Grounding System

Grounding System

Grounding is a connection done through a metal link between the body of any electrical appliance, or neutral point, to the deeper ground soil. The metal link is normally of MS flat, CI flat, GI wire which should be penetrated to the ground earth grid.

Purpose of Grounding

Safety of Personnel Protection of Installation Superior performance of electrical system

Types of Grounding
System grounding

Equipment Body grounding

Design of Grounding System

Objectives:

Touch and step potentials within permissible limits Low value of earth resistance

Design of Grounding System

Design of grounding system mainly depends upon:

Soil Resistivity, Magnitude & duration of fault current, Area available for earth mat laying.

Soil Resistivity
Soil resistivity depends on nature of soil, humidity, temperature and climatic conditions.
Type of soil Wet organic soil Moist soil Dry soil Bedrock Average Resistivity (-m) 10 100 1000 10000

Soil Resistivity

Grid Fault Current

The maximum grid current IG which is discharged by the grounding system to the ground, IG = Df . Sf . If Df: Decrement factor for entire duration of fault Sf: Fault current division factor If : rms symmetrical ground fault current

Tolerable Step and Touch Voltages

Estep = (1000 +6CS )*0.116/t Etouch = (1000+1.5CS)*0.116/t t : Duration of shock current, S: Resistivity of the top layer of soil, C : Reduction factor.

Size of Conductor
depends on : Magnitude and duration of fault current,

Type of material,
Type of joint and Corrosion effect.

Size of Conductor
Cross-sectional area of conductor (in mm2) is determined by, Amm2 = K. If. tc
If : Fault current in kA, tc: Fault clearing time in sec, K: Factor dependent on material of conductor.

Size of Conductor
Values of K for Steel, Aluminium and Copper are as follows:

Material
Steel Aluminium Copper

Welded joint Bolted joint

12.15 8.4 4.7 15.7 12.0 5.8

Size of Conductor

(Contd)

For steel conductors, corrosion allowance is also considered.

Soil Resistivity (ohm-m) Up to 25 Between 25 to 100 >100

Increase in conductor size (%) 30 15 0

Step and Mesh Voltages

Es=.Ks.Ki.IG/Ls Em= .Km.Ki.IG/LM Factors Km, Ks and Ki depend on spacing between conductors, depth of earth mat, diameter of conductor, number of conductors etc.

Resistance of Earth Mat

The earth resistance depends on soil resistivity, available area, total length of mat conductors and depth of mat in soil.
Rg= .( 1/LT + (1/(20.A))x(1+1/(1+ h(20/A)))

Difficult Conditions

Corrosion
High Soil resistivity Transferred Potential

Corrosion
When dissimilar metals are in electrical or physical contact through an electrolyte, galvanic corrosion can take place. High saline nature of soil

Soil resistivity and corrosion

Range of Soil resistivity range (ohm-m) Less than 25
25 to 50 50 to 100

Class

Severe
Moderate to severe Mild Above

100

Not likely

Equilibrium Potential- Ref. Copper electrode

Metal
Copper Aluminium Magnesium Zinc Iron Lead

Equilibrium Potential (volts)

0 -2.0 -2.7 -1.1 -0.7 -0.4

Methods to reduce the corrosion effect

Resistive coating allowances in size selection of material for corrosion Cathodic protection.

Cathodic protection
To reduce corrosion by minimizing the difference in potential between anode and cathode. This protection can be accomplished by two widely used methods
Sacrificial anode Method Impressing DC Current

Design sequence

The criterion of selection is based on current density required and soil resistivity. If the soil resistivity is low (less than 50 ohmmeters) and the current density requirement is low (less than 1 milli ampere per square foot), a galvanic system can be used. However, if the soil resistivity and/or current density requirement exceed the above values, an impressed current system should be used.

High soil resistivity

The sites of hydroelectric power plants are located in rocky areas where earth resistivity is very high and space for laying of earth mat is limited.

High soil resistivity

Various methods to lower the ground resistance are : Connection to Penstocks Laying of conductors in tail race area Satellite Earthing Use of Bentonite clay (generally not recommended)

Connection to Penstocks

Penstocks which are metallic and buried in soil are connected with the main earthmat.
Because of large diameter and long length of penstocks, low overall ground resistance is easily achieved.

Laying of conductors in Tail Race Area

The tailrace area is generally low resistivity area as earth mass will always have a fair amount of water seepage.
A separate earthmat in tailrace area is laid and it is connected with main earthmat to reduce the overall earth resistance.

Satellite Earthing

An additional grid is laid outside the power plant, where low resistivity soil is available. This grid is connected to the main earth grid and hence the ground resistance is reduced.

Transferred Potential

During fault conditions, high voltage equal to Grid Potential Rise (GPR) is attained by the grounding grid.

This voltage shall not be conveyed to places outside the power plant where it can be dangerous to the person and the equipment.

Transferred Potential

The L.T. (415 V, 3-phase) power requirements of the power plant area should be met from the station transformer located within the grounding grid area of the power plant. No L.T. line should either be taken out of the grounding area or brought from outside to inside the power plant area.

Transferred Potential

Any telephone line should leave or enter the grounding grid area through isolating transformer. This transformer shall be capable of withstanding voltage equal to GPR between windings and between each winding & the ground.

Transferred Potential

In pipes and metallic conduits entering / leaving the grounding grid area, transferred potentials may be reduced or stopped at the station boundary by inserting insulating sections of sufficient length.
If there is any metallic gate within the area covered by ground mat, the ground mat shall be extended to the full opening position of the gate.

CONCLUSION

For a power plant having high soil resistivity, interconnection of dissimilar material grids, high corrosivity, the safe earthmat design can be achieved from various described methods and at the same time it is very important to take care of safety of the men and equipments which may come in contact with the area where earthmat is laid and which may attain a high potential rise.