Earthing of electronic equipment in power stations Sachdeva M. L.1, Sodha N.S.1 1Former Chief Engineer, CEA 2Ex. Executive Director, POWERGRID Online published on 6 February, 2020. Abstract Earthing of electrical equipment and creating equipotential bonding are vital to ensure safe electrical environments and to mitigate damage to equipment from short circuit currents and lightning as well as electrostatic discharge (ESD) and Electromagnetic Coupling (EMC) in accordance with IE Rules, ISS, International Standards (IEC, BIS, ISO, IEEE, NEC, UL, VDE), Code of Practices, National Electrical safety Codes, OSHA, etc. The Grounding and Equipotential bonding systems are complex electrical systems with contributions from Civil Engineering, Mech. Engineering, High & Low Voltage Power Engineering as well as Control & Communication technology. The Transient voltages, disturbances associated with short circuits, lightning and power system switching have emerged as a major concern to manufacturers and users of electronic equipment. The grounding and equipotential bonding of electronic equipment ’Dos and Do Nots’ have been discussed considering Single-Point grounding, Multiple grounding and Hybrid grounding and their adoptability to the electronic system. Single-Point grounding is not generally preferred where Inter-connecting cables having cable shields that have lengths of the order of 1/20 of a wave length or greater and Parasitic capacitance exists between subsystem or equipment housings or between subsystems and ground of other subsystems. As the Electronics industry/technology is still at evolving stage and manufacturers/research institutions do come out with innovations on electronics including grounding means/devices within the equipment and do intent the utilities/users comply while connecting to the system grounding and as such manufactures need to be consulted prior to adoption of any system. Top Keywords Electronics, communication, Electromagnetic Coupling, Electrostatic discharges, Electrical noise, Equipotential bonding, Earthing/grounding, Single point grounding, Multi point grounding, Hybrid grounding, Equipment grounding, Protective grounding, power quality, Service frequency, High frequency. Top |