Wind Farm Grounding Systems Design Regarding the

Maximum Permissible Touch & Step Voltage

A. Esmaeilian, A.A. Shayegani Akmal M. Salay Naderi, Senior Member, IEEE

School of Electrical & Computer Engineering School of Electrical Engineering & Telecommunications
University of Tehran University of New South Wales
Tehran, Iran Sydney, Australia
a.esmaeilian@ece.ut.ac.ir

Abstract—Nowadays Wind turbines are used over a wide area as dissipate fault currents. If the grounding resistant is bigger,
they are environmentally favorably means to product energy when there is big current through the resistance, the ground
without emissions and moreover the fuel is wind which is free for electric potential will ascend.
use. Wind turbines are often installed in mountainous area where
the soil resistivity and isokeraunic level is high. When the soil Previous studies [1-4] used models based on various
resistance is high, the potential rise caused by lightning strike to geometric arrangements of wind turbine earthing system.
a wind turbine is more remarkable at the wave tail than at the However, all of them neglected to exactly model the electrodes
wave front. On the other hand, the potential rise at the wave tail used as foundation concrete reinforcement and model the
depends on the steady-state grounding resistance. In this grounding system electrodes as a number of simple horizontal
condition the steady-state grounding resistance becomes more electrodes arranged in square or ring shapes, while the effect of
important than the transient grounding resistance. In this paper reinforcement bars is too much to be neglected.
a comprehensive steady-state study on grounding system of wind
turbines is presented. Different grounding system configuration In this paper, firstly, the different configuration for a single
will be analyzed. At first a single wind turbine ground system will wind turbine grounding system is analyzed by adding the effect
be considered and the configuration which decrease the step of electrodes in foundation concrete to establish the optimal
voltage, touch voltage and equivalent grounding resistance of configuration in the grounding system design. Secondly, a
wind turbine grounding system more than other will be selected, windfarm grounding system is analyzed, which considers the
then simulations expanded to wind farm which their grounding interconnection and influence of neighboring wind turbines
systems connected to each other. Different grounding methods grounding system.
are analyzed using CYMEGRD which is well known grounding
system analysis software. The paper is prepared in four sections, regarding clear
explanation of the concepts. Section II gives basic information
Keywords-component; Ground Potential Rise (GPR), Touch on grounding system design. Section III has been dedicated to
Voltage, Step Voltage, Wind turbine. the grounding system analysis and evaluation. Finally, section
IV remarks the conclusion of the study.
I. INTRODUCTION
Electricity windfarms are every day increasing in number. II. GENERAL INFORMATION ON GROUNDING SYSTEM
Windfarms are usually situated in rocky and mountainous areas In grounding system study there are some definitions which
where the wind potential is high [1]. So wind turbines are according to IEEE Std 80-2000 are defined as below [5]:
exposed to lightning strokes for two main reasons: One is the Ground Potential Rise (GPR) is the maximum voltage that a
fact that they have a distinctive shape and they are very tall, station grounding grid may attain relative to a distant
open-air structures, and the other is the high isokeraunic level grounding point assumed to be at the potential of remote earth.
over windfarm locations. When lightning strikes a wind This voltage, GPR, is equal to the maximum grid current times
turbine, current flowing through its main parts: blades, rotor the grid resistance. Touch Voltage is the potential difference
brushes and tower. To prevent from dangerous overvoltages between the ground potential rise (GPR) and the surface
that can damage parts of the wind turbine and human hazards, potential at the point where a person is standing, while at the
proper grounding system should be designed for each wind same time having his hands in contact with a grounded
turbine in an electricity windfarm. structure. Step Voltage is the difference in surface potential
experienced by a person bridging a distance of 1 m with his
Grounding system is one of the most important points feet without contacting any other grounded object.
inside the transmission systems and electric power distribution
design. In power system, for operation and safety demand, According to [5], the step and touch voltage can be
some part of the power system and electric equipment should determined from the two equations 1 and 2. These two
be connected to the grounding device in the earth ground. The equations are calculated using the resistance from a 70 Kg
grounding system is used to dissipate current into the ground. person.
The grounding systems resistance must be low enough to

978-1-4577-1829-8/12/$26.00 ©2012 IEEE

 . Cρ
In practice, four rods are usually placed in a straight line at
V (1) intervals a, driven to a depth not exceeding 0.1 a. Then we can
√t neglect b in equation (4) [11], so this equation changed to
.9 Cρ below simple equation:
V (2)
√t (5)
where ρ is the surface material resistivity in Ω.m and C is the
surface layer derating factor which is determined from below Equation (5) gives an approximate for average resistivity of
equation: the soil to the depth of .
ρ B. Two-Layer Soil Apparent Resistivity
. 9
ρ (3)
C The earth's crust is a non-homogeneous, anisotropic,
h . 9 nonlinear and layered medium. Its electrical behavior is a
where h is the height surface layer in m. function of these different characteristics as well as moisture
content, chemical composition, temperature, and pressure.
In general, grounding system analysis classified into two
methods known as integral approach and differential approach. Resistance of two-layer soil structure or multi-layer can be
The former is based on integral equation to determine the calculated by mirror method or Finite elements method. A
ground potential [6, 7] and the later applies the finite element resistivity determination using the Wenner-method (Fig. 1)
method (FEM) for calculating ground potential [8, 9]. In this result in an apparent resistivity which is a function of the
paper analysis utilized by the software program CYMGRD electrode separation can be shown to be:
which is based on finite element method.
One of the most critical factors in grounding system design (6)
is the soil resistivity which has a strong effect on grounding
impedance behavior. However the impedance depends on the
dimensions of the grounding electrodes and their physical where:
distribution. From designing view, the magnitude of the h: First layer height.
injected current and the soil resistivity are uncontrollable ρ : First layer resistivity, in Ω.m
parameters. But it is necessary to measure and model the soil ρ : Deep layer resistivity, in Ω.m
resistivity correctly. In below subsections the conventional
method to measuring the soil resistivity and a two layer soil A two-layer soil model can be represented by an upper
resistivity modeling which is utilized by CYMGRD are layer soil of a finite depth above a lower layer of infinite depth.
described. The abrupt change in resistivity at the boundaries of each soil
layer (Fig. 1) can be described by means of a reflection factor.
A. Resistivity Measurements The reflection factor is defined by Equation (7) [12]:
Fig. 1 shows the Wenner method scheme which is the most
conventional way to determine the soil resistivity. Wenner (7)
method consists of four electrodes; two are for current injection
and two for potential measurement. Four measurements with
the spacing a = 1, 2, 4 and 8 m are carried out; b is the depth of III. WIND TURBINE GROUNDING SYSTEM DESIGN
the electrodes in m. Each measurement applied by injecting a Wind turbines consist of electrical equipment mounted in
specified current between the current probes, then the voltage steel structures. So to avoid from hazardous, all parts of wind
between voltage probes is measured [10]. turbine must be connected to grounding system. A
conventional grounding system for a wind turbine is consists of
a steel ring shape electrode around the foundation and bonding
it through the foundation to the turbine tower. Different
manufactures utilize various grounding mesh geometry that can
be categorized as circular, square or octagonal geometry.
Adding rods are recommended by manufacture in the case of
highly resistive soils.
The foundation reinforcement steel bar is connected to the
grounding mesh electrode. Since the surrounding concrete
Fig. 1. Wenner method resistivity measurement between the steel bars and ground is roughly 15 cm, it can be
The soil resistivity formula associated with Wenner method considered to have a resistivity equal to that of the surrounding
is shown in equation (4) where R is the resistance measured soil, so the foundation steel bar resistance will be parallel to
between probes: grounding system mesh and consequently decrease the
equivalent grounding system resistance. Another factor that
should be considered in grounding system design is the effect
(4)
of step up transformer grounding system which can be
connected to wind turbine grounding system to reduce the
√ √
equivalent resistance.
 On the other hand, a windfarm consists of several wind Table II: Grounding electrode parameters
turbines, where the windfarm grounding system is the
interconnection of each wind turbine grounding system. They Mesh electrode diameter 16 mm
are separated from each other by about three times the rotor Rod electrode diameter 16 mm
diameter. So the designing procedure should be divided in two Foundation dimension (W×L×H) 7×7×2 (m×m×m)
parts. At first, a single wind turbine grounding system is Mesh loop in concrete 20×20 (cm×cm)
analyzed to establish the optimal parameters in the grounding Square shape 4×10=40 m
system design. Grounding mesh
Circular shape 2π×6=37.7 m
length
Second, a wind farm system is analyzed, which considers Octagonal shape 41 m
the interconnection and influence of neighboring wind turbines.
There are two main features that must be satisfied in grounding
system design. One of them is lightning strike safety limits and
the other one is short circuit safety limits. Grounding resistance
of a wind turbine connected to the local transformer grounding
system is required to be below or equal to 10 Ohms. This is the
only requirement being suitable for lightning protection. A
resistance of 10 ohm or less (before it is connected to any other
system) is stated in international standards recommendations.
In case of short circuit the step and touch voltage safety limits
are the only requirements that must be satisfied [1].
When a wind turbine generator system is constructed in a
region with high resistivity soil, the steady-state grounding Fig. 2. Three-dimensional scheme of square shape grounding system
resistance becomes more important than the transient
grounding resistance. A potential rise caused by a lightning
strike to a wind turbine generator system is more remarkable at
the wave tail than at the wave front. The potential rise at the
wave tail depends on the steady-state grounding resistance
[13]. So in this paper we design and analyze the grounding
system regarding to steady-state condition.
A. Single Wind Turbine Grounding System Analysis
To analysis different grounding system configuration, using
wenner method and the typical soil resistivity data, CYME
software prepares a two layer soil model. Table I shows the
input soil data to software. From equations (6) and (7) the
software calculates an upper layer with 202.84 Ω.m resistivity Fig. 3. Two-dimensional scheme of circular shape grounding system
and depth of 2.16 m while the lower layer with 22.25 Ω.m has
an infinite depth.
At first we consider three different configurations for
designing the grounding system of a single wind turbine. Fig. 2
show the three dimensional scheme of the grounding system
for square shape electrode.
Fig. 3 and Fig. 4 also show the two dimensional schemes
for circular and octagonal shape electrodes. In each three cases
there are four rods with length of 3 meters which is connected
to grounding mesh. The foundation reinforcement bar is also
connected directly to grounding electrode and will be effective
in acting as a ground electrode since the surrounding concrete
Fig. 4. Two-dimensional scheme of octagonal shape grounding system
can be considered to have a resistivity equal to that of the
surrounding soil. The grounding electrodes data is illustrated in The WT grounding arrangement is usually connected to the
Table II. local transformer grounding. This makes use of the existing
path for the connection between the WT tower and the
Table I: Soil data
transformer, lowering the total grounding resistance.
Probe distance (m) 1 2 4 8 The obtained 3D results related to these above three
Resistivity (Ω.m) 200 150 80 30 configurations are shown in Fig. 5 to Fig. 7. Fig. 5 shows the
Surface layer thickness touch voltage profile for square shape grounding system. In
20cm / 3000Ω.m this case, however, the touch voltage is relatively low in the
and resistivity
middle of wind tower foundation; it reaches to nearly 1800 volt
in the circle of 5meter around the tower. Fig. 6 and Fig. 7 also
show the touch voltage profile for Circular and octagonal shape
grounding system, respectively. As it is obvious from these
figures the square shape design has the lowest touch voltage
profile. On the other hand the circular shape design has the
worst one.

Fig. 8. Touch and Step voltage profile related to square shape configuration

0 310.59 621.18 931.77 1242.36

Fig. 5. Touch and Step voltage profile related to square shape configuration

Fig. 9. Touch and Step voltage profile related to circular shape configuration

0 310.59 621.18 931.77 1242.36

Fig. 6. Three-dimensional touch voltage profile related to circular shape

grounding system

Fig. 10. Touch and Step voltage profile related to octagonal shape
configuration

To have better comparison between these design cases,

more outputs are acquired. Fig. 8 to Fig. 10 shows the touch
and step voltage regarding to maximum permissible touch and
step voltage for each configuration. The maximum permissible
0 310.59 621.18 931.77 1242.36
step voltage is 3534.17 V and the maximum permissible touch
voltage is 1050.07 V. By investigating in these figures, one can
Fig. 7. Three-dimensional touch voltage profile related to octagonal shape conclude that using the square shape electrodes is the best
grounding system
design because of its lower touch potential compare to two
other configuration. However the square shape grounding
system is the best choice, according to Figs. (5 and 8), the
touch voltage exceeds the maximum permissible touch voltage
line. Therefore, it is necessary to find another way to reduce the
touch voltage under the maximum permissible voltage.
As noted before a step-up transformer is installed near each
wind turbine. By connecting the step-up transformer grounding
system to wind turbine, the touch voltage according to Fig. 11
will be decreased, however the touch voltage still exceeds the
maximum value at borders. The equivalent resistance is 7.236
Ω which is lower than the limit defined by international
standards as lightning protection requirement (10 Ω).

Fig. 13. Touch and Step voltage related to windfarm

Fig.11.Touch and Step voltage profile, considering the step-up transformer

B. Windfarm Grounding System Analysis

According to Fig. 12, the safe area around the wind turbine
tower for touch voltage is more than 4 m. But there is still
some hazardous if any fence not exists to show the safe area
around the wind turbine. The final solution for decreasing the 0 310.59 621.18 931.77 1242.36
Fig. 14. Three dimensional Touch voltage related to windfarm
touch potential is to connect the grounding system of each
wind turbine to others. In this simulation we consider a Nowadays wind turbines grounding systems are connected
windfarm consist of 16 turbine (Fig. 13). Each turbine to each other through the armor of the main power cable
grounding system is designed as the above mentioned running between the turbines. Hence, this way is a suitable way
configuration and connected to each other to obtain an to reduce the step and touch voltages.
integrated grounding system.
More simulation results show that the above final windfarm
From Fig. 14, it is obvious that the touch and step voltage grounding system design is safe if the soil resistivity increase
are highly decreased when the grounding system of wind to 500 Ω.m for a single layer soil modeling.
turbines connected to each other. As can be seen, the touch and
step voltage are lower than permissible ones. IV. CONCLUSION
In this paper the grounding system of wind turbines was
analyzed by CYMGRD software and showed that for a single
wind turbine, the step and touch voltages may be above the
permissible step and touch voltages, if the soil has a high
resistivity. To solving this problem, several routine grounding
system configurations were analyzed to determine the best
configuration. For the purpose of better designing, an exact
model of foundation concrete reinforcement bars also added
and connected to grounding electrodes. Finally the grounding
system of a windfarm is analyzed. This windfarm consists of
16 wind turbine which their grounding systems is connected to
each other. Simulation shows that connecting of the grounding
systems has a significant effect on decreasing the touch and
Fig. 12. Windfarm grounding system configuration step voltage profiles.
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