System Grounding

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 Grounding or Earthing
 “The process of connecting the metallic frame of electrical
equipment or some electrical part of the system (e.g. neutral
point in a star connected system) to earth (i.e. soil) is called
grounding or earthing.”

 “The process of connecting some electrical part of the power

system (e.g. neutral point of a star-connected system, one
conductor of the secondary of a transformer etc.) to earth (i.e.
soil) is called system grounding.”

 System grounding” means the connection of ground to the

neutral points of current carrying conductors such as
the neutral point of a circuit, a transformer, rotating
machinery, or a system, either solidly or with a current
limiting device.
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 Introduction
 The objective of a grounding system are:
1. To provide safety to personnel during normal and fault
conditions by limiting step and touch potential.
2. To assure correct operation of electrical/electronic devices.
3. To prevent damage to electrical/electronic apparatus.
4. To dissipate lightning strokes.
5. To stabilize voltage during transient conditions and to
minimize the probability of flashover during transients.
6. To divert stray RF energy from sensitive audio, video,
control, and computer equipment.

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 Introduction
 A safe grounding design has two objectives:
1. To provide means to carry electric currents into the earth
under normal and fault conditions without exceeding any
operating and equipment limits or adversely affecting
continuity of service.
2. To assure that a person in the vicinity of grounded facilities
is not exposed to the danger of critical electric shock.

 The PRIMARY goal of the grounding system throughout any

facilities is SAFETY.
 Why ground at all?
► PERSONNEL SAFETY FIRST
► EQUIPMENT PROTECTION SECOND
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 Types of Faults
 Phase Faults (limited only by positive sequence impedance of
system)
 High Fault Currents.
 Only limited by inherent impedance of Power System.

 Earth Faults
 Solid Earthing means high earth fault currents
 Only limited by inherent zero sequence impedance of Power system.

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 What are the three main types of grounding?
1. EQUIPMENT GROUNDING (SAFETY)
2. SYSTEM GROUNDING
3. LIGHTNING/SURGE GROUNDING

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 Consequences
 Heavy currents damage equipment extensively.
Danger of fire hazard.
 This leads to long outage times.
Lost production and lost revenue.
 Heavy currents in earth bonding gives rise to high touch potentials - dangerous
to human life.
 Large Fault currents are more hazardous in igniting gases.
Explosion Hazard.
Solutions
 Phase Segregation (separating phases far apart)
Eliminates phase-to-phase faults.
 Resistance Earthing
 Means lower earth fault currents
 Value can be chosen during design stage to limit current to desired
value - say 400 A. 7
 Benefits
 Fault damage now minimal
Reduces fire hazard (especially in mines)

 Lower outage times

Less lost production, less lost revenue.

 Touch potentials kept within safe limits.

Protects human life.

 Low Fault Currents reduce possibility of igniting gases.

Minimizes explosion hazard.

 Lower Magnetic or thermal stresses imposed on plant during

fault.
 Transient overvoltages limited
Prevents stressing of insulation, breaker restrikes.
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 Grounding or Earthing

The methods commonly used for grounding the neutral

point of a 3-phase system are :
 System Grounding
 Methods of Neutral Grounding
 Solid Grounding (effective grounding )
 Resistance Grounding
 Reactance Grounding
 Resonant Groundings/Peterson coil Groundings.

The choice of the method of grounding depends upon many

factors including the size of the system, system voltage and the
scheme of protection to be used.

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System Grounding

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Earthing Techniques & The Equivalent Impedance

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 Earthing Methods 1
 Ungrounded System
Neutral connection on Generator/ Transformer is not
connected to earth at all

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 Ungrounded Systems
 An ungrounded system is one in which there is no intentional connection
between the conductors and earth ground.
 The “ungrounded system” is, in reality, a “capacitive grounded neural
system” by virtue of the distributed capacitance. The capacitance being the
conductor capacitance to ground.
 The ungrounded neutral system is a capacitive grounded neutral system,
 In normal operation the capacitive current of all three lines is leading the
respective line to neutral voltage by 90o , and the vector sum of all three
currents is zero.
 Early Electrical systems are almost universally operated ungrounded. On
small systems an insulation failure on one phase did not cause an outage.

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Ungrounded Systems

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 Ungrounded Systems
● In addition to the cost of equipment damage, ungrounded systems present fault
locating problems.
● This involves a tedious process of trial and error; first isolating the correct
feeder, then the branch, and finally the equipment at fault.
● The result is unnecessarily lengthy and expensive downtime.
● Despite the drawbacks of an ungrounded system, it does have one main
advantage.
● The circuit may continue in operation after the first ground fault, assuming it
remains as a single fault.
● This permits continued production, until a convenient shutdown can be
scheduled for maintenance.
● The interaction between the faulted system and its distributed capacitance may
cause transient over-voltages (several times normal) to appear from line to
ground during normal switching of a circuit having a line to ground fault (short).
These over-voltages may cause insulation failures at points other than the
original fault.

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 Grounded Systems
 All power systems of today operate with grounded neutrals. It is important
because:
1. The earth fault protection is based on the method of neutral
grounding.
2. The system voltage during earth fault depends on neutral grounding.
3. Neutral grounding has its associated switchgear.
4. Neutral grounding gives protection against arcing ground, unbalanced
voltage with respect to earth, and protection from lightning.
 The intentional connection of the neutral points of transformers, generators
and rotating machinery to the earth ground network provides a reference
point of zero volts.

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 Grounded Systems
 This protective measure offers many advantages over an
ungrounded system, including:

►Reduced magnitude of transient overvoltages

►Simplified ground fault location
►Improved system and equipment fault protection
►Reduced maintenance time and expense
►Greater safety for personnel
►Improved lightning protection
►Reduction in frequency of faults.

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 Earthing Methods 2 - Solidly Grounded Systems
 A solidly grounded system is one in which the neutral points have been
intentionally connected to ground with a conductor having no intentional
impedance.
 It is a simple and effective method of grounding and inexpensive.
 The neutrals of any star connected transformers, generators are connected to
ground.
 It minimizes the magnitude of the overvoltage that will appear on the
unfaulted phases during a ground fault, resulting in a reduction in the stress on
insulation.
 This partially reduces the problem of transient overvoltages found on the
ungrounded system, provided the ground fault current is in the range of 25 to
100% of the system three phase fault current.
 While solidly grounded systems are an improvement over ungrounded
systems, and speed the location of faults, they lack the current limiting ability
of resistance grounding.
 This system of grounding is used for voltages up to 33 kV with total power
capacity not exceeding 5000 kVA.
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 Earthing Methods 3

 Resistance earthing
Neutral connection on Generator /
Transformer is connected to earth
(0V) through a fixed resistance to
limit the earth fault current
Mainly used below 33 KV
Full line to line insulation
required towards neutral

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 Resistive Grounded Systems
◙ Resistance grounding is by far the most effective and preferred method.
◙ It solves the problem of transient overvoltages, thereby reducing
equipment damage.
◙ It accomplishes this by allowing the magnitude of the fault current to
be predetermined by a simple ohm’s law calculation
◙ Thus the fault current can be limited, in order to prevent equipment
damage.
◙ I =V/R
where: I = Limit of Fault Current.
V = Line-to-neutral Voltage of System
R = Ohmic Value of Neutral grounding Resistor
◙ Limiting fault currents to predetermined maximum values permits the
designer to selectively co-ordinate the operation of protective devices,
which minimizes system disruption and allows for quick location of the
fault.
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 Resistive Grounded Systems
 There are two broad categories of resistance grounding:
► low resistance
► high resistance.
 In both types of grounding, the resistor is connected between the
neutral of the transformer secondary and the earth ground.

Low Resistance Grounding

 Low resistance grounding of the neutral limits the ground fault current
to a high level (typically 50 amps or more) in order to operate
protective fault clearing relays and current transformers.
 These devices are then able to quickly clear the fault, usually within a
few seconds.
 Low resistance grounding resistors are commonly found on medium
and high voltage systems.
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 Resistive Grounded Systems
High Resistance Grounding

 High resistance grounding of the neutral limits the ground fault current
to a very low level (typically under 25 amps).
 It is used on low voltage systems of 600 volts or less, under 3000 A.
 By limiting the ground fault current, the fault can be tolerated on the
system until it can be located, and then isolated or removed at a
convenient time.
 High resistance neutral grounding combined with sensitive ground
fault relays and isolating devices, can quickly detect and shut down the
faulted circuit.

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 Earthing Methods 4

 Reactance earthing
Neutral connection on Generator / transformer is
connected to earth (0V) through a fixed reactance to
limit the earth fault current
Can be cheaper compared to resistance.

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Earthing Methods 5- Petersen Coil (arc suppression)
 Peterson coil is a tunable iron cored
reactor connected between the neutral
and ground.
 Neutral connection on transformer is
connected to earth (0V) through a
variable reactance to neutralize the
capacitive earth fault current. Results in
arc extinction.
 Elimination of the fault current that
could cause the arcing ground condition.
 Normally it does not carry current
 During fault: reactive component of
current I = capacitive component of
current I
 No current at the fault, preventing
restrikes and eliminates the cause of
voltage buildup
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 Earthing Methods 6
NEC earthing (with and without resistance)
 In HV delta systems no earth connection
is available. A 3 phase neutral earthing
compensator is connected to allow earth
fault currents to flow - allowing detection
of these faults.
 Due to its composition, a zigzag
transformer is more effective for
grounding purposes because it has less
internal winding impedance going to the
ground when a ground fault occurs
downstream of the Zigzag transformer.

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 Earthing Methods 6
NEC earthing (with and without resistance)
 Ground fault current flows through the
fault, back through ground and the NGR
to the Zigzag where the current is
divided equally in each leg of the
Zigzag.
 Since these three currents are all equal
and in time phase with each other (zero
sequence), and because of the special
Zigzag winding connections, they see a
very low impedance.
 This allows the ground fault current to
flow back into the system. It can be seen
that the ground fault current is only
limited by the resistance of the ground
fault, the NGR, and the small reactance
of the Zigzag.
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 Earthing Methods 6
NEC earthing (with and without resistance)
 Ground fault current flows through the
fault, back through ground and the NGR
to the Zigzag where the current is
divided equally in each leg of the
Zigzag.
 Since these three currents are all equal
and in time phase with each other (zero
sequence), and because of the special
Zigzag winding connections, they see a
very low impedance.
 This allows the ground fault current to
flow back into the system. It can be seen
that the ground fault current is only
limited by the resistance of the ground
fault, the NGR, and the small reactance
of the Zigzag.
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