A new method and instrument for touch and step voltage measurements

Journal Article · Sat Oct 01 00:00:00 EDT 1994 · IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers); (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1109/61.329518· OSTI ID:7043486

Meliopoulos, A P.S. ^[1]; Patel, S ^[2]; Cokkinides, G J ^[3]

---

1. Georgia Inst. of Technology, Atlanta, GA (United States). School of Electrical and Computer Engineering
2. Georgia Power Co., Atlanta, GA (United States)
3. Univ. of South Carolina, Columbia, SC (United States). Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering

This paper describes a new method and instrument for measuring touch and step voltages near a grounding system, for example in and around a substation. The hardware, software, and testing procedures are an extension of the smart ground multimeter, developed under EPRI sponsorship. The instrument injects a transient electric current between the ground under testing and an auxiliary ground, and it measures ground potential differences (GPDs) at up to six locations. The GPD measurements are processed with software which rejects external noise using correlation methods. Subsequently, statistical estimation methods are used to extract the touch or step voltages from the thousands of measurement points normalized with the system short circuit capability. Knowledge of the short circuit capability of the substation allows the quick measurements of the touch and step voltages.

• OSTI ID: 7043486
• Journal Information: IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers); (United States), Vol. 9:4; ISSN 0885-8977
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION
POWER SUBSTATIONS
ELECTRIC GROUNDS
SAFETY
HEALTH HAZARDS
SAFETY ENGINEERING
ENGINEERING
HAZARDS
240400* - Power Transmission & Distribution- Health & Safety- (1990-)