8th Annual Grounding & Lightning Conference · PDF fileGrounding and lightning issues continue...

Conference Overview

Grounding and lightning issues continue to be an important area of development for the industry. New and better ways to design, construct and test grounding and lightning systems are progressing in order to meet higher standards and changing industry demands. This conference is an open forum for information exchange, technical presentations, and training. It will focus on seven overarching themes that will discuss ideas and experiences for the benefit of the participants and industry as a whole.

Supported by over 35 participating utilities, the Annual Grounding and Lightning Conference brings together leading subject matter experts from around the world, while providing an exceptional opportunity for networking with consultants, manufacturers and representatives from electric utilities.

Who Should Attend?

Electric & Gas Utilities

Consultants

Manufacturers & Equipment Vendors

Universities

GLIG ParticipantsConference Themes

• Pipelines and T&D Lines

• Copper Theft

• Personal Protective Grounding

• Distribution System Grounding

• Transmission System Grounding

• Lightning Protection & Performance

• Substation Grounding

GLIG Meeting Overview

CEATI’s Grounding & Lightning Interest Group (GLIG) will hold its fall General Meeting the day before the Conference. The full day meeting will place emphasis on the participant driven program development for 2017, as well as sharing of Grounding & Lightning best practices, issues and solutions. The group will also review the activities and developments from 2016.

GLIG at a GlanceParticipation: 35 Participating Utilities

Focus Areas:

• Grounding & Lightning T&D Systems: • Design • Construction • Testing • Maintenance • New Technologies• Personal Protective Grounding• Pipeline Mitigation in Proximity to Electrical Structures• Copper Theft Mitigation

Tel: +1.514.866.5377 Fax: +1.514.904.5038 [email protected] www.ceati.com

8th Annual

Grounding & Lightning ConferenceNovember 15-16, 2016 • Arlington, Virginia

For more information, visit www.ceati.com/GL2016

8:00 - 8:15 Welcome Address John Williamson, CEATI Intl.

Session 1: Lightning Protection and Performance

8:15 – 8:45 Guide for Condition Assessment of Lightning Jonathan Woodworth, Arresters Installed on Transmission Lines ArresterWorks

8:45 – 9:15 A Comparison of Commercial Lightning Stacey Page, Software – Sigma SLP, EPRI TFlash, IEEE Flash Power Engineers and STRI LPE

9:15 – 9:30 Question Period

Session 2: Pipelines and T&D Lines

10:00 – 10:30 AC Interference Corrosion and DC Stray Peyman Taheri, Current Corrosion MATERGENICS & Mehrooz Zamanzadeh, MATCO

10:30 – 11:00 AC Interference Effects to Pipelines, Robert Allen, Mitigation Techniques, and AC Corrosion Ark Engineering Co. Mechanisms

11:00 – 11:30 Induced AC & Pipelines: Personnel Hazards Clay Brelsford, and Pipeline Protection Bass Engineering

11:30 – 12:00 Cathodic Protection of New and Aging Peyman Taheri, Galvanized Structures in Transmission Lines MATERGENICS & Mehrooz Zamanzadeh, MATCO

1:00 – 1:40 Gas Pipelines & High Voltage Lines in Shared Mazana Armstrong, Corridors - BC Hydro & Fortis BC Experience BC Hydro & Aram Khalil-Pour, Fortis BC

1:40 – 2:00 Question Period All Presenters

Session 3: Substation Grounding

2:00 – 2:30 Is Your Ground Grid What It’s Meant Bryan Beske, ATC & (Or Needs) To Be? Stephen Palmer, Safearth

3:00 – 3:30 Grounding Testing Techniques & Hilton Mills, Troubleshooting Hood Patterson & Dewar

3:30 – 4:15 Deep Well Ground Electrodes - American Cris Kramschuster, ATC Transmission Company, Pacific Gas & Jon Martin, PG&E Electric and Bonneville Power Administration Scott Nosal, BPA


4:30 – 5:15 Open Forum Question Period Industry Experts (TBA)

Tel: +1.514.866.5377 • Fax: +1.514.904.5038 • [email protected] • www.ceati.com

DAY 1 • November 15, 2016

Both lightning protection and lightning performance of electric utility systems are important to electrical utilities. This includes safety of people and equipment, response to outages, as well as prediction and location of light-ning events.

Session 2 addresses the installation of gas pipelines near electric supply lines. It is critical to ensure adequate separation distance to protect the safety of both the pipe-line and the powerline structures. Issues include induction, arcing and contact voltages as well as AC corrosion and mitigation studies.

Reception 6:00 pm - 7:30pm, Exhibit Hall

Session 3 deals with the proper design, construction and testing of substation grounding systems, including the software used for design and equipment used in testing. The risk of error resulting in unsafe conditions, both inside and outside the substation is a concern.

Question PeriodQuestion Period

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9:30 - 10:00 Morning Refreshment Break - Exhibit Hall

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12:00 - 1:00 Lunch Break - Exhibit Hall

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2:30 - 3:00 Afternoon Break - Exhibit Hall

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7:00 – 8:00 Registration & Breakfast - Exhibit Hall

Tel: +1.514.866.5377 • Fax: +1.514.904.5038 • [email protected] • www.ceati.com

DAY 2 • November 16, 2016

Copper theft from utility ground-ing systems is quite problematic. Prevention methods and tech-niques such as alternative conductors and installation strat-egies are of primary interest. This session will introduce methods that can be applied in order to mitigate the impacts of copper theft.

Session 4B: Distribution (concurrent)

Morning Announcements

Kingston Solar Farm Grounding Pierre Bérubé, Performance Analysis Cima+

Arrester Application on Jonathan Woodworth, Distribution Systems ArresterWorks

Utility Practices in Distribution Aram Khalil-Pour,Systems Fortis BC

Stray Voltage on the Gerald Keena, Distribution System Manitoba Hydro

Bonding of Telecommunications Juming Huang,Sheath/ Messenger to the KinectricsPower Neutral

Question Period All Presenters

Session 4A: Transmission (concurrent)

Morning Announcements

BC Hydro Helicopter Mazana Armstrong, Electromagnetic(HEM) Survey BC Hydro &

You Can’t Manage What Stephen Palmer, You Don’t Measure Safearth

Best Practices in Rehabilitating Ehsan Azordegan,Deficient Grounding KinectricsGrid Performance

Surge Arrester Mitigation of Alberto Ramirez OrquinGrid Geomagnetic & Vanessa Ramirez,Disturbances Resilient Grids

Externally Gapped Arresters Jonathan Woodworth, Applied to Transmission Lines ArresterWorksStudy

Question Period All Presenters

Utility Practices in Distributng Ehsan Azordegan,

9:45 - 10:15 Morning Refreshment Break - Exhibit Hall

8:30 – 8:45

8:45 – 9:15

Hamed Ahmadi, BC Hydro

9:15 – 9:45

10:15 – 10:45

10:45 – 11:15

11:15 - 11:45

11:45 - 12:00 Question PeriodAll Presenters12:00 - 1:00 Lunch Break - Exhibit Hall

Session 5: Personal Protective Grounding

1:00 – 1:30 Applying Temporary Grounds for Trip Wilsun Xu,Grounding University of Alberta

1:30 – 2:00 Personal Protective Grounding – Applicable Andrew Meikle, Industry Standards Ontario Power Generation

2:00 – 2:30 Performance Review of Various Gradient Emanuel Petrache, Control Mats Kinectrics


Session 6: Copper Theft

3:15 – 3:45 Eight Year Experience to Reduce Copper Arturo Galván Diego,Theft in Transmission Line Grounding Systems Instituto De Investigaciones in Mexico Electricas

3:45 – 4:30 Copper Theft Mitigation Methods Steve Greenfield, Safearth


4:50 – 5:00 Closing Remarks John Williamson

Eight Year Experiience to RR deduce CCopper AArtturo GGalván Diego,Theft in Transmission Line Grounding Systems Instituto De Investigacion

2:45 - 3:15 Afternoon Break - Exhibit Hall

The Personal Protective Grounding (PPG) session discusses current practices and methods, which are extremely important to ensuring the safety of utility workers, the general public and valuable equipment.

Session 4B: Distrincurrent)

7:30 – 8:30 Registration & Breakfast - Exhibit Hall

Mr. John Williamson received his Bachelor Degree in Electrical Engineering in 1974 from the University of New Brunswick. He is a professional engineer in the province of New Brunswick with 36 years of experience in the electrical utility industry, and served as the Manager of Transmission Engineering for NB Power. His recognized expertise in grounding related issues, including 30 years of experience in troubleshooting utility grounding problems that has made him a natural and effective technical advisor of the CEATI Grounding and Lightning Interest Group (GLIG) and its annual conference. His most recent accomplishments have been in the area of transmission line lightning protection

and more specifically the practical issues in application of line arresters.


8th Annual Grounding & Lightning Conference ~ Arlington, VA, USA - November 15-16, 2016

Conference Chair: John Williamson

Grounding systems are installed throughout power and telecommunication systems to dissipate energy under lightning, fault and steady-state conditions. Today there is a greater awareness and desire to ensure that grounding for safety is achieved. There is also an increased focus on improving lightning performance of transmission and distribution systems.

Grounding issues across the world have typically been dealt with by technical groups, each with their own specific terms of reference. The Grounding and Lightning Interest Group (GLIG) takes a broad spectrum view, providing clarity and understanding to grounding and lightning related topics. It provides an avenue for moving information from one technical area to another through peer-to-peer guidance and an opportunity to network, as well as defining the direction for future research.

Grounding & Lightning Interest Group (GLIG)

Conference Organizing Committee:

A special thank you to the members of the Grounding & Lightning Conference Organizing Committee:• Bryan Beske, American Transmission Company• Mazana Armstrong, BC Hydro• Allen Van Leuven, Bonneville Power Administration• Aram Khalil-Pour, Fortis BC• Jody Levine, Hydro One• Andrew Meikle, Ontario Power Generation• Dennis Sharma, SaskPower

Conference Sponsors:


Transmission line arresters have been applied to lines since the early 1990’s when the first polymer housed units were available. This type of arrester is responsible for significant outage improvements and is growing in importance as its use increases. To date, there has been no guidance from either the arrester manufacturers or standards committees on measures that can be taken to assess the health of this arrester type. This presentation is based on a CEATI report by the same name, which was written to offer transmission line arrester users options on how to assess their arrester assets on-line and off-line.

Jonathan J. Woodworth received his EE from Ohio Institute of Technology in 1972 and MBA ’95, St. Bonaventure U. Mr. Woodworth founded ArresterWorks in 2007, an engineering consultancy focused on surge protection of power systems. Since 2007, he co-created and has maintained a technical resource website at ArresterWorks.com for professionals involved in surge protection

of power systems. He previously served as Arrester Engineering Manager at Cooper Power Systems, Olean, NY, and has been involved in arrester design, production and marketing for over 34 years. He is Chair of SPD working group responsible for arrester testing WG 3.3.11. He is a past chair of the IEEE Surge Protective Devices Committee, Vice Chair of IEC TC37 Maintenance Group 4 responsible for Metal-oxide arresters for AC systems, Past chair of NEMA High Voltage Arrester Section of Power Equipment Division and holder of numerous arrester patents worldwide.

Both lightning protection and lightning performance of electric utility systems are important to electrical utilities. This includes safety of people and equipment, response to outages, as well as prediction and location of lightning events.

Guide for Condition Assessment of Lightning Arresters Installed on Transmission Lines

Session 1: Lightning Protection & Performance

Lightning transient analysis is a standard part of insulation coordination studies as referenced in IEEE Std 1313.2. Several commercial software packages are available to conduct lightning transient studies. A comparison was conducted between four standard industry softwares; SigmaSLP, STRI Line Performance Estimator, IEEE Flash, and EPRI’s TFlash. Three line-configuration cases were defined and input into each software with sensitivity analysis on footing resistance and soil resistivity.

Stacey Page is currently working on a Ph.D. in electrical engineering at the University of Idaho in Moscow, Idaho. He completed a MEngr ME in 2005 and a BSME in 2000 from the University of Idaho. He has worked for POWER engineers for over 3 years. Stacey has been involved in protective relaying, transmission line modeling, power system planning, arc hazard analysis, and transient analysis. He is a member of NACE and IEEE.

A Comparison of Commercial Lightning Software - Sigma SLP, EPRI TFlash, IEEE Flash & STRI LPE

Jonathan Woodworth, Arresterworks

Stacey Page, Power Engineers



There are millions of miles of pipelines, many of which are aging coated pipelines transporting natural gas, oil, and hazardous liquid in the North America next to aging AC transmission tower structures. Close to 50% of gas transmission and gathering pipelines were constructed in the 1950’s and 1960’s, making them over 50 years old. Underground pipelines and transmission towers are aging and are at risk of corrosion failure due to coating degradation, pitting corrosion, stray corrosion, stress corrosion cracking and AC interference. Those tasked with maintaining these pipelines and transmission electric structures require an in-depth understanding of the locations where these aging pipelines and transmission towers are at risk of localized corrosion attack and cracking. Many factors associated with these corrosion areas include corrosive soils, presence of stray current, defective coatings, dis-bondment, the presence of moisture, AC interference, copper grounding, as well as inadequate cathodic protection and shielding. These areas have a much higher statistical probability of catastrophic failure. Most of the time, initiation of localized corrosion and pitting corrosion are detected by coincidence in excavation and digs and is not targeted or predicted by analysis of corrosion performance parameters. Visual inspection, internal or In-Line Inspection (ILI) tools for pipe lines have limited capability for detecting or identifying pitting corrosion initiation due to AC interference. A brief description of degradation mechanisms and corrosion assessment techniques for evaluation of aging structures, AC interference and stray current corrosion will be provided. Specific attention will be given to scientific and technical concepts behind inspection techniques and their relationship with detection of corrosion activity and assessment of corrosion rate. The case histories portion of the presentation will include projects that involved both corrosion assessment and cathodic protection investigations.

Peyman Taheri (Ph.D., P.Eng.) is the Director of Engineering at Matergenics Engineering Ltd. and a member of National Association of Corrosion Engineers (NACE), and American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). He is well-experienced in corrosion risk assessment and mitigation at utility structures. His industrial expertise includes design, installation, and testing of cathodic protection systems at buried and submerged structures. He is interested in computer-based modeling of stray current and AC interference mitigation systems and advanced simulations of optimized anode beds for cathodic protection systems.

In addition to 30 publications in scientific journals, Dr. Taheri is the author of “Guide for Cathodic Protection of Transmission Line Structures”, a guideline for corrosion inspection and mitigation of new and aging galvanized structures, published by CEATI.

Session 2 addresses the installation of gas pipelines near electric supply lines. It is critical to ensure adequate separation distance to protect the safety of both the pipeline and the powerline structures. Issues include induction, arcing and contact voltages as well as AC corrosion and mitigation studies.

AC Interference Corrosion and DC Stray Current Corrosion

Session 2: Pipelines and Transmission and Distribution Lines

Peyman Taheri, MATERGENICS & Mehrooz Zamanzadeh (Dr.Zee), MATCO


Dr. Zamanzadeh (Dr. Zee) is a NACE Certified Corrosion Specialist with over 25 years of practical experience in corrosion engineering, materials selection and design, protective coatings, and cathodic protection. He has worked in the oil and gas, electric power utility, and other industries throughout his career, and has resolved a wide range of materials and corrosion engineering concerns for these industries. Dr. Zee is the Technical Director and primary consultant at Exova/Matco in Pittsburgh on projects related to the gas and oil industry, and electric power utility industry in the following disciplines: 1. Setting Up Corrosion Risk Assessment/Corrosion Mitigation Programs for Large Energy Related Companies; 2. Corrosion Mitigation (Coatings, Cathodic Protection, Corrosion Inhibitors, Materials Selection); 3. Failure Analysis Root Cause Determination; 4. Big Data Analysis; 5. QA/QC Management; 6. Corrosion Engineering Courses (NACE Approved Instructor). Dr. Zamanzadeh’s degrees include a B.S. and M.S. in Materials Science and Engineering as well as a Ph.D. in Materials Science from Pennsylvania State University. He joined NIOC as a corrosion engineer upon completion of his doctoral work in 1980. In 1985 he joined Carnegie Mellon University in the capacity of a Post Doctoral Research Associate under a corrosion grant from IBM. He holds four certifications from NACE International that includes Coatings, Materials Selection and Design Specialist and Corrosion Specialist. Dr. Zamanzadeh is the recipient of the NACE Fellow Award (2008); ASM Fellow Award (2006); NACE Outstanding Service Award (1996), ASM Entrepreneur of the Year Award (2004), and the Colonel Cox Award for the Appalachian Underground Corrosion Short Course (2010). He has authored over 55 publications, and 30 patents in corrosion control, cathodic protection and materials/coatings.

AC Interference Effects to Pipelines, Mitigation Techniques and AC Corrosion Mechanisms

AC Interference Corrosion and DC Stray Current Corrosion

Session 2: Pipelines and Transmission and Distribution Lines


Robert Allen, ARK Engineering Company

Robert F. Allen completed his B.S. Electrical Engineering at Northeastern University, and his M.B.A. at Bryant University. As Vice President and founder of ARK Engineering, he is responsible for Project Management, Client Relations, Technical Marketing, Operations Management, as well as Expert Witness Testimony. Mr. Allen has given presentations and training for numerous energy and power companies worldwide in the areas of electrical interference effects, corrosion control, lightning protection, and cathodic protection. He is the author of a number of papers and articles on the subjects of electrical interference effects, cathodic protection, AC Corrosion, and electrical grounding.

He is the Chairman of the NACE TG025 committee on AC Interference effects to buried pipelines in power line corridors and is a member of the NACE TEG 430 committee on AC Corrosion effects to pipelines in power line corridors. He is recognized worldwide as a Subject Matter Expert (SME) in the areas of AC Interference Effects, AC Corrosion Mechanisms, and Cathodic Protection Systems.

When pipelines are located in proximity to transmission and distribution circuits, AC interference effects must be analyzed for personnel safety and pipeline integrity. This presentation will outline the three (3) types of coupling effects between electric circuits and metallic structures, modeling and analysis of these effects, mitigation methods, and “What If” scenarios to determine the relationship between separation distance and AC mitigation requirements. Case studies and practical examples will be presented outlining existing pipeline / power line corridor analysis and proposed joint corridor interactions and AC mitigation requirements. This will include a discussion of circuit types and parameters and electric substations and their effect of nearby pipeline systems.

The issue of AC Corrosion mechanisms and the resulting analysis, mitigation requirements, and real-time monitoring has become a “hot” topic in the pipeline industry. The pipeline corrosion industry and NACE are developing a “Recommended Practice” for AC Corrosion



The presentation will introduce a discussion of the causes and effects of induced AC power on pipelines and the resultant hazards to personnel and pipeline structures, including corrosion damage, and associated equipment for co-located power or pipeline assets. Pipelines and equipment, as well as operating personnel, are subject to any number of hazards when sharing rights-of-way with high voltage power transmission structures as a result of induced AC power. This presentation will discuss potential dangers of pipeline co-location with high voltage power transmission structures, including detection and mitigation of induced AC power, and the importance of AC current density testing and monitoring.

Clay Brelsford has more than thirty years’ experience with supervision, design, installation and maintenance of galvanic and impressed current cathodic protection systems. His expertise is primarily in on-shore oil and gas applications, i.e. transportation pipelines, gathering systems, well casings, including assistance with down-hole logging program implementation and evaluation, storage tanks (internal and external systems), heater treaters, free water knock-outs, cooling towers, gas distribution systems, underground storage tanks (UST), and ship terminals as well as electric power generation facilities. Mr. Brelsford has additional experience in design, installation, and maintenance of induced AC and lightning mitigation systems for pipeline applications, as well as evaluation of offshore galvanic cathodic protection systems for produced water handling equipment.

Induced AC & Pipelines: Personnel Hazards & Pipeline Protection

Clay Brelsford, Bass Engineering Company


Electrical transmission structures are composed of two distinguished sections; the aboveground section which supports the overhead conductor, and the underground section, i.e., structure foundation, that supports the aboveground section and the conductor. Both aboveground and underground portions of transmission structures are subject to aging as a result of environmental and mechanical stresses; nonetheless, it is well known that the risk of structure failure is much higher at the below-grade section due to underground corrosion and material degradation.

Cathodic protection is an efficient and economically feasible corrosion control method for transmission and distribution assets. It requires a sufficient amount of direct electric current to be continuously supplied to buried metallic members of the structures in order to mitigate, slow down or temporarily stop the natural corrosion processes.

Cathodic protection of underground steel structures is a relatively mature subject for structures with simple geometries, such as piping systems. Nonetheless, there is a lack of technical information on cathodic protection systems for underground components in T&D lines. This is mainly due to the wide range of foundation designs and the associated geometrical complexities. More complications arise in maintenance and optimization of cathodic protection systems for aging T&D structures due to coexistence of different surface conditions at the buried metallic structure, e.g., coated/galvanized surfaces, bare surfaces, and corroded surfaces.

This presentation will explain the corrosion processes (underground and atmospheric) in T&D structures, highlight the factors that affect the corrosion process on T&D structures, describe the fundamentals of corrosion mitigation using cathodic protection techniques, explain the required tests and field survey for corrosion risk assessments, and provide basic guidelines for the design and maintenance of cathodic protection systems for T&D structures.

Full biographies of authors are provided on page 6 of the brochure.

Cathodic Protection of New and Aging Galvanized Structures in Transmission Lines


Induced AC & Pipelines: Personnel Hazards & Pipeline Protection

Clay Brelsford, Bass Engineering Company


In recent years, gas pipelines in urban areas are widely being installed within or in close proximity of the electric power transmission line right-of-way due to high real estate prices. This situation creates some issues and challenges for both electric and gas utilities. As part of the Lower Mainland System Upgrade (LMSU) Project, Fortis BC Inc (a Gas & Electric Utility in British Columbia) is planning to install a new transmission gas pipeline within a shared right-of-way with BC Hydro (an electric utility in British Columbia) in an urban area (in the Greater Vancouver area). Having gas pipelines within power line right-of-ways can potentially create issues during lightning, fault and normal situations. BC Hydro and Fortis BC have been working jointly on this project (as two partners) to define the risks and mitigate them in a safe

and cost effective way.

Mazana Armstrong (Ph.D., P.Eng.) is an Engineering Team Lead with BC Hydro Transmission Engineering. Her responsibilities include electrical aspects of BC Hydro’s overhead transmission line design, operation and maintenance. She holds a degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Zagreb, Croatia, and M.A.Sc. and Ph.D. from the University of British Columbia (UBC). Prior to joining BC Hydro in 2007, she worked as a research engineer at Powertech Labs and research assistant at UBC. She also has prior work experience with the Croatian Power Utility HEP. Dr. Armstrong is a registered professional engineer in the Province of British Columbia.

Aram Khalil-Pour is an electrical engineer (P.Eng) with 15 years’ experience within the power industry (11 years in a utility and 4 years in consulting engineering). He started at Fortis BC in 2009 as “Transmission and Distribution Lines Standards Engineer.” He later accepted the position of “Supervisor, Lines Engineering” and now he is the “Manager of Engineering” at Fortis BC. Aram is an active member of CEATI’s DLAM and GLIG groups and is also a member of IEEE Insulators WG. Aram is located in Kelowna, beautiful British Columbia, Canada.

Gas Pipelines and High Voltage Lines in Shared Corridors - BC Hydro & Fortis BC Experience

Mazana Armstrong, BC Hydro & Aram Khalil-Pour, Fortis BC

Cathodic Protection of New and Aging Galvanized Structures in Transmission Lines



Ground grid integrity testing is a powerful tool that can be used for evaluating the condition of an installed grounding system of any age. Traditionally, integrity testing has involved the injection of substantial current from relatively large equipment. Newer techniques use lower current, hand portable equipment and clever techniques to overcome AC & DC noise and identify contingent paths. This presentation will recount the experience and findings of one utility testing eleven substations of various vintages and conditions and share what has been learnt about grounding asset management. It will also provide an explanation of the test equipment and methods used.

Bryan Beske received his B.S in Electrical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin – Platteville in 1999 and obtained his Professional Engineering certification in 2006. Since 2002, he has been with the American Transmission Company and is currently a Consultant Standards Engineer. His primary focus is lightning and grounding aspects of transmission lines and substations. Bryan is a member of IEEE, ASTM and CIGRE and is an ATC delegate for CEATI, EPRI and various industry standards working groups that pertain to lightning and grounding.

Stephen Palmer is the Director of Safearth Consulting. He is an Australian grounding (also called earthing) specialist with expertise in all areas related to grounding, including design, audit and test in sectors including power generation and delivery, heavy industry, mining and rail. For over 15 years, Stephen has investigated and managed the risks associated with grounding, lightning protection and interference. As the leader of a team of 25 consultants & researchers, his experience extends well beyond the technical aspects of the field.

Stephen has delivered formal grounding training for more than a decade and has presented at numerous conferences including for the NSW Government, Energy Networks Association (ENA), Engineers Australia, CIGRE and the IEEE. He has been a contributing member on the committees responsible for Australian documents including EG-0, AS3007 and AS2067. Stephen recently co-delivered a testing tutorial for IEEE Std81 and is the secretary of the CIGRE & CIRED Joint Working Group B3.35, tasked to publish on substation earthing design optimisation including quantified risk.

Session 3 deals with the proper design, construction and testing of substation grounding systems, including the software used for design and equipment used in testing. The risk of error resulting in unsafe conditions, both inside and outside the substation is a concern.

Is Your Ground Grid What It’s Meant (Or Needs) To Be?

Session 3: Substation Grounding

Bryan Beske, American Transmission Company & Stephen Palmer, Safearth Australia


Grounding Testing Techniques and Troubleshooting

Session 3: Substation GroundingHilton Mills, Hood Patterson & Dewar

There are a number of utilities, engineering testing companies and consultants that offer ground testing. The IEEE standard 81-2012 covers the testing of ground grids and specifies basically two types of test methods: (1) the fall of potential test method (FoP) and (2) a computer based test instrument (CBTI) method. Both methods have particular “do’s and don’ts”. This presentation is dedicated to the most common pitfalls when using the CBTI instrument on large energized electrical substations, plants, and transmission towers. Comparisons will be made to the FoP method and reasons why the results obtained with the FoP method are frequently incorrect. The main focus of this paper is to illustrate the impact of the testing engineer’s knowledge or lack thereof on the ground test results. Significant training is required to master the CBTI ground editor software and the interpretation of the field results and measurements obtained during the ground testing. Modeling other grounded objects (bonded or not bonded) within close proximity of the ground being tested is critical to successful test results. Also critical is the location of the voltage probes used to detect and measure the soil voltages during the ground test. The presentation will conclude with some actual site testing examples using a Smart Ground® Multimeter.

As an Electrical Protection Testing and Design Agent with Hood-Patterson & Dewar, Hilton Mills has extensive experience in protective control system design and analysis, modification and troubleshooting for various substation and automated control systems in power utilities, commercial enterprises and industrial plants. For over 25 years, his expertise has included conceptual design services, design, drawing and specification reviews and consulting, submittal and control drawing reviews and witnessing factory acceptance tests. His commissioning experience covers all commissioning related tasks including design review, specification writing, commissioning management, troubleshooting, execution of tests, and documentation. He is also experienced in grounding system design including design review and testing, troubleshooting and testing for electric utilities and commercial clients. He has also presented training courses for protective relay application and grounding systems design and testing using the Smart Ground Multimeter (SGM) and Integrated Grounding System Design software (IGS)



Deep Well Ground Electrodes

Jon Martin, Pacific Gas & Electric

Grounding wells are an available tool when standard ground design techniques fail to provide proper step and touch potentials in a substation. This presentation will address the American Transmission Company’s process for the specification and installation of grounding wells in a substation including: the design process, how the depth of the wells are determined, the construction of the wells and concluding with the observed field experience based on the 10+ years ATC has been installing ground wells.

Cris Kramschuster is a 1989 graduate of the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee with a degree in Electrical Engineering. Cris is a registered professional engineer in the state of Wisconsin with 22 years of experience in the utility industry. Presently, he serves as a Senior Electrical Engineer at American Transmission Company, in Waukesha, Wisconsin specializing in substation grounding analysis and design. Cris will speak about American Transmission Company’s experience with

deep well ground electrodes.

Cris Kramschuster, American Transmission Company

Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) has three hundred eighty disconnect switches on its 3,500 miles of 115 kV lines. The use of the disconnect switches allows sectionalizing of the transmission lines so that maintenance can be performed on the line equipment without interruption of service to customers. Operator safety is very important while using a transmission line disconnect switch and grounding plays a key role in ensuring the safety of the operator. The grounding design of the switch installation is crucial, because if a fault to ground occurs while switching, the footing resistance of the switch must be low enough that the line protective relays will see the fault condition and trip the breakers at the ends of the line. When the resistance is too high the relays will take an extended time to react, or will not react at all. This presentation will discuss those areas where BPA had extremely high footing resistance, and fault studies indicated that the relays would not clear a fault on these line sections. It was determined that the only course of action was to drill grounding wells in order to reduce the footing resistance and ensure the relays would trip the breakers in a reasonable timeframe.

Scott Nosal graduated in 2002 from the University of Nevada Las Vegas with a BSEE. He has been employed at the Bonneville Power Administration from 2002 – present, working in the Transmission Line Engineering – Electrical Design department. Scott has worked on Land Use Permitting, Obstruction Lighting and Marking, Ceramic, Glass, and Composite Insulators. He is presently specializing in Transmission Line Disconnect Switches.

Scott Nosal, Bonneville Power Administration

Jon Martin is a licensed electrical engineer with over 20 years of experience in the electric utility industry. He has held various engineering, program management, and leadership positions directing the work of engineers, contractors, and construction forces.

He will speak about Pacific Gas & Electric’s experience with deep well ground electrodes.


BC Hydro Helicopter Electromagnetic (HEM) Survey

Deep Well Ground Electrodes

Jon Martin, Pacific Gas & Electric

Mazana Armstrong & Hamed Ahmadi, BC Hydro

BC Hydro Transmission Line Electrical Design has initiated helicopter electromagnetic (HEM) surveys of soil resistivity for transmission line corridors on several new transmission line projects. In the presentation, the benefits of acquiring soil resistivity from HEM measurements for new transmission line projects will be demonstrated, and the comparison with traditional ground based measurements will be made. This presentation will be of interest to those working on designing grounding systems for new transmission lines, as well as to those interested in soil composition (e.g. geotechnical design).

Mazana Armstrong is an Engineering Team Lead with BC Hydro Transmission Engineering. Her full biography is provided under the Lower Mainland System Upgrade (LMSU) Presentation, on page 8.

Hamed Ahmadi received the B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran, in 2009 and 2011, respectively. He received his Ph.D. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada, in 2015. Hamed was a consultant for the Distributed Energy Resource Planning group at BC Hydro for five months. He is the recipient of several awards including Faculty of Applied Science Graduate Award and MITACS Accelerate Award in 2014 and 2015. Currently, Hamed is an electrical engineer with the Transmission Line Electrical Design Team in BC Hydro. His research interests include distribution systems analysis, optimization algorithms, power system stability and control, integration of renewable energy resources, lightning protection, power system grounding, and high voltage technologies.

Cris Kramschuster, American Transmission Company

Scott Nosal, Bonneville Power Administration

Most technical discussions on electric power system grounding and lightning topics are relevant to both Transmission System and Distribution System engineers, however, Session 4A will be a separate concurrent session to 4B, with emphasis on topics of specific interest to Transmission.

Session 4A: Transmission

You Can’t Manage What You Don’t Measure

Stephen Palmer, Safearth Australia

Damage, theft and system changes are all foreseeable events, the effect of which can be an increased risk or cost to asset owners. This necessitates the responsible management of grounding systems, including to meet legal & community expectations of what is safe. A range of methods and equipment exists for assessing the performance & condition of inservice earthing systems, however the available tests have specific costs and benefits, and so deciding which is appropriate for a particular situation is a key step in the asset management planning process. Understanding the likely and possible failure modes applicable to particular grounding systems, and the native characteristics of the system, leads logically to prescribing some methods over others. This presentation will share the authors’ experiences as asset owners, grounding testers and consulting engineers and how our growing understanding has led to efficiencies, accuracy and effectiveness in asset management of grounding systems.

Stephen Palmer is Director of Safearth Consulting. His full biography is included under the Grounding System Integrity Testing presentation on page 10.



Surge Arrester Mitigation of Grid Geomagnetic Disturbances

Alberto Ramirez Orquin & Vanessa Ramirez, Resilient Grids

Geomagnetic Disturbances, whether originated from solar flares or purposely man-made, known as Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP), poses a potentially serious threat to the ever more critical electric power infrastructure; that has been asserted by the EMP Commission of the United States Congress and other concerned institutions for several years now. While the solar phenomenon has been dealt with in the industrialized world for many decades with relative success, mostly constrained to operational procedures, it is EMP that has now come to the forefront of interest for the significant reason of societal security. Indeed the power grid, and in particular its major transformers, exhibit non-resolved inherent vulnerabilities to this kind of shock waves, yet, such an exposure is not limited to these apparatus, but extends to other essential hardware of the electric network, such as control centers, substation hardware, distribution lines and transformers, etc. It is well known that mitigation devices, for quite some time now, have exhibited risk and cost-effectiveness challenges which have undoubtedly wavered or delayed their prospect for real industrial consideration/application. Consequently it seems imperative to focus on the most relevant issues causing this shortcoming; in that sense a basic comparison of GIC blocking concepts is discussed, looking at key elements affecting their performance. On the other hand, notorious facts about the arrester device can be revealed and demonstrated by a comprehensive magnetic/electric circuit analysis, as related to typical grid autotransformers.

Best Practices in Rehabilitating Deficient Grounding Grid Performance

Ehsan Azordegan, Kinectrics

The grounding system of a high voltage substation is responsible for moderating the step and touch voltages inside the yard and outside the fence. This ensures the safety of personnel working at the station and the nearby general public. Also, the ground potential rise (GPR) in the event of fault must be limited by installing an adequate low impedance grounding system. Recent advances in computer modelling and ground grid testing capabilities has raised questions regarding the performance of older grounding systems with respect to both design and integrity. Therefore, many utilities are interested in evaluating these systems using advanced testing and modelling solutions in order to mitigate the identified deficiencies. This presentation will present the deficiencies seen at 100 transformer or switching stations reviewed and tested by Kinectrics over the past 15 years using a health index system. It will review a number of mitigation solutions in moderating the step and touch voltages as well as the GPR using the advanced grounding software (CDEGS) in four different types of soil conditions. It will provide a general perspective on the effect of gradient conductors, ground wells, and counterpoise conductors on improving the ground grid performance. Detailed conclusions and recommendations will aslo be shared.

Ehsan Azordegan (Ph.D., P.Eng.) joined Kinectrics in 2012 as an engineer/scientist on grounding systems. He has mostly been engaged in ground testing and design. Being a certified CDEGS user, he is responsible for modeling, simulation, and design of grounding systems in CDEGS. He has tested, modelled, and designed a number of high voltage transformer stations, switching stations, and distribution stations. He has also been involved in testing and modelling of a number of hydraulic power generation stations, solar farms, and wind farms. Ehsan’s interests and expertise include grounding test and design, pipeline coordination studies, and transformer and cable testing. Ehsan recently completed his PhD in the high voltage engineering program at the University of Manitoba.


Surge Arrester Mitigation of Grid Geomagnetic Disturbances

This presentation presents apparatus grounding-coefficient invariance after device deployment; accordingly, it is proven the zero-sequence circulation through the unit as fundamentally sustained. It ought to be recalled that such grounding coefficients relate to the flow of sequence currents through grid components, as IEEE defined, by the high-to-low transfer sequence-reactance ratios; those being independent of the actual zero-sequence flow mechanism i.e. ampere-turn equilibrium with/without neutral circulation, conduction, a combination of both, etc. These findings enable a plausible benchmarking of these functionalities for blocking concepts.

Nonetheless, an additional question for most devices is the one associated to both the GIC detection and switching. As well known, these currents being of a quasi-DC nature pose, for severe EMP shocks, a major current-interruption challenge, as required following their detection. Indeed, while present low-voltage DC-breaker technology could be considered mature, stemming from the needs of solar-panel switching, that is not the case for the medium-voltage class at all. Finally, this presentation introduces an innovative approach to effectively deal with this important predicament.

Dr. Ramirez Orquin has electric utility experience spanning over four decades, starting as a Niagara Mohawk Utility trainee, followed by five years as an application and research engineer at the General Electric Company/AC Transmission Engineering Operation, where he was also certified on Surge Arrester Technology. Moreover he practiced for several years in Canada, Brazil, Bolivia and Argentina where he notably served as Senior Advisor to the Secretary of Energy to conduct its National Grid Planning. He is an IEEE Senior Member, and has been distinguished for his leadership in the emblematical 500 KV Transmission Project, he was an author and reviewer of the first edition of the EPRI/Edison

Electric Institute’s “EHV Transmission Line Reference Book 345 KV And Above”, as well as other books including “Operation and Control of Electric Energy Processing Systems” and “Apocalypse Unknown: the Struggle to Protect America from an Electromagnetic Pulse Catastrophe”. Additionally, he has published Transactions and Journal Papers and holds several U.S. Patents on mitigation technology for grid security. Currently, he serves as a Member of NERC’s Geomagnetic Disturbance Task Force serving in its Mitigation-Device Team, as well as a holding membership at Maine’s PUC GMD-EMP Risk Working Group and the Florida State Congress EMP Working Group. Dr. Orquin holds a ME from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), a Ph.D. from the University of Texas (UTA) and currently teaches at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez.

Vanessa Ramirez has been involved in the energy sector for over twelve years with experience spanning from transmission interconnection studies, power system studies for power producers, ISO’s, energy market analysis, and smart grid implementations in distribution systems at major US utilities. She was a Manager for The Structure Group for 8 years with smart grid assignments in the distribution automation and IT DMS areas; previously she had worked at

Navigant consulting as a Senior Consultant were she participated in transmission asset analyses, FERC compliance, and transfer capacity/ interconnection access in the transmission systems; she has also worked at PB Power as an Engineer Consultant performing studies on grid congestion/pricing, congestion management, ancillary service functions, and reactive power assessment of deregulated markets performed through modeling of the system using different power tool applications. She is the co-author of paper publications and two US patents, and has authored several articles on energy and sustainability. Ms. Ramirez currently works as independent consultant in the energy electric sector. Mrs. Ramirez earned a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering (EE) from the University of Mendoza, Argentina; and a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Texas at Arlington (Summa Cum Laude). She is a Certified Energy Manager (CEM), and is affiliated to the IEEE and AEE (Association of Energy Engineers).

Best Practices in Rehabilitating Deficient Grounding Grid Performance



Most technical discussions on electric power system grounding and lightning topics are relevant to both Transmission System and Distribution System engineers, however, Session 4B will be a separate concurrent session to 4A, with emphasis on topics specific to Distribution.

Session 4B: Distribution

Externally Gapped Arresters Applied to Transmission Lines

Jonathan Woodworth, Arresterworks

The externally gapped line arrester is a form of line protection for transmission systems that has emerged in the last 20 years and applied primarily in Southeast Asia and Europe. The utilities in these countries have recognized the benefits of this type of arrester and have adopted the concept and scheme. The benefits include: improved lead management, lower leakage, longer life due to no continuous voltage stress, no line outage due to a failed arrester and improved contamination performance. There are also no EGLA’s protecting transmission or distribution lines in North America. This presentation will provide an insight into improving the lightning performance of lines.

Jonathan J. Woodworth founded ArresterWorks in 2007, an engineering consultancy focused on surge protection of power systems. His full biography is included under the Guide for Condition Assessment of Lightning Arresters Installed on Transmission Lines, on page 5.


This presentation describes the analytical methodology and performance results for a large solar farm grounding system analysis. The Kingston Solar Farm owned by Kingston Solar LP has a generating capacity of 100MW and consists of six (6) distributed zones interconnected by a 34.5kV distribution network. The solar farm is connected to the Hydro One 230kV transmission system. A ground fault on the 230kV system will create a GPR at the interconnection substation and will be transferred throughout the solar farm.

The most advanced grounding software used for grounding system performance analysis has limitations in terms of soil model variations and maximum number of conductors / elements that can be included in the simulation model. Special analysis methods had to be used for this large solar farm, including a simplified overall model and further detailed analysis of the different zones using GPR energization. The final design of the grounding system includes a combination of mitigation methods such as neutral grounding resistors, crushed stone layers, gradient control conductors, insulated fence sections as well as different interconnection methods between the zones.

Pierre Bérubé obtained his Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Sherbrooke in 1988. He is now a partner at CIMA+ and is the acting Manager for the Energy – T&D Division in Alberta. He is a professional Electrical Engineer with more than 20 years’ experience in engineering, management and project execution for industrial and utility power systems. Since 1989, he has acquired extensive experience in commissioning, project engineering, detailed design of high voltage systems such as AC substations, FACTS and HVDC. He has also developed expertise in project management and staff management. During the last 15 years, he has acquired advanced expertise in the analysis and design of grounding systems for various types of electrical installations including substations, industrial plants, wind and solar farms. He executes his assigned tasks in a methodical and rigorous way, and applies the maximum effort to successfully complete all projects to which he is assigned.

Kingston Solar Farm Grounding Performance Analysis

Session 4B: Distribution

Pierre Bérubé, Cima+

Externally Gapped Arresters Applied to Transmission Lines

In North America, the distribution transformer is effectively lightning proof when protected by a tank mounted MOV arrester. Even if the arrester fails, the transformer will have been protected in the arrester’s last action. Also in North America, the power transformers found in substations are effectively lightning and switching surge proof and have been so for many years. Distribution and transmission lines are the only parts of the modern electrical power system that still need more lightning protection to make them lightning proof. This presentation focuses on the methods currently available to the distribution line designers to create a lightning proof distribution system. This is not wishful thinking; it is already being done in many locations around the world.

Jonathan J. Woodworth founded ArresterWorks in 2007, an engineering consultancy focused on surge protection of power systems. His full biography is included under the Guide for Condition Assessment of Lightning Arresters Installed on Transmission Lines, on page 5.

Arrester Application on Distribution Systems

Jonathan Woodworth, ArresterWorks



Utility Practices in Distribution Systems

Aram Khalil-Pour, Fortis BC

Fortis BC has a multi-grounded system neutral for its distribution system. From a safety, reliability, protection and operation perspective, grounding is the key element within a distribution system. This presentation will discuss questions related to the distribution grounding system, including the ground rod and ground connector types that should be used within the Fortis BC distribution system, the type of ground wire of ground downlead that can be used, frequency of grounding of distribution poles and minimum distance for installation of ground rods to the distribution poles.

Aram Khalil-Pour is an electrical engineer (P.Eng) with 15 years’ experience in the power industry (11 years in utility and 4 years in consulting engineering). He started his career at Fortis BC in 2009 as “Transmission and Distribution Lines Standards Engineer”, then became the “Supervisor, Lines Engineering.” He is presently the “Manager of Engineering” at Fortis BC. Aram is an active member within CEATI’s DLAM (Distribution Line Asset Management) and GLIG (Grounding & Lightning) Interest Groups and also is a member of IEEE WG on Insulators. Aram is located in Kelowna, beautiful British Columbia, Canada.

Stray Voltage on the Distribution System

Gerald Keena, Manitoba Hydro

This presentation will provide a short overview / characterization of problem at hand, primarily focusing on Stray Voltage vs Neutral to Earth Voltage. It will provide methods, test equipment (short & long term) and maximum allowable limits for measurement of stray voltage. Off Farm as well as On Farm Stray voltage sources including 60 hz, DC and third harmonics will be discussed. Mr. Keena will share information on mitigation methods such as (i.) Neutral, isolation devices used on the Distribution Systems, (ii.) Animal Husbandry Science, (iii.) Improve Grounding, (iv.) Wiring, (v.) Facility Design, (vi.) Variable frequency drives. The presentation will conclude with a few points on troubleshooting stray voltage complaints - Stray voltage resolution process, as well as a brief note on Utility Neutral Return Earth Currents.

Gerry Keena is a Certified Electrical Engineering Technologist in the province of Manitoba, Canada. Gerry has 38 years of experience in the electrical power industry. He has 8 years experience with a high voltage switchgear and power transformer manufacturer and 30 years with the utility industry. His initial utility experience involved the design, installation and maintenance of overhead and underground utility distribution equipment. The past 14 years have been more directly related to power quality issues specifically investigating industrial & commercial customer concerns, analyzing system reliability issues and responding to stray voltage complaints. Gerry presently serves as a Senior Power Quality Compliance Officer with Manitoba Hydro Customer Engineering Services. Gerry is an alternating member of CEATI’s Power Quality Advanced Technologies interest group.


There are requirements in North American (CSA and IEEE) Standards which require the bonding of a telecom overhead messenger or an underground communication cable sheath to the electric utilities’ neutral every 300 metres in joint-use construction. For example, the Canadian Standard CSA C22.3 #7 on Underground Systems requires that one cannot have primary cables (anything greater than 750V) in “random separation” with communication cables unless the communication cable sheath is bonded to the supply neutral at intervals not exceeding 300m. There is a need in the industry to better understand the rationale for this requirement. This presentation will review the requirement of bonding the telecommunications sheath/messenger to the electric system neutral every 300 metres in joint-use construction; to determine whether a valid justification for this requirement exists and whether another requirement can be justified.

Dr. Juming Huang is a Senior Engineer in the Transmission & Distribution Technologies Division of Kinectrics Inc. His work scope covers engineering consulting services related to the power transmission and distribution systems, specifically in the areas of system steady state and transient simulation, protection design and relay setting development, system/substation grounding and lightning analysis, insulation coordination study, system/equipment failure investigation, and asset health index calculation. He has considerable research expertise in the distributed generation connection, system simulation and study, equipment condition assessment and power system/device fault analysis/diagnosis, etc.

Dr. Huang has over 20 years working experience in the electrical engineering field. Prior to joining Kinectrics, he worked as an electrical engineer (technical support) at GE Digital Energy, electrical engineer/technical specialist at TetraTech Engineering Inc. (formerly Wardrop Engineering Inc.), electrical designer at QUAD Automation Inc., and senior electrical engineer/

vice chief engineer at Shanghai Municipal Raw Water Co. Ltd. Dr. Huang holds a Ph.D. in power system and automation, M. Eng. and B. Eng. In high voltage technology from Shanghai Jiaotong University in China, and is a Registered Professional Engineer in the Province of Ontario. He is a member of ATP/EMTP North America group.

Bonding of Telecommunications Sheath/Messenger to the Power Neutral

Dr. Juming Huang, Kinectrics

Utility Practices in Distribution Systems

Stray Voltage on the Distribution System



The Personal Protective Grounding (PPG) session discusses current practices and methods, which are extremely important to ensuring the safety of utility workers, the general public and valuable equipment.

Session 5: Personal Protective Grounding

Applying Temporary Grounds for Trip Grounding

Dr. Wilsun Xu, University of Alberta

Trip grounding is the practice of grounding a work site for the safety of field workers. There are, however, confusions and challenges with respect to this practice. For example, it is not clear as to what constitutes an ‘acceptable’ trip grounding point for a work site, what can be done to ensure a grounding point performing its intended functions, and so on. These concerns are especially true when temporary grounding rods are used.

Based on our extensive research work, this presentation will show that the main function of trip grounding is to increase the fault current, leading to reliable and faster activation of protective relays or fuses. The benefits of reducing energized voltage, lowering ground potential rise and limiting equipment damage are very limited and are often not dependable. The requirement for grounding resistance less than 20~25ohm has been adopted by many utility companies. However, extensive literature search failed to find documents or papers that provide scientific justifications for the threshold. It seems that the threshold is established based on what can be achieved by a 3 meter grounding rod under typical and slightly optimistic soil resistivity values.

The objective of this presentation is to address such concerns, clarify the issues and recommend solutions to utility companies.

Dr. Wilsun Xu, is currently a professor at the University of Alberta and an IEEE fellow in the area of power quality. Before joining Uo A in 1996, Dr. Xu worked at BC Hydro between 1989 to 1996 in both areas of power transmission and distribution. Dr. Xu has close to 30 years of industry and research experience in power engineering. He has proven technical leadership and creativity in a number of industry-oriented projects. Grounding related safety issues are one of his specialties. He has completed various grounding related projects for Alberta utility companies, such as equipotential bonding mats, truck grounding practice, GPR rise due to induction caused by fault currents and so on. He also offers a continuing education course on power system grounding.


In North America, there are two major standards used by manufacturers of personal protective grounding equipment to design, assemble and test their products. These products include temporary protective grounds (cables with clamps) and grounding attachment points (ball studs, grounding pegs, etc.). The main standards are: CAN/ULC-61230-09 (Live Working – Portable Equipment for Grounding and Bonding) and ASTM F 855-09 (Standard Specifications for Temporary Protective Grounds to be Used on De-Energized Electric Power Lines and Equipment).

This presentation will explore the requirements of each standard, compare both and review how utilities can use the standards to select temporary protective grounds for the available fault currents at worksites.

Andrew Meikle is a Professional Engineer in the province of Ontario in Canada. He has 20 years of experience in the power industry, including power generation (Thermal plants - gas turbine, oil fired & coal fired and hydro-electric plants) and power distribution. Andrew is a Senior Electrical Engineer at Ontario Power Generation (OPG), where he is the main contact person for grounding related issues at the hydro electric and thermal plants. His responsibilities include the development and maintenance of the grounding program used at OPG’s hydro-electric and thermal plants. Andrew has been a member of CEATI’s GLIG for the past 6 years.

Personal Protective Grounding – Applicable Industry Standards

Andrew Meikle, Ontario Power GenerationSession 5: Personal Protective Grounding

Applying Temporary Grounds for Trip Grounding

The primary objective of this project was to determine the effectiveness of currently available voltage gradient control mats in protecting workers and recommend design improvements. This presentation will share the performance review of various voltage gradient control mats including both portable and fixed types available on the market. The presentation will discuss the best ways to protect workers from touch and step potential hazards while working in the vicinity of high voltage equipment; and identify suitable products, both portable and fixed types, to maximize worker protection. The presentation will also share current applicable testing standards (e.g. ASTM F2715 – 09) and propose improvements where shortcomings are identified.

Dr. Emanuel Petrache is a Principal Engineer in Transmission and Distribution Technologies at Kinectrics, with over fifteen years of industrial and academic experience in electromagnetic compatibility problems, including lightning impact on power lines. He holds a PhD from the prestigious Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne. Mr. Petrache has completed important engineering projects in testing and numerical computation of lightning electromagnetic fields for EPRI, North Warning System, and many electrical utility clients. He is author or coauthor of more than 20 scientific papers published in reviewed journals and presented at numerous international conferences. His research interests concern electromagnetic compatibility, lightning electromagnetics, and electromagnetic field interactions with electrical networks. Mr. Petrache serves as Chair of the IEEE Working Group on Lightning Performance of Overhead Lines.

Performance Review of Various Gradient Control Mats

Emanuel Petrache, Kinectrics



Copper theft from utility grounding systems is quite problematic. Prevention methods and techniques such as alternative conductors and installation strategies are of primary interest. This session will introduce methods that can be applied in order to mitigate the impacts of copper theft.

Session 6: Copper Theft

8-Year Experience to Reduce Copper Theft in Transmission Line Grounding Systems in Mexico

Arturo Galván Diego, Instituto De Investigaciones Electricas

Electrical grounding systems are heavily dependent upon copper. Due to its scrap metal value, copper is an attractive target for thieves and vandals. In México, like in many other countries, copper theft is increasing at an alarming rate. One reason for this increase is the high scrap metal value of the copper (rising 3-4 times in the last 5 years) and the other reason is the unchanged legislation to increase the penalties for thieves of copper and recycling facilities as well. Transportation systems, power utilities, agriculture systems, construction systems, vacant housing markets and telecommunications networks spend millions of dollars every year on replacement costs directly resulting from stolen copper. In the electric utility industry, because of their isolated location and unattended conditions, copper theft presents one of the biggest threats to electrical safety systems and results in power outages and unnecessary expense to restore the damaged power electric infrastructure, escalating costs, operational downtime and threats to life.

Since this type of theft is relatively new, many of the methods used to combat the problem are untested and theoretical. The general approach commonly attempted to decrease this type of theft has been based on a trial-and-error scheme. Therefore, it is necessary to determine, based on experience and a root-cause study, suitable measures for reduction of copper theft. According to the results of this root-cause study, the main items to be changed or improved in order to decrease copper theft are the following: (a) Use materials with a very low scrap metal value; (b) Increase the difficulty for the metal theft; (c) Build the grounding system according to design; and the last but not the least (d) change legislation and apply severe penalties for copper theft and scrap recycling industries rejecting stolen materials. This presentation discusses the recommended measures to reduce copper theft in grounding transmission lines by a pilot program applied from 2007 to 2010 on several towers in three regions of México, and the experience gained from 2010 to present.


Copper theft is a nuisance to us all, and it hurt a lot more when the price of copper was $4.50/pound in 2011 than it does now at the present $2.00/pound. With that said, you would think that copper theft would be a problem of the past, but we still see a significant amount of copper theft each year. This presentation identifies four (4) different copper theft mitigation methods, used to join the ground grid to the equipment and structures in substations. One of these choices will be a big surprise.

Steve Greenfield is the Director of Safearth Americas. He is a grounding specialist with expertise in all things related to grounding, including lightning protection and surge suppression, which are dependent on a purposefully designed grounding system. Steve has been a contributing member to six (6) IEEE substation standards committees dealing with grounding and lightning protection for over twenty (20) years, including IEEE Std. 80, 81, 837, 998, 1246, & 1268. After thirty five (35) years working with a US based connector manufacturer, Steve is now working with a leading consulting, training, services, and test equipment company, headquartered in Australia.

Copper Theft Mitigation Methods

Steve Greenfield, Safearth8-Year Experience to Reduce Copper Theft in Transmission Line Grounding Systems in Mexico

Dr. Arturo Galvan Diego received his B.Sc. degree and Master of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from the National Polytechnic Institute in Mexico, in 1985 and 1990 respectively, and the Ph.D. degree in Electricity with special attention to electrical transients and lightning electrical discharges from Uppsala University , Sweden , in 2000. He is currently working at Electrical Research Institute since 1986. In the year 1990, Arturo Galván was awarded the researcher of the year, award given annually by the Electrical Research Institute (IIE). He is a member of the National Standard Association in Mexico and he is in charge of the Mexican Lightning Protection Standard, which was issued in 2005 and is presently being updated. He has authored and co-authored more than 60 scientific papers in Grounding Systems and Lightning Protection. He is responsible for Chapter 17 of “Lightning Protection,“ published by IEE (London) in 2010, edited by Profr. Vernon Cooray. He has been an active participant of

CIGRE Working Group C4.409 on “Lightning Protection of Wind Turbine Blades” and C4.402 on “Protection of Medium Voltage and Low Voltage Networks Against Lightning”. Collaborator as Reviewer of IEEE Trans.On.EMC magazine, Journal of Lightning Research, Journal of Engineering Science and Technology, Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology and International Conference on Lightning Protection (ICLP). He teaches courses on Grounding Systems and Lightning Protection.

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