DOES YOUR EARTHING SYSTEM PROVIDE SAPETY? There exists a popular notion in Pakistan, among technical and non-technical circles, that the connection of one (or two!) earth wires to various items of electrical equipment, the burial of a copper plate at a reasonable depth (varying from 10 to 25 feet) in the ground, and attaining a small value of earth electrode resistance (less than one ohm!), constitutes a system of safety from electric shock Not so! says the 15th Edition of the “Regulations for Electrical Installations” formulated by the Institution of Electrical Engineers, UK. Known as the Wiring Regulations, the code is the one generally quoted in local specifications for electrical installations. Chapter 41 deals with “protection against electric shock’, and section 413-2 to ‘section 413-17 covers “protection by earthed equipotential bonding and automatic disconnection of supply Sounds complicated? It is - and it is not! System Earthing Appendix 3 of the 15th Edition describes the various types of system earthing: the two main types used in Pakistan today are shown below: The TN-S system (Fig 1) applies to all loads fed by cables directly from a substation, with the protective conductor running along with the cable in the form of armour/metal sheath or separate circuit protective conductors: a metallic return path for the fault current to the neutral of the transformer is thus established (the neutral earth electrode and the protective earth electrode are one, or, if separate, are bonded together) The TT system (Fig.2) applies to all loads fed by overhead lines, with a separate consumer’s earth electrode distinct from the transformer neutral earth electrode. As no reliablemetallic return path for the fault current to the transformer neutral can be established, the fault current must flow through an actual earth path between the two electrodes. SOURCE oF ENERCY PROTECTIVE conouctoR. consumers’ c source | earth | INSTALLATION ste | SEPARATE NEUTRAL AND PROTECTIVE CONDUCTORS THROUGHOUT 8YSTEH. THE PROTECTIVE CONOUCTOR (PED 18 THE METALLIC COVERING OF THE CABLE SUPPLTING THE INSTALLATIONS OR A SEPARATE CONDUCTOR. ALL EXPOSED CONDUCTIVE PARTS. OF AN INSTALLATION ARE CONNECTED TO THIS PROTECTIVE CONDUCTOR VIA THE MAIN EARTHING TERMINAL OF THE INSTALLATION. er a = Electric Shocks It must be clearly understood that when a person receives an electric shock, current travels through his body into the ground, and then returns to the earthed neutral of the transformer a There are two types (Fig.3) of shock hazards: a) shock in normal service (direct contact) b) shock in case of fault (indirect contact) The basic concept is that with healthy equipment, electric shock can only occur when a person directly touches a live part (direct contact). Examples would be a child inserting a metal object into a socket-outlet, or an electrician testing equipment and accidentally touching a live terminal. With defective equipment, however, due to insulation failure, the exposed conductive parts become ‘live’, and a persontouching an exposed conductive part indirectly comes in contact with the live parts (indirect contact). Examples would be a housewife getting a shock from the metal body of a fridge or electric iron, or a worker getting a shock from the metal body of a drill or a production machine Protection against shock from direct contact is covered by Sections 411 and 412 of the Wiring Regulations: “earthing” of equipment (or “protection by earthed equipotential bonding and automatic disconnection of supply") does not provide protection against direct contact. SOURCE OF ENERGY CONSUMERS’ INSTALLATIONS EARTH INSTALLATION TN garesee, | Conover IVE | bo paar i ae i i i { i i INSTALLATION INSTALLATION ALL EXPOSED CONOUCTIVE PARTS OF AM INSTALLATION ARE CONNECTED TO AN EARTH ELECTRODE HHECH 1 ELECTRICALLY TNOEPENDENT OF THE SOURCE EARTH ee “Earthing”, however, is one of the most commonly-employed methods of protection against indirect contact, and is effective when done properly, as detailed below. It has been statistically established that a high degree of protection against indirect contact shock can be ensured by keeping the fault voltage on exposed conductive parts (touch voltage) during earth faults to a value of less than 50 volts AC.This requires coordination between a) the characteristics of the protective device for automatic disconnection (fuse or circuit breaker), b) the earthing arrangements for the installation, and c) the relevant impedances of the circuit concerned (line- earth loop) and the method is described in detail in Section 413 of the Wiring Regulations PROTECTIVE = source ART pirect INDIRECT DIRECT AND INDIRECT CONTACT OF THE SERVICE CIRCUIT 13 Earth-fault Loop Impedance The earth fault current loop (line-to-earth loop) comprises the following parts, starting at the point of fault: - the circuit protective conductor (CPC), and - the consumer's earthing terminal and earthing conductor, and - for TN-S systems, the metallic return path, or - for TT systems, the earth return path, and - the path through the earthed neutral point of the transformer and transformer winding, and - the phase (line) conductor,from the transformer to the point of fault‘The impedance of the earth fault loop is denoted by Zs. In the example in Fig 4, approximate earth-loop impedances and the corresponding earth-fault currents/voltages are as follows For Consumer-1 a) with a TN-S system, using the metallic earth return path Zs = 0.008 + 0.033 + 0.036 = 0.075 ohms Fault current = 230 = 3067 amps, and the 250A fuse blows Zs within 0.4 seconds Coe avn trawsronnen reeon Re FUSES hae Fuses: SOURCE EARTH = su 2X esue RESISTANCE facae” howe cre 26.50 Cae.e36 > Gee.e1 =) 4e ncraes 1S neg CABLE fan CONSUMER-2 ries b) with a TT system, using the earth electrodes return path Zs = 0.006 + 0.033 + 0.8 + 0.5 = 1.339 ohms Fault current = 280 = 172 amps, the 250A fuse does not us blow (even though both earth resistances are quite low), and the fault voltage on the equipment rises to 138 volts above earthFor Consume, a) with a TN-S system, using the metallic earth return path Zs = 0.008 + 0.048 + 0.031 = 0.085 ohns Fault current = 230 = 2705 amps, and the 683A fuse blows as within 0.01 second b) with a TT system, using the earth electrodes return path Zs = 0.006 + 0.048 + 0.6 + 0.5 = 1.154 ohms Fault current = 230 = 199A, and the 63A fuse blows afte: Zs 20 seconds (in the meanwhile, a fault voltage of 120 volts to earth persists on the case of the equipment) It can thus be seen from the above examples that earthing can only provide safety if the impedance of the earth-fault path is low enongh to ensure @ high enough fault current to trip the protective device within a short enough tine The IEE Regulations have, therefore, created tables of permissible earth-loop impedance values, based on the tripping characteristics of various protective devices, in order to ensure tripping within certain times (5 seconds for fixed equipment, and 0.4 seconds for sockets, as portable equipment is considered more hazardous). Since locally (Pakistan) available fuses and circuit-breakers are from diverse sources, and do not adhere to the relevant British Standard Specifications, the application of Tabes 41A1 and 41A2 of the IEE Wiring Regulations will be difficult. The following table (Fig.5) which has been adapted from the above tables, with adjustment for a nominal voltage of 230V, and a factor of safety of 1.2, may be useful:Typical residential installations with 15 amp socket final sub-circuits protected by MCBs would have to have an earth- loop impedance value less than 1.28 ohms Installations should be tested at least once a year using a line-earth loop tester (which costs about Rs.4,000) Generally, it will be found that the required earth-loop impedance values are not difficult to attain in TN-S systems but may present a problem in TT systems: an ELCB will then be necessary. ELCBS An ELCB, earth leakage circuit breaker (also known as RCD, residual current device, RCCB, residual current circuit breaker, GFCI, ground-fault circuit interrupter), is an extremely sensitive device that senses minute earth-leakage currents, and with a sensitivity of 30mA, provides shock Protection (direct and indirect contact) to people. But this is the subject of another article! ! Finally For existing residential installations, which will generally have a TT systen, 8) check the earth-loop impedance with a meter b) if the measured value, corresponding to the protective device, is too high, see if the impedance can be reduced to an acceptable level by combinations of the followin, additional earth electrodes in parallel, removing high- resistance joints and terminations, installing proper sized CPCs, ete ©) if not successful, ELCB/s will have to be provided on the socket circuits (and perhans the fixed equipment circuits as well) d) if the measured value is OK, continue to test the installation at least once a year. For existing commercial/industrial establishments fed at low voltage, which have a TT system, follow the procedure above. For existing commercial/industrial establishments fed at high voltage (i.e, with their own substations) a) try and convert any TT installations to ‘TN-S installations by running protective conductors back to the substation neutral/protective earth electrodeYn b) follow the rest of the procedure for TT systems given above Do not automatically rely on your earth wires and earth plates for protection. Test the earth loop impedances periodically to ensure that all is well -- and safe!! (Roland deSouza is the Principal Electrical Engineer of Fahin, Nanji & deSouza, a consulting firm in the field of mechanical, civil, structural, and electrical engineering. He is currently serving on the Pakistan Standards Institute (PSI) Electro- technical Sectional Committee for "Electrical Installations in Buildings”. )