AbstractThis paper presents the design of earthing system for

230 kV substation and simulation for calculation of required

parameters. In substation, earthing system is essential not only to
provide the protection of people working or walking in the vicinity of
earthed facilities and equipments against the danger of electric shock
but also to maintain the proper function of the electrical system. By
using proper conductor and electrode side, earthing system may be
able to lightning effects. This paper is to provide information
pertinent to safe earthing practices in AC substation design and to
establish the safe limits of potential differences under normal and
fault conditions.
Standard equations are used in the design of earthing system to get
desired parameters such as touch and step voltage criteria for safety,
earth resistance, grid resistance, maximum grid current, minimum
conductor size and electrode size, maximum fault current level and
resistivity of soil. By selection the proper horizontal conductor size,
vertical electrode size and soil resistivity, the best choice of the
project for safety is performed. This paper mentions the calculation
of the desired parameters which are simulated by MATLAB program.
Some simulated results are evaluated. The goal of this paper is to be a
safe earthing system for substations.

KeywordsSafe earthing system, AC substation, MATLAB
program.
I. INTRODUCTION
HIS paper is concerned with earthing practices and design
for outdoor AC substation include distribution,
transmission substations for power frequency in the range of
50 Hz. The intent of this paper is to provide information
pertinent to safe earthing practices in AC substation design.
DC substation and the effect of lightning surges are not
covered by this paper. With paper caution, the method
described in here is also applicable to indoor portion of such
substation. And the design procedure is presented in here.
The specific purpose of this paper is:
1) To review substation earthing practices with
references to safety
2) As a basic for design, to establish the safe limits of
step, touch, mesh voltage etc, potential difference
under fault conditions between points that can bee
contacted by human body
3) To provide a procedure for the design of practical
earthing system.

Authors are with Mandalay Technological University, Myanmar (e-mails:
eieicho2006@ gmail.com, [email protected]).

This paper briefly discusses the field tests required to
evaluate soil resistivity. The procedures for measuring the
resistance of the installed earthing system and the continuity of
the grid conductor are described in here. It covers some of the
practical aspects of earthing in more detail. The goal of this
paper is to design earthing grid to safety, to evaluate and to
simulate grid conductor size, vertical electrode size, criteria
permissible potential difference, grid resistance, maximum
grid current, grid potential size and required facts for design
procedure by a computer program. Although there are two
methods namely Trench Method and Conductor Flowing
Method for grid construction, the second are in used in here.
II. EARTHING SYSTEM FOR SUBSTATION
An effective substation earthing system typically consists of
earth rods, connecting cables from the buried earthing grid to
metallic parts of structures and equipment, connections to
earthed system neutrals, and the earth surface insulating
covering material. Current flowing into the earthing grid from
lightning arrester operation, impulse or switching surge
flashover of insulators, and line to ground fault current from
the bus or connected transmission lines all cause potential
differences between earthed points in the substation. Without a
properly designed earthing system, large potential differences
can exist between different points within the substation itself.
Under normal circumstances, it is the current constitutes the
main threat to personal.
An effective earthing system has the following objectives:
1) Ensure such a degree of human safety that a person
working or walking in the vicinity of earthed facilities
is not expressed to the danger of a critical electric
shock. The touch and step voltage produced in a fault
condition have to be at safe values. A safe value is
one that will not produce enough current within a
body to cause ventricular fibrillation.
2) Provide means to carry and dissipate electric currents
into earth under normal and fault conditions without
exceeding any operation and equipment limits or
adversely affecting continuity of services.
3) Provide earthing for lightning impulses and the surges
occurring from the switching of substation equipment,
which reduces damage to equipment and cables.
4) Provide a low resistance for the protective relays to
see and clear ground faults, which improves
Design of Earthing System for New Substation
Project (Shwe Sar Yan) in Myanmar
Ei Ei Cho, and Marlar Thein Oo
T
World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology 42 2008
430


protective equipment performance, particularly at
minimum fault.



Fig. 1 Earthing grid design

For step voltage criteria the limit is
s
s s s step
t
.
) ,k) (h C ( E
116 0
6 1000
50
+ = (1)
s
s s s step
t
.
) ,k) (h C ( E
157 0
6 1000
70
+ = (2)
Where
C
s
= 1 for no protective surface layer

s
= the resistivity of the surface material in -m
t
s
= duration of shock circuit in sec

The touch voltage limit is

s
s s touch
t
.
) ,k) Cs(h . ( E
116 0
5 1 1000
50
+ = (3)

s
s s touch
t
.
) ,k) Cs(h . ( E
157 0
5 1 1000
70
+ = (4)

The minimum conductor size formula is mentioned below-
A
mm
2

=
|
|
.
|

\
|
+

) T (K
) T (T
TCAP
t
I
a
a m
r r c
0
4
1 ln
10
(5)
A
cmils
=
|
|
.
|

\
|
+

) T (K
) T (T
TCAP
t
I .
a
a m
r r c
0
4
1 ln
10
52 1973 (6)

Where
I = rms value in kA
A
mm
2
= conductor sectional size in mm
2

T
m
= maximum allowable temperature in C
T
a
= ambient temperature for material constants in
C

0
= thermal coefficient of resistivity at 0C

r
= thermal coefficient of resistivity at reference
temperature T
r

r
= the resistivity of the ground conductor at
reference temperature T
r
in u/cm
3

K
0
= 1/
0
or 1/
0
- T
r

t
c
= time of current flow in sec
TCAP = thermal capacity factor

For grounding resistance, the following formula is used
R
g
=
|
|
|
|
.
|

\
|

+
+ +
A
h
A L

t
20
1
1
1
20
1 1
(7)
Where
= soil resistivity
L
t
= total length of grid conductor
A = total area enclosed by earth grid
h = depth of earth grid conductor

For calculation of grid current, equation (8) is used
I
g
= S
f
x 3I
0
(8)

I
g
= maximum grid current
3I
0
= symmetrical fault current in substation for
conductor sizing in A
S
f
= current diversity factor

Equation (9) is expressed for grid potential rise (GPR)

GPR = I
g
R
g
(9)

Formula for calculation of mesh and step voltage are

E
m
=
r r g
g im m
N L . L
I K K
15 1 +
(10)
E
s
=
r r g
g is i
N L . L
I K K
15 1 +
(11)

Where
World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology 42 2008
431


E
m
= mesh voltage at the center of corner mesh
E
s
= step voltage between point
K
m
= spacing factor for mesh voltage
K
s
= spacing factor of step voltage
K
i
= correct factor for grid geometry

Equation for K
m
is described below

|
|
.
|

\
|

+
|
|
.
|

\
|

+
+
) n ( Kh
K
d
h
Dd
h) (D
hd
D
m
ii
1 2
8
ln
4 8
2
16
ln
2
1
2 2

(12)
Spacing factor for step voltage equation is presented as this

K
is
=

+
+
+

) . (
D h D h
s
n 2
5 0 1
1 1
2
1 1
(13)

Where
D = spacing between adjacent grid conductor
H = depth of burial grid conductor
D = diameter of grid conductor

For soil resistivity evaluation, below equation is used
= 2aR (14)
Where
= soil resistivity
a = distance between earth spikes
R = earth resistance measured with the Metraterr2
TABLE I
CONSTANT VALUES FOR DESIGN CALCULATION
Symbol Quantity Values
T
a

ambient temperature 35C
T
m

maximum allowable
temperature
1084 C

T
s

fault duration time 1 sec
K
0

temperature of
thermal coefficient of
resistivity at 0C

245 C

r

thermal coefficient of
resistivity at reference
temperature
0.00378

r

resistivity of each
conductor reference
temperature
4.397 u/cm
TCAP thermal capacity factor 3.8466 J/cm
3
/C
h
depth of burial grid
conductor
0.6 m

h
0

reference depth of grid 1 m

s
surface layer resistivity 3000 -m
d diameter of grid
conductor
16 mm
Lr length of one earth rod 3 m
TABLE II
OUTPUT RESULT FOR GRID CONSTRUCTION DESIGN
Symbol Quantity values
Ac Earth conductor size 103 mm
2

d Earth electrode
diameter
16mm
Ig Max: grid current 1.957kA
Rg Ground resistance 0.838
GPR Grid potential rise 1650V
Km Spacing factor for
mesh voltage
0.653
Kim Correct factor for Em 3.838
Ks Spacing factor for
step voltage
0.342
Kis Correct factor for Es 3.752
Etouch Touch voltage
criterior
651.55V
Estep Step voltage criterior 2135.2
Em Calculation mesh
voltage
201.177V
Es Calculation of step
voltage
103.546V
Lt Total grid current 5972m
Soil resistivity 250

These data described above table are obtained by using
MATLAB program.
III. CALCULATION
STEP 1 Conduction design
Minimum cross section area (Ac) = 95 mm
2

STEP 2 Touch and step voltage criterior
E
touch
(70) 65.55 V
E
step
(70) 2135.2 V

STEP 3 Design of ground mesh
N
a
= Number of conductor in X-axis = 18 Nos
N
b
= Number of conductor in Y-axis = 19 Nos
L
g
= Mesh conductor length = 5132 m
N
r
= Quantity of ground rod = 280 rods
D = Ground rod spacing = 8 m
h = Depth of burial grid conductor = 0.6 m
L
t
= Total length of conductor = 5972 m
STEP 4 Substation grid resistance (R
g
)
R
g
= 0.843

STEP 5 Grid current (I
g
)
I
g
= 1.957 kA
STEP 6 Grid potential rise (GPR)
GPR = I
g
x R
g

GPR > E
touch
STEP 7 Mesh and step voltage
K
im
for E
m

K
is
for E
s

K
m

K
s
World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology 42 2008
432


STEP 8 Check touch voltage and step voltage
E
m
< E
touch
OK
E
s
< E
step
OK


Block Diagram of Design Procedure

These results are obtained by MATLAB program. These
figures prove that this earth grid design is safe for 230 kV
substation in the range of soil resistivities 100-350 m.

Fig. 1 Grounding Resistance with Different Values of Soil Resistivity


Fig. 2 Grid Potential Rise with Different Values of Soil Resistivity



Fig. 3 Grid Conductor Size with Different Values of Fault Current
(For Copper conductor)
World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology 42 2008
433



Fig. 4 Calculated Mesh Voltages with Different Values of Soil
Resistivity

Fig. 5 Calculated Step Voltages with Different Values of Soil
Resistivity

IV. CONCLUSION
This paper has focus on design of earthing system for
230kV AC substation but not DC substation. The results for
earthing system design are obtained by MATLAB program.
For earthing conductor and vertical earth electrode, copper
clad steel and aluminium clad steel are used. The step by step
approach to designing a substation earthing system is
presented . The exact fault current level is not described but
fault current is assumed 10 times of normal current. The
various kinds of conductor sizes for earth equipment are
mentioned in this paper. Construction of earthing grid drawing
is expressed in here.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The author is grateful to her Excellency U Thaung,
Minister, Ministry of Science and Technology, Dr. Zaw Min
Aung, Rector of Mandalay Technological University, Dr. Myo
Myint Aung, Head of Electrical Power Engineering
Department, Dr. Salai Tluang Za Thang, Mandalay
Technological University, U Zaw Ye Myint, Project Manager
from Shwe Sar Yan Substation.
REFERENCES
[1] Geri. A, Behavior of grounding system excited by high impulse
current: the model and its validation, IEEE Trans, Power Deliver,
1999.
[2] Gagg. G. F, Earth Resistances, New York, 1964.
[3] Tharpar. B and Gross. E. T. B, Ground Grid of High Voltage Stations.
1963.
[4] Tiri G. Sverak and Donald N. Laird, IEEE Guide for Safety in AC
Substation Grounding, 1986.







































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