Impact of Earthing System Designs and Soil Characteristics on Tower Footing Impedance and Ground Potential Rise: A Modelling Approach for Sustainable Power Operation

Nur Alia Farina Mohamad Nasir, Mohd Zainal Abidin Ab Kadir, Miszaina Osman, Muhamad Safwan Abd Rahman, Ungku Anisa Ungku Amirulddin, Mohd Solehin Mohd Nasir, Nur Hazirah Zaini and Nik Hakimi Nik Ali
Additional contact information
Nur Alia Farina Mohamad Nasir: Institute of Power Engineering (IPE), Universiti Tenaga Nasional (UNITEN), Kajang 43000, Malaysia
Mohd Zainal Abidin Ab Kadir: Centre for Electromagnetic and Lightning Protection Research (CELP), Advanced Lightning, Power and Energy Research Centre (ALPER), Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), Serdang 43400, Malaysia
Miszaina Osman: Institute of Power Engineering (IPE), Universiti Tenaga Nasional (UNITEN), Kajang 43000, Malaysia
Muhamad Safwan Abd Rahman: Institute of Power Engineering (IPE), Universiti Tenaga Nasional (UNITEN), Kajang 43000, Malaysia
Ungku Anisa Ungku Amirulddin: Institute of Power Engineering (IPE), Universiti Tenaga Nasional (UNITEN), Kajang 43000, Malaysia
Mohd Solehin Mohd Nasir: Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Pertahanan Nasional Malaysia, Kem Sungai Besi, Kuala Lumpur 57000, Malaysia
Nur Hazirah Zaini: Power, High Voltage and Energy (PHIVE) Research Group, Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment, Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia, Bandar Baru Nilai, Nilai 71800, Malaysia
Nik Hakimi Nik Ali: College of Engineering, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Shah Alam 40450, Malaysia

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 15, 1-20

Abstract: Improving a tower earthing system by reducing the impedance is an effective solution to prevent back flashover from occurring and thus maintaining the sustainable operation of power supply. Knowledge of the soil and earthing structure is an important element when designing an earthing system and to determine the parameters of a transmission line (TL). This paper presents the computation of soil structure interpretation based on several earthing designs using current distribution, electromagnetic interference, grounding, and soil structure analysis (CDEGS) software. The results showed that each tower has a multi-layer soil structure and it was also found that the soil resistivity at the surface layer strongly affected the earthing impedance. Subsequently, it was demonstrated that soil structure and the earthing design arrangement are the two parameters that significantly affected the ground potential rise (GPR). This aspect affects the resistance and impulse impedance of a tower and thus influences the performance of the TL system when subjected to lightning strike, which is undoubtedly one of the major culprits of power outages in Malaysia.

Keywords: transmission line; earthing design; lightning; tower footing resistance (TFR); CDEGS (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/15/8370/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/15/8370/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:15:p:8370-:d:602493

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().