Overhead Transmission Grounding Guide: The Grey Book

This comprehensive referencesupported by software and trainingwill present the latest knowledge, guidance, tools and techniques to help utilities implement cost-effective grounding systems that ensure safety and reliability.

All electrical installations need a grounding system for safe and reliable operation. Transmission structures present special challenges, because differences in soil resistivity require each tower to have a different design and execution method. EPRIs Overhead Transmission Grounding Guide will help utilities save time, resources, and money by describing advanced methods for designing, testing, and improving ground electrodes on transmission towers. When released in its final form in early 2009, the guide will join the landmark series of EPRI power delivery references. These comprehensive guidebookseach printed with a distinctive colored coverdocument and distill the knowledge and experience of the worlds leading power delivery experts. In this tradition, the Overhead Transmission Grounding Guide will be printed with a grey cover and be referred to as the Grey Book. Addressing an Urgent Challenge As utilities lose subject matter experts to retirement and downsizing, the need to capture and preserve institutional expertise is greater than ever. The need is particularly acute in the area of transmission grounding. Ensuring public safety has become increasingly important as more heavily loaded lines come in closer proximity to growing populations. Moreover, the rebirth of transmission expansion worldwide demands the implementation of high-performing, cost-effective grounding systems. New generations of utility staff need access to fundamental grounding principles, practical guidance for grounding analysis and design, and the latest results of advanced grounding research. Material and Organization In 2007, EPRI produced two reports: Guide for Transmission Line Grounding: A Roadmap for Design, Testing, and Remediation: Part ITheory Book (1013900) and Guide for Transmission Line Grounding: A Roadmap for Design Testing and Remediation: Part IIPractical Guidelines (1016330). In 2008, these two volumes will be combined and updated to form the Grey Book.

The Grey Book will thus present the theory and basic principles necessary for a solid understanding of good grounding engineering practices as well as the practical aspects of transmission grounding design and installation that consider reliability improvement and safety. The reference book also includes the latest technical developments in accessing transmission line ground-electrode impedance as well as the traditionally used methods. Techniques to evaluate soil resistivity are also addressed. Supporting Software The reference is supplemented with the EPRI Grounding Guide Software (EGGS, 1011654), a set of tutorial and engineering applications to help utility engineers in designing transmission line grounding electrodes. It comprises nine applets run from a web-page platform to illustrate complex ground-electrode behavior and perform the necessary engineering calculations for the design of the ground electrodes. In 2008, the EGGS will be updated and a new applet added; the new applets will be packaged together with the new Grey Book.

Audience and Application The reference is aimed at meeting the needs of a range of utility personnel involved in all aspects of transmission line grounding: Transmission line planners who need simple methods to evaluate the relative merits of resistivity profiles in route and site selection Transmission line designers and structural engineers with limited appreciation of how minor design choices can improve the performance and longevity of electrical grounding Protection and control designers who rely on effective grounding data to improve distance relaying and fault location Construction and inspection staff who must bridge the gaps between a 20-ohm specification and a rock-anchored tower, a spool of wire, and a pile of ground rods Asset managers who can use the test methods and equations to calculate the remaining life of existing grounding Risk managers who need to understand why the risk of electrocution near transmission towers has proven to be so low compared with other public and worker exposures Most utility design guides and industry standards offer a bewildering set of equationsone for every electrode shape and none suitable for a four-legged transmission tower with extra rods or radial wire. The guide treats complex electrode shapes and two-layer soil effects using methods that are simple, accurate, easy to teach, and easy to use, even for a high school graduate with a math credit and a scientific calculator. The guide consolidates approaches to the testing and modeling of ground electrodes, identifies appropriate simplifications, and adapts the methods specifically for transmission line grounding. Practical Training Tool The Grey Book will be a valuable training tool and serve as the textbook for future EPRI overhead transmission grounding seminars. These seminars will be offered at EPRIs Lenox High-Voltage Test Facility, at regional centers, and on-site at individual utilities, where course content can be tailored to a utilitys specific needs and transmission system.

Table of Contents Part I Theory Chapter 1: Chapter 2: Chapter 3: Chapter 4: Chapter 5: Chapter 6: Part II Chapter 7: Chapter 8: Chapter 9: Introduction Roles of Transmission Line Grounding Definitions Electrical Characteristics of Soil Characteristics of a Ground Electrode Useful Guideline Documents and Resources Practical Guidelines Introduction Transmission Line Design Engineers Guide to Electrical Grounding Basic Design

Chapter 10: Grounding Design for Power Frequency Chapter 11: Lightning Design Chapter 12: Design Aspects of Transmission Line Grounding Chapter 13: Examples of Ground Electrodes in Use Chapter 14: Practical Considerations for Installing Ground Electrodes References Index Glossary Contact Information For more information, contact the EPRI Customer Assistance Center at 800.313.3774 (askepri@epri.com).

1016303 Electric Power Research Institute 3420 Hillview Avenue, Palo Alto, California 94304-1338 PO Box 10412, Palo Alto, California 94303-0813 USA 800.313.3774 650.855.2121 askepri@epri.com www.epri.com

February 2008

2008 Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), Inc. All rights reserved. Electric Power Research Institute, EPRI, and TOgETHER . . . SHAPIng THE FUTURE OF ElECTRICITy are registered service marks of the Electric Power Research Institute, Inc. Printed on recycled paper in the United States of America