International Conference on Electrical Engineering 2002
Providing Effective Transmission Substation Earthing
for CLP Power System Network
F.C. Chan
Substation Implementation Manager
CLP Power Hong Kong Limited
147 Argyle Street, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, China
Abstract
The purpose of substation earthing is to safeguard life,
minimize interference to neighborhood during earth
fault and facilitate the prompt fault clearance and
system restoration. An ideal earthing system for an
electrical installation controls the resultant step, touch,
transfer and rise of earth potentials during the most
onerous earth fault condition to be well within the
permissible levels. Given the hilly terrain and deep
water-table in CLP Power’s supply area, the provision
of an effective substation earthing is a challenge to
substation design engineers, in particular when the
substation (equipped with compact gas insulated
switchgear) site is relatively small in size. In this paper,
the difficulties and viable means to design a safe
earthing grid for CLP Power transmission substation
under these constraints are reviewed.
1.0 Introduction
CLP Power supplies electricity to over 2 million
customers in Kowloon, the New Territories and most of
the outlying islands with a service area covering about
1,000 square kilometers. The system maximum demand
was 5,844 MW in 2001. Electricity power is transmitted
from CLP Power’s Castle Peak and Black Point Power
Station to its major load centres through its 400kV grid
system. The electrical power is stepped down to 132kV
for area transmission to over two hundred 132kV
substations.
1.1 CLP Power 132kV Substations
CLP Power 132kV substations can be classified into
132kV bulk and primary substations. These substations
normally accommodate up to four 132/11kV 50 MVA
transformers and eighty 11kV switchgear panels. A
typical 132kV bulk substation has a maximum of
twenty-eight bays of 132kV Gas Insulated Switchgear.
On the other hand, a typical 132kV primary substation is
equipped with a maximum of four SF6 Ring Main Units,
teeing off from the radial circuit connected to the 132kV
bulk substation. The typical 132kV bulk and primary
substation sizes are approximately 2,500 and 2,000
square metres respectively.
As land is one of the precious resources in Hong Kong,
it is difficult to acquire an appropriate substation site that
is rectangular in shape, standard in size, and located in
2557
Y.H. Choi
Senior Substation Design Engineer
load centre. In most cases, CLP Power has to accept
“restricted choice” land that is available in the planned
load area. Since many urban areas in Hong Kong are in
hilly area, the soil resistivity of 132kV substation site
has a wide range of values and the underground water
table level also fluctuates seasonally. These impose
some degree of constraints in designing an effective
132kV substation earthing grid in the present substation
site environment.
1.2 Effective Substation Earthing
Effective earthing is essential for the CLP Power’s
132kV substation supplying areas of a high load density.
The objectives are:
• To safeguard life.
• To minimize damage to electrical equipment during
the flow of fault currents to earth
• To provide a low impedance path for the passage of
fault current to earth to ensure the operation of power
system protection devices
An ideal earthing system for an electrical installation
under all circumstances including earth fault current
flow is to effectively maintain an equipotential surface
level over the entire ground area. In the case when a
fault current is generated, it could be effectively
conducted into the lower ground layers back to the
current source, thus enabling rapid protection clearing of
the fault.
2.0 Earth Grid System Design
The following basic parameters are adopted for the
earthing system design.
2.1 Soil and Weather Parameters
Soil composition: most decomposed granite in hilly area
with thin layer of organic top soil and
sand filled in reclamation area
Soil resistivity: 20 - 2200 ohm-meter
Soil temperature: 24.9 oC (yearly average)
18.9–30.1 oC (monthly average,
unfrozen)
Climate: Subtropical
Relative humidity: 77 % (yearly average)
68%- 83% (monthly average)
 International Conference on Electrical Engineering 2002
Mechanical coupler
13mmØ copper
clad steel cored earthing rod at
Perimeter of the substation grid
Figure 1 Typical Layout of Earthing System at 132kV Substation
2.2 Electrical Parameters
Short time current (132kV): 31.5kA 3 seconds
Maximum ROEP: 650V
Maximum design conductor temperature: 375oC
3.0 CLP Power Earthing Practices
3.1 Typical 132kV Substation Earthing Grid
Typical CLP Power 132kV substation earthing grid
comprises a horizontal grid and vertical earthing rods.
The horizontal earthing grid is more effective in
reducing the potential gradient generated by the earth
fault current. It is mainly made of 2 x 70 mm2 stranded
copper conductor in grid pattern. Brought-out spur is
formed by looping the two copper conductors (i.e. 4 x 70
mm2 conductor) at selected locations such as cable
trench in equipment room, plant bay, main gate, cable
chase for earthing risers to equipment earthing on upper
floors. The horizontal copper conductor is usually buried
at 0.5 m below soil. A typical layout of this earthing
system is shown in Figure1.
Vertical earthing rods are mainly used for reducing
substation earthing resistance and thus controlling the
rise of both earth potential and transfer potentials. It is
usually installed at the perimeter of the earthing grid to
control the step potential gradient. The vertical earthing
rod is made of copper clad steel cored rod (outer
diameter 13 mm, unit length 2.4m). Such type of
earthing rod is selected because of its higher
conductivity, mechanical strength and practical
corrosion resistance over other metals in moist soil. The
earthing rod is driven into the soil. It is extended to the
required depth (usually below the water table in dry
season) by jointing unit length together by a screw type
mechanical coupler.
2558
Brought out spur of 4 x
70 mm2 stranded copper
conductor at selected
location
2 x 70 mm2 stranded
copper conductor at
500mm below soil
The horizontal grid conductors, the vertical earthing rod
to the horizontal grid and brought out spur to 300/ 75
mm2 bonding copper tapes (for connection to substation
equipment) are coupled together by exothermic weld
utilizing the high temperature reaction of powdered
copper oxide and aluminum which when ignited
produces aluminum oxide and superheated copper.
CLP Power’s substation earthing grid is not directly
connected to the metallic underground piling structure
aiming to avoid corrosion to the structural steel due to
galvanic action of copper / steel in a moist soil condition
and the potential drying up of the encased concrete
during a earth fault condition. The generally acceptable
132kV substation earthing resistance is around 0.2 ohm.
3.2 Typical Engineering Process
The soil composition and underground water level of the
substation site are collected from the site investigation
report prepared by civil engineering staff. The top soil
resistivity of the substation site is also measured by a
typical Wenner Method as shown in Figure 2.
Array Centre
3a/2 a/2
a a a Soil Surface
d
Probe
C1 P1 P2 C2
Earth Tester
Fig 2 Wenner Soil Resistivity measurement
 International Conference on Electrical Engineering 2002
The test is normally carried out using a four-terminal
composite earth test. The outer two probes are connected
to the current terminals C1 and C2 and the inner probes
to voltage terminals P1 and P2.
However under certain circumstances, if the accurate
measurement of the resistivity may not be possible, an
empirical value can be determined by making reference
to the book “Thermal and Electrical Properties of Hong
Kong Soils” by N.A. Halfter and S.Y. King.
After the resistivity of the soil is measured or estimated,
the earth grid is then designed with reference to the
following documents:
Electricity Council Engineering Recommendation
S5/1; Earthing Installations in Substations
IEEE standard 80; Guide for Safety in an AC
Substation
British Standard 6651; Protection of Structures
against Lighting
IEC 60364-5-54; Earthing of Electrical Installation
in Buildings
Special considerations are given to the layout and
physical arrangement of the substation site, vicinity of
metallic underground facilities (e.g. water and gas main)
in and near the site and relative location of the
underground structures (e.g. foundation, oil interceptor,
etc). The preliminary earth grid design is then analyzed
by computer based on ‘multiple soil layer model’. If the
calculated touch voltage, step voltage and the rise of
earth potential exceed the Standards, the earth mat is
reinforced by adding the number of and / or extending
the vertical earthing electrodes deeper into the moist
layer, as far as practical, or making closer the space of
the grid conductor to increase the grid density. The
reinforced earth mat is then re-analyzed. If it is within
the safety limit, the design will be passed on to the civil
contractor for installation during the civil construction
stage of the substation building.
The substation resistance after installation of the earth
grid is measured by “Fall of Potential Method” on site
and the result is then re-assessed by the computer
program to confirm its compliance with the designed
safety limit or necessity for further reinforcement.
4. Some Special Practices in CLP Power
To overcome the compactness of the 132kV substation,
wide range of soil resistivity of substation sites in most
CLP Power supply area and the stringent safety and
interference requirements, the following means are
selectively adopted by CLP Power to achieve a
satisfactory design.
4.1 Bore Hole for Installation of Vertical Earthing
Rod
2559
If the permanent water table is over 10 m deep or with
the presence of boulders or rock, the earthing rod cannot
be effectively driven below the water table in the soil,
small bore holes ranging from 20-40m are drilled for
installing the earthing rod. After earthing rod installation,
the borehole is then filled up with bentonite (typical soil
resistivity: 2.5 ohm-metre at 300% moisture) to maintain
good electrical contact between the earthing rod and the
earth mass. To minimize the maintenance requirement
and potential contamination of underground water,
chemical filled earthing rod (i.e. specially design porous
metallic rod filled with soluble organic salt to increase
the conductivity of the surrounding soil until the salt is
consumed) is not used.
Some countries use “blasting method” to increase the
cracks in soil or rock underground aiming to increase
current dispersion after this cracks are filled up with
water/ conductive slit. This method is not practicable for
a densely populated environment like Hong Kong where
blasting will likely cause large damage to the existing
building and structure in the vicinity of the substation
site as well as the stability of rock bed and foundation of
the future substation building. Furthermore, there are
stringent regulations on the use of blasting in
construction.
Based on the above considerations, bore holes are widely
adopted, more than 40% of total, in CLP Power’s
earthing rod installation to achieve a low substation
earthing resistance of approximately 0.2 ohm.
4.2 Segregation of True Earth and Substation Floors
All substation floors in direct contact the earth mass (i.e.
ground and basement floor) are covered with concrete
for easy maintenance and limiting the step and touch
potential during earth fault condition. To enhance the
landscape of the substation and/ or fulfilling land grant
conditions of the substation site, reinforced concrete tree
planter with few small openings at bottom separating the
soil for trees or shrub from the earth mass to control the
potential hazard.
4.3 Remote Bonding
Due to the high load density of CLP Power supply area,
most substations have approximate eighty to ninety
11kV and 132kV cables running in and out of the
substation which help to disperse the earth fault current.
However, in some special purpose substations (e.g.
traction and water supply pumping station), the number
of cables running in and out of the substation is relative
low, says 5 to 10. Unfortunately, size of these
substations are relatively smaller (ranging from 500 to
1600 m2), these constraints impose challenges in
substation earthing. In the cases that substation’s
earthing grid cannot effectively disperse the earth fault
current, the grid will be bonded to the customer’s lower
voltage earthing grid (for 11 to 33kV voltage equipment)
 International Conference on Electrical Engineering 2002

at more than two points by minimum two single core
240 mm2 copper bonding cables. Removable links
housed in a lockable box with adequate warning label of
‘not disconnecting in normal operating condition’ are
provided for these bonding cable for testing purpose.
existing lower voltage earthing grid to 132kV level
adopted successfully in CLP Power thus resolve the site
& system constraints and provide a safe and effective
earthing system for CLP Power’s new or upgraded
transmission substations.

If this coupling is still not effective, as a last resort, the

substation will be connected through similar bonding ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
cable (laid together with the incoming cables in the same
cable trench) to the earthing grid(s) of the nearest 132kV The authors wish to thank the Management of CLP
feeding substation(s). The number of bonding cables Power for the support and permission to publish this
depends on the separating distance of the two substations paper.
and the target overall earthing resistance to be achieved .

4.4 Substation Upgrading

Reference
CLP Power is implementing a program to upgrade the 33
and 66kV substations to 132kV voltage level. Most of 1. Monthly Metrological Normals and Extremes for
these old substations are upgraded in stages and in-situ. Hong Kong, Hong Kong Observatory
Such upgrading imposes extreme difficulties in 2. Code of Practice for Transmission Substation
substation earthing design particularly when, Design, CLP Power Issue 3, Jan 2002, 8.1-8.11
The old earthing records are no longer available. 3. Li Cheng Guo, Decreasing Grounding Resistance of
The condition of existing earthing grid is unknown Urban Substation by Utilizing Peripheral
unless the whole substation is shut down for safe Geographical Conditions, Electric Power, 2001, 34
assessment, which is not practical. (11): 50-53.
Soil resistivity cannot be accurately and safely 4. Halfter N.A. and King S.Y., “Thermal and Electrical
measured due to the presence of large number of in- Properties of Hong Kong Soils”
service cables in or around the substation.
Soil investigation can only be carried out if the site
condition permits (e.g. existing plant and
underground facilities can be timely vacated ). If
not, soil resistivity is estimated based on the
available soil composition or similar site
investigation of adjacent buildings (if available) and
the reference book mentioned in section 3.2.
Earthing grid installation is confined to a very small
working area particularly in the early stage of the
redevelopment but the grid has to be capable of
safely dispersing the 132kV fault current.

With these constraints and uncertainties, new deeply

bored earthing rods (20-40m) and new horizontal grid
are usually designed & installed in the available space
(preferably at the perimeter and corners of the substation)
and redeveloped area, and are extended in stages. The
computer simulation is based on the assumed absence of
the existing earthing grid. But, the new earthing mat is
solidly connected to the existing one at minimum two
points by exothermic weld. Surface run conductors are
also used to link up the existing bonding conductors to
the new earth mat through unmodified area.

5.0 Conclusion

Designing and installing an effective earthing grid for

compact 132kV substation in high soil resistivity areas
to comply with the stringent safety requirements is a
very challenging work for the design engineers. This
paper outlines the special earthing practices including
deep bore hole, remote bonding and staged upgrading of

2560