/safety/

Abdou Sana, Eng., Ph.D.

Secretary of the Task Force on Wind and Solar Plant Grounding for Personal
Safety
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I Introduction
• WPP Grounding System consists of many
Small grounding stations distributed in a
wide area with various soil types and
characteristics.
• The Small grounding Stations are
interconnected to form a wide network
spread across the WPP.
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• Typical Wind Power Plant Feeder Ground grid

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Main Purpose of the Grounding system:

• Personal Safety
• Equipment Safety
For any accidental Circuit (Short-circuit to ground at or
lightning strike on a Tower), the questions are:
• Is a person working at walking by the tower, safe?
• How do we plan, design and build the WTG grounding
system to be safe and .. . Affordable?
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Factors to be considered when designing a

WTG grounding system:

• Codes and Regulations

• Ground conductor (Material, Size, connections)
• Ground Grid Layout and Resistance
• Soil Electrical Resistivity
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2 - Reference standard
• ANSI/IEEE 80 Guide for Safety in AC Substation Grounding
• ANSI/IEEE 81 Guide for Measuring Earth Resistivity, Ground Impedance,
and Earth Surface Potentials of a Ground System
• ANSI/IEEE 998 Guide for Direct Lightning Stroke Shielding of Substations
• ANSI/ IEEE 367 Recommended Practice for Determining the Electric
Power Station Ground Potential Rise and Induced
Voltage From a Power Fault
• National Electrical Code [NEC]
• National Electrical Safety Code [NESC]
• International Electro-technical Commission [IEC]
– IEC 62305-3, Protection against lightning – Part 3: Physical damage to structures
and life hazard
– IEC 61400-24, Wind turbine generator systems – Part 24: Lightning protection
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3 - Ground Conductor Sizing

Conductor size as a function of conductor current can be
obtained from IEEE Std-80
Assumptions:
• All heat will be retained in the conductor (adiabatic process).
• The product of specific heat (SH) and specific weight (SW),
TCAP, is approximately constant because SH increases and SW
decreases at about the same rate.
• Fault duration within a few seconds
Minimum conductor size to curry a given current when the
conductor material constants are available:
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Minimum Conductor Cross-section Area

1 197.4
Amm2 I A .kcmil I
 TCAP 10 4   K0  Tm   TCAP   ln K.0  T.m
 ln
 tc r r   K0  Ta   t     K  T 
     .c .r .r   .0 .a 
I rms current in kA
Amm2 minimum Conductor cross section in mm2
Akcmil minimum Conductor cross section in kcmil
Tm Maximum allowable temperature in °C
Ta Ambient temperature in °C
Tr Reference temperature for material constants in °C
αo Thermal coefficient of resistivity at 0 °C in 1/°C
αr Thermal coefficient of resistivity at reference temperature Tr in 1/°C
ρr Resistivity of the ground conductor at reference temperature Tr in ìΩ-cm
Ko 1/αo or (1/αr) – Tr in °C
tc duration of current in s
TCAP: Thermal capacity per unit volume of material in J/(cm3·°C) (see table)
αr and ρr to be evaluated at the same reference temperature of Tr °C .
(Tables provides data for αr and ρr at 20 °C).
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Description Material αr factor at Ko at 0 °C Fusinga ρr 20 °C TCAP thermal

conductivity 20 °C (0 °C) temperature (μΩ·cm) capacity
(%) (1/°C) Tm (°C) [J/(cm3·°C)]
Copper, annealed soft- 100.0 0.003 93 234 1083 1.72 3.42
drawn
Copper, commercial 97.0 0.003 81 242 1084 1.78 3.42
hard-drawn
Copper-clad steel wire 40.0 0.003 78 245 1084 4.40 3.85
Copper-clad steel wire 30.0 0.003 78 245 1084 5.86 3.85
Copper-clad steel rodb 20.0 0.003 78 245 1084 8.62 3.85
Aluminum, EC grade 61.0 0.004 03 228 657 2.86 2.56
Aluminum, 5005 alloy 53.5 0.003 53 263 652 3.22 2.60
Aluminum, 6201 alloy 52.5 0.003 47 268 654 3.28 2.60
Aluminum-clad steel 20.3 0.003 60 258 657 8.48 3.58
wire
Steel, 1020 10.8 0.001 60 605 1510 15.90 3.28
Stainless-clad steel rodc 9.8 0.001 60 605 1400 17.50 4.44
Zinc-coated steel rod 8.6 0.003 20 293 419 20.10 3.93
Stainless steel, 304 2.4 0.001 30 749 1400 72.00 4.03

a From ASTM standards.

b Copper-clad steel rods based on 0.254 mm (0.010 in) copper thickness.
c Stainless-clad steel rod based on 0.508 mm (0.020 in) No. 304 stainless steel thickness over No. 1020
steel core.
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4- WTG Grounding Layout and Resistance

Typical WTG Ground Grid

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4.1 Standalone /Local Ground Grid Resistance

WTG ground grid resistance measured/calculated
when the WTG ground grid is disconnected from the
rest of the WPP grounding systems.

Typical Requirements (IEC 61400-24 clause 9):

Rg ≤ 10.0 Ohm

• Local soil resistivity is required for calculating Rg

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4.2 Lightning Protection Requirement

IEC 62305-3, Clause 5.4.2.2 - Type B - Level I and IEC 61400-24, Clause 9 & Annex I – Type B Class I

Combination of Horizontal and Vertical Electrode:

Lr= L1-re
Lv=(L1-re)/2

Lr: Horizontal ground

electrode length
Lv: Vertical ground
electrode length
re= Equivalent radius of the ring
electrode
L1: IEC 62305-3 2010 - fig. 3
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4.3 Case Study :

• Case 1 : - 2x Ground Rings & 4x Vertical Electrodes
• Case 2: Rebar only
• Case 3: Rebar with 2x Ground Rings & 4x Vertical Electrodes
• Case 4: Case 3 and 1x 50m horizontal ground electrode
• Case 5: Case 3 and 2x 50m horizontal ground electrode
Concrete slurry was not included & Only uniform soil electrical resistivity was
considered

Case 2
Case 1

Case 3 Cases 4 &5

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WTG Ground Grid Resistance (Uniform Soil Resistivity)

100

2x Ring & 4& V.

Rods
Ground Grid Resistance (Ohm)

10 Rebar Only

10
Rebar & 2 Rings
8 & 4xV.Rods

6
1
Rebar & 2 rings
&4Rods&1x50m
4
Horizontal cond

2
Rebar & 2 rings
&4Rods&2x50m
0 Horizontal cond
0 200 400 600 800
0.1
10 100 1000 10000
Equivalent Soil Resistivity (Ohm.m)
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• The 2 rings and 4 rods case exhibit the highest ground

impedance and is conservative.
• Adding the rebar to the 2 rings and 4 rods improves the ground
resistance.
• There is not a significant difference between Rebar Alone and
Rebar with 2 rings external to the foundation.
• Adding 1x or 2 x 50m horizontal conductor to the rebar & 2
rings further improves ground grid impedance.
• For soils with resistivity below 500Ohm.m a ground grid
resistance <10Ohm can be achieved easily.
• For soil resistivity above 500Ohm.m, achieving a ground grid
resistance of <10Ohm is challenging. Additional cost
(Equipment & work) work/ equipment such as ground
enhancing materials or chemical rods will be required.
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4.4 WTG Interconnected Ground Resistance

Resistance measured / Calculated when the WTG
ground grid is interconnected to the wind power
plant grounding system (functional Ground grid
Resistance)
Typical Requirement:
Rg ≤2.0 Ohm
Easily Achievable thanks to the interconnection of
many small grounding stations
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5- Soil Resistivity for WPP Grounding Design

Soil electrical resistivity is critical as it directly impacts:

• The safety criteria (safe voltages) computations
• The ground grid impedance which in turn, affects actual
ground potentials

At which locations, soil resistivity should be tested (how many

tests should be carried out?)
What soil equivalent resistivity should be used in the
calculations for safety assessment? .
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5-1 Soil Resistivity and Safety Criteria

Safety criteria (safe touch and Step voltages) are determined

based on local conditions (soil conditions).
• For body weight of 50kg (IEEE std. 80)


Etouch50  1000  1.5Cs  s   0.116
 
Estep50  1000  6Cs  s 
0.116
ts
ts
– Estep step voltage in V
– Etouch touch voltage in V
– Cs De-rating factor (protective surface layer) ~
– ρs resistivity of the surface material in Ω·m
– ts duration of shock current in seconds
– If no protective surface layer is used, then Cs =1 and ρs = ρ.
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(IEEE Std 80) For b = 0.08m Cs versus hs curves for different parameter K values
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5.2 Actual Step & Touch voltages

• Actual Step and Touch Potentials are a fraction of the Ground
potential rise which is directly impacted by the
interconnected grounding systems impedances
GPR=Rg*Ig = Rg*(3I0) *SF
– Rg= ground grid resistance
– I0 is the Zero Sequence current (“ground” current)
– SF is the split factor
– Rg=is a function of
• Soil electrical resistivity
• Ground grid geometry & material (surface, depth,
shape, copper, coppercald steel etc..)
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5.3 Soil Resistivity Tested at a limited number of locations

If Soil Resistivity is tested only at few locations on site, then consider

using the most conservative data from the test for all grounding
processes:
• Use Maximum soil profile for ground grid impedance and ground
potential calculations
• Use Minimum soil profile for Safety Criteria computation
• The max and min soil profiles are not necessary true maximum
and true minimum and Design Risks needs to be assessed and
controlled (Overdesign, Safety concerns)
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5.4 Soil Resistivity tested at all grounding station locations

If Soil Resistivity is tested at all locations subject to safety hazard on
Site, then consider the following:
- For stand alone ground grid impedance calculations, use local soil
resistivity models
- For Interconnected ground grid impedance and ground potential
calculation, use an averaged soil resistivity profile to apply across
site.
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10000.00
5.5 Case Study
1000.00
WPP 1 - Earth Apparent Resistance
Earth Apparent Resistance (Ohm)
100.00 Overall
Max
Overall
Profiles for a WPP on high resistivity
10.00
Average
Overall
soils (East Pennsylvania, USA)
1.00 Median
Overall
0.10 Min

0.01
10000.00
0.10 1.00 10.00 100.00
Average Electrode Spacing (m)
1000.00
WPP 2 - Earth Apparent Resistance
Earth Apparent Resistance (Ohm)

100.00
Overall
Max
Profiles for a WPP on medium
10.00 Overall
Average
resistivity soils (Central Texas, USA)
Overall
1.00 Median
Overall
Min
0.10
0.10 1.00 10.00 100.00
Average Electrode Spacing (m)

WPP 3 - Earth Apparent Resistance

Profiles for a WPP on a low resistivity
soils (Plains East Colorado)
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WPP 1 WPP 2 WPP 3

Electrode length for lightning protection*
55 13 5
using median soil profile (m)
Electrode length for lightning protection*
80** 40 5
using Max soil profile (m)
*Minimum length of Earth electrode (vertical and horizontal conductors) per IEC 62305-3,
Clause 5.4.2.2 - Type B - Level, and a ground grid effective radius of 9.0 m
** Value limited to 80m corresponding to max 3000Ohm.m resistivity in IEC 62305-3
Computed maximum local grid impedance using
24.99 37.93 2.68
Max soil profile (Ω)
Computed maximum local grid impedance using
6.03 15.24 0.75
Median soil profile (Ω)
Maximum measured local grid impedance in the
13.43 9.02 0.750
field after construction
Computed maximum interconnected grid
impedance across WPP using Median soil 1.13 1.02 0.20
profile (Ω)
Computed maximum interconnected grid
1.99 2.12 0.36
impedance using Max soil profile (Ω)
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For low to medium resistivity soil ( ρ ≤ 500Ohm.m)

• Using the max soil resistivity profile or the median
soil resistivity profile does not make a big difference
• Zg <10.0Ω can be achieved easily at each local WTG
without additional grounding conductors or soil
enhancing materials.
• Safety criteria calculations and safety assessment
should be based on the measured local soil
resistivity, or the minimum soil profile across site
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For medium to high soil resistivity soils ( ρ >500Ohm.m)

• Max resistivity profile may result in extended additional
ground grid conductors and/or ground enhancing material to
comply with WTGs requirement for local ground grid
impedance.
• This suggests that the soil resistivity testing be conducted for
each WTG location and the local ground grid be designed
accordingly.
• For the interconnected or functional ground grid impedance
only, there is not a significant difference between the Max soil
profile and the median soil profile. 2.0 Ohms can be achieved
easily. Safety criteria calculations and safety assessment have
to be based on the measured local soil resistivity or the
minimum profile soil resistivity across site
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6 Conclusion
• Various WTG Manufacturer have various requirements for WTG ground
grid Layout and resistance.
• Most WTG manufacturer require Rg≤10.0Ω
• Local soil resistivity is critical to WTG standalone ground resistance.
• If soil electrical resistivity measurement is completed at all grounding
points, then averaged soil resistivity can be used for WTG interconnected
ground grid resistance and ground potentials calculation.
• If soil electrical resistivity data is available only at a few locations across
the WPP, then “Maximum” profile data should be used for ground
resistance calculations and “Minimum” soil resistivity profiles data should
be used for safety criteria (safe step and touch potential) calculations
• For soil electrical Resistivity ρ>500Ω.m there is a significant cost increase
for achieving a standalone WTG ground grid resistance Rg≤10.0Ω
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Work On Progress
• Effect of Multi-layered soil structures
• 3-D soil models,
• Effect of concrete slurry
• Effect of Ground enhancing material (such as bentonite).
• Hand calculations of WTG ground grid impedance