1

Design of Distribution Substation Earth Grid in High

Resistivity Soil Using CDEGS


1
S. D. Buba, W. F. Wan Ahmad, M. Z. A. Ab Kadir, C. Gomes, J. Jasni,
2
M. Osman

1. Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia
43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia.

2. Department of Electrical Power Engineering
College of Engineering, Universiti Tenaga Nasional
43000 Kajang, Selangor, Malaysia.

1
sanibintahir@gmail.com, wfwanahmad@upm.edu.my, mzk@upm.edu.my, Chandima@upm.edu.my, jas@upm.edu.my,
2
miszaina@uniten.edu.my


Abstract- Design of distribution substation earthing grid can be
very challenging in high resistivity soils especially in two layer
soils where the top layer resistivity is lower than the bottom
layer. This paper presents the design of a distribution substation
earth grid using Current Distribution Electromagnetic Field
Grounding Soil Structure Analysis Software (CDEGS). Soil
resistivity measurement was carried out at the substation site
using a 4-pole Megger earth tester based on Wenner method. The
soil structure was determined using RESAP module, while the
design was implemented using SESCAD and executed by MALT
module. Results indicated a slight reduction of earth grid
resistance, 0.6%, 5.8% and 6.5%, respectively as the grid burial
depth was varied from 0.5m to 1.5m in steps of 0.5m. The touch
and step voltages were found to be lower when surface layer
material was not applied and higher when surface layer materials
of 3000-m and 5000-m resistivity were interchangeably
applied on the grid surface. It was also found that, the calculated
earth grid resistance from IEEE Std. 80-2000 equation was lower
than the grid resistance computed by MALT.

I. INTRODUCTION

Earthing is the practice of establishing electrical connection
between metallic frame of equipment, structures or electrical
circuits, and a metallic system which is normally buried in the
soil with the aim of maintaining such parts at zero potential or
at the same potential with respect to the earth, thereby
preventing the presence of dangerous or undesirable potential
differences between adjacent parts. Earthing systems facilitate
the detection of earth fault currents by protective relaying
systems and provide low impedance paths through the earth
for load currents. In addition, earthing systems are used to
shield control cables and other low voltage wiring from the
effects of electromagnetic interference (EMI) and capacitive
coupling by minimizing system the voltages. Potential
differences may occur in electrical substations and other
facilities as a result of lightning discharges, fault currents
caused by earth fault conditions, and switching currents
caused by normal system operations. The passage of these
currents through the earth grid and other metallic earth
conductors produces earth potential rise (EPR) which can be
dangerous to humans and may cause damage and malfunction
to equipment and systems [1-6].
Substations, being electrical facilities meant for
transformation of system voltages from one level to the other
are common places for generation of EPR during earth faults
and other system abnormalities. Therefore, it is mandatory to
provide an effective earthing system, usually an earth grid
installed in the form of horizontal conductor meshes and
sometimes combined with earth rods to ensure the safety of
personnel and equipment within the substation and also the
safety of humans and livestock in its vicinity. The main
purpose of earthing grids in substations is to safely carry and
dissipate fault currents into the earth both under normal and
short-circuit conditions, discharge lightning strokes to earth
and reduce step and touch potentials to safe levels. In order to
provide an effective earthing for the various equipments
associated with substations, the earthing grid or earth electrode
system must fulfil the following basic requirements:
(a) the resistance of the earthing grid to remote earth must be
sufficiently low to ensure operation of the earth fault
protective relays at the substation and along lines and cables
connected to it,
(b) the earth potential gradient within and near the substation
should be such that under earth fault conditions, step and
touch voltages are confined to safe levels,
(c) the earthing grid must be isolated from services entering
the substation to prevent transfer of earth potentials to
telephone lines, water mains, railway sidings in event of earth
potential rise (EPR) in the substation, which may be in
kilovolts at times, and
(e) the earthing grid should have sufficient capacity to carry
the maximum earth fault currents liable to be imposed on it
without overheating, suffering mechanical damage or undue
ionization of soil around buried earth electrodes and
conductors [7].
2

In the design of a substation earth grid, certain site-
dependent parameters such as, maximum grid current I
G
, fault
duration t
f
, shock duration t
s
, soil resistivity , surface material
resistivity
s
, and grid geometry are considered to have
substantial impact on the grid design. With regard to the grid
geometry, i.e. the area of the grid system, conductor spacing
and the depth of the earth grid are the parameters that have
much impact on the mesh, step and touch voltage and EPR,
while parameters such as the conductor diameter and the
thickness of the surfacing material have much less impact
[8, 2]. Specifically, soil resistivity and available land area are
the main influential factors for achievement of low earth grid
resistance. Generally, the lower the resistance of a substation
earth grid with respect to remote earth, the more effective it is,
although in situations where the soil resistivity is very high,
achievement of low earth grid resistance would be difficult
and costly [9]. There are two basic approaches in designing
substation earthing grids that are used worldwide. In some
countries, an earthing grid is considered adequate when the
earth grid resistance satisfies the applicable standards, i.e.
lower than the recommended values. While in other countries,
such as the U.S.A, an earthing grid is considered safe, when
step and touch potentials are made lower than the permissible
values. Among the two approaches, the second is assumed to
be more valid as the magnitude of tolerable current flowing
through the human body is taken into consideration [1]. Most
of the available literature on substation earth grid design is
based on assumed value of soil resistivity normally taken as
100-m. This paper presents the design of a distribution
substation earthing grid based on measured field data. The
design is made using the SESCAD tool of Current Distribution
Electromagnetic Field Grounding and Soil Structure Analysis
Software (CDEGS) and executed on MALT module. The
proposed substation is intended to serve a residential area, and
the target of the design is to meet the earth grid resistance
value of 1 to 5 which is recommended for small distribution
substations as in [10].

II. METHODOLOGY
The process of substation earthing grid design comprises of
many sequential steps. The standard design procedure by
manual computation has been established by IEEE Std. 80-
2000 which is detailed in [8]. However, in computerized earth
grid design, some of the design steps are truncated by
automated computer programs. Basically, there are two design
stages, i.e. preliminary and actual. The preliminary stage
involves field data collection which is normally done by
carrying out soil resistivity measurement and determination of
the soil structure (model). While the actual design involves
calculations to determine the parameters such as maximum
expected earth grid current, grid conductor size, grid
resistance, tolerable touch and step voltages, and EPR. Sequel
to the actual design, the magnitude of EPR is compared to
touch and step voltages. When the safety criteria are satisfied,
the procedure is terminated. Otherwise, mesh and step
voltages must be computed and the entire design process
revised until the specified safety criteria are met. In this paper,
the design process adopted includes field data collection,
determination of soil model, determination of expected
maximum grid current, and earth grid resistance by manual
computation to estimate the magnitude of energization current
and grid dimension. These parameters were used as input for
design using SESCAD. The design procedure is detailed thus.

A. SOIL RESISTIVITY MEASUREMENT
Soil resistivity measurement was conducted at the proposed
site for installation of distribution substation located near
School of Graduate Studies, Universiti Putra Malaysia,
Malaysia based on Wenner method using a four pole Megger
Earth Tester. Table 1 depicts the measured soil resistivity field
data where the apparent resistance and resistivity values are
average of five measurement traverses conducted for each
probe spacing. The initial spacing between probes was 1m and
increased in steps of 1m up to 5m. To ensure accuracy of
measurement, the spacing between probes was equally
maintained and all probes were arranged in a straight line. The
RESAP module of CDEGS software was used to determine
the soil model from measured soil resistivity field data.

Table 1, Soil resistivity data collected from the field
Probe Spacing
(m)
Average Apparent
Resistance ()
Average Apparent
Resistivity (-m)
1.0
2.0
3.0
4.0
5.0
258.2
142
94.4
76
61
1,622
1,784
1,779
1,909
1,915

Table 2, Soil structure parameters computed by RESAP
Layer
Number
Resistivity (-
m)
Thickness
(m)
Reflection Coefficient
(p.u)
1
2
3
infinite
1631.713
2365.592
infinite
2.546949
infinite
0.0
-1.0000
0.18359

Table 3 Comparison of measured and computed resistivities by RESAP
Probe Spacing
(m)
Apparent Resistivity (-m) Discrepancy (%)
Measured Computed
1
2
3
4
5

1632.0
1787.0
1781.0
1911.0
1917.0
1644.0
1702.0
1790.0
1880.0
1959.0
0.74
4.77
0.51
1.62
2.18
Average discrepancy 1.97%

Table 2 depicts the soil model obtained using RESAP
module. It indicates that the soil comprises of two layers. The
surface layer numbered 1 is normally referred as air and has
infinite resistivity and thickness. The second layer is the first
layer of soil having 1631.7 -m resistivity and thickness of
approximately 2.55m. The third layer is the second layer of
soil of resistivity 2365.59 -m and infinite thickness. In other
words, the soil model is made of two layers with low
resistivity layer above a high resistivity layer of infinite
thickness. Table 3 lists the comparison between measured and
computed resistivity values executed using RESAP module. It
indicates that the measured and computed apparent resistivity
3

values are closely related except at probe spacing of 2, 4 and
5m where the individual percentage discrepancies were 4.77,
1.62 and 2.18%, respectively. However, the overall average
discrepancy was barely 1.97%. Hence, it is acceptable and
reliable.

B. CALCULATION OF EARTH GRID RESISTANCE
Several formula for computing the earth grid resistance are
available in literature, however, in this paper, the formula
reported in [8] was adopted and reproduced as equation (1) to
estimate the size of the earth grid as it contains two important
parameters, i.e. and A. Also, equation (1) was used in order
to save design time and trial by error. After several
computation attempts, a grid area of 22,500m
2
i.e.
150mx150m dimension yielded an earth grid resistance of
4.82 which was used as the grid dimension for design using
SESCAD. Note that,
g
R was calculated as 4.82 using
equation (1).
= = 82 . 4
4 A
R
g

(1)
Where: is the apparent soil resistivity of the site
A is the area occupied by the earth grid

C. CALCULATION OF MAXIMUM GRID CURRENT
In order to determine the maximum expected grid current, the
available short circuit capacity at the secondary terminals of
the upstream substation, 10/15MVA, 33/11kV, Z=10%
transformer feeding the downstream substation was calculated
as 5.644kA. The proposed downstream distribution substation
is intended to serve a residential area through a 1000kVA,
11/0.43-0.24kV delta-wye connected transformer. The length
of the cable line between the upstream and downstream
substations is 0.69km. An earth fault is assumed to occur on
the high voltage (HV) side of the 11/0.43-0.24kV transformer.
A split factor of 0.5 was assumed, implying that only half of
the fault current (2.822kA) is expected to flow through the
earth grid because it is a cable line network with extended
earthing provided by the cable sheaths. The X/R ratio at the
upstream transformer was calculated as 21.4, and the
maximum fault clearing time is considered to be 0.3s. The
system operates at a frequency of 50Hz. DC time offset T
A
,
and Decrement factor D
f
are required to determine the
maximum grid current and both are computed using equations
(2) and (3), respectively
0681 . 0
2
1
. = =
f R
X
T
A

(2)
1077 . 1
2
1 1 =

+ =
a
f
f
A
f
T
t
e
t
T
D (3)
The maximum grid current I
G
is thus calculated from equation
(4),
kA D x I I
f g G
125 . 3 = = (4)

D. SESCAD DESIGN DATA
The earth grid was designed using SESCAD and executed in
the MALT module of CDEGS to obtain the safety parameters
such as the touch and step voltages, fibrillation current for
fault duration of 0.3s, grid resistance and EPR. The dimension
of the earth grid was taken as 150x150m comprising of 51
parallel horizontal rows and 51 parallel vertical columns
spaced at 3m apart in both directions. Earth rods of 1.5m
length also spaced 3m apart were installed around the entire
periphery of the grid. The burial depth of the earth grid was
varied from 0.5m to 1.5m to investigate the impact of burial
depth on safety criteria. The grid conductors and the earth rods
were both made of hard dawn copper of radius .0067056m and
.009525m, respectively. The earth grid was energized by a
current magnitude of 3.125kA for duration of 0.3s.

III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Figures 1, 2, and 3 show the side view of the earth grid at
h=0.5m, h=1m and h=1.5m, respectively, while Figure 4
shows the top view. Note that, the dotted blue spots on the
periphery of the earth grid in Figure 4 indicate the earth rods.
Figures 5, 6, and 7 illustrate the scalar potential distribution on
the grid surface, and touch and step voltage, respectively for
burial depth of 0.5m.
Variation of the burial depth of earth grid from 0.5m to
1.5m did not indicate any difference in the touch and step
voltages for the same value of surface layer material
resistivity. However, it was observed that there is a little
difference in earth grid resistance as the burial depth was
varied from 0.5m to 1.5m in steps of 0.5m. When the earth
grid was buried at a depth of 0.5m, the earth grid resistance
was computed by MALT as 6.596 but the value reduced to
6.5530 at a depth of 1m and further reduced to 6.1865 at a

-20 20 60 100 140 180
X AXIS (METERS)
160
120
80
40
0
-40
Z

A
X
I
S


(
M
E
T
E
R
S
)
SOIL SURFACE
Side View of Conductors
Fig. 1 Side view of earth grid conductors, h=0.5m
4



depth of 1.5m. This represents a reduction of 0.6% grid
resistance between 0.5m to 1m depth, 5.8% between 1m to
1.5m depth and 6.5% reduction between 0.5m to 1.5m depths.
The EPR with respect to the three burial depths, 0.5m, 1m
and 1.5m were 20.613kV, 20.478kV and 19.333kV,
respectively. It would also be observed that, there is slight
difference in EPR due to its dependence solely on earth grid
resistance as the energizing current was maintained constant at
3.125kA. The depth of burial of earth grid had no influence on
the EPR while the step and touch voltages were similar for a



-40 10 60 110 160
X AXIS (METERS)
-40
10
60
110
160
Y

A
X
I
S


(
M
E
T
E
R
S
)
Touch Voltage Distribution [ID:MT_Site 3PE1.F05]
LEGEND
Maximum Value : 4814.891
Minimum Value : 118.477
4814.89
4345.25
3875.61
3405.97
2936.32
2466.68
1997.04
1527.40
1057.76
588.12
Figure 6 Touch voltage distribution on the earth grid
-40 10 60 110 160
X AXIS (METERS)
-40
10
60
110
160
Y

A
X
I
S


(
M
E
T
E
R
S
)
Scalar Potential Distribution[ID:MT_Site 3PE1.F05]
SPOTLEVELS x 1.E+3
Maximum Value : 20.495
Minimum Value : 15.798
20.49
20.02
19.56
19.09
18.62
18.15
17.68
17.21
16.74
16.27
Fig. 5 Scalar potential distribution on the earth grid
-20 20 60 100 140 180
X AXIS (METERS)
-20
20
60
100
140
180
Y

A
X
I
S


(
M
E
T
E
R
S
)
Fig. 4 Top view of earth grid conductors
-20 20 60 100 140 180
X AXIS (METERS)
160
120
80
40
0
-40
Z

A
X
I
S


(
M
E
T
E
R
S
)
SOIL SURFACE
Fig. 3 Side view of earth grid conductors, h=1.5m
-20 20 60 100 140 180
X AXIS (METERS)
160
120
80
40
0
-40
Z

A
X
I
S


(
M
E
T
E
R
S
)
SOIL SURFACE
Fig. 2 Side view of earth grid conductors h=1m
5


particular surface layer material resistivity, i.e. at 0.5, 1 and
1.5m burial depths considering a surface layer material
resistivity of 3000-m, the touch and step voltages were
observed to be similar.


Table 4 Safety analysis for earth grid without surface layer material resistivity
Fault clearing time (s) 0.3
Touch voltage (V)
Step voltage (V)
Fibrillation current (A)
779.0
2538.8
0.212

Table 4 lists the safety parameters for the earth grid
without surface layer material. It indicates that the touch and
step voltages for a fault duration of 0.3s are 799V and
2538.8V, respectively. Note that, the fault duration of 0.3s is
the assumed fault clearing time. Table 5 lists the safety
parameters for the earth grid using a crushed gravel of
resistivity 3000-m as surface layer material to increase the
surface contact resistance. The touch and step voltages for a
fault duration of 0.3s are 1115.4V and 3884.4V, respectively.
Table 6 lists the safety parameters for the earth grid using
crushed gravel of resistivity 5000-m as surface layer
material. Results indicate that the touch and step voltages for a
fault duration of 0.3s are 1593.9V and 5798.5V, respectively.
Comparing the values of touch and step voltages computed at
fault duration of 0.3s from Tables 4, 5 and 6, indicate that the
touch and step voltages are much lower for the case without a
surface layer material, perhaps because the surface layer had a
much lower resistivity than in the other two cases having a
surface layer material resistivity of 3000-m and 5000-m,
respectively. When surface layer material of resistivity
3000-m was applied on the earth grid surface, the touch and
step voltage magnitudes became higher. The touch and step
voltages further increased as the resistivity of the surface layer
material was increased to 5000-m. Although the touch and
step voltages are higher when the surface layer material was
applied on the grid, the magnitude of current would be
drastically reduced due to increase in contact resistivity at the
grid surface.



Table 5 Safety analysis for earth grid with surface layer material s=3000-m
Fault clearing time (s) 0.3
Touch voltage (V)
Step voltage (V)
Fibrillation current (A)
1115.4
3884.4
0.212

Table 6 Safety analysis for earth grid with surface layer material s=5000-m
Fault clearing time (s) 0.3
Touch voltage (V)
Step voltage (V)
Fibrillation current (A)
1593.9
5798.5
0.212

IV. CONCLUSION
The design of a distribution substation earthing grid in high
resistivity soil was presented. It was revealed that it is difficult
to meet the safety criteria of touch and step voltages in a high
resistivity soil. It was also found that large land area is
required to achieve a lower grid resistance value which is not
possible in urban areas where barren land is not available.
Furthermore, it was discovered that the use of long earth rods
which would have further reduced the resistance was not
possible because the bottom layer resistivity is much higher
than the top layer. Encasement of the earth grid in bentonite is
recommended for reduction of the soil resistivity and hence
resistance although it would be costly due to the size of the
grid.

V. REFERENCES
[1] K. D. Pham, Design A Safe Grounding System for Rural Electric Power
Distribution Substations, Paper Presented at the 34th Annual
Conference on Rural Electric Power, Orlando, FL, 29 Apr-1 May 1990.
[2] S. Raju and P. Upadhyay, Design of Optimal Grounding Mats for High
Voltage Substation, International Conference on Advances in Power
Conversion and Energy Technologies (APCET), Mylavaram, Andhra
Pradesh, 2-4 Aug. 2012.
[3] Y. Yang, M. Peng, H. Hong, and Y. Yuan, Optimal Design of Grounding
Grids Based on Genetic Algorithm, 3
rd
International Conference on
Genetic and Evolutionary Computing (WGEC), Guilin, 14-17 October
2009.
[4] R. Weeransundara, Grounding Considerations for Large kVA Pad Mount
Transformers, IEEE Rural Electric Power Conference (REPC),
Chattanooga, TN, 10-13 April 2011.
[5] K. A. Vyas and J. G. Jamnani, Optimal Design and Development of
Software for Design of Substation Grounding System, Nirma University
International Conference on Engineering (NUiCONE), Ahmedabad,
Gujarat, 8-10 December 2011.
[6] G. S. Raju and P. Upadhyay, Design of Optimal Grounding Mats for
High Voltage Substation, International Conference on Advances in
Power Conversion and Energy Technologies (APCET), Mylavaran,
Andhra Pradesh, 2-4 August 2012.
[7] N. D. Tleis, Power System Modelling and Fault Analysis: Theory and
Practice, 1st Ed. Oxford, Elsevier, 2008.
[8] IEEE Std. 80-2000 Guide for Safety in AC Substation Grounding, 2000.
[9] Ackerman, A., Sen, P. K., and Oertli, C., Designing Safe and Reliable
Grounding in AC Substations with Poor Soil Resistivity, IEEE
Transactions on Industry Applications, Vol. 49, No. 4, July/August, 2013.
[10] IEEE Std. 142-2007, Recommended Practice for Grounding of Industrial
and Commercial Power Systems, 2007.

VI. BIOGRAPHIES

Sani D. Buba obtained National Diploma in Electrical and
Electronic Engineering from the Federal Polytechnic Mubi
in 1991. He proceeded to University of Maiduguri, Borno
State, Nigeria, where he was awarded B. Eng. (Hons)
Degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering in 2002. He
worked as a Tutor in the Department of Electrical and
-40 10 60 110 160
X AXIS (METERS)
-40
10
60
110
160
Y

A
X
I
S


(
M
E
T
E
R
S
)
Gradient Step Voltage Magn. (V/M)
Gradient Step Voltage Distribution [ID:MT_Site 3PE1.F05]
LEGEND
Maximum Value : 768.900
Minimum Value : 0.00
768.90
692.01
615.12
538.23
461.34
384.45
307.56
230.67
153.78
76.89
Figure 7 Step voltage distribution on the earth grid
6



Electronic Engineering, Federal Polytechnic Mubi from November, 2002 until
November, 2009. He enrolled for MSc Programme in the Department of
Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) and
obtained a Master of Science Degree in Electrical Power Engineering in
August 2012. Mr. Buba is currently a PhD student in the department of
Electrical & Electronic Engineering at UPM. He is a Graduate Student
Member of IEEE-PES, PELS and CIS. His research interests include, earthing
systems, Solar PV systems, Lightning Protection Systems and Power Systems
Analysis.

Wan F. Wan Ahmad (S02, M05) was born
in Kelantan, Malaysia, on Sep. 6, 1978. She graduated
from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Malaysia in 2000
with Bachelor in Electrical, Electronic and Systems
Engineering with honours, and majoring in Electrical
Power and Control Engineering. She received her PhD
in Electrical and Electronic Engineering
from University of Nottingham, Nottingham, U.K. in
2007, majoring in Lightning Protection System and Electromagnetic
Compatibility for Electrical Power Engineering. She is currently with the
Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Faculty of Engineering,
Universiti Putra Malaysia which she joined since 2000. She has tremendous
experiences in teaching Bachelor of Engineering (Electrical and Electronics)
with Honours students. At the moment she is Deputy Director (Research and
Collaboration) at Centre of Excellence on Lightning Protection (CELP),
Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Malaysia. Through her
career, she has won 3 Research awards and 4 non-research awards. Her
research interests include electrical power engineering, grounding system,
lightning protection system, Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC),
Transmission Line Modelling (TLM), Radio Frequency Electromagnetic Field
(RF EM), Single Long Horizontal Ground Conductor and thin wire. Dr Wan
Ahmad is member of IEEE APS, IEEE EMCS, AND IEEE MTTS, IEEE MS,
IEEE SA AND MSSS.

Professor Mohd Zainal Abidin Ab Kadir graduated
with B.Eng. Degree in Electrical and Electronic
Engineering from Universiti Putra Malaysia in 2001,
and obtained his PhD from the University of
Manchester, United Kingdom in 2006 in High Voltage
Engineering. Currently, he is the Head of Department
of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Faculty of
Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM). He is
also the Director of Scientific Committee at the Centre for Electromagnetic
and Lightning Protection Research (CELP), UPM and a Member of
International Board of Advisors for the National Lightning Safety Institute
(NLSI), USA. Professor Zainal is a Professional Engineer (PEng) and a
Chartered Engineer (CEng) from Board of Engineers, Malaysia and
Engineering Council, UK, respectively. He is currently the Chair of IEEE-
PES Malaysia Chapter, Working Group Member of IEEE-PES Lightning
Performance on Overhead Lines, Senior Member of IEEE (PES, EMC,
Insulation and Dielectric Societies) and IAENG. To date, he has authored and
co-authored over 160 technical papers comprising of high impact journals and
conference proceedings. He is also an Editorial Board Member for several
international journals and Reviewer for many international journals and
conference. His research interests include high voltage engineering, insulation
coordination, lightning protection, EMC/EMI, keraunamedicine, renewable
energy and power system transients.

Chandima Gomes was born in Colombo, Sri Lanka 0n 12th
September 1966. He obtained his B.Sc. from University of
Colombo, Sri Lanka, and PhD from Universities of
Colombo/Uppsala, Sweden in 1999. He is a member of
several professional bodies such as CEng (UK), CPhys
(UK), MInstP (UK), MIET (UK), and MIP (SL). Currently,
he is a Professor of Electrical Engineering in the department of Electrical &
Electronic Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia and
also the Head, Centre for Electromagnetic and Lightning Protection Research
(CELP). In addition to his academic career, he is the Technical Director of
ProMan Ship Builders Ltd., China, Chief Technical Advisor and Senior
Consultant of Steelman Electro Mechanical Company LLC, Dubai, Chief
Technical Advisor and Senior Consultant of Indus Resources Ltd., Pakistan,
Senior Consultant of Capital Consultants Pvt Ltd., Pakistan, Director
International Affairs of LP Consultants International Pvt Ltd., India, Director/
Technical Operations of SATRIC-M, Malaysia and Senior Consultant of
LLAMPEC International Pvt Ltd., Sri Lanka during the last few years. Prof.
Gomes has conducted over 80 training programs on lightning and transient
protection technologies to the engineers in Saudi Arabia, Sweden, India, Sri
Lanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Pakistan, Nepal, Indonesia, Malaysia and
Colombia. Prof. Gomes has published over 80 research papers and several
books on lightning protection. His research interests include, Lightning &
Transient Protection of LV, MV, HV & Signal Systems, Grounding Systems
& Backfill Materials EMI/EMC of Civil and Defense Systems and Electrical
Safety.

Jasronita Jasni (M01) graduated with a B Eng. Degree
in Electrical Engineering from Universiti Teknologi
Malaysia, Malaysia in 1998 and received her Master
Degree in Electrical Engineering from the same
University in 2001. She obtained her PhD Degree from
Universiti Putra Malaysia, Malaysia in May 2010.
Currently she is a Senior lecturer in the Department of
Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Faculty of
Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia. Dr. Jasni is a member of IEEE. Her
research interests include power system analysis for static and dynamics, load
flow analysis, embedded generation and renewable energy.

Miszaina Osman received a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering
Degree in 1999 and a PhD in Electrical Engineering in 2004
both from University of Southampton, United Kingdom. She is
a member of many international professional bodies such as
C.Eng. (UK), IET and IEEE. Currently, Dr. Miszaina is a
Deputy Dean and Senior Lecturer in the Department of Electrical Power
Engineering, College of Engineering, Universiti Tenaga Nasional (UNITEN),
Malaysia. She is also a member under the Centre of Power System
Simulation (CPSS) in UNITEN. Her research interest includes power system
grounding, power system transients and engineering education.