Grounding & IEEE 80 – What’s under your next project

Grounding for power generation, substations, communications, and transmission/distribution powerlines is a decades old technology. Despite that, it’s an essential component for a large percentage of the projects we do as engineers. At its core, what is done hasn’t changed much, but how its done has changed significantly. This presentation will look at why we perform grounding and how we do it. During our time together we will dive into • IEEE 80 Standard: The shocking truth behind it • Soil Resistivity: Its all about the Soil Model, baby • Fault Current: How faulty is your Fault Current? • Ground Potential Rise (GPR): Does size matter? • Ground Grid Design: Back to the Basics • Surface Covering: The Shock-rock Conundrum • Fall of Potential (FOP) Resistance Test: Going from the desktop to the REAL world • Projects: o Substations near each other: to tie or not tie together, that is the question o Substation in the Desert: Soil you’re telling me there’s a chance o Substation for a Data Center: Proximity Factor o Hydro Power Plant: Rock Solid o Wind Farm: Dust in the Wind o Solar Farm: My future so bright I got to wear shades o Communication Tower: Strike 3 and you’re out!