KoCoS Blog

By:
Brian Burke, Application Engineer, KoCoS America LLC
Guy Wasfy, Managing Director, KoCoS America LLC
Jürgen Dreier, Product Manager, KoCoS Messtechnik AG

Bonding connections and ground connections are an essential component for the safe functioning of power and communications engineering systems and for ensuring personal and equipment safety.
Unwanted voltage potential differences are to be avoided by means of ground connections and grounding procedures. These voltage potential differences can occur between metallic components and ground, which can endanger human safety and/or technical equipment.
Metallic components must be connected to ground potential to prevent dangerous voltages. Voltage drops are reduced by grounding all non-voltage-carrying parts and by extensive ground potential equalization (grounding system). It is important to make sure these grounding connections have a low resistance. Resistance measurements must be made at both potential and ground connections to ensure that a sufficiently good low resistance connection is achieved and maintained.

Below is an example of application in power distribution where grounding and equipotential bonding and their good connection are important.  However, there are many other applications where grounding and equipotential bonding must be taken into account (Rail vehicles, aviation industry and aircraft maintenance, etc.). Typical applications for equipotential bonding and grounding are found in power distribution substations in low and medium voltage networks and especially in high voltage substations. The grounding of all non-voltage-carrying parts and extensive ground potential equalization reduce voltage drops that can occur due to capacitive or even inductive voltage coupling.

An example of these non-voltage-carrying parts is the mechanical disconnect switches used to remove a switchgear from service. Due to the need for human interaction with these physical switches, it is critical their grounding connection is not compromised. These straps are metallic braids secured via bolts to the switch and ground connection point. These straps can become poor conductors due to corrosion or physical damage. A compromised strap could lead to improper grounding of the switch causing a hazardous touch potential when the switch is to be used. To ensure the straps are functioning accordingly, the connection across them can be tested with a micro-ohm measurement. A failing strap will have a high resistance reading where as a properly conducting strap will have a low resistance reading. High resistance of the connection or, in the worst case, a failing strap could require the bolted connection points being cleaned and reconnected or the strap being replaced entirely.

Aside from bolted ground straps, the grounding connections can be bonded through exothermic welds. These welds result in superior mechanical and electrical bonding. Especially for conjoining dissimilar metals, such as joining a copper grounding rod to a galvanized metallic structure in a substation. These welds, when done properly, create a solid and reliable connection (Figure 2) Due to improper heating or unwanted moisture, the welds can have pitting or gaps (Figure 3) and be considered poor quality both mechanically and electrically. Performing a micro-ohm resistance measurement across these connections can give insight into the weld quality. The more solid the weld connection is, the lower the resistance reading will be. A poor quality weld could result in a less reliable grounding connection.

The PROMET SE is ideal because it is battery operated and does not require a mains connection. Some of the connections described may be at height so that the tester is standing on a ladder or similar. Without the battery operation, the meter would also require a portable generator. Finally, the PROMET SE is very lightweight and easy to transport.  It weighs less than 5 pounds and can be conveniently transported on-site to test the many ground connections.

When distributing electrical energy, it must be remembered that poor current connections cause losses that must be compensated for by additional power from the power generator.

The power loss at the contact point depends on the current and the resistance: P = I²·R

When transmitting high currents, the aim must therefore be to achieve the lowest possible contact resistance at the connection points. The contact resistance is influenced by several variables and increases in the course of the operating time due to aging. By testing at the installation site, a faulty connection can be detected and eliminated.

The quantity for assessing an electrical connection is the resistance. The resistance of an electrical connection is in the micro ohm range. These small resistance values require special measurement technology, such as resistance measurement in four-wire technique (Kelvin method).

In order to assess the quality of a connection, the PROMET SE and PROMET R300/R600 resistance measuring instrument is able to determine the quality of a connection. Due to two voltage measurement inputs, a simple and quick determination of the quality, e.g. of screw connections on bus bars, is possible. The determination is made via the quality factor. This is defined by the ratio of the resistance of the connection over the overlap length to the resistance of the bus bar of the same length.

The quality factor K is the ratio of the resistance R_CON of the connection over the overlap length l_CON to the resistance R_REF of the bus bar of the same length l_REF.

     K = R_CON/R_REF

     R_CON: Resistance of the connection
     R_REF: Resistance of the bus bar

Ohm published his results in 1826 and initially received little recognition. It was not until 1841 that Ohm received the Copley Medal of the Royal Society of London, which corresponds to today's Nobel Prize, as an award for his work. In 1893, the World Electrical Congress in Chicago gave the designation "Ohm" (sign Omega: Ω) to the unit of electrical resistance.

With Ohm's torsion balance galvanometer, only the first step in the development of resistance measuring instruments is described in this article. The history of resistance measurement shows the changes from the age of early experimenters to today's computer age, i.e. from measuring bridges to the first electronic devices to today's digital measuring systems. Developers always used the latest ideas and systems to make the products more useful and user-friendly. Technological change drove the development of measuring instruments and realized technological advances.