SECTION 531 - GROUNDING AND LIGHTNING PROTECTION SYSTEM

Note: The highlighted texts are out of scope of BOP contract and only considered for contractor information.

PART 1 1.1 A.

GENERAL

Description Definition

Grounding shall mean grid, ground rods, connections, equipment and other materials and measures required to complete the grounding of generating plant and buildings under this contract. Work of this section includes design, manufacture, erection and testing of grounding. Also provision shall be made for the protection of building/equipments against lightning (NFPA 780). B. Related Work Specified in Other Sections

Following items of works related to work of this section covered by other sections are, but not limited, as noted: (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10) (11) (12) (13) (14) C. Control and Relay panels, in section 521. Cable system, including conduit and cable tray, in section 545. Transformer, including transformer ground terminal in section 511. 6.6 kV switchgear, in section 522. Generator and Auxiliaries, in section 41. Generator, in section 410. Steam turbine and auxiliaries, in section 46. Lightning arresters (surge arresters), in section 532. Auxiliary power system, in section 523. High voltage and low voltage motor, in section 585. Lighting, in section 583. Current transformers, in section 515. Potential transformers, in Section 516. Diesel Generator Set, in section 584. Extent of Work

The extent of work shall include generating plant primary, secondary grounding and lightning systems. The primary grounding system for whole power plant is in the scope of the BOP contractor. The secondary grounding system for the following items, but not limited to those, is subject to scope of work of MAPNA or BOP contractor accordingly: Power transformers (main, station, and unit) Auxiliary Transforms

D.

Indoor switchgear Distribution panels Stack Main Buildings structures (Turbine hall and main and auxiliary boilers) Auxiliary Buildings Lighting and AC distribution panels Battery chargers and DC & UPS system Relay and control panels Cable trays Lightning Arresters and surge arresters Metallic conduits Wire armouring on power and control cables Main Generators Diesel Generators Grounding meshes and mechanism box of isolators Electric motors/pumps/fans Steel structures/gantries/towers Turbines Main and Auxiliary Boilers Main and Auxiliary Cooling Towers Fuel handling and storage tanks(Water, oil, fuel) Piping systems All other metallic items which may come in contact with or establish a dangerous voltage. Alternative

Minor alternations in conductor and connector locations to suit the equipment specifically offered will be considered. Such alternations shall require the approval of the Engineers. 1.1 Standards

Work of this section shall comply with the requirements of the latest editions of IEC, BS, IEEE, ANSI, IPCEA, NEMA, and/or other contractual standards, (Standards and codes of other origin may be accepted with the Engineer's approval). Latest Revisions of publication listed below form part of this specification: ANSI A10 "ANSI Standards about Safety"

IEEE C2 BS EN 62305-3

National Electrical Safety Code Protection Physical Hazard against Damage to Lightning Structures Part and 3: Life

IEC 62305 NFPA 780

Protection against Lightning Standard for the Installation of Lightning Protection Systems

BS EN 13602

Copper Copper

and

Copper for

Alloys the

Drawn,

Round of

Wire

Manufacture

Electrical Conductors BS 13601 Copper And Copper Alloys - Copper Rod, Bar and Wire for General Electrical Purposes BS EN 13601 Copper and Copper Alloys - Copper Rod, Bar and Wire for General Electrical Purposes BS 951 Electrical Earthing Clamps for Earthing

And Bonding - Specification BS EN 50020 Electrical Apparatus for Potentially

Explosive Atmospheres - Intrinsic Safety "I" BS 2754 Memorandum Construction of Electrical

Equipment Protection against Electric Shock IEEE 80 IEEE 81 Guide for Safety in AC Substation Grounding Guide Ground for Measuring Earth and Resistivity, Surface

Impedance,

Earth

Potentials of a Ground System IEEE 81.2 Guide for Measurement of Impedance and

Safety Characteristics of Large, Extended or Interconnected Grounding Systems

IEEE 141

Recommended

Practice

for

Electric

Power

Distribution for Industrial Plants IEEE 142 Recommended Practice for Grounding of

Industrial and Commercial Power Systems IEEE 100 The Authoriative Dictionary of Ieee

Standards Terms IEEE 665 IEEE 1050 Guide for Generating Station Grounding Guide for Instrumentation and Control

Equipment Grounding in Generating Stations IEEE 1100 Powering and Grounding Sensitive Electronic Equipment

1.3 A.

Quality Assurance Design Criteria

Apart from the specific requirements of this section, grounding and lightning protection shall be designed, manufactured and tested according to the requirement of the standards referred to in IEEE 80 Article 1.2. Station ground grids shall be designed to obtain a station ground resistance of 0.3 ohms or less. The main grounding grid shall be formed from copper horizontal conductors at intervals of not greater than 10 meter and copper weld rods. The maximum ground fault currents to be used when designing the ground grid shall be determined from maximum fault levels specified for HV Bus in Volume 2 section 50 general engineering, considered to last for a period of 0.5 second and a maximum temperature of 250C for bolted joints and 450C for brazed joints. 1.4 Submittals

A.

Shop Drawings and Manufacturer's Literature

Submit detailed drawings and calculations pertaining to each item supplied this section in accordance with the Article entitled "shop drawings" in submittals section 53. The data shall include but not be limited to the followings: (1) (2) (3) Layout drawings of each overall grounding grid. Detail drawings showing all equipment. Detailed description of the various connectors connecting process used to form the grounding lightning system. Calculation to show fault current sections of the grounding grid. Manufacturer's Calculations capacity of

and and

(4)

various

B.

The contractor shall check the soil resistance at site and shall show by the calculations carried out according to IEEE standard No. 80 that safety of touch and step potentials, station ground fault potential rise, conductor diameter, and calculation ground and lightning design are correct. PART 2 2.1 PRODUCTS

Materials

The materials used shall be as follows: The grounding conductor for the plant main grid shall be standard soft drawn annealed copper, with a minimum of seven strands. The conductor size shall be 185 mm2 minimum. The conductor for connections between equipment etc., and main grid shall be of the same current carrying capacity as the main grid conductor and shall be of stranded soft drawn annealed copper. Ground rods shall be "copper weld" minimum diameter 1.75cm, minimum length, 3 meters, with minimum spacing of 3 meters. Grounding conductor shall be connected to equipment by bolted connections. The connectors shall be copper or tinned copper where fitted to aluminium. Minimum contact area of the conductor to the connector shall be 10 cm2.

All buried joints shall be either welded or brazed. Insulated grounding conductor shall be used for connecting power transformer core grounding resistor to the ground grid. Insulated cable or copper ground bus supported on insulators shall be used for connecting lightning arresters to lightning arrester counters. Where grounding conductors would be exposed, the green/yellow PVC insulated grounding conductors suitable for a power frequency voltage to earth of 250 V (or conductor inside the plastic conduits) shall be used. An additional quantity representing ten percent of the total quantity of all material required for the completion of this section of the works shall be included in the shipment to cover possible damage or loss during shipment or erection. At the completion of the project, the balance of material will be turned over to the client as spare parts. 3.1 A. Installation and Erection General

The main grounding grid shall be buried at depth of not less than 0.8 meter below finished grade. All equipment frames and metal parts of indoor/outdoor apparatuses including main pipes, vessels crane tracks, cable supports, etc. shall be grounded. It is sufficient to connect collective pipelines, main supporting system and tracks at interval of 20 meters. The cross - section of grounding conductor shall be such as to safely carry the appropriate fault current for the necessary length of time. From the table below, it can be decided as a reference of grounding conductor size selection for different equipment. No. 1 2 Equipment 6.6 kV Switchgear 400 V Switchgear Conductor Size mm2 95-185 95-185

3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Control Panel Generator Transformers PT & SA - NGR Terminal Box Lighting Distribution Board High Voltage / MV. Motors Low Voltage Motors S<16 16<S<35 S>35 (S: Cable Phase Conductor Size in mm2) Tray system

70 185 185 185 50 50 185 S 16 S/2 95

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Transformer neutrals and lightning arresters shall be connected directly to the earth electrode and main grid which their grounding conductors shall not be used for other equipments also the a.m. conductors shall be short and straight. Minor items of plant e.g. small circuit breaker protected motors, distribution boards and field mounted equipments etc., may be connected to the earth through their associated cable armour, subjected to the engineer approval. The generator / transformers shall be grounded at two opposite side points. MV & LV switchgear shall be grounded at both ends of switchgear row, the additional connection can be considered for switchgear row having a length more than 15m. The cable tray/ladder sections shall be connected to the main grounding mesh interval between 20 to 30 m, trays with I&C cables in cable ducts shall be covered to protect them against lightning and interference voltages. Power cables carrying alternating currents shall have their armour bounded to the grounding system at both ends. Grounding of screens of cables (less than 60V) for binary and analog signals shall be done at one end at electronic cabinet (I&C panels).

Ground all equipment frames to main ground grid. Do not use ground of lightning arresters as ground connection for other

equipment. Keep ground straight. connections to lightning arresters short and

Connections to equipment frames and to galvanize steel structures shall be made using bolted connections. All other connections shall be by an endothermic welding process. Make all connections to equipment by mechanical connections bolted or clamped to a vertical face with sufficient pressure and contact area to prevent burning due to fault currents. Electrically bond the metallic cable tray and conduit at all mechanical joints and connect at intervals to ground grid. Obtain approval of the clients representative before covering the ground grid by permanent material. Provisions shall be made for restricting touch voltage to safe limits as per standard IEEE 80. and step

Ground conductors in the switchgear and relay room and plant area shall be run in cable tray. Sensitive equipment using integrated circuits shall have their clean ground system connected to an independent ground mesh or the main ground system (subjected to the engineer's approval). All permanent / buried joints and connections shall be done by cad weld method or by an approved compression type method. Equipment and structures shall be connected not less than 300 mm above finished grade using bolted connectors. Each structure column shall be grounded where required by placing grounding conductor on inside surface of structure legs on girder chord angles and supported neatly by bolt type connectors. Metallic conduits shall be bonded at all mechanical joints and connected at intervals (subjected to the engineer) to main ground grid. All equipment frames shall be grounded to the main ground grid. Should any conductor need to be embedded in concrete, contractor shall notify Engineer in writing as soon as installation is completed and at least 24 hours before embedding in concrete so Engineer may inspect quality of work. The grounding system shall be so designed that all sections

can be isolated to do grounding measurements for each section after completion of installation. The stack lightning protection shall be in accordance with the recommendations of the latest edition of NFPA-780. The value of the ground resistance for the stack grounding system shall not exceed one ohm. Conductors for the lightning protection system and the down conductors for the stack grounding shall be stranded, lead covered medium hard drawn copper. Air terminals shall be at least 30 mm diameter stainless steel rods. Lightning conductors and the stack grounding system shall not be used for grounding wiring systems or other electrical equipment. Reinforcing bars of the stack shell or the steel stack and its supports must be connected together and to the lightning protection down conductors at the top and at the bottom. To prevent lightning damage to any control, lightning cables, etc., all conduits carrying cables shall be bonded by copper cable at their highest point to the nearest internal down conductor of the lightning protection system, also the sheaths or conduits of cables which are attached to the stack structure shall be grounded. Whenever a conductor is used to bond a metallic component to the lightning rod down conductors, the connection should run downwards from the connected part, never upwards. All metal parts of the stack shall be bonded to the grounding system. The metal platforms shall be bonded to the internal down conductors. Other metal parts i.e. luminaries frames, shall be bonded to the nearest portion of the down conductor system. Individual sections of the ladder shall be bonded together. Liners, ladders, etc., shall be connected to the protective grounding system at both the top and bottom. All power plant buildings which do not fall within the 15 degrees of protective cone of the stacks shall have their own lightning protection. This shall comprise a sufficient number of air terminals, all suitably grounded, and all in accordance with NFPA-780. 3.2 Field Quality Control

The resistance of the complete grounding system and step/touch voltage shall be measured by the contractor with an approved form of earth resistance system. If the grounding resistance of

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the grid is greater than 0.3 ohms, additional ground rods shall be used or an auxiliary ground grid may be installed to reduce the grounding resistance. The site testing of lightning system shall be as per BS 6651, section 5 or other contractual standards. Carry out testing of equipment in accordance with the approved test program on completion of installation.

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