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Copper Earth Electrode System Designs By AN Wallis

Published 05 Nov 2020

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Copper Earth Electrode System Designs

  • Special thanks to Andy Chaluda Business Development Manager - Technical Services at AN Wallis

Earth Electrode Systems are a critical part of any electrical system, yet are often seen as inert and may sometimes be dismissed as cost-saving or forgotten about until a later stage of the project. But should these earthing systems by AN Wallis fail due to incompetent design or the use of cheap substandard earthing components, the resulting events may be catastrophic to infrastructure or even lethal to people.

Our team of highly experienced professional Engineers & Technicians use the world’s most up to date Electrical Earthing Analysis software package CDEGS to assist in the earth electrode system design process. CDEGS is now recognised as the industry standard earthing design analysis software in the UK and in many other parts of the world.

Our Earth Electrode System Designs not only comply with the relevant National and International Standards, but also follow the ethos of the UK Governments’ Construction, Design & Management (CDM) Regulations 2015.

Some of the areas we are working in are:-

  • Electricity Transmission & Distribution Networks
  • Electricity Generation sites inc Renewables (Solar, Wind, Anaerobic Digesters)
  • Process Plants Static Earthing
  • Petrochemical Production
  • Telecommunications
  • Nuclear EMP
  • Rail Traction Substations
  • Rail Functional Earthing
  • Data Centres
  • Airports

CDEGS

The most powerful and accurate suite of commercially available grounding (earthing) and electromagnetic analysis software packages on the market. A complete array of auxiliary software tools are included in the CDEGS suite to complement, support and enhance the methods used to solve various problems involving grounding, electromagnetic interference, electromagnetic fields and transient phenomena that can be tackled by CDEGS.

AN Wallis Earth Electrode System

The 3 areas to analyse with any Earth Electrode system are the Touch, Step and Rise of Earth Potentials (RoEP) also known as Earth Potential Rise (EPR or Ground Potential Rise (GPR).

We will liaise with the DNO or Electricity Supply Company on your behalf to gain all the required ‘Point of Connection’ data for your new electrical connection.

Using the Soil Resistivity data, we produce a conceptual earth electrode system layout based on your existing plant layout drawings and analyse the associated voltage contours using either the MALT or MALZ module of the CDEGS software.

Graphical plots are produced using the CDEGS software that visually identifies any ‘hot’ spots around the site that may need further design time.

These Touch, Step and Rise of Earth Potential levels are assessed, and only when they are within safe limits will we pass this design for construction.

Further calculations will be carried out to determine whether the site may influence other electrical installations under fault conditions and from that we can determine the site ITU classification as either HOT or COLD.

Only once we have confidence that the design is parameters are met, a full ‘for construction’ style drawing will be produced.

Further Reading
AN Wallis

The Wallis product range includes copper earth rods (solid copper, copper bond and stainless steel types), earth bars, copper tape, earth clamps and aluminium tapes.

Earth Mats

Earth Mats Lattice | Earth Plates Solid Copper | Earth Rods

Specialist Distributors: LV, MV & HV Cable Jointing, Substation & Electrical Eqpt

Specialist Distributors: LV, MV & HV Cable Jointing, Substation & Electrical Eqpt

THORNE & DERRICK are national distributors of LV, MV & HV Cable Installation, Jointing, Duct Sealing, Earthing & Electrical Equipment – we service UK and global businesses involved in cable installations, substation, overhead line and the installation of medium/high voltage cable joints and terminations at LV, 11kV, 33kV and HV.

Contact us for 3M Electrical, ABB, Alroc, AN Wallis, CATU Electrical, Cembre, Centriforce, CMP, CSD, Elastimold, Ellis Patents, Emtelle, Euromold, Filoform , Furse, Lucy Electric & Zodion, Nexans, Pfisterer, Polypipe, Prysmian, Roxtec, Sicame, WT Henley.

Further Reading