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ICOSTA 2021 IOP Publishing
Journal of Physics: Conference Series 2193 (2022) 012033 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/2193/1/012033

Design grounding grid resistance of substation for two soil

layer model

Surya Hardi1*, Azwar Nasution2, R. Harahap1 and Ayu Fitriani1

1
Department of Electrical Engineering, Universitas Sumatera Utara, Medan, Indonesia
2
Department of Electrical Engineering BBPLK Medan, Indonesia

*
Correspondence author: surya.hardi@usu.ac.id

Abstract. All Grounding planning of a substation is important and various design applications
are available using calculation uniform soil resistivity, even though actual resistivity data
measured is more than one layer. This is caused by limited availability of the application in
processing data only for resistivity one layer. Substation grounding grid application (ASPG) 1.0
can be used for designing grid grounding. The ASPG was developed from Lab View software
and has ability to data process for resistivity two-layer that to refer IEEE Std. 80-2013. Grid
grounding resistance is considering a combination of grid conductor and ground conductor. This
paper discusses the calculation of the magnitude of substation grid grounding using formulas
developed by Schwarz, Sulivan and Sunde. The design result obtained is more accurate in
substitute resistivity for resistivity two-layer model and calculation grounding resistance
substation.

1. Introduction
The applications used in previous studies [1]-[4] are still based on uniform soil resistivity. The
calculation of ground resistance does not involve grid and rod conductors. So that there will be a
difference if a design involving rod and grid conductors is used in areas with non-uniform resistivity.
This study will use the ASPG 1.0 application [5] with the ability to calculate the resistivity parameter of
the second-layer model of the soil type and also to calculate the ground resistance in a more detailed
manner. The reference used in this application is the grounding system of the AC high voltage
substation, the latest standard IEEE 80 in 2013 [6]. The two-layer soil calculation method used is the
Sunde graph [7], Sullivan [8], and Seeder [6]. Grid conductor parameters have been included in the
calculation of the ground resistance using the Schwarz equation [6].
Other research in the form of analysis on the grounding system of the 2 x 250 MVA substation 275
KV Sarulla system [9] also still uses uniform soil resistance.

2. Grounding System Parameter

The parameters of the grounding grid system are discussed in [6]. And in this section, we will review
the two parameters that are the main discussion. The first parameter is the Schwarz ground resistance.
The second parameter is the calculation of soil resistivity using the Sunde graph, the Seedher method,
and Sullivan.

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ICOSTA 2021 IOP Publishing
Journal of Physics: Conference Series 2193 (2022) 012033 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/2193/1/012033

2.1. Grounding Resistance

Standards issued by ANSI and IEEE do not require a maximum value of ground resistance for a
substation. IEEE Std. 80 only specifies the touch voltage and step voltage which must comply with the
specified safe limits i.e. Em < Etouch and Es < Estep. The maximum value of grounding resistance (RG) is a
recommendation. The recommended maximum ground resistance value from the National Electrical
Code® (NEC®) NFPA-70 is between 1 ohm to 5 ohm in general for substations, buildings and large
commercial installations [10]. Canadian Electrical Code (CEC), CSA C22.1 sets the criteria for ground
resistance less than 1 ohm [10].
Substation components will require ground resistance limits, such as communication systems,
SCADA control lines and other control lines. Thus the grounding resistance needs to be limited to keep
the ground potential (GPR) increase within safe limits on other substation components.
In [11] this limit on the value of the grounding resistance is a recommendation. The recommended
maximum grounding resistance (RG) for each type of substation is different as shown in Table.1 [11].

Table 1. Recommendations for Maximum Value of

Substations Grounding Resistance
Substation RG (Ohm)
Large power station 0.5
Major power station 1.0
Small sub-station 2.0
In all other cases 8.0
The earth continuity inside an installation 1.0

The calculation of grounding resistance can be viewed in terms of the soil layer used, whether the
soil is uniformly layered or multi-layered.

2.2. Resistance Formulas

The calculation of the ground resistance of the grid by Laurent/Niemen [7] only involves the grid area
and the total length of the grid conductors. Sverak then developed an equation involving the depth
parameter of the grid. Furthermore, Schwarz [7] developed equation (1) and equation (5) for grid
resistance in uniform layer grounding. This equation includes the grid conductor parameters (Rgg) and
conductor rod (Rgr). Schwarz then formulated the mutual resistance equation Rgm as in equation (6).
Total resistance (Rg) calculated by the equation (7) as a combination of horizontal conductor resistance
(grid), vertical conductor resistance (rods) and mutual resistance Rgm .

2.2.1. Resistance of grid conductor. The grounding resistance of the grid conductor is formulated as
follows [3]:
   2 LC  Lc 
Rgg = ln  a '  + K1 A − K 2 
LC     (1)
Lc is the total length of the grid conductor (meter)
a’ is a.2h or equal to a if the conductor is installed at ground level, where h≈0
a is the radius of the conductor
K1,K2 is the coefficient of xy ratio, the value is determined based on the graphs Fig. 1 and
Fig. 2.
Rgg is the grounding resistance of the grid conductor in Ohm

The K1 coefficient in Figure 1 can be determined based on the of the A, B, or C curves. For grid h
depth, the K1 coefficient is obtained from curve A by using equation (2) Dwight [1]
y A = −0.04 x + 1.41 (2)

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ICOSTA 2021 IOP Publishing
Journal of Physics: Conference Series 2193 (2022) 012033 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/2193/1/012033

1
For the depth of the grid and 101 A K1 coefficients
6
A are obtained from the McCrocklin equation
[2], curve B using equation (3) and curve C using equation (4).
yB = −0.05 x + 1.20 (3)
yC = −0.05 x + 1.13
(4)

Figure 1. Graph of the K1 coefficient function with the ratio of the length and width

The coefficient K2 as in Figure 2 is determined by curve A, B, or C. For the grid depth h=0 coefficient
K2 obtained by using curve A with equation (5), for h=1 A using curve B with the equation (6), and for
10
h = 1 A using the C curve with the equation (7).
6

y A = 0.15x + 5.5 (5)

yB = 0.10 x + 4.68 (6)

yC = 0.05 x + 4.40 (7)

Figure 2. Graph of the K2 coefficient function with the ratio of the length and width.

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ICOSTA 2021 IOP Publishing
Journal of Physics: Conference Series 2193 (2022) 012033 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/2193/1/012033

2.2.2. Resistance of rod conductor. The rod conductor resistance in this study calculated by the formula
[6] as follows:

Rgr =
   4 Lr 
 ln 
2N r Lr   b 
2K  L
 −1+ 1 r ( )2
Nr −1 
A  (8)
Lr is the length of one rod (m)
Nr is the number of rods
Rgr is the grounding resistance of the rod bed in ohms.
2b is the diameter of the conductor rod

2.2.3. Mutual grounding resistance. The mutual ground resistance Rmg between the grid and the rod
used in this study is the Schwarz formula which is formulated as follows [6]:
   2 Lc  K1  Lc 
Rgm = ln   + − K 2 + 1
Lc   Lr  A  (9)
Rgm is the joint resistance between grid and rod in Ohm.

2.2.4. Total resistance. The total value of ground resistance Rg as a combination of Rgg, Rrg and Rgm
according to Schwarz [6] is as follows:

Rgg Rgr − Rgm

2

Rg =
Rgr + Rrr − 2 Rgm
(10)

2.3. Two- layer soil Reistivity

The second layer soil model involves the reflection factor parameter k or in other literature is called the
reflection coefficient. For the number of soil layers as many as N-layer, there will be k as many as N-1
(1<i< N-1). For N layers of soil, k is formulated by equation [11]:
 i +1 −  i
ki =
 i+1 +  i (11)
Thus the reflection coefficient ki for the second layer soil (N=2) is formulated as follows:
 2 − 1
k1 =
 2 + 1 (12)
The calculation of resistivity for two-layer soil use the J.A. Sullivan method [4]. The calculation of
resistivity using this method is distinguished by the value of the reflection coefficient k.
For k < 0, soil resistivity is calculated by the formula (13):
1
a =
   
−1

−k (d + 2h ) 
1 +  − 1  1 − e
1

   2   
 (13)
d is the depth of the top layer
h is the grid depth

Meanwhile, for k > 0, the resistivity value is calculated by the formula (14):

4
ICOSTA 2021 IOP Publishing
Journal of Physics: Conference Series 2193 (2022) 012033 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/2193/1/012033

   
−1

k ( d + 2h ) 
 a =  2 1 +  − 1  1 − e
2

  1   
 (14)
The method of Infinite Wenner Resistivity Expression, Seedher [8] is also used in this study to
determine the resistivity of two layers of soil.

 1 1 
 a =  1 (1 + 4  1   −
n =1  A B  (15)
2
 2nh 
A = 1+  1  , B = A + 3
 s  (16)
The third method is the Sunde diagram [6]. Parameters 1 and 2 were obtained by inspecting the
graph of the resistivity measurement results against the electrode distance. The Sunde method
determines the h1 parameter with steps that described in detail in [6].
The methods that have been discussed have some differences. The Sunde method calculates the
parameter height of layers h1 and av by specifying the parameters  and  . Sullivan's method
calculate resistivity av by setting the h1 parameter and the hs grid depth. While the Seedher method
calculates av by the parameters of a and h1.

3. Sarulla Substation Parameter

3.1. Substation Parameter

The mass of the person used as a reference in this study was 50 kg. Although IEEE80 determined a mass
of 70kg inside the substation guardrail, this study was carried out with reference to 50 kg of people
inside and outside the guardrail because the weight of personnel is assumed to be under 70kg [9]. A
more complete data on Sarulla substation is presented in the Table. 2.

Table 2. Parameters of Sarulla Subststation[9].

Description symbol Data
Fault duration tf 0,35 s
Positive sequence equivalent Z1 -
Zero Sequence equivalent Z0 -
Current division factor Sf 0,6
Voltage at the worst fault location VLL 275.000 volt
Reduction Factor Cs 0,82
Decrement factor Df 1,128 (X/R = 10)
Soil resistivity ρ 127,94 Ωm
Crush rock resistivity (wet) ρs 5000 Ωm
The Thickness of crushed rock hs 0, 2m
Depth of grid burial h 0,8 m
Available grounding area A 200 m x 100 m
Transformer impedance Z1 =Z0 -
Fault current 3I0 40000 A
Grid conductor diameter D 17,33 mm 1x150 sqmm
Grid conductor material Copper Conductor-Hard
Kriteria tegangan langkah Estep50 5025,58 volt
Kriteria tegangan sentuh(CYME) Etouch50 1403,45 volt
Grid resistance Rg 0.56 Ohm

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ICOSTA 2021 IOP Publishing
Journal of Physics: Conference Series 2193 (2022) 012033 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/2193/1/012033

3.2. Resisitivity Soil Model of 275 kV Sarula Substation

Resistivity that used in this study were obtained from [9] as shown in Table 3.

Table 3. Resistivity Measuremet Results.

Position Spacing a (m) Resistivity (Ohm.m)
1 4 159.51
8 175.34
16 230.10
32 239.14
2 4 130.62
8 171.82
16 221.06
32 261.25
3 4 135.40
8 158.76
16 211.01
32 303.45
4 4 142.68
8 174.84
16 235.12
32 251.20
5 4 130.88
8 143.69
16 212.01
32 233.11
6 4 165.79
8 231.10
16 281.34
32 247.18
Average Value 4 144.15
8 175.92
16 231.77
32 255.89

The average values in Table 3 which were analyzed in [9] resulted in a two-layer soil model with the
parameters shown in Table 4.
Table 4. Two layer Model.
Layer Resistivity Depth (m)
1 127.94 4.48
2 284.09 INF
The grounding design of the Sarulla substation grid that used in this study is shown in Table 5.

Table 5. Initial Design Parameters at Sarulla Substation [7].

Parameters Preliminary design Df =1
Grid Rod
Size 200 x100 m 1.5
Shape rectangle -
Total - 4
Distance (d) 10 m

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ICOSTA 2021 IOP Publishing
Journal of Physics: Conference Series 2193 (2022) 012033 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/2193/1/012033

3.3. ASPG 1.0 Application

The ASPG application is an application that is used to design a substation grid grounding system
equipped with a replacement resistance calculation for a two-layer soil model. This application is also
equipped with a grounding resistance calculation for two-layer soil as shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3. Calculation of Ground Resistance with ASPG 1.0

4. Results And Discussion

4.1. Grounding grid design of Sarula substation

The results of analysis data in Table II and Table III using the ASPG application are shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4. Initial Desing Input of Substation

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ICOSTA 2021 IOP Publishing
Journal of Physics: Conference Series 2193 (2022) 012033 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/2193/1/012033

The minimum conductor diameter and the calculation results of the touch-voltage criteria and the
calculated step-voltage are shown as in Figure 5.

Figure 5. Calculation results of conductor diameter and voltages criteria

4.2. Calculation result of two soil layer model

The results of the calculation of the height of the soil layer h1 and the average resistivity using the ASPG
application are compared with the results in [5] which have close values as shown in Table 6.

Table 6. Initial Design Result of Sarulla Substation.

Grounding Parameters
Source
1 2 h1 av
Sarulla [5] 127.94 284.09 4.48 -
[6] 127.94 284.09 5.15 191.91
[7] 127.94 284.09 4.44 207.10
[8] 127.94 284.09 4.44 198.42

The following describes the calculation of resistivity using the Sunde method. The calculation is
done by graphing the resistivity a (Ohm.Meter) on the y-axis and the electrode distance a (meters) on
the x-axis as shown in Figure 6.

Figure 6. Graph of resistivity against electrode spacing

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ICOSTA 2021 IOP Publishing
Journal of Physics: Conference Series 2193 (2022) 012033 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/2193/1/012033

The next step is to estimate the value of ρ1 and ρ2 from the graph drawn in step-1. Resistivity of ρa
which corresponds to the smaller distance is ρ1 and for larger distances is ρ2. For the Sarulla substation,
the values of 1 and 2 can be obtained from Table 3.
Next value of ρ2/ρ1 (284.09/127.94) obtained 2.2. Since there is no curve corresponding to ρ2/ρ1=2.2
then a new curve is created on the Sunde graph as shown in Fig.7.

Figure 7. Additional characteristic curves on the Sunde chart

The value of ρa/ρ1 (y-axis) selected from the sloped curve section of appropriate ρ2/ ρ1. From Figure 7
obtained ρa/ρ1 =1.5. Then from ρa/ρ1 get value a/h on the x-axis = 2.0. Resistivity of ρa obtained by
multiplying the value of ρa/ρ1 with value of ρ1 (1.5x127.94=191.91). Probe distancce a on the resistivity
measurement graph of Fig. 6 which corresponds to the value of ρa =191.91 is 10.33. The depth of the
top layer or h1 is calculated by dividing the obtained a value by the value of a/h (10.33/2)= 5.15 meters.

4.3. Resistane of two soil layer.

The results of the calculation of ground resistance with 3 different methods are shown in Table 7.
Table 7. Caculation Of Grounding Resistance.

Source Grounding Resistance Rg (Ohm)

Laurent/Niemen [9] 0.43
Laurent/Niemen [ASPG] 0.4305
Sverak [ASPG] 0.4293
Schwarz [ASPG] 0.3590

4.4. Discussion
The minimum conductor size according to ASPG 1.0 calcuation is 14.4447 mm (specific calculation)
and 10.3821 (simplification method) as shown in Fig.5. The diameter that used in the GI-Sarulla is 17.33
mm (installed parameters). The diameter is already meets the criteria because it is above the minimum
limit of 14.4447.
Table 8 displays the results of the calculation of the second layer resistivity for each method. The
three methods produce actual voltage that are still within the design criteria. Thus, these three methods
can be used to determine the apparent resistivity as a substitute for the resistivity of two-layer soils.

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ICOSTA 2021 IOP Publishing
Journal of Physics: Conference Series 2193 (2022) 012033 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/2193/1/012033

Table 8. Resitivity Calaculation of Two-Layer Soil Models.

a=12(m) H=4.44(M) av (ohm.m)
[6] 191.91
[7] 198.42
[8] 187.92

5. Conclusion
The use of the ASPG 1.0 application in the analysis of the Sarulla substation grounding grid system is
closer to the actual design value of the substation. ASPG has a design system using a more detailed
calculation of ground resistance involving both rod and grid conductors. The ASPG application has also
been used to calculate the replacement type of soil in a two-layer soil model with 3 choices of methods,
Sunde, Sullivan and Seedher.

References
[1] Surya Hardi, Azwar Nasution, Fanindia Purnama Sari, 2019, “Modeling of Substation Grounding
Grid Design Using Lab View Graphical User Interface” IEEE Conference ETICOM.
[2] Surya Hardi, Azwar Nasution, Fahmi, Fanindia Purnama Sari, 2020, “Efficient Design On The
Substation Grounding Grid: A Case Study at 2x500MVA Galang” IEEE Conference
ETICOM.
[3] M. A. Salam, S. P. Ang, 2015 “Ground Resistance Calculation of a Power Station in Brunei
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[4] Ankita B. Patel, 2017,“Digital Application for Grounding Grid Design Calculations of
Substation”, i-PACT, IEEE.
[5] Azwar Nasution, 2020, “Application Design of Substation Grounding Grid for Two Soil Layer
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[6] ANSI/IEEE Std, 80-2013/Cor 1-2015, 15 May 2015, “IEEE` Guide for safety in AC substation
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[7] M. Nassereddine, et al, 2013, “Soil Resistivity Data Computations; Single and Two - Layer Soil
Resistivity Structure and Its Implication on Earthing Design” World Academy of Science,
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[8] H. R. Seedher, J. K. Arora, 1992, “Estimation of two layer soil parameters using finiteWenner
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[9] Desman Jonto Sinaga, 2019, ” Effective Design Grounding System for 2 X 250 Mva, 275 kV
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[10] ANSI/IEEE Std 142, 7 June 2007, “IEEE Recommended Practice for Grounding of Industrial and
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[11] Edvard Csanyi, posted: 18 Desember 2017, last access 18 “What does a good grounding of the
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