Earth Testing

11/04/2019 By Hugh Leave a Comment

How do I know my 1950’s earthing arrangements are still keeping my workforce safe?

I thought I’d continue from my last blog piece talking about heavy current injection earth testing. By talking about a key application where it can potentially deliver much better results than the modern CDEGS approach on your earthing arrangements.

Many industrial sites were built in the 1950s and 60s as industrialisation grew. This, in line with the expansion of the electrical grid, led to a huge program of electrical substation construction around the world. What this means is that some of us own the responsibility of managing sites with ageing transformers, assets and equipment. Which were designed to obsolete standards? Therefore knowing what hazard this presents today, is simply not known.

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28/02/2019 By Hugh Leave a Comment

Test large electrode systems using heavy current – for more accurate earth electrode resistance measurements

I recently attended a training session with Omicron in Germany, looking at their primary injection test set for earth electrode and line impedance testing. We looked at how to set up a current injection, potentially up to 100 A, down an Overhead line or Feeder cable to achieve good separation between the electrode under test and the auxiliary electrode.

Previously, test methods have relied on dedicated cables for the measurement, which has limited the available area to deploy the auxiliary electrode, owing to land usage constraints and roads. So, being able to use something in a built-up environment on electrically large HV systems avoiding road closures, etc. comes as a breath of fresh air to a lot of engineers facing this problem.

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31/07/2018 By Ian Leave a Comment

Why Ground Testing is Important and How it Ensures Safety, Validation and Integrity

Ground testing is typically performed in two stages. The first is conducted during the construction of a building to ensure proper installation of the electrical system and the second stage involves routine ground testing to ensure the ‘actual’ arrangements perform as the ‘predicted’ ones at design stage to avoid costly and fatal errors.

What is the Difference between Grounding and Bonding? [Read more…] about Why Ground Testing is Important and How it Ensures Safety, Validation and Integrity

25/05/2017 By Hugh Leave a Comment

Electrical Earthing Testing in Urban Environments

Electrical earthing testing. We are asked frequently – How do you test an Earth in London?

Here’s the scenario. You’re faced with Electrical earthing testing a substation that is located right in the middle of a densely built-up area with hard surfaces everywhere together with congested buried infrastructure in every direction.

Any lead deployment invariably obstructed by something, e.g. roads, cars, walls, buildings, etc. And, assuming the leads can be accommodated. A test is likely to suffer in-ground noise and interference from the city’s / town’s infrastructure. Not to mention the curious passers-by: who would like nothing more than to see you struggle for a laugh by stealing your test leads when you turn your back.

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23/04/2015 By Ian Leave a Comment

When Electrical Earthing Science Actually Works

Electrical Earthing Science…

On a recent generation project, there was a need to connect a partially completed system to the network as part of a staged commissioning. This meant that the full electrical earthing system had not been fully installed. [Read more…] about When Electrical Earthing Science Actually Works

Earth Testing

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