Controlled Large-Scale Tests of Practical Grounding Electrodes—Part I: Test Facility and Measurement of Site Parameters

This paper describes the establishment of a large-area outdoor experimental facility at the Dinorwig pumped-storage power station in North Wales for investigating the performance of practical grounding systems. The facility itself and arrangements of test electrodes and measurement equipment are described, providing a background for subsequent test methodologies. In addition, tests to determine the variation in the water and reservoir bed resistivities have been undertaken, resulting in a survey data set that better informs experimental work and simulations of vertical ground rod and grid electrodes. It is proposed that this facility may also be used to calibrate grounding meters and for validating computational modelling techniques. In a complementary paper, results of low-voltage dc, ac, and impulse tests of varying magnitudes are described, and experimental results are compared with computed values obtained from numerical models.