Evaluation of grounding performance of energized substation by ground current measurement

Substation grounding systems typically build up a large network of various grounding electrodes, which consists of a substation grounding grid, multi-grounded transmission line skywires and distribution line neutral wires. Although the fall-of-potential (FOP) method has been widely used for ground resistance measurement, it is difficult to use the method in case of such a substation grounding system because of the difficulty of interpretation of the measured FOP profile. In this paper, we have presented a practical example of ground resistance measurement in a 154 kV substation under commercial operating condition. Conventional FOP tests and the measurement of ground current splits to each part of the grounding system were conducted simultaneously. A simple interpretation method of FOP profiles, with the measured ground current splits, has been suggested.