Effect of Ground Electrode Size

and Depth on Resistance

Size:Increasing the diameter of the rod does not materially reduce its resis-
t ance. Doubli ng the di am et er r
educes resistance by less than 10% (Figur
e 10).
Depth: As a ground rod is dri ven deeper i nto t he eart h, its r
esistance is sub-
st anti al ly reduced. In general , doubli ng the r
od length reduces the resistance
by an additional 40% (Figure 11). The NEC (1987, 250-83-3) requires a mini-
mum of 8 ft (2.4 m) to be in contact with the soil.The most common is a 10
ft (3 m) cylindrical rod which meets the NEC code.A minimum diameter of5/8 inch (1.59 cm) is
required for steel rods and 1/2 inch (1.27 cm) for cop-per or copper clad steel rods (NEC 1987,
250-83-2). Minimum practical diam-eters for driving limitations for 10 ft (3 m) r
ods are:
•1/2 inch (1.27 cm) in average soil
•5/8 inch (1.59 cm) in moist soil
•3/4 inch (1.91 cm) in hard soil or more than 10 ft driving depths
NOTES
FIG URE 1 0
FIG URE 1 1
G rounding Nomograp h
1.Select required resistance on Rscale.
2.Select apparent resistivity on Pscale.
3.Lay straightedge on Rand P scale,and allow to intersect with Kscale.
4. M a rk K scale point.
5. Lay st raight edge on K s cale point & DIA s cale,and al low to inters ect wi th D s cale.
6 . P o i nt o n D s c a l e w i l l b e r o d d e p t h r e q u i r e d f o r r e s i s t a n c e o n R s c a l e .
GROUND RESISTANCE
VALU ES
NEC® 250-84 (1987): Resistance of man-made electr
odes:
“A single electrode consisting of a rod, pipe, or plate which does not have a
resistance to ground of 25 ohms or less shall be augmented by one addition
-
al rod of any of the types specified in section 250-81 or 250-83. Where multi-ple rod, pipe or plate
electrodes are installed to meet the requirements of thissection, they shall be not less than 6 ft (1.83
m) apart.”
The National Electrical Code® (NEC) states that the resistance to ground
s hall not exceed 25 ohm s.This is an upper limi t and guidel ine, since much
lower resistance is required in many instances.
“How low in resistance should a ground be?” An arbitrary answer to this inohms is
difficult. The lower the gr ound resistance, the safer; and for positive prot ecti on of
personnel and equi pment , it is worth the ef
fort to aim for less
than one ohm. It is generally impractical to r
each such a low resistance along
a distribution system or a transmission line or in small substations. In some
NOTES
FIG URE 1 2

regions, resistances of 5 ohms or less may be obtained without much tr

ouble.
In other regions, it may be dif
ficult to bring resistance of driven grounds
below 100 ohms.
Accepted industry standard s stipulate that transmission substations should
be designed not to exceed 1Ω. In distribution substations, the
maximum rec-
ommended resistance is for 5 ohms or even 1 ohm. In most cases, the buriedgrid system of
any substation will pr
ovide the desired resistance.
In light industrial or in telecommunication central of
fices, 5Ω is often
theaccepted value. For lightning protection, the arrestors should be coupledwith a
maximum ground resistance of 1Ω.
These param et ers can usual ly be met wi th the pr
oper application of
basicgrounding theory. There will always exist cir cumstances which will makeit difficult
to obtain the gr
 ound resistance required by the NEC® or othersafety
standards. When these situations develop, several methods of loweringthe groundresistance
can be employed. These include parallel rodsystems, deep driven rod systems utilizing
sectional r
ods, and chemical
treatment of the soil.Additional methods discussed in other publisheddata are buried plates,
buried conductors (counterpoise), electricallyconnected building steel, and electrically
connected concr
ete reinforced steel.
Electrically connecting to existing water and gas distribution systems was
often considered to yield low ground resistance; however, recent design
changes utili zi ng non-metall ic pipes and insul at ing joi nts have made thi s
m et hod of obt ai ni ng a low r
esi st ance ground questi onable and i n many
i nst ances unreli able.
The measurement of ground resistances may only be accomplished withspecially designed test
equipment. Most instruments use the fall-of-potentialprinciple of alternating current (AC)
circulating between an auxiliary elec-trode and the ground electrode under test. The reading
will be given in ohms,and represents the resistance of the ground electrode to the
surroundingearth. AEMC has also recently introduced clamp-on ground resistance testers.
Note: The National Electrical Code® and NEC® are registered trademarks
of the National Fire Protection Association.
NOTES
1 INTRODUCTION
A bus is a critical element of a power system, as it is thepoint of convergence of many circuits,
transmission,generation, or loads. The effect of a single bus fault isequivalent to many simultaneous faults
and usually,due to the concentration of supply circuits, involveshigh-current magnitudes. High-speed bus
protection isoften required to limit the damaging effects onequipment and system stability or to maintain
serviceto as much load as possible. The bus protectiondescribed refers to protection at the bus
location,independent of equipment at remote locations.
Differential protection is the most sensitive andreliable method for protecting a station bus. Thephasor
summation of all the measured current enteringand leaving the bus must be 0 unless there is a faultwithin
the protective zone. For a fault not in theprotective zone, the instantaneous direction of at leastone current
is opposite to the others, and the sum ofthe currents in is identical to the sum out. A fault onthe bus
provides a path for current flow that is notincluded in these summations. This is called thedifferential
current. Detection of a difference exceedingthe predictable errors in the comparison is oneimportant basis
for bus relaying.
In dealing with high-voltage power systems, therelay is dependent on the current transformers in
theindividual circuits to provide information to it regard-ing the high-voltage currents.Figure 11-
1 showstypical examples of the location of current transfor-mers that are used for this purpose. The
arrowheadsindicate the reference direction of the currents.

1.1Current Transformer Saturation Problem

and Its Solutions on Bus Protection
Bus differential relaying is complicated by the fact thatfor an external fault on one circuit, all of the
othercircuits connected to the bus contribute to that fault.The current through the circuit breaker for the
faultedcircuit will be substantially higher than that for any ofthe other circuits. With this very high current
flowingthrough the current transformer and its circuit breaker,there is a very high likelihood that some
degree ofsaturation will occur. A saturated current transformerwill not deliver its appropriate current to the
bus relay.With the lower currents in the other circuits for thisexternal fault, the degree of saturation is
expected to beconsiderably lower. This may lead to a large differ-ential current that will tend to cause the
relay to sensean internal fault rather than the actual external faultthat exists. The relay must accommodate
this errorcurrent without misoperation.
A widely used equivalent diagram for a currenttransformer appears inFigure 11-3b. It consists of
aperfect transformation from the high current side tothe low current side (e.g., 600:5). All of the
significantimperfections are lumped into Rp, R s, and Xm. The Rsrepresents the internal secondary
resistance of the ct(current transformer), and the X represents a currentpath that accommodates the exciting
requirements.The ct is assumed to have a uniformly distributedwinding and, therefore, to manifest no
significantleakage reactance.
When the ct is subjected to excessive flux, the ct is
said to ‘‘saturate,’’ meaning that the core of the ct ha

Figure11-1Common bus arrangements with relay input sources

 been forced to carry more flux than it can handle. Theflux then spills into the area surrounding the
core,causing the magnetizing reactance to have a muchlower value than normal. It can be seen that
anycurrent that flows in X subtracts from the perfectlytransformed current, producing a deficiency in
thecurrent that is delivered to the devices connected to thect. The black blocks are the polarity markers. A
singlepolarity marker has no significance. With two, it isacknowledged that, at the instant of time at
whichcurrent is flowinginto the polarity marker on the highcurrent side of the ct, current is flowingout of
thepolarity marker on the low current side. Of course, thecurrent reverses every half cycle, but both the
high andlow reverse together.
Direct current saturation is much more serious thanac saturation because a relatively small amount of
dcfrom an asymmetrical fault wave will saturate thecurrent transformer core and appreciably reduce
thesecondary output. The L/R ratio of the power-systemimpedance, which determines the decay of the
dccomponent of fault current, should strongly influencethe selection of the bus protective relaying.
Typically,the dc time constants for the different circuit elementscan vary from 0.01sec for lines to 0.3sec or
more forgenerating plants. The nearer a bus location is to astrong source of generation, the greater the L/R
ratioand the slower the decay of the resulting dc componentof fault current.
Of the several available methods for solving theunequal performance of current transformers, four arein
common use:
1.Eliminating the problem by eliminating iron inthe current transformer [a linear coupler (LC)system]
2.Using a multirestraint, variable-percentage dif-ferential relay which is specifically designed tobe insensitive to
dc saturation (CA-16 relaysystem)
3.Using a high impedance differential relay with aseries resonant circuit to limit sensitivity to ctsaturation (KAB
relay system)
4.Using a Differential Comparator relay withmoderately high impedance to limit sensitivityto ct saturation
(RED-521)
1.2Information Required for the Preparation of
a Bus Protective Scheme
Some bus protection schemes rely on the operation of
a remote breaker. It is simple and economic, but slow
(zone-2 trip) and may interrupt unnecessarily a tappedload. When local bus protection is applied,
thefollowing information is required for the schemeselection, relay selection, and setting calculations:
1.Information about the bus configuration isrequired. The common bus arrangements areas shown inFigure 11-
1, such as single bus,double bus, main-and-transfer bus, ring bus,breaker and a half, bus tie-breaker,
double-bus-single-breaker, etc.
2.Maximum and minimum bus fault currents(single-phase-to-ground fault and three-phasefault)
3.Current transformer information, including
Current transformer location
Current transformer ratios
Current transformer accuracy class
Current transformer saturation curves
4.Operating speed requirement
 1.3Normal Practices on Bus Protection
The normal practices on bus protection are
1.There is one set of bus relays per bus section.
2.Use a dedicated ct for bus differential protec-tion. If possible, the connection of meters,auxiliary ct’s, and other
relays in differential-type bus schemes should be avoided since thesedevices introduce an additional burden
into themain circuit.
3.Lead resistance, as well as ct winding resistance,contributes to ct saturation. Therefore, thelength of secondary
lead runs should be heldto a minimum.
4.Usually, the full-ct secondary winding tapshould be used. This has two advantages. Itminimizes the burden
effect of the cable and,second, leads by minimizing the secondarycurrent and makes use of the full-
voltagecapability of the ct.
5.Normally, there is no bus relay required for thetransfer bus on a main-and-transfer busarrangement. The
transfer bus is normallydeenergized and will be included in the mainbus section when it is energized.
6.No bus relay is required for a ring bus becausethe bus section between each pair of circuitbreakers is protected
as a part of the connectedcircuit
7.Special arrangements should be considered ifthere is any other apparatus, such as stationservice transformers,
capacitor banks, ground-ing transformers, or surge arresters, inside thebus differential zone.
8.There is no simple scheme available for a
double-bus-single-breaker arrangement (Fig.
11-1e),because its current transformers are
normally located on the line side. Theseapplications greatly benefit from numericalschemes, such as the
RED-521. (Refer to Sec.9 of this chapter for more information.)
2BUS DIFFERENTIAL RELAYING WITH
OVERCURRENT RELAYS
2.1Overcurrent Differential Protection
This differential scheme requires that a time-over-current relay be paralleled with all of the
currenttransformers for a particular phase, as shown in
Figure 11-2.It is permissible to use auxiliary ct’s to
match ratios, but it is preferred that all of the ct’s havethe same ratio on the tap chosen and that the use
ofauxiliary ct’s be avoided.
In this scheme, the overcurrent relay must be set tooverride the maximum error current that results
froman external fault (phase or ground). It may also benecessary to have sufficient time delay to refrain
fromtripping during the time that one or more of thecurrent transformers is severely saturated by the
dccomponent of the primary current. To assure this,using a simple overcurrent relay, the current transfor-
mers must be chosen to have no more than 20 timesrated current flowing in their primary for the worst-case
external fault, and each have a burden no morethan the rated value (relaying-accuracy-class voltage/100).
The operating time of the relay must not be less
than three primary time constants, and its setting mustbe greater than the exciting current of the
currenttransformer under worst-case conditions. This mayrequire a setting of 10 or more amperes and a
timesetting of, say, 18 cycles. These values may beacceptable for smaller substation buses, but
moresophistication and faster relaying speed are generallymandatory for more extensive and higher-
voltage buses.
In these applications a ‘‘short time’’ or ‘‘extremelyinverse’’ characteristic overcurrent relay is used in
theinterests of getting faster tripping speeds at highcurrent. Operating times of 8 to 18 cycles are
expected.Although the relay cost is low, the engineering costmay be high because of the usual need for
considerablestudy for the application to assure correct operation.
2.2Improved Overcurrent Differential
Protection
The sensitivity of the overcurrent differential scheme(Fig. 11-2) can be improved by externally connecting
aseries resistor with each overcurrent relay, as shown in
Figure 11-3.These resistors are called stabilizing
resistors. If we assume that an external fault causesthe ct on the faulted feeder to be saturated
completely,the ct excitation reactance will approach 0. As showninFigure 11-3, the error current Idthat
flows through
Figure 11-2The overcurrent differential bus protection.
Figure 11-3The improved overcurrent differential bus
protection

the overcurrent unit would be

Id¼ IF
2RLþ RS
2RLþ RSþ Rd


ð11-1Þ
where Rdis the resistance in the differential path.
In order to reduce the error current Id in thedifferential path for improving the sensitivity of thescheme,
the most effective way is to increase the valueof Rd. The limitations of this additional resistance
aredetermined by (1) the overvoltage to the ct circuit and(2) the minimum available internal fault current.
Itshould be limited to
Rd¼
VCL
46IminpickupO
ð11-2Þ
Note: The multiplier 4 includes a safety factor of 2

3MULTIRESTRAINT DIFFERENTIAL SYSTEM

Multirestraint differential schemes use conventionalcurrent transformers, which may saturate on
heavyexternal faults. For this reason, the secondary currentoutput may not represent the primary. In a
 differentialscheme, the current transformers and relay function asa team. When the current transformers do
not performadequately, the relay can within limits make up for thedeficiency.
The multirestraint differential scheme uses the CA-16 variable-percentage differential relay, which con-
sists of three induction restraint units and oneinduction operating unit per phase. Two of the unitsare placed
opposite each other and operate on acommon disc. In turn, the two discs are connected to acommon shaft
with the moving contacts. All four ofthe units are unidirectional; that is, current flow ineither direction
through the windings generates con-tact-opening torque for the restraint units or contact-closing torque for
the operating unit. Each restraintunit (called R, S, and T) also has two windings toprovide restraint
proportional to the sum or difference,depending on the direction of the current flow. If thecurrents in the
two paired windings are equal andopposite, the restraint is cancelled. Thus, the pairedrestraint windings
have a polarity with respect to eachother. With this method six restraint windings areavailable per phase.
In addition to providing multiple restraint, thevariable-percentage characteristic helps in
overcomingcurrent transformer errors. At light fault currents,current transformer performance is good, and
the
percentage is small for maximum sensitivity. For heavyexternal faults, current transformer performance
islikely to be poor, and the percentage is large. Thevariable-percentage characteristic is obtained by ener-
gizing the operating unit through a built-in saturatingautotransformer.
The saturating autotransformer also presents a highimpedance to the false differential current, which
tendsto limit the current through the operating coil and toforce more equal saturation of the current
transfor-mers. On internal faults, in which a desirable highdifferential current exists, saturation reduces
theimpedance. A further advantage of the saturatingautotransformer is that it provides a very effectiveshunt
for the dc component, appreciably reducing thedc sensitivity of the operating units. At the minimumpickup
current of 0.15+ 5% A, the restraining coilsare ineffective.
When using the CA-16 relay, the current transfor-mers should not saturate when carrying the
maximumexternal symmetrical fault current; that is, the excitingcurrent should not exceed one secondary
ampere rms.This requirement is met if the burden impedance doesnot exceed
½NPVCL À ðIEXT À100ÞŠRS
1:33 IEXT
ð11-3Þ
where
NP¼ proportion of total current transformer
turns in use
VCL¼ current transformer accuracy-class voltage
IEXT¼ maximum external symmetrical fault currentin secondary (amperes rms) (use IEXT¼ 100if IEXT< 100)
RS¼ current transformer secondary winding resis-tance of the turns in use (in ohms); forexample, if the 400:5 tap
of a 600:5 wye-connected class C200 current transformer isused,
then
NP¼ 400/600 ¼ 0.67
and
VCL¼ 200
If IEXT¼ 120A and RS¼ 0.5O, then the burden ofthe ct’s secondary circuit, excluding current transfor-
mer secondary winding resistance, should not exceed
0:676200À ð 120À 100Þ0:5
1:336120
¼ 0:78O
Settings for the CA-16 relay need not be calculated.Field experience indicates that one CA-16 relay
perphase is satisfactory for the vast majority of applica-tions