Data acquisition system for continuous monitoring of grounding grids in energized substations

Grounding systems play an important role in electrical substations. They prevent grounding potential rise (GPR) during current fault events. GPR can cause the known step or touch voltages that can hurt people around the substations. Over time, grounding systems suffer from degradation such as materials erosion. This work proposes a new data acquisition system for continuously monitoring grounding grids in energized substations. The proposed system is based on a wireless sensor network that periodically measures both the current going to ground and the GPR in many points of the grid and then transmits the measurements for a coordinator that is connected to a gateway computer. This system enables remote and continuous evaluation of the grounding grid. The system has been implemented and evaluated with respect to its transmission and instrumentation modules.