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P os te d N OV 9 201 2 by E DV AR D in P OW ER SU BST AT IO N , PR OT EC TI ON w it 1 C O! !E NT
Substation Grounding
An electrical substation is a critical resource in a power system. Safe operation of a substation calls for a properly designed and installed groundingsystem . A well-designed grounding system will ensure reliable performance of the substation over its entire service life. How does good grounding improve substation reliability? Good grounding path of sufficiently low impedance ensures fast clearing of faults. A fault remaining in the system for long may cause several problems including those of power system stability. Faster clearing thus improves overall reliability. It also ensures safety. A groundfault in equipment causes the metallic enclosure potential to rise above the true ground potential. An improper grounding results in a higher potential and also results in delayed clearing of the fault (due to insufficient current flow ).
This combination is essentially unsafe because any person coming into contact with the enclosure is exposed to higher potentials for a longer duration. Therefore, substation reliability and safety must be as built-in as possible by good grounding scheme, which in turn will ensure faster fault clearing and low enclosure potential rise.
It is very evident that the connections between conductors and the main grid and between the grid and ground rods are as important as the conductors themselves in maintaining a permanent lowresistance path to ground. The basic issues here are: 1. The type of bond used for the connection of the conductor in its run, with the ground grid and with the ground rod 2. The temperature limits, which a joint can withstand. The most frequently used grounding connections are mechanical pressure type (which will include bolted, compression and wedge-type construction ) and exothermically welded type. Pressure-type connections produce a mechanical bond between conductor and connector by means of a tightened bolt-nut or by crimping using hydraulic or mechanical pressure. This connection either holds the conductors in place or squeezes them together, providing surface-tosurface contact with the exposed conductor strands. On the other hand, the exothermic process fuses the conductor ends together to form a molecular bond between all strands of the conductor. Temperature limits are stated in standards such as IEEE 80 and IEEE 837 for different types of joints based on the joint resistance normally obtainable with each type. Exceeding these temperatures during flow of fault currents may result in damage to the joint and cause the joint resistance to increase, which will result in further overheating. The joint will ultimately fail and result in grounding system degradation or total loss of ground reference with disastrous results. Go to GroundingSteps
In MV and HV substations, where the source and load are connected through long overhead lines, it often happens that the groundfault current has no metallic path and has to flow through the groundmass (earth). This means that the ground rods of both source and load side substations have to carry this current to or from the groundmass. The ground rod system should be adequate to carry this current and ground resistance of the grounding system assumes importance. The length, number and placement of ground rods affect the resistance of the path to earth.Doubling of ground rod length reduces resistance by a value of 45%, under uniform soil conditions. Usually, soil conditions are not uniform and it is vital to obtain accurate data by measuring ground rod resistance with appropriate instruments. For maximum efficiency, grounding rods should be placed no closer together than the length of the rod. Normally, this is 10 ft (3 m). Each rod forms an electromagnetic shell around it, and when the rods are too close, the ground currents of the shells interfere with each other. It should be noted that as the number of rods is increased, the reduction of ground resistance is not in inverse proportion. Twenty rods do not result in 1/20th of the resistance of a single rod but only reduce it by a factor of 1/10th. For economic reasons, there is a limit to the maximum distance between rods. Normally, this limit is taken as 6 m. At more than 6 m, the cost of additional conductor needed to connect the rods makes the design economically attractive. In certain cases, the substation layout may not have the required space and acquiring the needed space may involve substantial expense. Four interconnected rods on 30 m centers will reduce resistivity 94% over one rod but require at least 120 m of conductor.
On the other hand, four rods placed 6 m apart will reduce resistivity 81% over one rod and use only 24 m of conductor. Go to GroundingSteps
. Soil Preparation
Soil resistivity is an important consideration in substation grounding system design. The lower the resistivity, the easier it is to get a good ground resistance. Areas of high soil resistivity and those with ground frost ( which inturn causes the soil resistivityto increase by orders of magnitude) need special consideration. The highest ground resistivity during the annual weather cycle should form the basis of the design since the same soil will have much higher resistivity during dry weather when percentage of moisture in the ground becomes very low.
Grounding Tests - Earth Potential and Grounding Mesh Effectiveness (courtesy of DCS Engineering Sdn Bhd www.dcsesb.com)
One approach to take care of this problem is to use deep driven ground rods so that they are in contact with the soil zone deep enough to remain unaffected by surface climate. The other approach is to treat the soil around the ground rod with chemical substances that have the capacity to absorb atmospheric/soil moisture. Use of chemical rods is one such solution. Go to GroundingSteps