Electrical Earthing

Definition: The process of transferring the immediate discharge of the

electrical energy directly to the earth by the help of the low resistance
wire is known as the electrical earthing. The electrical earthing is done by
connecting the non-current carrying part of the equipment or neutral of
supply system to the ground.

Mostly, the galvanised iron is used for the earthing. The earthing provides
the simple path to the leakage current. The shortcircuit current of the
equipment passes to the earth which has zero potential. Thus, protects the
system and equipment from damage.

Types of Electrical Earthing

The electrical equipment mainly consists of two non-current carrying parts.
These parts are neutral of the system or frame of the electrical equipment.
From the earthing of these two non-current carrying parts of the electrical
system earthing can be classified into two types.

 Neutral Earthing
 Equipment Earthing.
Neutral Earthing

In neutral earthing, the neutral of the system is directly connected to earth

by the help of the GI wire. The neutral earthing is also called the system
earthing. Such type of earthing is mostly provided to the system which has
star winding. For example, the neutral earthing is provided in the generator,
transformer, motor etc.

Equipment Earthing

Such type of earthing is provided to the electrical equipment. The non-

current carrying part of the equipment like their metallic frame is connected
to the earth by the help of the conducting wire. If any fault occurs in the
apparatus, the short-circuit current to pass the earth by the help of wire.
Thus, protect the system from damage.

Importance of Earthing
The earthing is essential because of the following reasons

 The earthing protects the personnel from the shortcircuit current.

 The earthing provides the easiest path to the flow of shortcircuit current
even after the failure of the insulation.
 The earthing protects the apparatus and personnel from the high
voltage surges and lightning discharge.
Earthing can be done by electrically connecting the respective parts in the
installation to some system of electrical conductors or electrodes placed
near the soil or below the ground level. The earthing mat or electrode under
the ground level have flat iron riser through which all the non-current-
carrying metallic parts of the equipment are connected.

When the fault

occurs the fault current from the equipment flows through the earthing
system to the earth and thereby protect the equipment from the fault
current. At the time of the fault, the earth mat conductors rise to the voltage
which is equal to the resistance of the earth mat multiplied by a ground
fault.
 The contacting
assembly is called earthing. The metallic conductors connecting the parts
of the installation with the earthing are called electrical connection. The
earthing and the earthing connection together called the earthing system.

Methods of Earthing
There are several methods of earthing like wire or strip earthing, rod
earthing, pipe earthing, plate earthing or earthing through water mains.
Most commonly used methods of earthing are pipe earthing and plate
earthing. These methods are explained below in details.

Earthing Mat

Earthing mat is made by joining the number of rods through copper

conductors. It reduced the overall grounding resistance. Such type of
system helps in limiting the ground potential. Earthing mat is mostly used in
a placed where the large fault current is to be experienced. While designing
an earth mat, the following step is taken into consideration.

 In a fault condition, the voltage between the ground and the ground
surface should not be dangerous to a person who may touch the
noncurrent-carrying conducting surface of the electrical system.
 The uninterrupted fault current that may flow into the earthing mat
should be large enough to operate the protective relay. The resistance
of the ground is low to allow the fault current to flow through it.The
 resistance of the mat should not be of such a magnitude as to permit
the flow of fatal current in the live body.
 The design of grounding mat should be such that the step voltage
should be less than the permissible value which would depend on the
resistivity of the soil and fault required for isolating the faulty plant from
the live system.

Earthing Electrode

In this type of earthing any wire, rod, pipe, plate or a bundle of conductors,
inserted in the ground horizontally or vertically. In distributing systems, the
earth electrode may consist of a rod, about 1 meter in length and driven
vertically into the ground. In generating substations, grounding mat is used
rather than individual rods.

Pipe Earthing

This is the most common and best system of earthing as compared to other
systems suitable for the same earth and moisture conditions. In this
method the galvanized steel and perforated pipe of approved length and
diameter in place upright in a permanently wet soil, as shown below. The
size of the pipe depends upon the current to be carried and type of soil.

Normally, the size of

the pipe uses for earthing is of diameter 40 mm and 2.5 meters in length for
ordinary soil or of greater length in case of dry and rocky soil. The depth at
which the pipe must be buried depends on the moistures of the ground.

The pipe is placed at 3.75 meters. The bottom of the pipe is surrounded by
small pieces of coke or charcoal at a distance of about 15 cm. Alternate
layers of coke and salt are used to increase the effective area of the earth
and to decrease the earth resistance respectively.

Another pipe of 19 mm diameter and minimum length 1.25 meters is

connected at the top of GI pipe through reducing socket.

During summer the moisture in the soil decreases, which causes an

increase in earth resistance. So a cement concrete work is done to keep
the water arrangement accessible, and in summer to have an effective
earth, 3 or 4 buckets of water are put through the funnel connected to 19
mm diameter pipe, which is further connected to GI pipe.

The earth wire either GI or a strip of GI wire of sufficient cross section to

carry faulty current safely is carried in a GI pipe of diameter 12 mm at a
depth of about 60cm from the ground.

Plate Earthing
In Plate Earthing an earthing plate either of copper of dimension
60cm×60cm×3m of galvanized iron of dimensions 60 cm× 60 cm×6 mm is
buried into the ground with its face vertical at a depth of not less than 3
meters from ground level.

The earth plate is

inserted into auxiliary layers of coke and salt for a minimum thickness of 15
cm. The earth wire (GI or copper wire) is tightly bolted to an earth plate with
the help of nut or bolt. The copper plate and copper wire are usually not
employed for grounding purposes because of their higher cost.

Earthing Through Water Mains

In this type of earthing the GI or copper wire are connected to the water
mains with the help of the steel binding wire which is fixed on copper lead
as shown below.
 The water pipe is made up
of metal, and it is placed below the surface of the ground, i.e. directly
connected to earth. The fault current flow through the GI or copper wire is
directly get earthed through the water pipe.

Earth Tester
Definition: The instrument used for measuring the resistance of the
earth is known as earth tester. All the equipment of the power system is
connected to the earth through the earth electrode. The earth protects the
equipment and personnel from the fault current. The resistance of the
earth is very low. The fault current through the earth electrode passes to
the earth. Thus, protects the system from damage.

The earth electrodes control the high potential of the equipment which is
caused by the high lightning surges and the voltage spikes. The neutral of
the three-phase circuit is also connected to the earth electrodes for their
protection.

Before providing the earthing to the equipment, it is essential to determine

the resistance of that particular area from where the earthen pit can be dug.
The earth should have low resistance so that the fault current easily passes
to the earth. The resistance of the earth is determined by the help of earth
tester instrument.

Construction of Earth Tester

The earth tester uses the hand driven generator. The rotational current
reverser and the rectifier are the two main parts of the earth tester.
The current reverser and the rectifier are mounted on the shaft of the DC
generator. The earth tester works only on the DC because of the rectifier.

The tester has two commutators place along with the current reverser and
rectifier. The each commutator consist four fixed brushes. The commutator
is a device used for converting the direction of flows of current. It is
connected in series with the armature of the generator. And the brushes
are used for transferring the power from the stationary parts to the moving
parts of the devices.

The arrangement of the brushes can be done in such a way that they are
alternately connected with one of the segments even after the rotation of
the commutator. The brushes and the commutators are always connected
to each other.

The earth tester consists two pressures and the current coils. The
each coil has two terminals. The pair of the pressure coil and the current
coil are placed across the permanent magnet. The one pair of current and
pressure coil is short-circuited, and it is connected to the auxiliary
electrodes.

The one end terminal of the pressure coil is connected to the rectifier, and
their other end is connected to the earth electrode. Similarly, the current
coil is connected to the rectifier and earth electrode.

The earth tester consists the potential coil which is directly connected to the
DC generator. The potential coil is placed between the permanent magnet.
The coil is connected to the pointer, and the pointer is fixed on the
calibrated scale. The pointer indicates the magnitude of the earth
resistance. The deflection of the pointer depends on the ratio of
the voltage of pressure coil to the current of the current coil.

The short-circuit current passes through the equipment to the earth is

alternating in nature. Thus, we can say that the alternating current flows in
the soil. This alternative current reduces the unwanted effect of the soil,
which occurs because of chemical action or because of the production of
back emf.

Measurement of Earth Resistance

The measurement of earth resistance is made by the potential fall method.
The resistance area of the earth electrode is the area of the soil around
which a voltage gradient is measured with a commercial instrument. In the
figure shown below E is the earth electrode under rest, and A is an auxiliary
earth electrode positioned so that two resistance areas do not overlap. B is
the second auxiliary electrode which is placed between E and A.
An alternating current of steady state value passes through the earth path
from E to A and the voltage drop between E and B is measured.

The electrode B is moved from position B1 and B2 respectively so that the

resistance area do not overlap. If the resistance values determined are of
approximately the same in all three cases, the mean of the three readings
can be taken as the earth resistance of the earth electrode.

The auxiliary earth electrode A must be driven in at a point further away

from E and the above test repeated until the group of three readings
obtained are in good agreement.The alternating current source is used to
eliminate the electrolytic effect.
The test can be performed, with current at power frequency from a double
wound transformer, using a voltmeter and an ammeter as shown in the
figure above by mean of an earth tester.

The earth tester is a special type of Megger, which sends AC through earth
and DC through the measuring instrument. It has got four terminals. Two
terminals are shorted to form a common point which is connected to the
earth electrode under test. The other two terminals are connected to the
auxiliary electrode A and B respectively. The value of the earth resistance
is indicated by the instrument directly when its handle is turned at a uniform
speed.

Earth Resistance
Definition: The resistance offered by the earth electrode to the flow of
current into the ground is known as the earth resistance or resistance to
earth. The earth resistance mainly implies the resistance between the
electrode and the point of zero potential. Numerically, it is equal to the ratio
of the potential of the earth electrode to the current dissipated by it. The
resistance between the earthing plate and the ground is measured by the
potential fall method.

The resistance of the earthing electrode is not concentrated at one point,

but it is distributed over the soil around the electrode. Mathematically, the
earth resistance is given as the ratio of the voltage and the current shown
below.

Where V is a measured
voltage between the voltage spike and I is the injected current during the
earth resistance measurement through the electrode.

The value of the earth resistance for different power stations is shown
below

Large Power Station – 0.5 ohms

Major Power Station – 1.0 ohms
Small Substation – 2.0 ohms
In all other cases – 8.0 ohms

The region around the earth in which the electrode is driven is known as
the resistance area or potential area of the ground. The fault current which
is injected from the earth electrode is passing away from the electrode in all
directions shown below in the figure. The flow of current into the grounds
depends on the resistivity of the soil in which the earth electrode is placed.
The resistivity of the soil may vary from 1 to 1000 ohm-m depends on the
nature of the soil.

The resistivity of the earth depends on its temperature. When the

temperature is greater than 0ºC, then its effect on ground resistivity is
negligible, But at 0ºC the water in the soil starts freezing which
increase their resistivity. The resistivity of the earth is also affected by the
composition of some soluble salts as shown in the figure below.
The resistance of the earth varies from layer to layer. The lower layer of soil
has more moisture and lower resistivity. If the lower layer contains hard and
rocky soil, then their resistivity increases with depth.