See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/261500918

Design and simulation of interconnected A.C substation grounding grid in oil &
gas industries

Conference Paper · March 2012

DOI: 10.1109/JEC-ECC.2012.6186981

CITATIONS READS
2 241

3 authors:

Ahmed Hassan Emtethal N. Abdallah

Alexandria University Alexandria University
5 PUBLICATIONS 5 CITATIONS 24 PUBLICATIONS 66 CITATIONS

SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE

Nabil Abbasy
Alexandria University
68 PUBLICATIONS 409 CITATIONS

SEE PROFILE

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

Industrial substation power quality improvements View project

SGT-MaP View project

All content following this page was uploaded by Ahmed Hassan on 09 September 2020.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

 Design and Simulation of Interconnected A.C
Substation Grounding Grid in Oil & Gas Industries
Ahmed M. Hassan, E. N. Abdallah and N. H. Abbasy
Electrical Engineering Department
Alexandria University
Alexandria, Egypt

Abstract— Oil and gas industrial plants and product pipelines newly developed software package. This design takes into
belong to the largest and most sophisticated structures to be consideration the impact of the oil and gas plants requirements
protected against electrical shock, lightning strikes and regarding lightning and electrostatic charges protection. The
electrostatic hazards. This paper is concerned with a typical ac Electromagnetic Transient Analysis Program (ETAP) is used to
substation ground grid design. The paper is distinct in presenting conduct short circuit analysis of the substation under study then
an integrated design method with a modern software package. the ground grid toolbox is used to design, simulate and
This design takes into consideration the impact of the oil and gas optimize the design.
plants requirements regarding lightning and electrostatic charges
protection. The Electromagnetic Transient Analysis Program The paper is organized as follows. Section II introduces the
(ETAP) is used to conduct short circuit analysis of the substation ground grid design steps. Section III describes the lightning
under study then the ground grid toolbox is used to design, protection grounding. The protection against static charges and
simulate and optimize the design. The resultant design is a system stray currents is described in section IV. Finally, a case study is
intermeshing various earthing systems of structures, buildings presented in section V.
and installations with a significant advantages related to the
electromagnetic compatibility requirements. II. GROUND GRID DESIGN
Keywords-component; grounding; grid; lightning; electrostatic; A. Steps of design
electromagnetic transient analysis program The following is the ground grid design steps summary as
described in the IEEE Standard 80-2000.
I. INTRODUCTION
An adequate design of earthing grid generally helps to — Step 1: The property map and general location plan of the
maintain an interconnected system which will provide safety to substation should provide good estimates of the area to be
personnel and to equipment within the vicinity. This is grounded. A soil resistivity test will determine the soil
performed by intermeshing the various earthing systems of resistivity profile and the soil model needed (that is, uniform
structures, buildings or installations. Such a system gives low or two-layer model).
impedance between all structures and has significant — Step 2: The conductor size (dc) is determined and the earth
advantages related to the electromagnetic compatibility fault current (3I0) should be the maximum expected future
requirements. In particular, poor grounding in Oil and Gas fault current that will be conducted by any conductor in the
industry not only contributes to unnecessary downtime, but a grounding system, and the time, tc, should reflect the
lack of good grounding is also dangerous and increases the risk maximum possible clearing time (including backup).
of equipment failure. Without an effective grounding system, — Step 3: The tolerable touch and step voltages are
we could be exposed to the risk of electric shock, not to determined. The choice of time, ts, is the duration of shock for
mention instrumentation errors, harmonic distortion issues, determining allowable body current and this could or could
power factor problems and a host of possible intermittent not equal to tc based on the judgment of the design engineer
dilemmas. If fault currents have no path to the ground through according to the protection scheme and the type of reclosure.
a properly designed and maintained grounding system, they — Step 4: The preliminary design should include a conductor
will find unintended paths that could include people.
loop surrounding the entire grounded area, plus adequate cross
Initially, the IEEE Standard 80-2000 [1] discusses the steps conductors to provide convenient access for equipment
of the ground grid design. The lightning protection grounding grounds, etc (LC). The initial estimates of conductor spacing
is described in several standards such as BS EN 62305-3 [2], (D) and ground rod locations should be based on the
BS EN 62305-4 [3], BS EN 50164 [4] and BS EN 6651 [5]. maximum grid current IG and the area being grounded. Thus
Also, the work published by Bouquegneau in [6] stressed an estimate value of the total effective length of grounding
particularly on the lightning protection of Oil and Gas system conductor, including grid and ground rods (LT) can be
industrial plants. The protection against static charges and stray determined.
currents are best described in the NFPA 780 [7] and API RP. — Step 5: Estimates of the preliminary resistance of the
2003 [8]. grounding system in uniform soil can be determined from
This paper intends to present an integrated design method equation (1).
for ac substation grounding in oil & gas industry; along with a
 1 1 1
Rg = ρ
[L + 20A
1+ ] (1)
T 1+hg 20/A

where
Rg is the substation ground resistance in Ω
ρ is the soil resistivity in Ω.m
A is the area occupied by the ground grid in m 2
LT is the total buried length of conductors in m
hg is the depth of the grid in m
— Step 6: The current IG is to be determined by conducting
short circuit analysis. To prevent overdesign of the grounding
system, only that portion of the total fault current, 3I0, that
flows through the grid to remote earth should be used in
designing the grid. The current IG should, however, reflect the
worst fault type and location, the decrement factor, and any
future system expansion. Figure 1. Meshed earth termination system of an industrial plant
— Step 7: If the ground potential rise (GPR) of the 1: office block building; 2: tower inside the plant;
preliminary design is below the tolerable touch voltage, no 3: stand alone equipment; 4: cable tray
further analysis is necessary. Only additional conductor — Step 11: If either the step or touch tolerable limits are
required to provide access to equipment grounds is necessary. exceeded, revision of the grid design is required. These
— Step 8: The calculation of the mesh voltage for the grid as revisions may include smaller conductor spacings (D),
designed can be done for uniform soil, from equation (2) additional ground rods, etc.
— Step 12: After satisfying the step and touch voltage
Km .Ki.IG requirements, additional grid and ground rods may be
Em = (2)
LM
required. The additional grid conductors may be required if the
grid design does not include conductors near equipment to be
where
grounded. Additional ground rods may be required at the base
Km is the geometrical factor
of surge arresters, transformer neutrals, etc. Fig. 2 depicts
Ki is a corrective factor, which accounts for some of the error
these design procedure.
introduced by the assumptions made in deriving Km
LM effective buried length of the grounding system conductor
The step voltage values can be obtained from equation (3)
Ks .Ki .IG
ρ
Es = Ls
(3)

where
KS is the spacing factor for step voltage, simplified method
LS is the effective length of LC + LR for step voltage in m
LC is the total length of the conductor in the horizontal grid in
m
LR is the total length of all ground rods in m
— Step 9: If the computed mesh voltage is below the tolerable
touch voltage, the design may be complete (see Step 10). If the
computed mesh voltage is greater than the tolerable touch
voltage, the preliminary design should be revised (see Step
11).
— Step 10: If both the computed touch and step voltages are
below the tolerable voltages, the design needs only the
refinements required to provide access to equipment grounds,
(see Fig. 1). If not, the preliminary design must be revised (see
Step 11).

Figure 2. Flowchart of design procedure

 III. LIGHTNING PROTECTION GROUNDING The air termination components should be installed on
corners, exposed points and edges of the structure.
A. Protection of structures
A Lightning Protection System (LPS) consists of external 2) Down conductor system: Down conductors should
and internal lightning protection systems. It has four Classes of within the bounds of practical constraints take the most direct
LPS (I, II, III and IV) which are detailed in BS EN 62305-3. route from the air termination system to the earth termination
system. The lightning current is shared between the down
The function of the external system is to intercept the strike,
conduct and disperse it safely to earth. conductors.The greater the number of down conductors, the
lesser the current that flows down each. This is enhanced
The function of the internal systems is to prevent dangerous further by equipotential bonding to the conductive parts of the
sparking from occurring within the structure as this can cause structure.
extensive damage and fires. The down conductor spacing corresponds with the relevant
This is achieved by equipotential bonding or ensuring that a Class of LPS, refer to BS EN 62305-3 for typical distances.
“separation distance” or in other words a sufficient electrical There should always be a minimum of two down
isolation is achieved between any of the LPS components and conductors distributed around the perimeter of the structure.
other nearby electrically conducting material. Down conductors should wherever possible be installed at each
Protection of internal systems within a structure can be very exposed corner of the structure as research has shown these to
effectively achieved by the implementation of the Lightning carry the major part of the lightning current.
Protection Measures System (LPMS) detailed in BS EN 62305- A separation distance between the external LPS and the
4. structural metal parts is essentially required. So, if the lightning
These individual elements of an LPS should be connected discharge strikes the lightning conductor, it cannot „bridge the
together using appropriate lightning protection components gap‟ and flash over to the adjacent metalwork. This separation
(LPC) complying with BS EN 50164 series. This will ensure distance can be calculated from:
that in the event of a lightning current discharge to the kc
structure, the correct design and choice of components will S = kil ∙ ∙ l (4)
kml
minimize any potential damage.
where
An external LPS consists of:
kil relates to the appropriate Class of LPS.
1) Air termination system:The role of an air termination kc is a partitioning coefficient of the lightning current flowing
system is to capture the lightning discharge current and in the down conductors.
dissipate it harmlessly to earth via the down conductor and kml is a partitioning coefficient relating to the separation
earth termination system. Thus it is vitally important to use a medium.
correctly designed air termination system. l is the length in metres along the air termination or down
BS EN 62305-3 advocates the following, in any conductor, from the point where the separation distance is to
combination, for the design of the air termination: be considered, to the nearest equipotential bonding point.
For values of the above coefficients refer to BS EN 62305-
 Air rods (or finials) whether they are free standing 3.
masts or linked with conductors to form a mesh on
the roof. See Fig. 3 (a). 3) Earth termination system:The earth termination system
 Catenary (or suspended) conductors, whether they is vital for the dispersion of the lightning current safely and
are supported by free standing masts or linked effectively into the ground. Although lightning current
with conductors to form a mesh on the roof. See discharges are a high frequency event, at present most
Fig. 3 (b). measurements taken of the earthing system are carried out
 Meshed conductor network that may lie in direct using low frequency proprietary instruments. The standard
contact with the roof or be suspended above it (in advocates a low earthing resistance requirement and points out
the event that it is of paramount importance that
that can be achieved with an overall earth termination system
the roof is not exposed to a direct lightning
discharge).See Fig. 3 (c) of 10 ohms or less. In line with BS 6651, The work presented
in [6] recommends a single integrated earth termination
system for a structure, combining lightning protection, power
and telecommunication systems.
IV. PROTECTION AGAINST STATIC CHARGES & STRAY
CURRENTS
A. Control of Electrostatic Charge Generation
Figure 3. ( a )Example of air rods ( b ) Example of catenary air termination
Sparking between two conducting bodies can be prevented
( c ) Example of mesh air termination by means of an electrical bond attached to both bodies. This
bond prevents a difference in potential across the gap because it
provides a conductive path through which the static charges
can recombine. Therefore, no spark can occur.
The flow of electricity caused by the entrainment of
charged particles in the flowing fluid is known as the streaming
current. If this charged stream enters a metal container or tank,
charge separation will be induced on the tank wall. A charge
equal in magnitude to the fluid charge, but of opposite sign,
will be induced on the inside surface of the tank, and a charge
of the same sign as the incoming stream will be left on the
outside surface of the tank.
If the tank is grounded, this charge on the outside surface
will flow to ground. The charge on the inside will remain, held
by the attraction of the charge in the fluid. Ultimately, the
charge in the fluid and on the wall will come together by
movement of the charge through the fluid, see Fig. 4.
Figure 5. Typical Crude Oil Treatment Cycle

 In the plant under study an 11 kV electrical substation

is dedicated to supply the plant.
 Two 3x3x1x500 mm2 incoming feeders from a nearby
company are supplying the 11 kV switchgear.
 There are two step down transformers 11/7.2 kV, 4
MVA each and they are used to supply the 6.9 kV
loads.
 There are some pumps and loads ( hot oil pumps and
recycle gas compressors ) supplied directly from the 11
kV switchgear
 A 1 MW 0.4 kV diesel engine generator is used to
Figure 4. Charge distribution inside a tank.
supply the emergency loads switchgear.
 There are 8 step down transformers 11/0.4 kV, 2.5
Storage tanks on grade-level foundations are considered MVA each are used to step down the voltage for the
inherently grounded for dissipation of electrostatic charges, low voltage switchgears they are divided on two
regardless of the type of foundation (i.e., concrete, sand, sections on the 11 kV switchgear with a bus tie
asphalt) NFPA 780. For elevated tanks, the resistance to between the two sections.
ground can be as high as 1 megohm, and the tank can still be  The average total demand is approximately 15,882
considered adequately grounded for dissipation of electrostatic kVA.
charges, API RP. 2003. B. Short circuit calculation using software ETAP
The addition of grounding rods and similar grounding 1) Input data for the short circuit of the power plant under
systems will not reduce the hazard associated with electrostatic study : Referring to the plant single line diagrams, the
charges in the fluid. equipment layout plan and the above mentioned description,
V. CASE STUDY the required data can be filled and the overall single line
diagram can be drawn in ETAP.
A. Crude Oil Treatment Plant Description 2) Results of short circuit study : The detailed analysis of
A typical crude oil treatment plant consists of main the short circuit levels at each bus bar can be obtained after
manifold that receives the crude oil from wells. The crude oil running the short circuit study which gave a ground fault
goes after that into a test separator to analysis it, after that it current of 23.8 kA. This value can be embedded into the
goes through a medium pressure 3 phase‟s separator to separate grounding grid toolbox to start the grid design phase.
the crude oil into water, oil and gas. The gas goes to the
compression processing unit the water goes to the water C. Ground grid calculation using software ETAP
treatment unit and the oil continues through a low pressure 1) Input data for the ground grid of the power plant under
separator for further separation. The oil continues the cycle for study
more processing through crude heater than the oil dehydration
unit towards storage tanks preparing for pumping through the TABLE 1. Ground grid input data
export pipeline. A block diagram showing in brief this cycle is
illustrated in Fig. 5. System Data
System Frequency 50
Average Weight of Worker (kg) 50
Ambient Temperature (0C) 40
Short Circuit Current kA 23.8 this isn‟t the case, the optimization tool could be used to refine
Short Circuit Current Division Factor 100% the design and come up with the optimum (minimum GPR)
Short Circuit Current Projector Factor 100% number of conductors and rods. It is still the designer decision
Durations of Fault (s) 0.5
to further decrease the number of conductors and rods as long
System X/R Ratio 30
Soil Parameters
as the GPR is below the tolerable limits.
Surface Material Resistivity (.m) 0
3) Optimized ground grid study : In the optimized ground
Surface Material Depth (m) 0.5
Upper Layer Soil Resistivity (.m) 6.4 grid study the same previous data are used in addition to
Upper Layer Soil Depth (m) 5 marking the updated number of conductors and rods check
Lower Layer Soil Resistivity (.m) 6.4 box.
Ground Conductor Library The simulation gives the summary report shown in Table 3.
Material Conductivity 100
Thermal Coefficient of Resistivity 0.00393 TABLE 3. Optimized ground grid summary report
K0 Factor 234
Fusing Temperature 1083 Ground Grid Summary Report
Ground Conductor Resistivity (.m) 1.72 Ground resistance (Rg) Ω 0.006
Thermal Capacity Factor 3.42
Ground Potential Rise (GPR) V 148.9
Grid Data
Shape rectangular Tolerable Touch Potential V 164
Copper, Calculated Touch Potential V 26.5
Material Type annealed soft
drawn Tolerable Step Potential V 164
Conductor Cross Section 120 Calculated Step Potential V 12.7
Grid Depth 0.5 Reflection factor K 1
Maximum Length of the Grid in the X Direction 410
Maximum Length of the Grid in the Y Direction 660 Surface Layer Derating Factor CS 100
Number of Conductors in the X Direction 7 Decrement Factor Df 1.091
Number of Conductors in the Y Direction 4 Maximum Grid Current kA 25.973
Cost ($) 10
Rod Data
Copper, The optimized design results in a GPR of 148.9 V; but with
Material Type annealed soft a much more lengths of ground conductors (26,320 m vs. 5,510
drawn m in the normal case). This represents a cost impact of 195,000
Number of Rods 134
$ difference from the non-optimized design (26,000-68,000) $.
Average Length (m) 3
Diameter (cm) 2 It‟s obvious in Tables 4 through 6 that the absolute step and
Rods touch potential profiles of the optimum case have smoother
Arrangement throughout grid
area
potential distribution than those of the actual case.
Cost ($) 100 TABLE 4. Absolute Potential Profiles Comparison

2) Results of ground grid study : The ground grid design Profile Actual Case Optimum Case
with the short circuit current (23.8 kA) gives the summary
report in Table 2.
Absolute
TABLE 2. Ground grid summary report Isc=23.8 kA Potential

Ground Grid Summary Report

Ground resistance (Rg) Ω 0.007
TABLE 5. Step Potential Profiles Comparison
Ground Potential Rise (GPR) V 170.7
Tolerable Touch Potential V 164 Profile Actual Case Optimum Case
Calculated Touch Potential V 66.5
Tolerable Step Potential V 164
Step
Calculated Step Potential V 17 Potential
Reflection factor K 1
Surface Layer Derating Factor CS 100
Decrement Factor Df 1.091
Maximum Grid Current kA 25.973

By inspecting results of table 2, fortunately the GPR, touch

and step potentials are within the tolerable limits. However, if
 TABLE 6. Touch Potential Profiles Comparison The protective angle and rod height can be obtained as
shown in Fig. 8.
Profile Actual Case Optimum Case

Touch
Potential

VI. LIGHTNING PROTECTION SYSTEM FOR THE PLANT

OFFICE BLOCK
The objective is to design a LPS for the office block
building lying in the plant after performing the risk assessment Figure 8. Protection of air conditioning units
evaluation to determine its appropriate class. Consider the
building dimensions and roof levels shown in Fig. 6. 2) Down conductor network : A structure fitted with an
LPS Class IV requires down conductors fitted at 20m intervals
around its perimeter. The perimeter at roof level is 120m.
Therefore 6 down conductors are required. Fig. 9 illustrates
the proposed locations of the down conductors.

Figure 6. Office block dimensions

The building is of a traditional brick and block construction

with a flat felted roof and the results after evaluating the risks
was the installation of a structural LPS Class IV.
Figure 9. Down conductor locations
The design of these protection measures is detailed in the
following points: VII. CONCLUSION
1) Air termination network :The air termination network Short Circuit Analysis is an important aspect in the ground
will be designed using the mesh method. A structure fitted grid design. Good engineering practice and experience in
conjunction with modern software toolboxes can give a good
with an LPS Class IV requires an air termination mesh with
judgment to reach an accurate and adequate design as much as
maximum dimensions of 20m x 20m. The air termination possible. Also, modern software toolboxes represent nowadays
mesh is illustrated in Fig. 7. an accurate and time efficient method in the design phase and
help to optimize the design but it is always a designer decision
to balance between cost and performance requirements of the
system. This was obvious comparing the selected earth grid
design and the optimized one conducted by the ETAP Earth
Grid Design Toolbox. In the actual design the ground
resistance, the ground potential rise, the touch profile and the
step profile were higher than the optimized design. On the
Figure 7. Air termination mesh
other hand in the selected design the number of Ground Rods
and conductors were less than the optimum case.
The dimensions of each air conditioning unit are 1,000mm
x 400mm x 750mm height. VIII. REFERENCES
Effective length l = 15+ 3+ 0.75= 18.75 m. [1] IEEE Standard 80-2000 (Revision of IEEE Std 80-1986), “IEEE Guide
Were for Safety in AC Substation Grounding”, 30 January 2000.
l is the total effective distance from the point at which the [2] BS EN 62305-3, “Protection against lightning”, Vol. 3:Physical damage
separation distance s is to be calculated to the nearest point of to structures and life hazard, 2006.
the equipotential bonding. [3] BS EN 62305-4, “Protection against lightning”, Vol. 4: Electrical and
The distance required from the edge of the roof down to ground electronic systems within structures, 2006.
level = 15m. [4] BS EN 50164, “Lightning protection components (LPC)”, BSI, 2008.
The distance from the edge of the roof to the air conditioning [5] BS 6651, “Code of practice for protection of structures against
unit = 3m. lightning”, 1999.
The height of the air conditioning unit = 0.75m. [6] Bouquegneau, Christian., “Lightning Protection Of Oil And Gas
Industrial Plants”, IX International Symposium on Lightning Protection,
Thus substituting in equation (4) it is found that a Polytechnical University of Mons, November 26th-30th, 2007.
separation distance of 1.5m is required between the air rod and [7] NFPA Standard 780, “The Installation of Lightning Protection Systems”,
the air conditioning unit to prevent any possible flashover in 1997.
the event of a lightning discharge striking the air rod. [8] API RP. 2003, “Protection Against Ignitions, Arising Out of Static,
Lightning and Stray Currents”, American Petroleum Institute.

View publication stats