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The fundamental purpose of grounding electrical power systems and substations is to ensure safety of equipment and workers. To achieve this purpose, a high-resistivity surface material is recommended by IEEE Standard 80-2013, which defines the methodology to calculate safety parameters, including touch potential and step potential, considering the presence of a high-resistivity material such as gravel in the grid station, including raceways. However, concrete is generally used for raceway construction, whereas gravel material is used for constructing switch yards. As the resistivity of concrete is far less than gravel, this practice may lead to injury and even death, because workers and visitors walk on these pathways. This study conducted the safety analysis of concrete used as surface material. After the collection of data from an operational 500-kV grid station at Nokhar, Pakistan, simulations and analyses were performed using the Electrical Transient Analyzer Program software using IEEE Standard 80-2013. The results indicate that the use of concrete poses a considerable threat to equipment and personnel safety, because the measured values of touch and step potential exceed standard values. This is followed by the proposal and validation, through simulations, of a cost-effective, non-intrusive, and environmentally friendly solution by recycling old tires as surface material.
Cite this article as: H. Farooq, W. Ali, H. Igbal, A. Rasool, I. A. Sajjad, A.A. Noon, “Evaluation of the Safety Performance of a 500-kV AC Substation Grounding Using IEEE Standard 80-2013”, Electrica, vol. 21, no. 2, pp. 225-234, May, 2021.