Substation Grounding Training

This course is designed for engineering project managers, engineers, and technicians from utilities who have built or are considering building or retrofitting substations or distribution systems with SCADA and substation integration and automation equipment.

• Utility and Industrial Electrical Engineers and Engineering Technicians
• Transmission planning engineers
• Distribution planning engineers
• Substation Design Engineers
• Consulting Electrical Engineers
• Substation network management engineers
• Substation maintenance and construction engineers & technologists

Substation Grounding Training Course Outline

DAY ONE
  

SESSION 1: DEFINITIONS AND INTERPRETATIONS    

• Determination of Need of Personal Protective Grounding
• Basic Criteria for Safe Grounding Practices
• Electric Shock Hazard
• Grounding Practices
• Basic Design Options
• Soil Resistivity
• Ground Fault Currents
• Fault clearing Time  

SESSION 2: GROUNDING STANDARDS AND GUIDELINES

• IEEE 80, IEEE Guide for Safety in AC Substation Grounding
• ASTM F 855 Standard Specifications for Temporary Protective Grounds
• IEEE 1246, IEEE Guide for Temporary Protective Grounding Systems Used in Substations
• IEEE 1048, IEEE Guide for Protective Grounding of Power Lines
• FIST 5-1 Personal Protective Grounding for Electric Power Facilities (U.S.B.R.)

SESSION 3: GROUNDING OPTIONS   

• Ground Cable Assemblies
• Grounding Cable Ampacities
• Grounding Cable Reactance
• Parallel Grounds
• Grounding Clamps
• Grounding Insulated Power Cable
• Ground Potential Rise (GPR) in Medium- and High-Voltage Systems 

SESSION 4: SUBSTATION GROUNDING SYSTEMS

• Ground grid conductors
• Ground rods
• Soil and rock layers
• Connections to equipment and grounded tanks
• Connectors used for ground grid application (IEEE 837)
• Substation fence and gate grounding
• Ground grates and switch operating platforms
• Grounding transformer tanks and surge arresters
• Grounding wood and metal structures
• Use of line terminal grounding switches
• Lightning protection (shielding) 

SESSION 5: SUBSTATION LOW-VOLTAGE GROUNDING CONSIDERATIONS

• Grounding for substation DC circuits and batteries
• Grounding auxiliary power circuits
• Current transformer (CT) and voltage transformer (VT) grounding
• Communication circuit grounding
• Equipment enclosure grounding

SESSION 6: GROUND GRID DESIGN FOR SUBSTATIONS 

• Determining maximum fault current available
• Exposure Voltage Calculations for Switchyards
• Soil resistivity
• Measuring soil resistivity
• Selection of the Right Connector
• Horizontal Grid Design IEEE STD 80
• Introduction to 2-Layer Soil Model
• Vertical Rods Connected by a Grid
• Insulating rock layer
• Ground Potential Rise (GPR)
• Touch and Step Potential
• Transferred Potential
• Limiting step potentials
• Limiting touch potentials
• Temporary Grounding   

DAY TWO

SESSION 7: SUBSTATION GROUND GRID TESTING

• Ground grid corrosion
• Measuring ground rod resistance
• Measuring substation grid resistance
• Equipment for ground grid verification
• Finding and repairing deteriorated ground connections

SESSION 8: SOFTWARE-AIDED DESIGN FOR SUBSTATION GROUND GRID SYSTEMS

• IEEE 80 calculations
• Input parameters needed
• Using software (WinIGS) for ground grid design
• Impacts of reducing or increasing grid dimensions
• Impacts of adding ground rods / ground wells
• Optimizing designs for safety and cost

SESSION 9: ELECTRICAL HAZARDS FOR SUBSTATION WORKERS

• Effect of current on a person from AC & DC Currents (IEEE 524a, IEEE 1048)
• Step and touch potentials
• Electric fields (capacitive coupling)
• Magnetic fields (inductive coupling)
• Preventing shock through isolation, insulation, equipment bonding
• Protection against inadvertent energization through Personal Protective Grounds (PPG)
• Arc flash hazards 

SESSION 10: PERSONAL PROTECTIVE GROUNDS (PPG)

• Use of PPG and procedures
• Single-point grounding compared to bracket grounding
• Sizing for PPG cables and PPG cable types
• PPG clamps – type, class, and grade (ASTM 855)
• PPG for various applications (busbar, wires, underground cables, switches, etc)
• Paralleling PPG
• Procedures for applying PPG
• Grounding capacitors and cables
• Grounding vehicles
• Testing PPG

SESSION 11: SWITCHYARD AND SUBSTATION PROTECTIVE GROUNDING      

• General Considerations for Placement of Protective Grounds
• Power Circuit Breakers and Transformers
• Disconnect Switches and Bus
• Insulated High Voltage Cable
• Cable Terminations
• Midsections and Splices
• Grounding Transformers and Phase Reactors
• Capacitor Banks  

SESSION 12: TECHNICAL CONSIDERATIONS IN PROTECTIVE GROUNDING IN SUBSTATIONS AND SWITCHYARDS     

• Substation Grounding System
• Typical Shock Situations - Conditions of Danger
• Structure Touch
• Electric Circuit for Switch Operator Sources of Hazardous Current on De-energized Equipment
• Grounding and Jumpering Requirements
• IEE Std 80   

Review of expectations
Questions and Answers

COURSE TIMETABLE

Both days:
Start: 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time
Finish: 4:30 p.m.