ELECTRICAL

SAFETY
RAJENDRA KUMAR

05.01.2016
1
OVERVIEW

 Electrical shock-Why does it happen?

 Touch and step potential (voltage)
 Direct and Indirect contact
 Role of electrical insulation in safety
 Avoiding electric shock-different approaches
 Earth leakage circuit breakers
 Earthing of power supply and its safety implications
 Role of Earthing of equipment enclosures in human safety
 Earthing in outdoor installations
 Earthing of buildings and structures for safety during a lightning strike
 Avoiding flash over and arcing

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ELECTRIC SHOCK

• Most serious of all electrical hazards

• Flow of electric current through a living organism causes

electric shock
• Electric current flows through a body when it is subjected to
electrical potential difference
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 ELECTRIC SHOCK HAZARD

• When a human (or any other living) body

cannot safely withstand a current flow
through it?
• The electric current that a human body
can safely withstand depends on:

Body weight

Manner in which contact occurs

Parts of the body subjected to

current flow

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HUMAN BODY-EQUIVALENT CIRCUIT

Components of the resistance to

current flow through human body
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ELECTRIC SHOCK HAZARD

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 DANGER OF FIBRILLATION

• Flow of current through heart

muscles causes fibrillation • Fibrillation is due to
(uncoordinated twitching of interference of external
muscle fibers) current with the electrical
impulses of heart muscles

• Fibrillation can result in

death within a short time
• Flow of current must cease
within the safe period

• Heart may have to be

externally stimulated
for revival
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TOLERANCE THRESHOLD OF CURRENT

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SAFE CURRENT

Decided by the likely time of current flow

For a body mass of 70 kg

 157 mA can be withstood for 1 second
 100 mA can be withstood for 2.5 sec
 30 mA can be withstood for 27 sec ...

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CURRENT FLOW-MODES

Electric current can pass through the human body in different ways:
 Case-1: From one hand to both feet to ground (most common in indoor
equipment)
 Case-2: From one foot to another foot (applicable in HV outdoor
Switchyards)

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 CURRENT FLOW FOR CASE-1

Equivalent Circuit
Voltage between hand and both feet

A person touching a
part/surface which is/has
• Touch Potential become live i.e. person is
subjected to a touch potential
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CURRENT FLOW FOR CASE-2

Voltage between feet Equivalent Circuit

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STEP POTENTIAL

 A person subjected to a voltage between his feet is subjected to step potential

 A voltage difference between the feet can be caused in outdoor switchyards
during a fault between live conductor and ground
 Can also occur close to a lightning strike to ground
 IEEE 80 provides basic calculation for tolerable Touch and Step Potentials

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HAZARDOUS POTENTIAL

 Both touch potential and step potential cause current flow

through the body
 Resistance presented by the body in both cases
is different
 Same value of touch and step potentials result in
different body currents

 Safe touch and step potentials therefore have different values

 IEEE 80 provides basic calculation for tolerable Touch and

Step Potentials

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MODES OF CONTACT

 Direct contact with a part of an

installation that is normally live
Example:
A person touching a live
busbar

 Indirect contact with a conducting

part which has become live due
to insulation breakdown

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INDIRECT CONTACT

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INDIRECT CONTACT

 A person touching the metallic (conductive) enclosure of an

equipment is not normally live

 When there is an insulation failure, a connection is

established between the live part and the enclosure
(jagged line)

 Enclosure assumes a voltage in this situation is a case of

indirect contact

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SAFETY APPROACH

Safety of personnel can be ensured in different ways

By making contact with live part improbable
By proper insulation
By barriers
By placing live parts beyond reach (making them inaccessible)
By limiting the voltage which a body can be subjected to – as per IEEE-
80 design consideration for step and Touch potential
By increasing the resistance of the path of current flow – by Safety
shoes, rubber mats, etc.
By reducing the time for which current can flow through a body

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LIMITING THE VOLTAGE OF CONTACT

Lower contact voltage means lower current flow through the body.

Contact voltage can be reduced/avoided by:

Earthing of exposed conductive parts which can become accidentally live
By making exposed conductive parts inaccessible

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LIMITING THE VOLTAGE OF CONTACT

Class I Where exposed conductive (metallic) parts which can

Equipment accidentally become live are connected to earth – like
metal enclosures

Class II Where exposed conductive (metallic) parts which can

Equipment accidentally become live are made inaccessible by
supplementary insulation

Class III Fed from an SELV supply source

Equipment

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CLASS I EQUIPMENT

•Equipment in which protection against electric shock as well as for the

connection of exposed conductive parts to a protective conductor in the fixed
wiring of the installation

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CLASS II EQUIPMENT

• Equipment in which protection against electric shock as well as additional

safety precautions such as supplementary insulation are provided
• No provision for connection of exposed metal work of equipment to a
protective conductor, & no reliance upon precautions to be taken in the
fixed wiring of the installation

• No conductive surface, eliminating danger of indirect contact

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 CLASS III EQUIPMENT
 Equipment in which protection against electric shock relies on supply at SELV
(Safety Extra Low Voltage) and in which voltages higher than those of SELV are not
generated
 Voltage in Extra low voltage range but not exceeding 25 V RMS AC
 No intentional earth contact of any of the live parts

 SELV system safe against both direct and indirect contact

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INCREASING CURRENT PATH RESISTANCE

 Human body presents approximately 1000 Ohm resistance

 Outer skin contributes the bulk of the resistance
 Damage to the skin at the point of current injection/exit can lower resistance
 Use of safety equipment interposed in the touch/step circuit

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COMMON SAFETY EQUIPMENT

• Non-conducting flooring • Insulating gloves

• Rubber shoes
• Elastomer mat
In an HV outdoor yard, gravel spread on soil performs a 25
function similar to non-conductive flooring
 REDUCING THE TIME OF CURRENT FLOW

 Direct contact is difficult to detect reliably because of low current

 Sensitive earth leakage breakers (30 mA-100 mA) can be employed in final circuits

 An indirect contact (Only in case of fault) can be detected

 A reasonable magnitude of fault current flow is necessary for reliable/fast

detection

 Requires low earth fault loop impedance

 Achieved by earthing of system neutral and equipment enclosure

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RECOMMENDED DISCONNECTION TIME

NOMINAL VOLTAGE OF MAXIMUM

INSTALLATION DISCONNECTION
(VOLTS) TO EARTH TIME (SEC)
120 0.8
230 0.4
277 0.4
400 0.2
> 400 0.1

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EARTH FAULT DETECTION

• Detection of earth
fault can be done by

CT is placed so that it does

• Earth circuit CT
not measure neutral spill
scheme
current

Used in sensitive Earth Leakage

• Core balance CT
circuit breakers (ELCB) and can
scheme
detect faults exceeding 30 mA CT
summation scheme

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EARTH CIRCUIT CT SCHEME

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CORE BALANCE (ZERO SEQUENCE) CT

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CT SUMMATION SCHEME

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EARTHING AS A SAFETY MEASURE

• Most equipment today are of class I construction

• Safety against indirect contact of such equipment is ensured by earthing
• Earthing of the protective enclosure clamps at/near earth voltage (Protective
earthing)
• Another earthed point in the supply will ensure current flow when there is an
earth fault (System earthing) permitting easy detection/isolation

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IMPORTANCE OF EARTHING

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 SYSTEM EARTHING

• Any electrical system requires a reference earth

• Provided by earthing the neutral point of the source

• For a delta connected source an artificial neutral has to be created

Through an earthing transformer

Through a star-delta transformer

with the star point of primary
winding serving as the neutral
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SYSTEM EARTHING TYPES

Note:
Grounding’ is
synonymous
with ‘earthing’

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LV SYSTEMS

LV systems are invariably solidly earthed

Ensures adequate current flow during an earth fault
Not only soil but metallic connection between equipment enclosure and system
neutral is also essential

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METALLIC EARTH CONTINUITY IN LV

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HV SYSTEMS

HV systems within an industry often use impedance grounding

to minimise fault energy
Direct metallic connection from enclosure to neutral often not
feasible
Fault current takes a path through the soil
However, the voltage is sufficient to drive a substantial current
which can easily be detected

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TYPICAL HV SYSTEM

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EQUIPOTENTIAL BONDING

• Often, protective earthing of enclosure is by itself not enough to keep indirect

contact voltage within safe limits
• All other conducting parts in the immediate vicinity may also need to be included in
the protective earthing scheme
• Can be achieved by equipotential bonding
• In some cases a second level of such bonding (supplementary bonding) is
also necessary for safety

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EQUIPOTENTIAL BONDING

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EQUIPOTENTIAL BONDING

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DANGER DUE TO LIGHTNING
 Lightning behaves very much like a fault and results in flow of very high currents through
a structure

 Danger of touch and step potential exists

 See next slide showing voltages present during lightning strike

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VOLTAGE DURING LIGHTNING STRIKE

• Shows ground potential variation from

point of strike. Dotted lines represent
points of equal potential

• Voltage e-f is much higher than

c-d because the potential at f is
actually transferred from g. This
is called as transferred potential

Person X is subjected to step voltage ‘a-b’

Person Y is subjected to touch voltage ‘c-
d’
Person Z is subjected to a touch voltage
‘e-f’
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 REDUCING VOLTAGE DUE TO LIGHTNING

• Provide direct low impedance lightning path (lightning protection system)

• Bond all services at each building level:

Lightning protection system

Water service pipes
Gas piping
Other service pipes and ducts
Heating and Air conditioning system
Exposed structural parts of the building 45
FLASH-OVER/ARC FLASH

Flash-over or arc flash is another major cause of electrical

accidents
Results in burn injuries
Can also deposit metal on the body as a result of melting of
conducting parts forming toxic substances
Arcing is often a sequel to a direct metallic fault
Arcing can also happen due to a breakdown of air between live
parts, by rodents and vermin and failure of insulation due to
dust/moisture entry

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SUMMARY

Electric shock becomes a hazard when a human (or any other living) body cannot safely
withstand a current flowing through it
 Fibrillation, Death

Electric shock hazard

 ‘direct contact’ or by ‘indirect contact’
 Direct contact is prevented by providing suitable barriers to prevent accidental contact and
by providing adequate clearance between exposed live parts and work areas
 Use of extra low voltage supply system

 Limiting the touch and step potential to which a body can be subjected as a result of indirect
contact makes a system safe
 Earthing is important

For protection
 Use of earth fault protection, equipotential bonding
 Use of insulating protective equipment

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Thank
You