Design of electrical shielding for

the electrical substation

Electromagnetic method: Rolling sphere
• With this method it is intended that the objects to be protected are
less attractive to the shielding elements.

• Approximately 50% of companies use the electromagnetic model to

design the substation shielding.

• Imagine a sphere of a radius equal to the discharge distance to the

protected objects
For our case we will use a K coefficient of 1.0 for guard cables.

Calculation of shielding parameters

• Critical discharge distance :
𝑆𝑚 = 8 ∗ 𝑘 ∗ 𝐼𝑐 0,65 m
where Ic: Critical Flame Current , kA
K: coefficent taking into account different discharge distances:
a) 1,0 for guard cables
b) 1,2 for capturing tips and masts
• For our case we will use a k coefficent of 1.0 for guard cables
• Critical current :
2,068∗ 𝐶𝐹𝑂
𝐼𝑐 = kA where :
𝑍𝑜
Z0 is the characteristic impedance of the barrage to be protected Ω
CFO is the critical flare voltage of the insulators kV
CFO = 0,95* 585* w, kV
w: length of the chain of insulators (1.2 in our case)
2ℎ𝑎 2ℎ𝑎
𝑍0 = 60 ∗ 𝑙𝑛 ∗ 𝑙𝑛 Ω
𝑅𝑐 𝑟

Where r is the radius of the cable, in our case is 0,00915 m

ha is the average height of the conductor
Rc is the radious of the conductor’s crown
• ha is the average height of the phase cables and is calculated as:
1 2
ℎ𝑎 = ℎ𝑚𝑎𝑥 + ℎ𝑚𝑖𝑛 m
3 3
Where hmax is the connection heigth of the phase cable and hmin is
the height in the half of the span, but for our case since there is no
span the hmin is equal to hmax that in our case is 8
The crown radius is obtained by clearing the following formula:
2ℎ𝑎 𝑉𝑐
𝑅𝑐 ∗ ln − =0
𝑅𝑐 𝐸𝑜

Where E0 is the limiting crown gradient and is taken with a value of

1500 kV / m
And Vc is the maximum voltage supported by the isolation of the
insulators for a pulse wave with negative polarity with a wavefront of 6
micro seconds.
• For our case parameters are calculated for guard cables shielding
• Effective height of the guard wire: this is the height of the guard
cables in the system it is protecting and is calculated as:
• ℎ𝑒 = 𝑆𝑚 − 𝑆𝑚2 − 𝑑2 where d is the half of the distance between
guard cables.

And the practical limit for the separation between guard cables will be:
2dmax= 1,5*Sm
• At the end ours calculated parameters are:
Parámetros Valor
Sm 18,58 m
k 1,0
Ic 3,6584 kA
CFO 659,88 kV
w 1,2m
Z0 373,004
ha 8m
hmax 8m
Rc 0,0904m
r 0,00915m
Vc 702
E0 1500 kV/m
he 0,6851m
2dmax 27,88m
d 5m