Since the early days of the electric power industry, the safety of personnel in and around electric

power installations has been a primary concern. With ever increasing fault current levels in
today’s interconnected power systems, there is renewed emphasis on safety. The safety of
personnel is compromised by the rise in the ground potential of grounded structures during
unbalanced electric power faults. At such times, humans touching grounded structures can be
subjected to high voltages. However, the magnitude and duration of the electric current
conducted through the human body should not be sufficient to cause ventricular fibrillation.

The Ground Grid Systems module utilizes the following four methods of computation:

 FEM - Finite Element Method

 IEEE 80-1986
 IEEE 80-2000/2013

The Ground Grid Systems calculates the following:

 The Maximum Allowable Current for specified conductors. Warnings are issued if the
specified conductor is rated lower than the fault current level.
 The Step and Touch potentials for any rectangular/triangular/L-shaped/T-shaped
configuration of a ground grid, with or without ground rods (IEEE Std 80).
 The tolerable Step and Mesh potentials and compares them with actual, calculated
Step and Mesh potentials (IEEE Std 80).
 Graphic profiles for the absolute Step and Touch voltages, as well as the tables of the
voltages at various locations (Finite Element Method).
 The optimum number of parallel ground conductors and rods for a
rectangular/triangular/L-shaped/T-shaped ground grid. The cost of conductors/rods
and the safety of personnel in the vicinity of the substation/generating station during a
ground fault are both considered. Design optimizations are performed using a relative
cost effectiveness method (based on the IEEE Std 80).
 The Ground Resistance and Ground Potential rise (GPR).

We will be using IEEE 80-2013 standard to calculate the desired outputs required for achieving
safety measures for earthing. For IEC Systems, IEC 60479 part1 and 2 (Effect of current on
Human beings) standard does not have any equations to calculate the earthing parameters and
hence IEC Systems also prefer to use IEEE 80-2013 standard equations. Moreover, the two
standards differ in their definition of the permissible body current and their definition of body
resistance. Another difference is that the IEC 479-1 does not provide guidance on human
feet/soil contact impedances. It tacitly assumes that these impedances can be computed by the
designer.