DESIGN AND OPTIMIZE SUBSTATION

GROUNDING GRID BASED ON IEEE

STD. 80 - 2000 USING GUI AND
MATLAB CODES
Dr. ATTIA A. EL-FERGANY, SENIOR MEMBER ((IACSIT), MEMBER (IEEE)
Department of Electrical Power and Machines Faculty of Engineering
Zagazig University Zagazig (Egypt)
P.O. Box. 4459 (Zagazig)
http://www.zu.edu.eg
el_fergany@yahoo.com
ABSTRACT:
Substation grounding grid design requires a simple, but accurate tool to compute the parameters that guarantees
safety of personnel during earth faults. In this article, a Graphical User Interface (GUI) with an interactive
computer program using MATLAB 7.10 version has been developed. The developed tool allows the
computations of the total grid conductor length required for the earth grid to meet the step and touch potential
criterion for safety. The interactive method versatility has allowed configuring the grid according to the
availability of land space and value of the native soil resistivity. Calculations of minimum cross sectional Area
of grounding conductors are presented. Simple Optimization technique using iterative search are applied to
optimal design of grounding grid (conductors and rods as well) to satisfy tolerable safe touch and step voltages.
Inequality constraints of ground potential rise (GPR), ground resistance (R
g
), step voltage (E
step
) and touch
voltage (E
touch
), are based on latest edition of ANSI/IEEE Std. 80-2000.
The viability of results of developed tool are compared with world-wide softwares like ETAP and CYMGRD
and showed to be reliable, friendly user interface, easy and practical tool for calculations of Ground grid design.
All approved shapes (Square, Rectangle, Triangle, L and T shapes) based on IEEE 80 guidelines and procedures
are implemented and tested. Executable versions may be obtained after generating C/C
++
plus header files code
from MATLAB codes to run standalone.
Keywords: Grounding Grid, Step and Touch Potentials, IEEE Std. 80.
1. INTRODUCTION
Substation grounding design considerations are important to ensure the safety of personnel and the public, to
minimize hazard from transferred potential, to protect equipment insulation, to provide a discharge path for
lightning strikes, and to provide a low-resistance path to ground [1]. A good grounding system provides a low
resistance to remote earth in order to minimize the ground potential rise (GPR). For most transmission and other
large substations, the ground resistance is usually about 1 or less. In smaller distribution substations, the
usually acceptable range is from 1 to 5 , depending on the local conditions. Many commercial tools are
available in the market to help in design of Grounding grid like ETAP [2] and CYMGND [3].
The help of Genetic Algorithm optimization of the network [4] was studied but the number conductors and
earth have already been fixed and the purpose of minimizing voltage contact, but not compared with the values
of tolerance. Optimizing the relationship between the earth systems during consecutive meshes is considered
and presented in [5]. But the only optimization variable, the total length of network Conductors earth.
ANSI/IEEE Std.80 has been widely revised for more than ten years and is generally followed as a standard for
the grounding systems. In this work, a GUI computer program has been developed. The calculations of the step
voltage, touch voltage, GPR, and grounding resistance, are based on ANSI/IEEE Std. 80 - 2000. Very simple
approach of iterative search to plan the optimal grounding grid, which includes number of unilateral mesh and
depth of the grounding grid conductors were studied and investigated. The results of proposed GGD (Grounding
Grid Design) tool compared and verified with the results of ETAP and CYMGND as well.
Dr. Attia A. El-Fergany et al. / International Journal of Engineering Science and Technology (IJEST)
ISSN : 0975-5462 Vol. 3 No. 7 July 2011 6033
2. DESCRIPTION OF PROPOSED GGD TOOL
It is convenient to have the main core for a big program spitted into sub-modules. These sub-modules are to
be activated by selecting the corresponding item from the main menu and returns for another selection(s). The
proposed GGD tool consists of the following four basic sub-modules:
Tolerable Step and Touch Voltages Module.
Sizing and Selection Earth Conductors Module.
Actual GPR, Ground Resistance, maximum Step and Mesh Potentials Calculations Module.
Optimization Module for optimizing lengths of conductors and/or number of rods and depth of burial
conductors as well.
Proposed GGD tool was developed using MATLAB 7.10 release 2010a Statements with GUI and running under PC
with windows operating system [8].
2.1 Tolerable Step and Touch Voltages
The potentials and potential differences that determine the safe design of the grounding grid as IEEE 80 -
2000 [1] are tolerable step and touch potentials (for people weighing 50 or 70 kg). The step-voltage criterion
(refer to Eq. (1), Eq. (2) and Eq. (3)) is defined as follows:
E
stcp50
= |1uuu + 6C
S
p
S
]
u.116
t
S

(1)
E
stcp70
= |1uuu + 6C
S
p
S
]
u.1S7
t
S
(2)
C
S
= 1
u.u9 [1
p
p
S

2
s
+u.u9
(3)
Where, C
S
= reduction factor,
S
= resistivity of crushed rock, .m, t
S
= fault-clearing time, Sec, h
S
= the
thickness of the high resistivity surface layer material, m, and = the resistivity of the earth below the
high resistivity surface material, .m.
The actual step voltage (E
S
) should be less than the maximum allowable step voltage (E
step
).
The allowable touch voltage for people weighing 50 or 70 kg, respectively, is defined as follows: (refer to Eq.
(4) and Eq. (5))
E
touch50
= |1uuu + 1.SC
S
p
S
]
u.116
t
S

(4)
E
touch70
= |1uuu + 1.SC
S
p
S
]
u.1S7
t
S

(5)
The actual touch voltage, mesh voltage, or transferred voltage should be less than the maximum allowable
touch voltage, E
touch
, to ensure safety. Generally, Touch voltages represent a much more serious hazard than
step voltage; these are the usual basis for design. Fig. 1 shows the GUI window for performing the above
procedures based on IEEE 80 -2000.
2.2 Sizing and Selection of Conductors - Minimum Size
Each element of the grounding system, including grid conductors, connections, connecting leads, and all
primary electrodes, should be designed so that for the expected design life of the installation. According to
ANSI/IEEE Std.80 - 2000, the minimum size of the ground conductor is expressed as a formula of the current
duration, shown in Eq. (6) to Eq. (8). Then, select an area which is larger than or equal calculated cross-section
of ground conductor. Therefore, the minimum diameter of grid conductor is calculated as shown in Eq. (9).
A
kcmII
= I
F
. K
c
. t
c

(6)
A
mm
2 =
A
kcmII
1uuu
197S.S2
(7)
Dr. Attia A. El-Fergany et al. / International Journal of Engineering Science and Technology (IJEST)
ISSN : 0975-5462 Vol. 3 No. 7 July 2011 6034

Fig. 1. sample of interface of module for Calculating Tolerable step and touch voltages.
K
c
=
197.4
__
T
CAP

r
.
r
] . ln[
K
0
+T
m
K
0
+ T
a

(8)
u
c
(mm) = 2.
_
A
mm
2

(9)
Where, I
F
= maximum rms current in kA (include for future growth), K
c
= conductor Material constant, A
mm
2
=
conductor cross section, mm
2
, T
m
= maximum allowable temperature, C, T
a
= ambient temperature, C,
T
r
= reference temperature for material constants, C,
0
= thermal coefficient of resistivity at 0 C , 1/C,

r
= thermal coefficient of resistivity at reference temperature T
r
, 1/C,
r
= resistivity of the ground
conductor at reference temperature T
r
, -cm, K
0
= 1/
0
or (1/
r
) T
r
, C, t
c
= duration of current, Sec.
(between 0.25 to 3 seconds), T
CAP
= thermal capacity per unit volume, J/(cm
3
C), and d
c
= minimum
diameter of grid conductor cross-section (mm).
Fig. 2 is showing sample of user interface developed to calculate the size of earth wires. Several types of
conductors are fed as database to this module with relevant K
F
. Moreover, for non-available materials, user has
facility to feed the relevant material constants manually.
2.3 Calculations of Ground Resistance (R
g
)
Estimation of the total resistance to remote earth is one of the first steps in determining the size and basic
layout of a grounding system. The resistance depends primarily on the area to be occupied by the grounding
system, which is usually known in the early design stage.
Sverak [6] expanded Equation (refer to Eq. (10)) to take into account the effect of grid depth.
R
g
=
l
l
l
l
1
Lt
+
1
2uA
`

1 +
1
1 +h
_
2u
A /

1
1
1
1

(10)

Where, h = the depth of the grid in m, L
t
= L
C
+L
R
the total buried length of conductors in m includes all land
rods to meter, A = Total area enclosed by grounding grid in m
2
, and = Soil resistivity in .m.
Schwarz [7] used the following equation Eq. (11) to combine the resistance of the grid, rods, and mutual ground
resistance to calculate the total system resistance, R
g
.
R
g
=
RcR
r
R
m
2
Rc + R
r
2R
m

(11)

Where, R
c
= ground resistance of grid conductors in , R
r
= ground resistance of all ground rods in , and R
m
=
mutual ground resistance between the group of grid conductors, R
c
, and group of ground rods, R
r
in .
Formulas to calculate R
C
, R
r
and R
m
are shown in Eq. (12), Eq. (13) and Eq. (14) respectively.
R
c
=
u.S66
L
c
_log _
L
c
u
c
] +log _
L
c
4h
] +u.S4_
(12)
Dr. Attia A. El-Fergany et al. / International Journal of Engineering Science and Technology (IJEST)
ISSN : 0975-5462 Vol. 3 No. 7 July 2011 6035
R
r
=
u.S66
L
r
_log _
SL
r
u
r
]_
(13)
R
m
=
u.7S
L
t
_log _
2L
t
L
r
]_
(14)
Where, = Soil resistivity in .m, L
c
= Length of Conductor in m, L
r
= Length of rods in m, L
t
= Total length
of Ground Rods and conductors in m, d
c
= Dia. of conductor in m, d
r
= Diameter of rod in m, and h =
Depth of burial of conductor in m.

Fig. 2. sample of interface of module for Calculating Earth wire cross sectional area
Generally, the combined ground resistance of the grid and the rod bed will be lower than the ground
resistance of either component alone, but still higher than that of a parallel combination. the equivalent electrical
resistance (R
g
) of the system must be low enough to assure that fault currents dissipate mainly through the
grounding grid into the earth, while maximum potential difference between close points into the earths surface
must be kept under certain tolerances (step, touch, and mesh voltages).
2.4 Maximum grid current I
G

The maximum grounding grid fault current is calculated using Eq. (15)
I
G
= S
I
. B
I
. C
p
. I
I
(15)
Where, I
G
= maximum grid current, S
f
= fault current division factor, I
f
= rms value of symmetrical ground fault
current, D
f
= decrement factor for the entire duration of fault t
f
, and C
p
= Corrective projection factor.
The decrement factor (D
f
) is used to determine the effective current during a given time interval after inception
of a fault, refer to Eq. (16).
B
I
= _1 +
T
a
T
I
_1 e
-2
T
a
T
I
_
(16)
Where, T
a
= Time constant =[
X
R
.
1
2I
and T
f
= Fault time (Sec).
This formula gives the equivalent rms asymmetrical fault current flowing between the grounding system and
surrounding earth, taking into account the DC component of the initial fault current.
2.5 Ground Potential Rise
During typical earth fault conditions, the flow of current via the grid to earth will therefore result in the grid
rising in potential relative to remote earth to which other system neutrals are also connected. This is defined as
ground potential rise or GPR and calculated using Eq. (17).
uPR = I
G
. R
g
(17)
The GPR of a substation under earth fault conditions must be limited so that step and touch potential limits are
not exceeded, and is controlled by keeping the earthing grid resistance as low as possible.
2.6 Maximum Mesh and Step voltages
The mesh potential is defined as the potential difference between the centre of an earthing grid mesh and a
structure earthed to the buried grid conductors. This is effectively a worst-case touch potential. For a grid
Dr. Attia A. El-Fergany et al. / International Journal of Engineering Science and Technology (IJEST)
ISSN : 0975-5462 Vol. 3 No. 7 July 2011 6036
consisting of equal size meshes, it is the meshes at the corner of the grid that will have the highest mesh
potential. However, the touch potential is defined as the potential difference between a persons outstretched
hand, touching an earthed structure, and his foot. A persons maximum reach is normally assumed to be 1 m. As
per ANSI/IEEE Std. 80, the formulas of maximum step voltage and maximum mesh/touch voltage are shown as
Eq. (18) and Eq. (19) respectively.
E
s
=
. K
s
. K
I
. I
G
L
s
(18)
E
m
=
. K
m
. K
I
. I
G
L
m
(19)
Where, K
i
= correction factor for the grid geometry = u.644 +u.148n , K
s
= spacing factor for the step voltage,
K
m
= spacing factor for the mesh voltage, n = geometric factor composed of the grid, L
s
= Effective
length of L
c
+ L
R
for step voltage, m, L
m
= Effective length of L
c
+ L
R
for mesh voltage, m.
For further formulas for calculating spacing and geometrical factors, you may refer to [1] for further details.
2.7 Optimization of Conductors, rods and depth of burial
The proposed tool determines the minimum number of conductors and/or rods (i.e. minimum lengths) with
very simple iterative approach that satisfy the tolerable limits for the Step and Touch potentials as calculated
using procedures of IEEE 80 either for body weight 50 kg or 70 kg.
The optimization process begins calculations with a grid consisting of only two conductors on each side and/or
one rod. Hence, increasing the number of conductors with proportional to the ratio between length and width of
the grid and/or number of rods until a solution is reached. If it fails to satisfy, depth of conductor burial will be
considered. Moreover, the following constrains are considered during the process of optimization i.e. three
variables are supposed during the optimization process are N
x
, N
y
and h respectively, where D
x
/D
y
[2.5, 22.5
m] , and h [0.25, 2.5 m]. Subject to the following inequality constrains: (R
g
1 to 5 , E
s
E
step70
/ E
step50
,
and E
m
E
touch70
/ E
touch50
).
The constraints of ground resistance (R
g
), step voltage (E
step70
/ E
step50
) and touch voltage E
touch70
/ E
touch50
), based
on ANSI/IEEE Std.80 - 2000.

Fig. 3. sample of interface of module for ground grid dimensioning and calculations of Rg, GPR, and calculated maximum step and mesh
voltages
3. SIMULATION RESULTS, VALIDATIONS AND COMPARISONS WITH ETAP AND CYMGRD
Several test cases were verified and tested with actual project data and outcome of numerical results of
proposed GGD tool. The substation GGD was carried out according to IEEE 80 2000 and a GUI program
written using MATLAB.
The test cases include different type of geometrical shapes (Square/Rectangle, Triangle, L and T) and sound
results of calculated the grounding grid design parameters. For sake of comparisons, one Example of IEEE 80
2000 will be presented here under. (Refer to IEEE 80 2000 page 129).
Input data:
Body weight = 70 Kg, Crushed rock surface layer resistivity = 2500 -m, Crushed rock surface layer
thickness = 0.102 m, Clearing time = 0.50 Sec, Uniform soil resistivity = 400 -m, Max. LG fault
Dr. Attia A. El-Fergany et al. / International Journal of Engineering Science and Technology (IJEST)
ISSN : 0975-5462 Vol. 3 No. 7 July 2011 6037
current is 6.814 kA, X/R (Local) = 16.2, Conductor material Copper hard-drawn and Ambient
temperature = 40 Celsius.
Table 1. Results of Tolerable voltage calculations (refer to Fig. 3).
Reference
Max. allowable
touch (V) for 70 kg
Max. Allowable
Step (V) for 70 kg
Reduction
factor C
S

IEEE 80 2000 838.20 2,686.00 0.74
CYMGRD 840.55 2,696.10 0.74
ETAP 840.5 2,696.10 0.743
Proposed GGD 840.548 2,696.10 0.7429
Grid Design Aspects:
Square grid 70m x 70m, N
x
= 11 and N
y
= 11, Grid conductor diameter: 0.01 m i.e 95 mm
2
,
Burial depth h = 0.5 m, Remote contribution of the LG-fault current: 3.180 kA (suppose
X/R=0.1), Split factor S
f
= 60% and Uniform soil resistivity= 400 -m
Table 2. Results of calculations of GPR, Rg, total conductors length calculated maximum actual step and mesh potentials
Reference R
g
GPR (V) E
m
(Cal.) in V E
s
(Cal.) in V
Total Length of
conductors (m)
IEEE 80 2000 2.780 5,304.00 1002.1 Not Calculated 1540
CYMGRD 2.675 5,106.61 986.02 611.22 1540
ETAP 2.780 5301.1 985.50 610.9 1540
Proposed GGD 2.77569 5297.71 1001.93 609.921 1540
It is obvious from table1 and 2, the proposed GGD tool are soundly calculated the required parameters with
good accuracy.
With running the optimization module to satisfy the tolerable touch and step voltages (50 kg) for the above case,
without adding any grounding rod, hereunder the obtained results and shown in below Fig. 4:
N
x
= N
y
= 20 (i.e. total length of conductors = 2800 m).
R
g
= 2.65881 , GPR = 5074.63 V,
E
m
(Cal.) = 610.619 V < E
touch50
(Tolerable) = 621.042 V Safe,
E
s
(Cal.) = 629.927 V < E
step50
(Tolerable) = 1992.020 V Safe.

Fig. 4 Sample of output result of previous case of optimization for 50 kg body
As, you may note with the optimization feature, the user can satisfy the design easily to relax the requirements
of tolerable safe limits of step and touch voltages with D
x
and D
y
equal 3.68 m (square) [2.5, 22.5 m] as shown
in Fig. 4. Moreover, the Example of L-shape, Page 139 (IEEE 80 -2000) was verified and numerical results
compared with the outcome of proposed GGD tool and prove sound results.
4. CONCLUSIONS
In this work, an interactive computer program using MATLAB is developed and presented that allows the
computations of the total grid conductor length including rods required for the design of substation grounding
grid. The interactive method versatility has allowed configuring the grid according to the availability of land
Dr. Attia A. El-Fergany et al. / International Journal of Engineering Science and Technology (IJEST)
ISSN : 0975-5462 Vol. 3 No. 7 July 2011 6038
space with approved standard shapes of IEEE std. 80 - 2000 with the feature of optimization. The outcome of
calculations proves the excellent accuracy of proposed GGD tool with comprehensive reporting. The accuracy
and reliability of the developed GGD tool was validated using several test systems, and the results obtained
were evaluated against the famous ETAP and CYMGD softwares which are impressive and computationally
efficient.
REFERENCES
[1] ANSI/IEEE Std. 80 (2000). IEEE Guide for Safety in AC Substation Grounding, IEEE Society, New York.
[2] http://www.etap.com.
[3] http://www.cyme.com.
[4] F. Neri (2004): A New Evolutionary Method for Designing Grounding Grids by Touch Voltage Control, Industrial Electronics. IEEE
International Symposium, Vol. 2, pp. 1501-1505.
[5] M.C. Costa, et al (2003): Optimization of Grounding Grids by Response Surfaces and Genetic Algorithms, IEEE Trans. On Magn.,
Vol. 39, No. 3, pp. 1301-1304.
[6] Sverak, J. G (1984): Simplified analysis of electrical gradients above a ground grid. Part IHow good is the present IEEE method?,
IEEE Transactions on Power Apparatus and Systems, vol. PAS-103, no. 1, pp. 725.
[7] Schwarz, S. J (1954): Analytical expression for resistance of grounding systems, AIEE Transactions on Power Apparatus and Systems.
vol. 73, no. 13, part III-B, pp. 10111016.
[8] http://www.mathworks.com.
Dr. Attia A. El-Fergany et al. / International Journal of Engineering Science and Technology (IJEST)
ISSN : 0975-5462 Vol. 3 No. 7 July 2011 6039