Distribution System Neutral Grounding

Jim Burke and Mike Marshall

ABB Power T&D – Raleigh, North Carolina

I. INTRODUCTION II. CLASSES OF SYSTEM GROUNDING

Distribution neutral grounding is probably one of the There are many ways to ground a distribution system
most confusing subjects faced by the utility distribution primary. This paper will deal primarily with the effects
engineer. In an industry where utilities are combining of grounding on a 4-wire multigrounded system since it
practices, complicated by the fact that European utilities predominates in this country. The following section,
are purchasing U.S. systems and vice versa, the confusion however, gives a brief overview of some of the
has been compounded. Questions being asked are: advantages and disadvantages of the various system
• Is good grounding really necessary? grounding practices in use today.
• Does poor grounding have advantages? Distribution systems are classified as either grounded
• What is the best grounding? or ungrounded. While there are advantages and
• When is grounding important? And when is it disadvantages of each type of grounding, it is impossible
not? to say which is the “best”. The following is a general
The purpose of this paper is to attempt to answer description of the major types:
some of these questions. It will be shown that while
good grounding is usually preferred, there are times A. Ungrounded Systems
when good grounds are not important and may even be Ungrounded system have the secondary windings of
detrimental. Some of the grounding areas covered are: the distribution substation transformer connected either
• Classes of distribution system grounding ungrounded delta or ungrounded wye, with the former
• Arrester application connection being more common. The distribution feeders
• European systems are three-wire, three-phase and two-wire single-phase
• Effect on swells circuits. The major advantage of an ungrounded system,
• High impedance faults like a delta system, is that a single line to ground fault
• Stray voltage will not result in high levels of fault current sufficient to
• Line protection disrupt service beyond the fault itself. This is also a
disadvantage in that overcurrent protection for this type
• Capacitor grounding
of fault is difficult if not impossible to detect. The delta
• Overcurrent protection
system also gives better phase balancing, lower energy
• Number of grounds per mile into a fault, and produces less EMF.
• Etc.
B. Grounded Systems
Grounded systems are usually derived from a
distribution substation transformer with wye-connected
secondary windings with a neutral point of the windings
solidly grounded or connected to ground through a non-
interrupting, current-limiting device such as a resistor or
reactor. A grounding transformer may be used to
establish a grounded system, as is common in Europe.
The circuits associated with grounded distribution
systems generally have a neutral conductor connected to
the supply grounding point. The neutral conductor of the
distribution circuits may be connected to earth at frequent
intervals (multigrounded), or it may be fully insulated and
have no other earth connection except at the source
(unigrounded). In three-wire unigrounded systems, a
neutral conductor is not run with each circuit, but the
Fig. 1. Typical 4-Wire Multigrounded System system is grounded through the connections of the
substation transformer or grounding transformer. The
neutral conductor associated with the primary feeders of
multi-grounded neutral distribution systems is connected
ID# 01TD089 to earth at intervals specified by national or local codes.
It is also common practice to bond this neutral conductor

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 to surge-arrester ground leads and to all noncurrent- condition when one or two conductors on the
carrying parts, such as equipment tanks and guy wires, source side of the bank are open. It can
and to interconnect it with a secondary neutral conductor consequently be a problem to locate these banks
or grounded conductor. In some situations, the same on the load side of a switch or fuse.
neutral conductor is used for both the primary and • Grounded wye banks are usually used on 4 wire
secondary systems. Several types of grounded systems multi-grounded systems only. A grounded wye
are as follows: bank on an ungrounded system creates a ground
• Four-Wire Multigrounded Systems: This source that may interfere with sensitive relaying
system is by far the most popular in the U.S. and as well as contribute to overvoltages during
has the advantage of being easy to protect for ground faults on these ungrounded systems.
most overcurrent fault conditions. It is also • Grounded wye banks are generally easy to clear
preferred since a large portion of the loads in the since there is adequate ground current. On the
U.S. are single phase and can be connected other hand, ungrounded banks have the currents
between the phase wire and the neutral conductor. limited to 300 percent of normal phase current by
It is much cheaper for single phase service, the impedance of the other two legs. The fuse
especially for underground, since only one cable, must have a continuous current rating of 135% of
bushing, switch, fuse, etc., needs to be used as rated current of the bank and clear in 5 minutes
compared to a delta system which needs almost for reasonable coordination. It is sometimes
twice as much equipment. It also can use lower difficult to satisfy both conditions.
rated arresters and BIL. To summarize:
• Four-Wire Unigrounded Systems: This system − For delta or ungrounded systems, delta
uses 4 wires, but is only grounded at the source. connected banks are usually used except at
It is used sparingly in the U.S. The primary system locations where fault current is
advantage of this system is that greater ground excessive, ungrounded banks are most
relaying sensitivity can be obtained in common.
comparision to the multi-grounded system. It − For grounded, 4-wire systems, grounded
also produces less EMF. A disadvantage of this banks are used in most locations. Where
system is that it creates higher voltage swells than fault current is excessive ungrounded banks
the multigrounded system. are used. Ungrounded banks should be used
• Three-Wire Unigrounded Systems: These on the load side of switches.
systems are popular in Europe. Because line-to- − In substations the banks are almost always
ground current levels are generally low using this wye-connected. On delta systems they are
system, it is difficult to coordinate series always ungrounded and on 4-wire systems
overcurrent devices (similar to problems with a they are either grounded or ungrounded.
delta system). With the predominance of 3 phase
loading in Europe, the system tends to be much B. Overvoltages (Swells)
more balanced than a system found in the U.S. Swells are steady state overvoltages caused by faults
allowing for much greater sensitivity to ground on adjacent phases. The duration of these overvoltages is
fault detection. dependent on the protection practices used by the utility.
• Five-Wire Distribution System: This is a new Swells can result in power quality problems as well as
system which utilizes three phase wires, a failure of arresters. Some grounding considerations
multigrounded wire and an isolated neutral. It regarding the magnitude of swells are as follows:
has several advantages over the four-wire
multigrounded system in that it has the ability to
detect high impedance faults, reduce EMF, see 1.45
faults farther out of the substation, and reduce
Maximum L-N Voltage (p.u.)

1.4
stray voltages.
1.35
1.3
III. EFFECT OF GROUNDING 4 gpm
1.25 8gpm

A. Capacitor Banks 1.2

There are a number of ways to ground capacitor 1.15

banks. While grounded wye banks are normally used, 1.1

1 10 100 1000
there are sometimes reasons why this connection may not
Ground Footing Resistance (ohms)
be optimum. A summary of considerations in this area is
as follows:
• A three phase capacitor may be connected in Fig. 2. Effect of Footing Resistance and Ground Rod
delta, wye-ungrounded or wye-grounded. Spacing
• Delta or ungrounded wye offer the greatest
possibility of neutral inversion or a resonant

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 • Effect of Footing Resistance, Soil Resistivity D. Fault Levels
and Ground Rod Spacing: Studies run by the Studies show that ground rod footing resistance does
authors show that if an arbitrary swell limit of slightly affect fault current levels for close in faults but
20% is desired (this is the value used for arrester has little effect for faults more than 4 or 5 miles from the
application by many utilities), it is necessary to substation. Since close in fault magnitudes are almost
have a ground footing resistance of less than 1 always sufficient to operate protection properly, footing
ohm for a typical 4-wire system. A footing resistance in this area is not an issue. Fault magnitudes
resistance of 25 ohms produces overvoltages farther from the substation are not seriously affected by
(near the end of the line) of about 1.31 per unit footing impedance. It can hence be argued that footing
for the same system. Using a ground footing resistance is not important in the area of overcurrent
resistance of 25 ohms does reduce overvoltages protection.
for faults within about 5 miles of the substation as
compared to 100 ohms. Faults beyond 5 miles E. Stray Voltage
produce swells that are virtually identical. The
While most cases of stray voltage are the result of on-
results of this study also showed that the use of
site” generated problems, it can also be the result of a
the standard 4 grounds per mile is not sufficient
poor utility return path (earth and neutral wire). Utility
to keep these overvoltages (swells) down to the
caused stray voltage is the result of the return current (or
desired level (see figure 2). If the number of
unbalanced 3-phase current) returning via the neutral wire
grounds is increased to 8 per mile, there will be a
and the ground and producing a voltage which is passed
reduction of about 2% with a footing resistance of
to the customer premises via the distribution transformer
25 ohms. Augmenting the number of grounds per
connection. The flow of current in these paths is complex
mile does not have a significant effect on
and depends on many factors (distance from substation,
reducing swells. This is especially true since
number for grounds, value of footing resistance, size of
there are many equipment grounds on the system.
the neutral, etc.). While good ground footing resistances
When soil resistivity was changed from 100 ohm-
near the affected customer are important, the problem is
m to 1000 ohm-m, virtually no change occurred
more affected by the magnitude of the return current and
in the magnitude of the swells.
the size of the neutral conductor. Reducing the ground
• Broken Neutrals: Neutrals play a major role in footing resistance near the customer many times proves
the effectiveness of the grounding system.
ineffective for this reason.
Studies show that fault 10 miles from the
substation can cause swells of 1.33 per unit for a
F. Arrester Grounding
broken neutral on any part of the system. Even
faults at only 1.5 miles from the substation can Arrester grounding is not as critical as most engineers
cause swell of up to 1.5 per unit if a broken believe. It depends. Studies show that where arresters
neutral exists. The size of the neutral conductor are put on every phase and every tower or pole, ground
appreciably reduces swells, whereas good resistance between 0 and 250 ohms had little effect on
grounds do not affect the voltage much. This flashover rates. As spacing of arresters is increased,
indicates that the neutral is more important than grounding does have a relatively minor influence. The
the grounding. problem with arresters used for direct stroke protection is
• Substation Grounding: Substation grounding that they will most likely fail anyway due to energy of the
has little effect on swells. Substation grounding stroke. For a direct strike to a distribution line, even with
impedance of 0.5, 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0 showed little several arresters sharing the energy in a lightning flash,
difference in their effect on swells caused by an arrester will be subject to energies in excess of 5 kJ/kV
faults out on the feeder. of MCOV more than 50% of the time. Ten percent of
first strokes are likely to subject an arrester to greater
C. EMF than 12 kJ/kV of MCOV. Most heavy duty distribution
class arresters can only absorb about 2.2 kJ/kV of
Unbalanced load current flows in the ground and the MCOV. This along with the added energy in multiple
neutral wire. The current flowing in the ground creates strokes and continuing current suggest that direct hits will
most of the magnetic field associated with EMF. Current cause MOV failures most of the time. On a distribution
in the neutral tends to reduce this field. Studies show that line, a shield wire used in conjunction with the arrester is
for typical conditions approximately 50% of the return recommended if more complete protection is desired,
current flows in the earth and the other 50% in the since the shield wire intercepts most of the energy (At
neutral. A case can be made, that poor grounding forces transmission voltage level, the problem is less serious due
more current in the neutral and thereby reduces the EMF. to the much higher BIL levels of the structures and large
Measurements taken by one of the authors on actual energy capability of the arresters). It can be argued that
systems shows ground impedance to be far less of a poor arrester grounding may help the arrester survive
factor than what many studies show. You be the judge. since the arrester closes to the lightning hit does not
absorb all the energy and shares it with adjacent arresters.

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 G. Shield Wires FAULT LEVEL vs. DISTANCE
Ground resistance is very important when using a 10000
Fault Current in Amps

shield wire as is the spacing of the grounds. A shield

wire can be very beneficial if very low ground resistances
can be achieved. For example, simulations on a standard
distribution system design indicated that with a ground
resistance of 0 ohms, essentially no flashovers could be Bolted Fault
expected. If the ground impedance was increase to 25 1000

ohms, about 22% of the hits would cause a flashover and

with a ground footing impedance of 100 ohms, over 82% Z Fault = 2 Ohms

of the direct hits would cause the line to flashover. Using

a shield wire, it is essential to put grounds on every span
to achieve good protection. Field tests by one of the
authors have proven this to be true. A sampling of about 100
0 5
50 feeders with static wire protection and a significant 10 15 20

percentage of poles without static grounds (>15%) DISTANCE IN MILES (FROM SUBSTATION)

revealed a dramatic difference in performance (>50%

Fig. 3. Low impedance faults
reduction in lightning related flashovers) when grounds
were added to these poles.
B. High Impedance Faults
IV. FAULT CURRENT MAGNITUDES High impedance faults are faults that are low in value,
i.e., generally less than 100 amperes due to the
There are two types of faults, low impedance and high impedance between the phase conductor and the surface
impedance. A high impedance fault is considered to be a on which the conductor falls. Figure 4, shown below,
fault that has a high Z due to the contact of the conductor illustrates that most surface areas whether wet or dry do
to the earth, i.e., Zf is high. By this definition, a bolted not conduct well. If one considers the fact that an 8 foot
fault at the end of a feeder is still classified as a low ground rod sunk into the earth more often than not results
impedance fault. A summary of findings on faults and in an impedance of 100 ohms or greater, then it is not
their effects is as follows: hard to visualize the fact that a conductor simply lying on
a surface cannot be expected to have a low impedance.
A. Low Impedance Faults These faults, called high impedance faults, do not contact
the neutral and do not arc to the neutral. They are not
Low impedance faults or bolted faults can be either
detectable by any conventional means. Fault impedances,
very high in current magnitude (10,000 amperes or
in the authors opinion are either very low (less than 2
above) or fairly low, e.g., 300 amperes at the end of a
ohms) or very high (high impedance faults where the
long feeder. Faults able to be detected by normal
impedance approaches thousands of ohms). Again, the
protective devices are all low impedance faults. These
use of the 30, 40, 50 ohm value does not seem justifiable.
faults are such that the calculated value of fault current
assuming a “bolted fault” and the actual are very similar.
Most detectable faults, per study data, do indeed show
that fault impedance is close to 0 ohms. This implies that

REINFORCED
CONCRETE
the phase conductor either contacts the neutral wire or
that the arc to the neutral conductor has a very low 80
impedance. An EPRI study performed by one of the
authors over 15 years ago indicated that the maximum
DRY ASPHALT , CONCRETE OR DRY SAND

WET GRASS

fault impedance for a detectable fault was 2 ohms or less. 60

Figure 2, shown below, indicates that 2 ohms of fault
WET SOD

impedance influences the level of fault current depending

on location of the fault. As can be seen, 2 ohms of fault
DRY GRASS

40
impedance considerably decreases the level of fault
DRY SOD
WET SAND

current for close in faults but has little effect for faults
some distance away. The use of a fault impedance of 30, 20
40 and 50 ohms, used in many computer programs and by
many utilities is not justified on the basis of this
comprehensive study.
0 Type of Surface

Fig. 4. Current (in amps) vs. type of surface

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 C. EUROPEAN SYSTEM GROUNDING REFERENCES

[1] J. Burke & D. Lawrence, “Characteristics of Fault Currents on

Distribution Systems,” 1983 Transactions paper no. 83SM 441-
132 kV
3.
[2] IEEE Guide for the Application of Neutral Grounding in Electric
33 kV
Utility Systems, - Part IV-Distribution.”
No Fuses [3] J. Burke, R. Mancao, and A. Meyers, “Application of MOV’s in
Zig-Zag Resistance Clearing Time 5-8 Cycles the Distribution Environment,” 1994 Transactions paper – vol.9,
Grounded Distance (sometimes) and Overcurrent No.1, pages 293-305.
Zone 1-5-8 Cycles [4] J. Burke, “Fault Currents on Distribution Systems”1996 T&D
Zone 2-30-33 Conference.
[5] M. Marshall and B. Angeli, “Establishing a Lightning Protection
33 kV Evaluation Program for Distribution and Subtransmission
Lines” May/June 1998 IEEE Industry Applications Magazine.
11 kV
Uniground [6] “What Makes a Power Line Vulnerable to Lightning?” June
1996 Electrical World Magazine (M. Marshall).

Fig. 5. 33kV/211kV System

European system grounding is completely different

from that in the U.S. and consequently any comparisons
with regard to system performance resulting from recent
acquisitions must be suspect. The popular unigrounded
system has several advantages from an overcurrent
standpoint as well as number of disadvantages. On a
unigrounded system, the only current seen by the residual
relay is the unbalance of the capacitive charging current
of the three phases. Since the charging current of each
phase is typically no more than a few tens of amperes, the
unbalance is no more than a few amperers under normal
operating conditions. Sensitive ground relay settings of
the order of 1% of circuit rating are possible. For the
detection of down conductors, sensitive ground relay
settings are 10-50 times more sensitive than typical
settings on multigrounded systems.
Although the residual relay operates effectively on the
unigrounded design, virtually all the other protective
devices suffer reduced effectiveness. Because the fault
current levels are normally very low, it becomes difficult,
if not impossible, to see values of fault current higher
than those of load levels.

V. CONCLUSIONS

The need for good grounding depends on what it is the

distribution engineer is trying to accomplish. Studies
show that good grounding, arbitrarily taken to be 25
ohms, rarely accomplishes any particular advantage to
good system performance. As can be seen, sometimes
good grounding is not at all necessary.
Mr. Burke ([email protected]) and Mr.
Marshall ([email protected]) both work for
ABB in the Electric Systems Consulting (ESC) group,
located in Raleigh, North Carolina.

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