EMC Philosophy applied to Design the Grounding

Systems for Gas Insulation Switchgear (GIS) Indoor

Substation
Marcos Telló
Department of Electrical Engineering
Pontifical Catholic University of Rio
Grande do Sul - PUCRS
Porto Alegre, Brazil
tello@ee.pucrs.br
Guilherme A. D. Dias, Daniel S. Arturo S. Bretas,
Gazzana, Roberto C. Leborgne Department of Electrical and Computer
Department of Electrical Engineering Engineering
Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul - University of Florida,
UFRGS Gainesville, USA
Porto Alegre, Brazil arturo@ece.ufl.edu
gaddias@terra.com.br,
dgazzana@ece.ufrgs.br, rcl@ece.ufrgs.br

Abstract— This paper presents the EMC (Electromagnetic
Compatibility) philosophy applied to design the grounding
systems of GIS Insulated Substation - GIS indoor substation. The
grounding systems are characterized by the following
subsystems: Main Grounding grid (60 Hz Grounding System),
Equipotential Grounding grid (HF Grounding system) and
Lightning Grounding system. The real case measurements for
100 MVA, 69/13.8 kV GIS indoor distribution substation
indicated that adopted EMC philosophy is appropriate because
the maximum measured potential difference among the various
grounding systems of GIS indoor substation was approximately
zero volts and the maximum measured touch voltage was less
than 1.4 volts.
It is important to state that the Equipotential Grounding
system and Lightning Grounding system do not need to be
designed to support the fault current. The very high
frequencies from the GIS switching can produce high potential
differences on grounding system wires, which can produce
dangerous rises in the grounding potential. In addition, the
radiated electromagnetic field created by the GIS switching
can lead to increase transient overvoltage in secondary circuits
of GIS. Therefore, the design of Equipotential Grounding
system requires a low-inductance of grounding system for GIS
equipment. In this context, the paper describes the design of
the grounding systems for GIS indoor substations.

Keywords— Electromagnetic Compatibility, GIS Grounding II. DESIGN OF THE GIS INDOOR GROUNDING SYSTEM
System, Indoor substation
The design of GIS indoor grounding systems can be
divided into three parts: a) Main Grounding system (also
I. INTRODUCTION called 60 Hz Grounding system), b) Equipotential Grounding
GIS indoor substations are usually installed in urban sites system (also called HF Grounding system) and c) Lightning
because the required area of GIS is smaller than the area Grounding system. Fig. 1 shows the adopted philosophy of
occupied by a conventional substation (air insulated substation GIS indoor substation grounding systems.
- AIS). In addition, GIS presents reduced environment impact,
increases reliability and increases the safety of workers and
people walking near a substation during a ground fault in the
power system.
GIS manufacturers have their own recommendations on
how the equipment must be grounded. Generally, the design of
GIS grounding system is characterized by the existence of two
systems: a system responsible for carrying short circuit
currents (60 Hz or Main Grounding system) and a system
related to the existence of very fast transients occurring due to
the switching operation of GIS, whose frequencies are of the
order of MHz (Equipotential or HF – High frequency
Grounding system). In addition, there is the lightning
protection system, which is usually connected along the steel
Fig. 1. Philosophy of GIS indoor substation grounding systems.
rebars in the concrete used to dissipate the high frequency
currents from lightning (Lightning Grounding system). Considering Fig. 1, the substation building has three floors.
For example, the Cables Room is on the ground floor. The

978-1-4799-7993-6/15/$31.00 ©2015 IEEE

GIS Room and Power Transformer Room are located on the
first floor and the HV Cubicles Room, Relay Room and
Control Room are on the second floor.
The Main Grounding system (60 Hz Grounding system) of
the substation is placed in the soil and is made of cooper.
However, considering that on all floors of the building there
are devices that dissipate short circuit currents, the conductors
of the Main Grounding system are embedded in the concrete
floor throughout the building floors. In many cases the copper
conductors of the Main Grounding grid go down along the
sides of the columns of the substation building and in other
situations the copper conductors go down inside of the
building columns. Fig. 2 shows an example of the Main
Grounding system of an indoor substation.
Fig. 2. Main Grounding System (60Hz Grounding system).
The Equipotential Grounding system is made of
galvanized steel meshes in a grid configuration of 10 x 10 cm2
(see Fig. 2) and is embedded under the concrete floor. The
connection of the Equipotential Grounding system between
the floors of the building is made of galvanized steel (steel
rebars) in the concrete. The wires of the Equipotential
Grounding system are welded to form an electrically
conductive network. The purpose of the Equipotential
Grounding grid is to reduce the effects of very fast transients
and to control the potential on the floors (touch and step
voltages) due to ground fault. Fig. 3 shows the Equipotential
Grounding system (HF Grounding system).
Fig. 3. Equipotential Grounding system of indoor substation.
The Lightning Protection System is usually embedded in
the structural concrete that characterizes the columns of
substation buildings and is made of galvanized steel. This
system is responsible for dissipating the lightning currents.
Fig.4. shows the Lightning Protection system and a respective
connection with the conductors of the Main Grounding
system.
Fig. 4. Lightning Grounding system of indoor substation.
Each grounding system (Main, Equipotential and
Lightning Grounding System) is directly connected to the
Main Grounding grid installed into the soil in several points.
To avoid the corrosion of the steel conductors, the connection
of the Main Grounding system is made of cooper conductors.
III. CASE STUDY: INDOOR SUBSTATION
This section describes the main stages of a grounding
system project in an indoor substation.
The general concept adopted is characterized by the fact
that the grounding system must limit the effect of gradient
potential under normal and fault conditions. From this point of
view most GIS manufacturers consider that the equipment is
adequately grounded when the potential difference between
metal parts of GIS and other metallic structures does not
exceed 65 - 130 V during the occurrence of fault [1]. This
voltage interval corresponds to fault times ranging from 0.8 s
to 3.2 s if a 50 kg criterion is used, and ranging from 1.46 s to
5.8 s considering a 70 kg body. Fig. 5 shows the contact
potential (touch voltage) limits for metal-to-metal contact as
function of time.
Fig. 5. Touch voltage limits for metal-to-metal contact [1].
 After establishing the general concept, it is possible to start
the grounding grid design. 03 copper bars 120 mm2 grounding GIS and HV cubicles embedded in concrete surface do (~ 5 – 10 cm)
bonded with main grounding grid (buried in soil) is extremities
A. Main Grounding grid
The design of the Main Grounding grid for GIS indoor
substation is the same as for AIS. However, it is important to
point out that the Main Grounding grid is a reference to the
potentials which will arise inside the building. In other words,
considering that the Equipotential Grounding system is
connected to the Main Grounding system, the maximum
gradient potentials under normal and fault conditions inside
the building are controlled by the Equipotential Grounding
system. Therefore when the fault current is dissipated by the
Main Grounding grid, the expected voltage difference between
such grid and the Equipotential Grounding grid is small,
ensuring safety inside the building. Fig. 6 shows the layout of
the Main Grounding system and the correspondent
Equipotential contours, respectively.
Green area with floor mat 10 cm x 10 cm embedded in concrete surface (~ 5 – 10 cm)

Fig. 7. Equipotential Grounding grid (size 10x10 cm2).

Fig. 7 shows galvanized steel reinforcing meshes with

mesh size of 10cm x 10cm, used as Equipotential Grounding
grid (HF Grounding grid). The wires of the Equipotential
Grounding grid are welded to form an electrically conductive
network.
Ideally the Equipotential Grounding system would be a flat
metal plate, but this type of grounding is rather expensive. A
Fig. 6. Main Grounding grid layout and Equipotential contours, respectively. grid with thinner wires and smaller meshes is less effective
The methodology used to design the Main Grounding grid than the flat plate, but is less expensive. The question that
is described in [2]. For the specific example of Fig.6, the total arises is: how to compare the performance of a flat plate and a
line-to-ground fault current is 24.54 kA and the resulting metal grid? Applying the methodology of [4] it is possible to
current that flows through the grounding grid is 1.76 kA. compare the mesh grid impedance to the metal plate
impedance. Fig. 8 shows the ratio of the Zgrid over the Zplate
B. Equipotential Grounding Grid for low frequency obtained in a ground plate (base value)
under similar conditions.
According to [3] the occurrence of very fast transients is
typical in GIS. The high frequencies of such transitories
propagate as electromagnetic waves within the GIS and the
return current flows into the enclosure. In the transition points
from the GIS to HV cables, the current flow is interrupted and
at these points the very fast transients are induced into the
grounding system. As a consequence, high potential
differences occur on earth wires of short lengths which can
produce dangerous rises in the earth potential. Therefore, in
addition to the Main Grounding grid (Grounding in 60Hz), it
is necessary to use the Equipotential Grounding grid to control
the effects of very fast transients that occur when the
switching operations of the GIS happen.
The very fast transients may cause high frequency
disturbances, which can be induced into the grounding system.
The installation of metal grid grounding system (Equipotential
grounding grid) minimizes the impedance of the grounding
system and provides an area of Equipotential surface. Fig. 7 Fig. 8. Ratio Zgrid/Zplate for low frequency.
shows an overview of the Equipotential grounding grid Fig. 8 shows that the grid with mesh size of 10cm x 10cm
installed into the concrete floor. is the configuration that best approaches the performance of
the plate (Zplate is the base value of the pu system). It is radius is greater than the radius of the grid, the whole grid is
important to state that the Equipotential Grounding grid is also effective in dissipating the lightning current. Otherwise, if the
responsible for controlling the potential occurring on different effective radius is smaller than the radius of the grounding
floors (touch and step voltages) due to ground fault. grid, then only a part of the grid is effective in dissipating the
lightning current.
C. Lightning Grounding Grid Based on numerical simulations [7], Fig. 10 presents the
According to [5] “the behavior of grounding systems under potential on the soil surface generated by a lightning reaching
lightning discharge conditions governs the degree of the grounding system. In the begin of the transitory the
protection provided by the grounding systems.” There are potential reaches high values (Fig. 10 left). After 100μs the
many models that can be used to analyze the grounding grids voltage on the surface is approximately Zero Volts (Fig. 10
response under lightning discharge. The effective area (or right) leads the system to the steady state.
effective radius) of the grid is an important parameter to keep
in mind when designing an optimum grounding system. The
concept of effective area of grid indicates that the impulse
impedance dissipates along the grid area before reaching the
other end. Therefore, only a part of the grid is effective to
scatter the lightning discharge current.
Using the analytical methodology described in [5], it is
possible to determine the value of the impulse impedance and,
in consequence, the effective area of the grounding grid. The
effective area is characterized by an equivalent circle, which
has a radius called the effective radius. According to [5], the
Fig. 10. Potential on soil surface generated by lightning discharge.
extremity of the effective area is considered up to the point
where the grounding impedance at the injected point decreases Additionally, applying the methodology presented in [7]-
to a value below 3% of the final value of impulse impedance. [8], the designed grounding systems is safety for human
The final value of impulse impedance means that an increase beings, considering the expected lightning discharge for the
in the area of the ground grid does not alter significantly the region where the substation is located.
value of the impulse impedance. On the other hand [6]
indicates that the effective area is achieved when the IV. MEASUREMENTS TO EVALUATE THE GROUNDING SYSTEMS
grounding impedance value is equal to the low frequency
resistance. The concept of effective area is based on grounding The Fall of Potential Method (FOP) was applied to
grid impedance at the injected point. evaluate the performance of the grounding systems. Fig. 11
shows the FOP method arrangement. The OMICRON – model
Considering the grounding grid shown in Fig. 6, the CPC100 was used as DC current source.
ground conductors are installed in a soil where the surface
layer has a resistivity ρ1 equal 500 Ωm and the second layer
presents a resistivity ρ2 of 5,000 Ωm. The depth of the first
layer of soil is 8.6 m. The conductors of the grounding grid are
laid under the substation building with depth of 0.5 m from
ground level. Applying the methodology described in [5], Fig.
9 shows the grid impulse impedance and effective radius
considering lightning discharge with several times (0-10 µs) Fig. 11. FOP Method arrangement to measure the GIS indoor substation.
wavefronts. The lightning discharge is applied in the center
and in the corner of the grounding grid. Fig. 12 shows the GIS room. In this figure the points P36
to P40 are some examples of points where the voltage
difference between two points, one on the floor and other in
equipment (touch voltage), were measured. The maximum
touch voltage measured inside the indoor substation was 1.4
Volts.
The measurements between the main ground grid and
equipotential grounding grid were evaluated and the voltage
difference between these grounding systems is approximately
zero volts.

(a) (b)
Fig. 9. (a) Impulse Impedance and (b) Effective Radius.

The radius of circle having an area equal to grounding grid

area is 13.56m (radius of the grid). Thus, when the effective

Fig.12.Touch voltage measurement in GIS room.
V. CONCLUSIONS
The design of the grounding systems for GIS indoor
substation is characterized by the existence of three grounding
grids: the Main Grounding system (60Hz), the Equipotential
Grounding system (HF) and the Lightning Grounding system.
Therefore all electrical installation is indoor and considering
that all building has it structure in steel, there is an intrinsic
connection between the various grounding systems.
The Equipotential Grounding grid and the Lightning
Grounding grid are connected to the Main Grounding grid,
which is installed into the soil according to Fig. 1. The Main
Grounding system must dissipate the power frequency short
circuit current and the lightning current. In our particular case
the Main Grounding system works as a reference for the
potentials inside the building, which means: during a fault the
potential of the Main Grounding grid and the Equipotential
Grounding grid grow in relation to the remote earth, but the
difference potential between these grids is not significant. In
addition, the touch and step voltages within a mesh of the
Equipotential Grounding grid is smaller than the tolerable
touch voltage. Measurements carried out in one particular GIS
indoor substation indicate that the maximum touch voltage
measured was 1.4 Volts and the potential difference among
the various grounding systems was approximately Zero Volts.
The Equipotential Grounding system has two functions: to
reduce the effects of very fast transients and to control the
potential on floors (touch and step voltages) due to ground
fault. The actual practice is to design the Main Grounding grid
considering the short circuit current. It is important to have in
mind that after the Main Grounding grid has been designed it
is necessary to evaluate the impulse impedance. By knowing
the impulse impedance, it is possible to evaluate the degree of
lightning protection using the value of the impulse impedance
to estimate the effective area of the grid.
The measurements carried out in GIS indoor substations
indicate that the potential difference between metal parts of
the GIS and other metallic structures are in accordance with
the criteria established by the GIS manufacturers (65 - 130V),
and the human body safe limits of potential differences inside
the building under fault condition are satisfied.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to thank CAPES, Ministry of
Education of Brazil and CEEE-D Utility for the facilities
offered during the development of this work.
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