ECE 528 – Understanding Power Quality

http://www.ece.uidaho.edu/ee/power/ECE528/

Paul Ortmann
portmann@uidaho.edu
208-733-7972 (voice)

Lecture 38

Today…
• Wiring, grounding, and bonding
– Ground faults
– Human response to current
– Grounding electrode (ground rod) resistance
– Touch and step potentials
– The GFCI

Lecture 38 2

1
Ground Faults
• What is a “ground fault”?
– Insulation failure resulting in current through:
• Equipment grounding conductor (ground wire)
• Other unintentional conductors
• A person
• Any combination of these pathways
– Issues with ground faults
• Touch and step potentials may be hazardous
• Resulting ground fault current may not be sufficient to trip an
overcurrent protective device

Lecture 38 3

Issues with ground faults

Human response to current
• Response to 60Hz current*
– Perception 1mA
– Mild shock 2mA
– Painful shock 4-9mA
– Cannot let-go 10-20mA
– Heart fibrillation 100-300mA

*All values are approximate; people and research results vary

Reference:
Applied Bioelectricity-From Electrical Stimulation to Electropathology, J. Patrick Reilly

Lecture 38 4

2
Fault in a properly grounded system

A small amount of fault current flows in the earth.

This condition ends very quickly; when the breaker trips.
Lecture 38 5

The properly grounded system shortly after the fault.

OFF
ON

40

Circuit breaker trips quickly, fault is de-energized.

Lecture 38 6

3
Faulted system with missing or broken neutral/ground

OFF
ON
40

ALL of the fault current flows in the earth at some point.

Fault current is too low to trip the breaker; the fault is continuous.
Lecture 38 7

Hazards with continuous faults

Touch
Voltage

Step Voltage
Lecture 38 8

4
Voltage gradients:
Where current enters or leaves the earth
Low current
Load

Grounding Bus

Voltage
gradient

Current through earth resistance creates voltage across earth

resistance. Lecture 38 9

Earth faults and voltage gradients

Altitude gradient Voltage gradient

Lecture 38 10

5
Voltage gradients and step potentials
- a few steps can make a big difference

Higher
step
voltage

Lower
step
voltage

Lecture 38 11

Calculating ground rod resistance

ρ
⋅  ln   4L 
Rrod  − 1
2⋅ π ⋅ L   a  
ρ soil resistivity in Ω-m (Ohm-meters)
L rod length in meters
a rod radius in meters

Equation is valid for L>>a

Mathcad and Mathcad Prime will automatically handle unit conversions so that
you may mix Ohm-meters, feet, inches, etc.
Lecture 38 12

6
Calculating earth surface potentials near a ground rod

Ig ⋅ ρ  L2 + y 2 + L  Ig = current through ground rod

Ug ( y ) ⋅ ln   y = distance from ground rod (m)
2⋅ π ⋅ L  y 
Ug(y) is the voltage on the earth surface, at distance y from the ground rod, with
respect to “remote” earth.

Step voltage between two points: ( )

Ug y 1 − Ug y 2 ( )
Touch voltage between ground rod
and earth at distance y:
Vfault − Ug ( y )
Lecture 38 13

Effect of resistivity: dry or moist soils

• No effect on voltage magnitude – fault current changes inversely
with resistivity.
– Moist soil = low-resistivity, increased fault current
– Drop in resistivity is proportional to increase in fault current, keeping step
potentials constant
• But, higher resistivity = higher contact resistance to the soil =
less current through us
– High soil resistance in series with each foot reduces the current for a
given step potential
– This is why we use gravel in substation yards
Lecture 38 14

7
Understanding the hazard

Grounding
Problem
Touch/Step
Continuous
Fault
Voltage
Hazard
Ground
Fault There are almost always two problems in these cases:
1. The fault
2. Damaged or missing equipment grounding
conductor; the “safety ground”

Lecture 38 15

Issues with ground faults

Circuit breaker response to current
• 15-amp single-pole circuit breaker trip times:
– 15 A 5+ min, (maybe)
– 30 A 15s – 1min
– 60 A 1.5s – 5s
– 150A – 250A 0.02s (“instantaneous”)
• Based on the time-current curve for a standard residential circuit
breaker
min = minutes, s = seconds

Lecture 38 16

8
Bridging the gap between circuit
breaker response and human response
• The Ground-fault circuit interrupter (GFCI)

Lecture 38 17

The GFCI during a ground fault

• Current imbalance at sensing coil causes trip
• Threshold is 4-6mA
(UL 943, Standard for Ground Fault circuit Interrupters.)

Lecture 38 18

9
A few GFCI precautions
• The GFCI does not limit the ground-fault current magnitude
• A non-grounding receptacle (two-prong) may be replaced with a
grounding type receptacle supplied through a GFCI. No
equipment grounding conductor shall be connected between the
grounding receptacles.
• GFCIs may be prone to “nuisance tripping”
– Long circuits
– Many loads
– Downstream neutral connections

Lecture 38 19

GFCI circuit breakers and receptacles

• Nuisance tripping
– In any circuit, there is distributed capacitance between the line
or phase conductors, the grounding conductor, and the
surrounding conductive materials
– This capacitance will result in a small “leakage current”
– The leakage current may “pre-load” the GFCI circuit breaker,
reducing the normal trip level

Lecture 38 20

10
GFCI circuit breakers and receptacles

• Nuisance tripping continued:

– Under severe conditions (long circuits, water in conduits) the
leakage current could cause nuisance trips of the GFCI circuit
breaker
– One manufacturer recommends limiting the total downstream
circuit length to 250 feet
– Long extension cords may be used on outdoor receptacles,
where GFCIs are required or on indoor receptacles in large
buildings

Lecture 38 21

Coming up…

• More wiring and grounding

– Communication wiring
– Troubleshooting wiring issues
– Diagnosing wiring problems from symptoms

References for ground rod resistance and step potential calculations:

EPRI Distribution Grounding Volume 1: Handbook, August 1996
Earth Conduction Effects in Transmission Systems, E.D. Sunde, 1949.

Lecture 38 22

11