ENGINEERING INSTRUCTION MEASUREMENT OF EARTH POTENTIAL RISE (EPR) ZONE

No. EPR/A-002
No of Pages. Issue No. Issued By: Approved By: Date of Issue 06 01 T&D, Circle CGM T&D Circle 18-03-2005 NIL

Amendment No (If Any) No of Pages Issued by: Approved By: Date of Issue

Restricted use by BSNL Employees only

All efforts have been made to incorporate all relevant up to date information available, any discrepancies or need for addition or deletion is felt may please be intimated to this office for further improvement, on E-Mail Id singhai_sc2@rediffmail.com BHARAT SANCHAR NIGAM LIMITED (A Govt. of India Enterprise) TECHNICAL & DEVELOPMENT CIRCLE, SANCHAR VIKAS BHAWAN, RESIDENCY ROAD, JABALPUR, MP-482001

ENGINEERING INSTRUCTIONS

Protection Power EPR/A-002

MEASUREMENT OF EARTH POTENTIAL RISE (EPR) ZONE

1 SCOPE This Engineering instruction describes the procedure for conducting the EARTH POTENTIAL RISE (EPR) test at power Sub Stations 2. GENERAL When an Earth fault occurs in a power system, some of the Fault current returns via the Earth, through the Earthing system (Eg. Earthing of towers and Sub-stations etc). This current raises the potential of Earthing system with respect to a remote Earth, for the duration of the fault. This is known as Earth Potential Rise (EPR). During such a fault, due to transfer of potential between the EPR areas and outside points by conductors of telecom circuits and other metallic structure etc., serious hazards may result to telecom personnel, installations and customers. This Earth potential rises and spreads in the surrounding areas in all directions due to the fact that the whole of fault current will not die down in the Earth mat itself, as the resistance of the Earth mat is not always O Ohms. 3. FACTORS AFFECTING EPR i. ii. iii. iv. v. Type of Power Network. Fault current level Power grounding system (earth resista- nce) Soil resistivity Local conditions.

4. THEORETICAL CALCULATION OF EPR ZONE In most of the cases, the theoretical calculations of EPR zone, as calculated by the Electricity authorities, is accepted by the telecom authorities The theoretical formula for calculation of EPR zone for larger Earthing systems is given below. Ex = Emax*D/(d+D) = IR*D/(d+D), Where: Ex = Potential at radial distance d from the perimeter of Earth mat in volts I = Maximum fault current through the Earth mat in AMPS R = The measured resistance of Earth mat in Ohms D = Half the diagonal distance of Earth mat in metres. d = Distance in metres from the perimeter of the Earth mat In those cases, where the Earth mat is not essentially rectangular in shape, the value of a square, having the same area as that enclosed by the irregular Earth mat , should be taken Substituting the EPR Voltage limit for Ex, the distance d of that voltage contour from the perimeter of the Earth mat in metres can be calculated from the above formula. The limits of EPR for different types of telecom assets is given in table A

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ENGINEERING INSTRUCTIONS

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5.0 PRACTICAL MEASUREMENT OF EPR ZONE. In theoretical formula, uniform Earth resistivity is assumed. But, in practice, however, the Earth resistivity is rarely uniform. In such cases where there is ambiguity in the factors affecting the EPR and the resulting theoretical calculations, a practical measurement of EPR zone can be considered. 5.1 TEST SET UP The following are part of the set up for conducting the practical measurement of EPR zone. i. Isolation transformer that should deliver a minimum of 30 Amps constant current. ii. High Capacity dimmerstat to control the current. iii. Digital Voltmeters of very High impedance. iv. Cut out system with suitable fuses. v. Digital Ammeters. vi. Electrode of 0.5 meters length. (Galvanized iron pipe of 1 inch dia). (A remote Earth should be extended from a distance of not less than 2 kms to the test site. The remote Earth is prepared by driving a set of three numbers of 2.6 M standard earth electrodes, forming an equilateral triangle of 2.4 M, into earth. The remote Earth lead should be perpendicular to the Power line, which is chosen for the EPR test) 5.2 PROCEDURE i. Any power line originating /terminating in the Sub-station where the EPR test is being conducted may be selected taking into account that this line should be perpendicular to the remote Earth lead brought from the remote Earth.. ii. All the three phases of the power line should be looped at the Sub-station end and isolated from the Sub-station Earth mat. iii. One terminal of the secondary of power transformer should be connected to looped power line and the other terminal should be connected to Earth mat through an Ammeter. iv. The power line should be looped and Earthed at a distance of not less than 8 Kms, from the perimeter of the Earth mat, by three electrodes method, as done for the remote Earth. Tower Earth should not be used for this purpose. The input AC supply to the transformer is connected through the dimmerstat. Switch on the supply and gradually increase the current fed in to the Earth mat, ensuring that the dimmerstat is not getting heated. vi. The maximum current (not less than 16 Amps) that can be fed constantly should be noted and ensured that this current will become the constant current for all the reading to be recorded. vii. The first reading should be taken between earth mat and remote earth lead. The subsequent readings should be noted at every 50 meters interval from the perimeter of the Earth mat, by driving the electrode into earth at least 12 inches. Readings should be taken until the volt meter shows a reading corresponding to an EPR value of less than 430 Volts. (This can be ascertained by multiplying the Voltmeter reading and fault current of the substation and dividing it by the injected current). viii. After taking all the necessary readings, the readings shall be extrapolated to the maximum fault current value of the Sub-station by the method mentioned above (ie Voltmeter reading x Fault current / Injected current). The values thus obtained are plotted in a graph paper (distance verses voltage), and from the graph the EPR zone for 430V, 650V, 7KV and 10 KV or any other voltage can be found out v.

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5.3

STRAY VOLTAGE CONSIDERATION.

Any stray voltage between the Earth electrode and remote Earth must be measured before the simulated fault current is applied. Unless this voltage is small when compared with voltage measured with fault current, the relative phase angles must be read and a correction applied. Alternatively, the current direction can be reversed and following formula applied. V12 + V2 2 - Vs2 2 Where V is the voltage due the fault current alone. Vs is the standing voltage due to stray currents. V1 is the measured voltage with current in the forward direction V2 is the measured voltage with current in the reverse direction. V= SQRT 6.0 EPR TEST OF EARTH ELECTRODE STATION OF HVDC LINE The HVDC transmission lines have only two conductors, negative and positive. In case of break fault of one of the conductors, power authorities resort to monopolar Earth return mode of working.. In this case, very High Current is drawn from the Earth mat of Earth Electrode tml station .In the case of AC Sub-stations, EPR exists only for a fraction of a second where as in the case of HVDC Earth Electrode tml station, EPR exists for the whole duration of monopolar earth return mode of working. Hence protection is to be provided in EPR zone of 60 V and above. 7.0 EPR ZONE NEAR EHT LINE TOWERS The EPR zone near any EHT line tower is negligible compared to EHT Sub-stations. The reason being that all the EHT towers carry an earth wire on top of it that returns the fault current to earth mat of the Sub-station. If any fault occurs on the tower, a negligible current flows via the tower earth system to the ground, which can create an EPR , while the earth wire will carry the maximum current to the Earth mat. A specimen copy of EPR test results is included as ANNEXURE

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CURRENT INJECTION SET UP Power line (Three phases looped)

Dimmerstat Isolation Transformer

Primary

Secondary

AC Input

2.4M

2.4M

2.4 M

Special Earth Substation Earth mat TABLE A EPR Limits and hazard zone No Type of Telecommunication Plant 1 2 3 Terminal apparatus, manholes, pits, poles. Telephone exchanges. Cables a) Metal Sheathed. joints, cabinets, pillars, Type of Power System High reliability Other Lines lines 650V 430V 430V 650V 7 KV 430V 430V 7 KV Page 4

b) Plastic insulated and plastic sheathed, PIJF

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ANNEXURE EARTH POTENTIAL RISE TEST RESULTS

(specimen only)
Name of Sub Station : Salem Maximum fault current of sub station : 5000 Amps No a 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Distance from the edge of Earth mat in metres b 25 75 125 175 225 275 325 375 425 475 525 575 625 675 Injected current in Amps c 25 25 25 25 25 25 25 25 25 25 25 25 25 25 Measured value in Volts d 56.2 45.7 37.3 31.3 25.0 18.3 14.4 10.7 8.4 6.2 4.6 3.8 2.6 1.6 Date : 09 - 08 - 03

EPR in volts (d/c) x 5000 11235 9135 7452 6250 4998 3653 2876 2137 1675 1237 926 756 513 312

12000

10000

8000

EPR in Volts

6000

4000

2000

0 1 50 2 100 3 150 4 200 5 250 6 300 7 350 8 400 9 10 50011 550 12 60013 650 14 700 450 Distance from the edge of Earth Mat in metres

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