EVALUATION OF THE EFFECT OF SALT WATER AND A COUNTERPOISE ON THE VOLTAGE PROFILE OF A HV POWER TRANSMISSION LINE GROUNDING SYSTEM

IN A TWO LAYER WITH HIGH RESISTIVITY SOIL

S. Georges, F. Slaoui, P. J. LagacC X.D. Do, Senior Member IEEE
Department of Electrical Engineering Ecole de Technologie Superieure Montreal, PQ, Canada H3C 1K3 Department of Electrical Engineering Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal MontrBal, Canada H3C 3A7

J. Fortin, Member IEEE

Hydro-QuCbec Montreal, Canada H1N 1J4

ABSTRACT: Soil resistivity plays a key role in designing grounding systems of high voltage transmission lines and substations. This paper deals with an already in service HV utility, it is a 69 kv transmission line with a power generation plant at one end and a transformation substation at the other. What makes this case very interesting is that this installation is located in a high soil resistivity, at the same time in the vicinity of sea water with very small resistivity. It belongs to Hydro-QuCbec and does not have a shield wire neither counterpoise.

safety of operating personnel and public. There is a lot of literature describing the performance of grounding systems in a homogeneous, two layer, multi layer soil also in computing the ground impedance of a counterpoise. Some of the major contribution in this field are listed as follow: R. Verma [l] introduced an analytical method to determine the ground fault current distribution in substations, towers and ground wires with taking into account the effect of counterpoise. A generalized approach to transmission line grounding has been developed and presented in [ 2 ] . Two layer soil is a frequent case of a real soil structure [3] and can be used as an approximation for multilayer soil [4]. M. B. Kostic [ 5 ] , has dealt with the determination of the grounding resistance of a foundation grounding system which is surrounded by a two layer soil. His main goal was to obtain a simple formula for the grounding resistance calculation. An extensive parametric analysis of grounding grids in uniform and two-layer soil has been carried out by Dawalibi and Mukhedkar [6,7]. In his papers [8,9,10,11], Lj. M. Popovic presented an analytical procedure suitable for explaining and studying the. resonant phenomena on long transmission lines as well as on their physical and mathematical models with a finite number of discrete or lumped parameters. On the other hand, he presented a method for evaluating ground fault current, for a fault at any of the towers of a transmission line of an arbitrary number of span. What makes this research original is that it treats a specific case, an already in service H V power transmission line with no shield wire nor counterpoise, by taking into consideration a two-layer soil and a vertical fault (the presence of sea water), also the possibility given by Hydro-QuCbec to validate the results with experimental measurements taken on the same HV facility.
11. VOLTAGE PROFILE IN A TWO LAYER SOIL WITH VERTICAL FAULT

This research highlights on the impact of the salt water in reducing the potential rise during an electrical fault and the effectiveness of the counterpoise when the resistivity of the soil is very high. Method of images from electromagnetic is applied to calculate the potentiel rise. All results are validated by experimental measurements performed by a specialized field test group from Hydro-Quebec. Keywords: Grounding, Power transmission line, Sea water, Two layer soil, Counterpoise, Vertical Fault.
I. INTRODUCTION

In power systems, grounding is very important to insure a reliable protection of all electrical equipment. When a ground fault occurs, large currents and raised potentials appear at places where they dont exist in normal operating conditions. In designing grounding systems of HV installations, The importance of a good design comes from the necessity of decreasing the associated costs, improving the quality of electric power, reducing the surge voltage and increasing the

In order to highlight the effect of sea water on potential rise when injecting a current between two electrodes, a model of two layer soil with vertical fault between the soil and the

0-7803-5569-5/99/$10.00 0 1999 IEEE

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water is considered. Fig. I , illustrates this model:

t"

Fig. 4. Images in a two layer soil where:

k : Reflection coefficient along the vertical fault

r : Reflection coefficient at the boundary of two horizontal

4 2

layers h : Buried depth of the electrode. Fig. 1. Measuring circuit Voltage calculations are made assuming constant reflection coefficients at the boundary of the horizontal layers and along the fault. The following is the voltage contribution due to the presence of the vertical fault:

Where: D : Distance from the grounding electrode to the sea water d : Distance between the grounding electrodes where the current is injected H : Depth of the first layer.
pl, p2 & p3 : Resistivity of the first, the second layer and

the sea water respectively. Method of images is used to calculate the potentiel difference between the voltage electrodes. The following exemple in Fig. 2, shows a current electrode buried in the vicinity of a vertical fault: Taking into account the effect of a two layer soil, we obtain:

f
H
X

vh
Y+

(Sea Water)
p3

lllllllllllllllillllllllllllllllllll,
P2

i=l V(x, y, z + 2iH + h) + V(x, y, z + 2iH - h) +

V(x,y,z-2iH+h)+V(x,y,z-2iH-h)]

Fig. 2. Electrode layout in the vicinity of sea water Fig. 3, and 4, show the generation of images due to the presence of the vertical fault and a two layer soil respectively. Having the above formulas, the potential rise between current electrodes in Fig. 1 can be calculated. The following numerical values are used: H = 2m; h = 0.2m; d = 2 0 b , p1 = 300R.m; p2 is variable in Fig. 5 and is equal to 13000R.m in Fig. 6; p3 = 0.3a.m;
(Sea Water)

. 4

Fig. 3. Lateral images due to the presence of sea water

Fig. 5 shows that the presence of sea water in the vicinity contribute significantly to improve the profile of the raised voltage. This contribution is more important when the soil resistivity is higher. Fig. 6 illustrates the effect of the distance d between current electrodes, it shows that the profile of the raised voltage is less pronounced when d is longer. This phenomenon is due to the fact that the contribution of sea

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water becomes more effective as the length of the line increase.

2500
U

P2 =20000R-

5 2000
c1

1500

Distance D between sea water and current electrode (m) Fig. 5. Sea water impact on the potential profile 1000
800
~

Fig. 7. Field test measurement arrangement Fig. 7, shows the scenario used to calculate the potential rise between Latabatiere and Lake Robertson. A dc current has been injected between the two grids and the potential generated has been calculated between the is in this case the and the other towers of the transmission line. For example in order to calculate the raised potential at tower T39:

$' 600
W

E
m

;.

. c) e

400
200
0
u

3 0

. * d=2000Om
2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 12000

Distance D between sea water and current electrode (m) Fig. 6. Impact of the distance d between current elctrodes on the potential profile

LakeRobertson

In. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Fig. 7, illustrates the physical situation. A 69 kV power transmission line interconnect the Latabatiere transformation substation to the Lake Robertson power generation plant. This line was put out of service during the measurement process. One phase was used to inject the current, the other two to measure the potential rise between the reference which is in this case at tower 47 and the other towers of the line taken one at a time. The same experimental scenario as Hydro-Qudbec has used to measFe the poteptial rise generated by injecting a dc current between the two current electrodes. As already mentionned the transmission line has no shield wire nor a counterpoise. The image method of electromagnetism is used to calculate the potential rise along the transmission line and by taking into account two layer soil and a vertical fault due to the presence of sea water.

*
,
T9 3
T47

LatabatDre

Fig. 8. Voltage calculation scheme

In order to determine the voltage distribution in the soil between the two stations, potential rise is calculated at the T, reference tower ( 4 )by applying equations (1) and (2) which are also used to calculate the potential rise at the other points:
'4;3 T7T9

= ' T 4 7

-' T 3 9

(4)

This method is validated with experimental measurements taken by Hydro-Quebec as shown in Fig. 9,

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R2 is the contribution due to a two layer soil

E
E

2000
4000
6000

-s x

R3 is the contribution due to the presence of a vertical

fault

1
2

From [2],

PI 24 R I = -[In(-- f i r ne

I)]

Computed

r and e are respectively the radius and the length of the counterpoise.
CO

o Measured

e/2

0.5

1.5

1c I 2
n=l

2 1 ~ + e / 2 + x-e/2 +2nH-h In x - e / 2 + x - e / 2 2 + 2 n H - h 1

R ,

Distance to Lake Robertson (m) X lo4 Fig. 9. Voltage profile In this model the following values have been used:

2 + e j z 1 n ~ + e / 2 + ~ ~ + e+/22 H + h n 2 x-e/2+ x-e/2 +2nH+h

D = 2000m; H = 2m; p1 = 100R.m; p2 = 13000R.m; h = 0.2m; p3 = 0.3R.m;

Fig. 9, shows the agreement between the measurements and the calculated values of the voltage profile in function of the distance to Lake Robertson.

R ,

n=l

IV.EFFECT OF COUNTERPOISE
As mentioned, presently this H power transmission line V has no schield wire neither counterpoise. In order to investigate the effectiveness of an eventual continuous counterpoise on improving the ground resistance of each tower, we consider theoretically that a counterpoise following the line and connected at each structure has been installed. As shown in Fig. 7,ground impedance is calculated because it is going to affect the voltage profile of the transmission line. After that in order to quantify this effect, the measured values of towers ground resistance are compared with the computed ones with taking into account the presence of a continuous counterpoise. Authors in [1 & 21 have calculated the ground impedance of a power transmission line counterpoise in an homogeneous soil. This paper contributes to expand the homogeneous model to a two layer model with a vertical fault.
V. ANALYTICAL DEVELOPMENT

The value of R2 is obtained by solving the above equation then dividing by U2 (the average potential) and considering that the counterpoise is very close to the surface. Having the values of RI and R2, the value of R3 still be needed in order to quantifie the effect of the salt water on the voltage profile. It can be shown that the predominant factor determining the reflection coefficient along the fault is the change of resistivity between the bottom layer and the adjacent soil [12,13]

From electromagnetism, we use the image method to determine the ground resistance of the counterpoise: Rc = R1 + R 2 + R 3
(5)

Where: R, is the ground resistance of the counterpoise sought at each tower along the power transmission line R, is the contribution of the counterpoise and its image above the soil

(Sea Water)

Fig. 1 1. Buried conductor with length e and radius r

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c 2 f ,

e -A

i l
(x-U)

( x - U ) 2 + r 2 + ( 2 D )2
1

+
(9)

The results show how dramatically the addition of a counterpoise combined with the effect of the sea water can help to reduce the voltage rise and then the grounding resistance at each tower. VII. CONCLUSION A theory has been developed using the image method from electromagnetism in order to quantify the contribution of sea water to improve the voltage profile of the grounding system of a high voltage power transmission line. On the other hand, computation of the grounding impedance of a counterpoise in a two layer soil with vertical fault has been achieved. The results have been validated by data provided by HydroQuCbec. It is concldded:
1- The presence of the sea water at the vicinity of the

+(2h) +(2D)

2)dx

In case that r and h are very small in comparison with D, the solution is as following:

p2 R3 =-k ne

grounding system can help producing a less pronounced behavior of the voltage profile. 2- The effectiveness of a counterpoise increases as soil resistivity increases [2]. In high resistivity soil, long counterpoises can provide an effective means in reducing ground impedances. 3- For the specific case of (Latabati6re Lake Robertson power transmission line), adding a counterpoise can bring down significantly the grounding resistance of the different towers.

VI. RESULTS

In order to validate the developed above theory and to show the effectiveness of a counterpoise which increases as soil resistivity increases, some data from Hydro-Qu6bec are used. Returning to Fig. 10, a fictive counterpoise is added to the 69 kv electrical utility, to quantify its effectiveness on the voltage profile, its grounding impedance is calculated with the following values: p1 = 500 R.m, p2 = 30 000 R.m, the buried depth is h = 0.05 m, the distance from the sea water is D = 1,5 km, p3 = 0.3R.m, the type of conductor is 5SWG STEEL. A computer program is used to calculate the total grounding resistance taking into account the effect of the counterpoise and the sea water. A comparison between these results and grounding resistance measurements of some towers provided by a specialized field test group from HydroQuebec is presented on figure 12.:

VIII. ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to thank Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Hydro-Qudbec, Ecole de Technologie Superieure and the research group GREPCI for their technical support as well for their financial assistance.

IX. REFERENCES
[l] R. Verma, D. Mukhedkar, Ground Fault Distribution in Sub-Stations, Towers and Ground Wires, IEEE Trans. Power Apparatus and Systems, Vol.PAS-98, No.3, May/ June 1979, pp.724-730.

lo3.

5
Y

B $
9)

Measurements

8 Q
c u

lo2

0
Q

.E

[2] F. Dawalibi, Transmission Line Grounding, EPRI, EL-2699, Volume 1, Research Project 1494-1, Final Report, October 1982. [3] R. J. Heppe, Step Potential and Body Currents Near Grounds in Two-Layer Earth, IEEE Trans. Power Apparatus and Systems, Vol.PAS-98, JanuaryNebruary 1979, pp.45-59. [4] A. J. Jacobs, Reduction of a Multi-Layer E r h Configuat ration to the Equivalent Two-Layer in Complex Grounding Systems Calculation, EIectricaI Engineering, Russia, No.8, 1970, pp.19-23

v) v)

10

2 z

* with counterpoise and the sea water

loo

Fig. 12 Effect of the Counterpoise and salt wateron the total grounding resistance of some towers.

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[SI M. B. Costic and G. H. Shirkoohi, Numerical Analysis

of a Class of Foundation Groundings Systems Surrounding by Two-Layer Soil, IEEE Trans. Power Delivery, V01.8, No.3, July 1992, pp.1080-1086. [6] F. Dawalibi and D. Mukhedkar, Parametric Analysis of Groundings Grids, IEEE Trans. Power Apparatus and Systems, Vol.PAS-98, No.5, September/October 1979, pp. 1659-1668. [7] F. Dawalibi and D. Mukhedkar, Multi Step Analysis of Interconnected Grounding Electrodes, IEEE Trans. Power Apparatus and Systems , Vol. PAS-95, No. 1, JanuaryFebruary 1976, pp. 113-119. [SI Lj. M. Popovic, General Equations of the Line Represented by Discrete Parameters, Part I Steady State, IEEE Trans. Power Delivery, V01.6, No. 1, January 1991, pp.295-301.

Semaan W. Georges received his B.Sc.A. in Electrical Engineering from the higher Institute of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering in Sofia, Bulgaria in 1990. In 1995 he received the M.lng. from Ecole Polytechnique de MontrCal. He is presently working towards the Ph.D. at Ecole de Technologie Superieure, Montreal. He is interested in Power Systems and grounding. Slaoui Hasnaoui Fouad received his B.Sc.A., M.Ing. in Electrical Engineering in 1986 and 1995 respectively from Ecole Polytechnique de MontrCal. He is presently working towards the Ph.D. at Ecole de Technologie Supdrieure, Montreal. He is interested in Power System stability and grounding. Pierre Jean Lagace (M84) received the B.Sc.A., M.Sc.A., and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Ecole Polytechnique de MontrCal (Canada) in 1982, 1985 and 1988 respectively. He is presently professor in power systems at Ecole de Technologie SupCrieure. His research interests are numerical analysis in power systems, fields calculations and grounding. Dr. LagacC is a member of the Ordre des IngCnieurs du QuCbec. Xuan Day Do received hid B.Sc.A., M.Sc.A., and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from Lava1 University, Quebec, Canada in 1966, 1968, and 1971, respectively. He has been with Ecole Polytechnique de MontrCal since 1971, where he is a professor. His areas of teaching and research are the analysis, modeling and simulation of HVAC and HVDC power systems. Dr. Do has authored and co-authored numerous technical papers. He is Senior Member of IEEE and Member of CIGRE. He was awarded the 1981 IEEE Outstanding Student Branch Counsellor Award and the IEEE Centennial Medal in 1984. Jacques Fortin (M84) was born in QuCbec, Canada in 1950. He received his B.Sc.A. and M.Sc.A. degrees from Ecole Polytechnique de MontrCal in 1974 and 1986, respectively. Since 1974, he has been working for Hydro-Qutbec in the field test group. He is a registered Professional Engineer in the province of QuCbec and a member of the IEEE Power Engineering Society. He is a member of the working group on IEEE Guide for measurement of Impedance and Safety Characteristics of Large Extended or Interconnected Grounding Systems (IEEE Std 81.2-1991).

[9] Lj. M. Popovic, General Equations of Line Represented by Discrete Parameters, Part I1 - Resonant Phenomena, IEEE Trans. Power Delivery, Vo1.6, No. 1, January 1991, pp.302-307.
[ 10lLj. M. Popovic, Practical Method For Evaluating

Ground Fault Current Distribution in Station Supplied by an Unhomogeneous Line, IEEE Trans. Power Delivery, Vol. 12, No.2, April 1997, pp. 722-727.
[ 1 11Lj. M. Popovic, Practical Method For Evaluating Ground Fault Current Distribution in Station, Towers and Ground Wire, IEEE Trans. Power Delivery, Vol. 13, No.1, January 1998, pp. 123-128.

[12]P. J. LagacC, D. Mukhedker, H. H. Hoang and H. Greiss, Evaluation of the Effect of Vertical Faults on the Voltage Distribution Around HVDC Electrodes Using a Supercomputer, IEEE trans. on Power Engineering Sociew, 90 WM 169-3 PWRD. [13]D. Mukhedkar, Y. Gervais, P. J. Lagace, H. Lin, Q. Zhou, X. Xu, X. Dong and X. Liu, Earth Resistivity Measurements and Current Density Calculation for Toroidal HVDC Ground Electrodes, ZEEEJCSEE Conferenceproceedings on High Voltage Transmission Systems in China, October 1987, Beijing, China, pp.513-518

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