School of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering
M.S. Final Oral Defense
Substation Grounding Systems Analysis and Optimization
by
Xuan Wu
11/20/2013
12:00 pm
ERC 533
Committee:
Dr. Dan. Tylavsky (chair)
Dr. John Undrill
Dr. Raja Ayyanar
Abstract
According to the IEEE Guide for Safety in AC Substation Grounding, the two main
design goals to be achieved by any substation ground system under both normal and fault
conditions are:
1. To provide means to dissipate electric currents into the earth without exceeding any
operating and equipment limits
2. To assure that a person in the vicinity of grounded facilities is not exposed to the
danger of critical electric shock .
In order to ensure the safety and well-being of personnel who may come close to
conductive media, it is significant to do proper and practical analysis and calculations of
substation grounding systems safety metrics. In other words, the primary purpose of
creating ground systems is to avoid the injury of human beings during unbalanced fault
conditions.
For this purpose, the author created a computer program called “OptimGrid” using
MATLAB to model two-layer soil, analyze and optimize grounding systems based on
Salt River Project design rules.