Grounding Systems

Grounding systems are essential for the safe and reliable operation of electrical power systems. Grounding systems allow a proper connection from your system's neutral to global earth potential. During a single-phase fault, the fault current flows back to the neutral via the grounding system which is ideally as low ohmic as possible. This current causes a potential rise of your entire grounding system towards the global earth potential.

The relevant standards EN50522, IEEE81 and IEEE 80/81 define maximum values for the potential rise which depend on the maximum single-phase fault duration of a system. These standards also mention limitations of maximum allowed step and touch voltages in and around the substation. Single-phase faults can have harmful or even lethal consequences, e.g. for humans and animals, when the maximum allowed step and touch voltages are exceeded.