IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 21, NO.

4, OCTOBER 2006

1941

Assessment of Grounding Schemes on Rail Potential

and Stray Currents in a DC Transit System
Chien-Hsing Lee, Senior Member, IEEE, and Chien-Jung Lu

AbstractThis paper studies the effects of different grounding

strategies, including ungrounded, solidly grounded, and diode
grounded on rail potential and stray currents in the Taipei Rail
Transit Systems (TRTS). The TRTS is a dc transit railway and
the running rails are used as the return conductor for traction
currents. The advantage is that no dedicated return conductor
is required while the disadvantages are rail potential and stray
current problems. Thus, the analysis of grounding strategies is important and necessary. Sample simulation results for the red line
between Tamshui (R33) and Chuwei (R31) stations are presented.
Index TermsDiode grounded, direct grounded, rail potential,
stray currents, ungrounded.

I. INTRODUCTION
N electrified-transit system is widely used for urban transportation around the world. It is constructed to alleviate
congested highways and to provide efficient mass transportation.
Since land and natural resources are limited in Taiwan and the
population density is very high, the development of urban-electrified transit systems is important and necessary. Thus, the
Taipei Rapid Transit System (TRTS) was founded by the Taipei
municipal government in 1991 with cooperation from a foreign
company to design its system. Fig. 1 depicts an outline of the completed and planned mass rail transit systems in the Taipei areas.
By the end of 2003, it consisted of five lines with an overall twotrack system length of 91.4 km as denoted by solid lines. Other
lines are being planned as denoted by the dashed lines in Fig. 1.
The TRTS is a dc electrified-traction system and operates with
a third rail system (two running rails are the dc negative return and
the third rail is the dc positive). Due to the resistances of running
rails and rail to ground, there will be a portion of the return traction
current that leaks from the running rails known as the stray current
as shown in Fig. 2. This current may cause the rail potential rise
(human safety) and electrochemical corrosion (facility lifetime).
Modern stray-current control can be categorized into two parts:
1) modification of the transit system and 2) modification of the
neighboring underground structures [1][7]. The two categories
are accomplished by doing one or more of the following:
1) decreasing the rail-return circuit resistance;
2) increasing the resistance of the leakage path to ground;

Manuscript received July 11, 2005. This work was supported by the National
Science Council, Taiwan, R.O.C., under Grant NSC 93-2213-E-224-006. Paper
no. TPWRD-00133-2005.
C.-H. Lee is with the Department of Systems and Naval Mechatronic Engineering, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 701, Taiwan, R.O.C. (e-mail:
chienlee@mail.ncku.edu.tw).
C.-J. Lu is with the Department of Electrical Engineering, National Yunlin
University of Science and Technology, Yunlin 640, Taiwan, R.O.C. (e-mail:
g9212213@yuntech.edu.tw).
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TPWRD.2006.874561

Fig. 1. Network of the completed and planned mass rail transit system in
Taipei.

Fig. 2. Exposure of an underground structure resulting from dc stray currents.

3) increasing the resistance between ground and underground

metallic structures;
4) increasing the resistance of the underground metallic
structures.
Items 1) and 2) are related to the modification of the transit
system while items 3) and 4) are related to the modification of
the underground structures. We will discuss item 2).
Increasing the leakage-path resistance to ground is a very effective approach in reducing stray-current leakage. By increasing

0885-8977/$20.00 2006 IEEE

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 21, NO. 4, OCTOBER 2006

Fig. 4. Simple dc-feed one-train system.

Fig. 3. Simplified block diagram of the power-supply system for TRTS.

this resistance, the stray-current path is less favorable than the

running-rail return path, resulting in less stray current. Four techniques have been used to increase the leakage-path resistance,
which are increasing the rail-to-ground resistance, maintaining
an ungrounded, solidly grounded, or diode-grounded negative
return circuit, isolating the yard track, and segregating sections
of the mainline track. We only illustrate the second technique
because the other methods are beyond the scope of this paper.
II. SYSTEM DESCRIPTION
The network of TRTS is fully equipped with an automated
system and all lines are operated with high-capacity trains fitted
with steel wheels for running on steel tracks except the brown
line, which operates with medium-capacity trains. The highcapacity system operates with six-car trains, each train is accompanied by a driver for handling unexpected incidents. The control center is the one which regulates the operation of the trains
and the signaling system along the tracks. The brown line used
the MATRA VAL256 electric trains manufactured in France.
These four-car trains are fitted with noise mitigation rubber tires
for running on reinforced concrete surfaces. Their fully automated operation handled by the control center facilitates flexible scheduling.
The power-supply system is one of the most important
facilities in electrified railway systems and is divided into the
high-voltage system for 161 kV; the medium-voltage system
for 22 kV; and the low-voltage system for 750 V, 380 V, and
110 V each. It provides the necessary energy for the operation
of the trains and satisfies the power requirements of the stations
and depots. The power-supply system for the TRTS network is
supplied by the Taiwan Power Company (TPC) through 161-kV
feeder units. The bulk supply substations (BSS) connect the
Metro power supply system to the public power grid, step the
161 kV down to 22.8 kV (referred to as 22 kV). Then, it distributes the 22-kV supply to the rectifier substations [or traction
supply substation (TSS)], to the station supply substations
(SSS), and to the depots. Each BSS consists of a high-voltage
switchgear, four high-voltage transformers, and two medium
high-voltage switchgear. A simplified block diagram of the
power-supply system for TRTS is shown in Fig. 3.

Fig. 5. Simple ungrounded dc-feed one-train rail system.

The TSS provides the energy for the traction supply and depots. The average distance between the two TSS is about 1.5 km.
Each TSS consists of medium high-voltage switchgear units,
rectifier transformers, rectifiers, and dc-voltage switchgear
units. The rectifier transformers step down the voltage for the
supply of the rectifier from 22.8 kV to 589 V. The secondary
voltage of the rectifier transformer is converted to the traction
voltage of 750 V dc by the rectifiers. The SSS provides the
energy to operate auxiliary installations such as escalators,
workshops, illumination, etc. within the stations and depots.
Each station and depot has its own SSS equipped with one
medium high-voltage switchgear unit and the related power
transformer. They are fed directly from the related medium
high-voltage switchgear units of the allocated BSS. The power
transformers step down the voltage from 22.8 kV to 380 V
feeding the low-voltage switchgear.
III. MATHEMATICAL FORMULATION
The mathematical formulation of the grounding schemes, including ungrounded, solidly grounded, and diode grounded negative return circuit is presented in this section. To understand
the behavior of the stray current, the ground in the dc electrified-traction system is assumed to be a homogeneous conductor.
Thus, analytical solutions for each grounding scheme can be obtained which are useful in demonstrating the general form of rail
potential and stray currents.
A. Ungrounded Traction Schemes
Consider a simple feeding situation with a rail conductor of
finite length and one train is only powered by two near traction substations as shown in Fig. 4. To derive the rail potential
and stray current for each grounding scheme, the two feeding
substations are replaced by two current sources. For example,
this situation occurs between Tamshuui (R33) station and Hongand
shulin (R32) station in the TRTS as shown in Fig. 5.
are fixed points while , representing the position of the train,

LEE AND LU: ASSESSMENT OF GROUNDING SCHEMES ON RAIL POTENTIAL

1943

Fig. 6. Simple dc-feed two-train system.

Fig. 8. Simple solidly grounded dc-feed two-train rail system.

Inside section
(5)
(6)
Fig. 7. Simple ungrounded dc-feed two-train rail system.

Inside section
is a mobile one. The directions of currents are defined in such a
way that they conform to the direction of the -axis.
Assume that the rail-to-ground resistance is homogeneous.
The current in the rail conductor i( ) and the potential of the
rail conductor v( ) inside sections
and
are derived
from Kirchhoffs law as follows [8][12]:
Inside section

(7)
(8)
By substituting the boundary conditions and using the Kirchhoffs current and voltage laws, the following equations can be
obtained:
(9)
(10)
(11)
(12)
(13)
(14)
(15)

(1)
(2)
Inside section
(3)
(4)

(16)

where
propagation constant
;
characteristic resistance of the rail conductor
earth system
;
longitude of the rail conductor
;
leakage conductance resistance of rail
;
conductor and earth
constants decided according to specific
boundary conditions.
Similar to the one-train system shown in Fig. 4, Fig. 6 shows
a two-train feeding situation with a rail conductor of finite
length , and its corresponding ungrounded dc-feed rail system
is shown in Fig. 7. Based on the one-train model, the current in
the rail conductor i( ) and the potential of the rail conductor
and
are the same as before.
v( ) inside sections
Moreover, the current and potential in the rail conductor inside
and
are written as follows.
sections

and
. As a result, the
where
can be obtained by solving (9) to (16).
constants
and
are the rail-to-ground input
Notice that
resistance of the section beyond the R33 substation and
beyond the R31 substation, respectively. Their units are in
ohms. Thus, the rail potential and stray current inside sections
, and
for an ungrounded scheme can
be found by substituting those constants into (1)(8).
B. Solidly Grounded Traction Schemes
The analysis model of the solidly grounded traction schemes
is similar to the ungrounded traction scheme except the negative
bus at each substation is directly grounded as shown in Fig. 8.
For programming convenience, we have selected a virtual resisclose to zero to represent the short circuit. Thus, the
tance
derivation of the rail potential and stray current is similar to the
ungrounded traction scheme. The equations of rail potential and

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 21, NO. 4, OCTOBER 2006

stray current at each section are exactly the same, except for the
.
constants
By substituting the boundary conditions and using the Kirchhoffs current and voltage laws, the following equations can be
obtained:
(17)
(18)
(19)
(20)
(21)
(22)
(23)

Fig. 9. Simple diode-grounded dc-feed two-train rail system.

(24)
where
and
are the same as before and
.
The constants
can be obtained by solving (17) to
(24). Thus, the rail potential and stray current inside sections
, and
for an ungrounded scheme can
be found by substituting those constants into (1) to (8).
C. Diode-Grounded Traction Schemes
Diode-grounded systems represent a compromise between a
solidly grounded and ungrounded system. They are often used to
eliminate the problems of stray-current corrosion from a solidly
grounded system, but also keep electric potentials at a safe level.
Diode-grounded systems contain a direct metallic connection of
the rectifier bus to the grounding mats at substations, but through
a diode circuit. The diode circuit allows current to flow from
the grounding mat to the negative bus when a certain threshold
voltage is reached. The threshold can be as low as 10 V or as high
as 50 V depending on the conditions at the substation. In this
way, electric potentials are dissipated and not allowed to build
up to unsafe levels. Diode-grounded systems also follow the
recommendations given previously, such as maintaining a high
rail-to-ground resistance. However, stray-current corrosion can
still occur on diode-grounded systems, especially on the rails
and rail fasteners where low rail-to-ground resistances are seen.
In addition, because of the diode-ground circuit path, the return
rails periodically discharge current when a threshold voltage is
exceeded.
The analytical model of the rail potential and stray current in
diode-grounded schemes between any two feeding substations
is shown in Fig. 9. The mathematical formulation of the rail
potential and stray current is the combination of results of the
ungrounded and solidly grounded schemes. The equations of
rail potential and stray current are used when the diode circuit is
conducting and not conducting. Thus, we do not need to rederive
those equations.
IV. SIMULATION RESULTS AND ANALYSIS
A test rail line is used to simulate the effects of grounding
strategies on rail potential and stray currents. It is a double track
line with a route length of 33 km and 20 passenger stations. For
simplicity, we only demonstrate the simulated rail potential and

Fig. 10. Traction power for one train running between three substations

rail current between R33 and R31 substations. Fig. 10 shows a

profile of the traction power as one train running from R33 toward R32 and the other train running from R32 toward R31. The
profile may change only at the constant region. The curves of acceleration and deceleration are the same regardless the distance
between two substations. The train consumes power during acceleration, while it generates power during deceleration. For the
simulation of each grounding scheme, the following parameters are used: the length of running rail between Tamshui (R33)
and Hongshulin (R32) stations is 2.09 km, the length of running rail between Hongshulin (R32) and Chuwei (R31) stations
is 1.91 km, the resistance of each running rail is 0.035 /km,
and the conductance of two running rail to ground is 0.02 S/km.
The run time of the train between R33 and R32 is 120 s while
the run time of the train between R32 and R31 is 110 s. Adand
ditionally, the positions of TSS2 and TSS3 are
km, respectively. To simplify the analysis, we suppose
and
are equal to the characteristic
that the resistances
impedance .
Figs. 1113 show the accumulative leakage current at three
different instants of time (i.e., 10, 70, and 100 s) in ungrounded
systems, solidly grounded systems, and diode-grounded systems, respectively, after one train leaves from the R33 station
and the other leaves from the R32 station. The three different
instants of time represent the train running from R33 to R32
at acceleration, constant speed, and deceleration, respectively.
As seen from Fig. 11, the accumulative leakage current is near
zero when the train is at constant speed. In contrast, the accumulative leakage currents are quite large when the train is at

LEE AND LU: ASSESSMENT OF GROUNDING SCHEMES ON RAIL POTENTIAL

Fig. 11. Cumulative leakage current against the rail position at a snapshot of
10, 70, and 100 s for ungrounded systems.

Fig. 12. Cumulative leakage current against the rail position at a snapshot of
10, 70, and 100 s for solidly grounded systems.

acceleration and deceleration. The positive value of the accumulative leakage current means that the current is leaking from
the running rail to the ground while the negative value of the
accumulative leakage current means the current is flowing from
the ground to the running rail. Comparing the results of Figs. 11
and 12, the accumulative leakage current in solidly grounded
systems is approximately 30 times larger than the accumulative
leakage current in ungrounded systems at acceleration and deceleration regions. Nevertheless, the accumulative leakage current at constant speed will be virtually near zero regardless of
the grounding scheme. This is because the traction power is virtually zero at this region. Comparing the results of Fig. 13 with
Figs. 11 and 12, we find that the accumulative leakage current
obtained in the diode-ground scheme is quite small compared
with the result obtained in the solidly grounded scheme. Since
the diode-grounded traction scheme represents a compromise
between a solidly grounded and ungrounded traction scheme,
the pros and cons of the diode-grounded system are then between the other two grounding systems.
Similarly, Figs. 1416 show the rail potential at three different
instants of time (i.e., 10, 70, and 100 s) in ungrounded, solidly

1945

Fig. 13. Cumulative leakage current against the rail position at a snapshot of
10, 70, and 100 s for diode-grounded systems.

Fig. 14. Rail potential against the rail position at a snapshot of 10, 70, and 100 s
for ungrounded systems.

grounded, and diode-grounded systems, respectively, after one

train leaves from R33 and the other leaves from R32. As seen
from Fig. 14, the rail potential at the constant speed region is
near zero but it has several volts on the running rail at both acceleration and deceleration regions. The rail potential at the substations in ungrounded traction schemes is probably higher or
lower than the reference voltage. In this case, the rail-to-ground
potential at substations may be greater than 20 V. As a result,
this voltage could damage the equipment and may be a hazard
to human beings around the substation areas [13], [14]. Therefore, to protect equipment and avoid accidents, overvoltage protection equipment has to be installed at each substation. As seen
from Fig. 15, the rail-to-ground potentials at each substation are
near zero regardless of the driving regions of the train. However,
the disadvantage of the solidly grounded scheme will increase
the accumulative leakage current and it has largest accumulative
leakage current among the three grounding schemes. Comparing
the results of Fig. 16 with Figs. 14 and 15, we find that the rail-toground potential at Chuwei is near zero in the diode-grounded
scheme because of neglecting the turn-on voltage (1.5 V) of the

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 21, NO. 4, OCTOBER 2006

Fig. 17. Variation of rail potential at R33 when a train is running from R33
toward R32.

V. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION

Fig. 15. Rail potential against the rail position at a snapshot of 10, 70, and 100 s
for solidly grounded systems.

Fig. 16. Rail potential against the rail position at a snapshot of 10, 70, and 100 s
for diode-grounded systems.

diode regardless of the driving regions of the train. Thus, it is

smaller than the rail-to-ground potential at Chuwei in the solidly
grounded scheme. However, it is higher than the ungrounded
scheme at Tamshui at 10 and 100 s. This may be hazardous and
could damage equipment.
Note that the distribution of the leakage current between
Tamshui and Chuwei for snapshots of 10 s (0.35 km) and 100 s
(1.8 km) are shown in (1) and (3), respectively. There are step
changes in leakage current at 0.35 km and 1.8 km since the rail
section is higher than it is at the
section
current at
by
. Similarly, there are slopes of
rail potential at these locations since the rail potential at the
section is higher than the rail potential at
section
according to (2) and (4).
by
Furthermore, a rail potential at R33 was measured on
September 22, 2004 for the diode-grounded system as shown
in Fig. 17 when a train is driving from R33 toward R32. As
seen from Fig. 17, the two-train model is closer to the actual
measurement than the one-train model. Particularly, the rail
potential will not be equal to zero when a train is moving at
constant speed for the two-train model.

A computer simulation model has been developed and a

test rail line is simulated for ungrounded, solidly grounded,
and diode grounded traction schemes. Ungrounded schemes
represent the other extreme of traction power system design.
The one disadvantage of an ungrounded traction scheme is
that sufficiently high electric potentials can develop between
platforms and earth ground. Fortunately, overvoltage protection
equipment and platform insulation procedures have to be used
to reduce the risk of a hazardous electric potential being present.
Solidly grounded schemes were historically used on older
transit systems. They are not used today on modern transit systems mainly because they cause more problems than they solve.
The only advantage of a solidly grounded system is that the negative return voltage is at the same voltage as the earth ground,
which eliminates the hazard of having electric potentials develop between station platforms and the earth ground.
Diode-grounded schemes represent a compromise between
ungrounded and solidly grounded schemes. They are often
used to eliminate the problems of stray-current corrosion from
a solidly grounded system.
Each grounding scheme provides an essential traction design
of rail systems concerning rail potential and stray current. The
tasks of controlling both rail potential and stray current are conflicting; therefore, a balance has to be struck between the two.
As a result, the TRTS is installed with the diode-grounded traction scheme. However, according to the simulation results for a
test track, the ungrounded traction scheme seems to be the best
choice.
REFERENCES
[1] T. J. Barlo, A. D. Zdunek, and R. N. Johnson, Stray current corrosion
in electrified rail systems, Proposal of the Basic Industrial Research
Laboratory, pp. 93127, Jul. 1993.
[2] I. Cotton, C. Charalambous, P. Aylott, and P. Ernst, Stray current control in DC mass transit systems, IEEE Trans. Veh. Technol., vol. 54,
no. 2, pp. 722730, Mar. 2005.
[3] Y. C. Liu and J. F. Chen, Control scheme for reducing rail potential
and stray current in MRT systems, in Proc. Inst. Elect. Eng., Electric
Power Appl., May 2005, vol. 152, no. 3, pp. 612618.
[4] D. Paul, DC traction power system grounding, IEEE Trans. Ind.
Appl., vol. 38, no. 3, pp. 818824, May/Jun. 2002.
[5] Bahra and R. B. Catlow, Control of stray currents for dc traction
systems, in Inst. Elect. Eng. Int. Conf. Electric Railways in a United
Europe, 1995, pp. 136142.
[6] K. D. Pham and R. S. Thomas, Analysis of stray current, track-to-earth
potentials & substation negative grounding in DC traction electrification system, in Proc. IEEE/ASME Joint Conf., Toronto, ON, Canada,
Apr. 2001, pp. 141160.

LEE AND LU: ASSESSMENT OF GROUNDING SCHEMES ON RAIL POTENTIAL

[7] R. S. Thomas and K. D. Pham, Design of grounding systems for

TRI-MET Portland Westside light traction power substations, in Proc.
IEEE/ASME Joint Railroad Conf., Dallas, TX, 1999.
[8] J. G. Yu, The effects of earthing strategies on rail potential and
stray currents in DC transit railways, in Proc. Int. Conf. (Conf.
Publ. No. 453) Developments in Mass Transit Systems, Apr. 1998,
pp. 303309.
[9] J. G. Yu and C. J. Goodman, Stray current design parameters for DC
railway, in Proc. ASME/IEEE Joint Railroad Conf., Atlanta, GA, Mar.
1992, pp. 1928.
[10] J. G. Yu and C. J. Goodman, Modeling of rail potential rise and
leakage current in DC rail transit systems, in Inst. Elect. Eng. Colloq.
Stray Current Effects of DC Railways and Tramways, London, U.K.,
Oct. 1990, pp. 221226.
[11] , Computer simulation of stray currents in DC supplied rail transit
systems and their corrosive effects, in Proc. IMechE Int. Conf. Transit
2020, London, U.K., Oct. 1990, pp. 121127.
[12] , Computer analysis of touch and step voltages for DC railways,
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[13] Code of Practice for Earthing, Bonding and Corrosion Protection,
EMCP/010/1/REV, Mar. 2, 1993.
[14] Protective Provisions Against the Effects of Stray Currents Caused by
DC Traction Systems, Eur. Std. EN 50122-2, Draft, Jul. 1995.

1947

Chien-Hsing Lee (S93M98SM06) was born

in Pingtung, Taiwan, R.O.C., on June 13, 1967.
He graduated from National Kaohsiung Institute of
Technology, Taiwan, and received the B.S. degree
in electrical engineering from Arizona State University, Phoenix, in 1993. He received the M.S.E.E.
and Ph.D. degrees from the Georgia Institute of
Technology, Atlanta, in 1995 and 1998, respectively.
Currently, he is an Associate Professor at National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan.
His research interests are power system grounding
analysis, power system transient modeling, power quality, and applications of
wavelet theory in power systems.

Chien-Jung Lu received the B.S. degree in electrical

engineering from National Huwei University of Science and Technology, Taiwan, in 2002. He is currently pursuing the graduate school of the Department of Electrical Engineering, National Yunlin University of Science and Technology, Yunlin, Taiwan.
His research interests are power system grounding
analysis and power applications in industry.