#82: Earthing/Grounding Systems – Guidelines for Ensuring Safety

06/27/24 • 26 min

Learn about the European EN 50522 standard and its latest revision.

This episode examines the EN 50522 standard for earthing/grounding systems and its latest revision.

Earthing/grounding systems connect specific parts of an electric power system, typically the equipment's conductive surface, with the ground for safety and functional purposes. “Earthing” is the term used in European countries, whereas “grounding” is used in North America and other countries worldwide. In this episode, earthing experts Christian Raunig and Theodor Conner discuss the evolution of the EN 50522 standard in Europe, the work of standardization committees to minimize national deviations, and the guidelines it offers for the design and erection of earthing/grounding systems.

Christian Raunig has worked as an Asset Manager at Austrian Power Grid AG, a Transmission Grid Operator, since 2018. His focus is on earthing and interference issues. In addition to participating in national and European standards committees on earthing issues, Christian is chairman and representative in committees on neutral point treatment and grounding.

Theodor Connor has worked for Siemens AG on network planning projects in Germany and abroad for over 39 years. He has been involved in planning transmission and distribution networks worldwide, planning and analyzing earthing systems, and investigating major network disturbances and blackouts. Theodor has held leading positions in national and international committees, including DKE, CIRED, CIGRE, IEEE, CENELEC, and IEC.

More information about earthing/grounding can be found here.

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Learn about the European EN 50522 standard and its latest revision.

This episode examines the EN 50522 standard for earthing/grounding systems and its latest revision.

More information about earthing/grounding can be found here.

Previous Episode

#81: Cybersecurity in the Power Grid – A 360° View | Part 8

Minimizing cybersecurity vulnerabilities at the hardware level.

Welcome to the 8th episode of our Energy Talks miniseries, Cybersecurity in the Power Grid, in which we provide a 360-degree view of how power grids can best safeguard their infrastructures from cyber attacks.

This episode investigates why, in addition to software, hardware devices must be secured against cyber threats.

OMICRON hardware developer Marcel Ströhle describes how hardware cybersecurity is crucial to overall system security because hardware devices are another potential attack vector that can be easily neglected. Through examples of actual hardware attacks, he highlights how important proper cybersecurity is for your hardware applications and offers tips to ensure it.

Marcel shares his experiences securing hardware devices and describes how he and his team have developed reliable and robust hardware technology, such as the MBX2 mobile test set, used in OMICRON’s cybersecurity solutions.

Stay tuned for upcoming episodes in our Cybersecurity in the Power Grid miniseries. Learn more about OMICRON’s approach to cybersecurity in power grids.

Next Episode

#83: Challenges Faced in the Career of a Protection Engineer

Learn how changing technology, power systems, and maintenance practices affect protection engineers.

In this episode, we talk about the challenges protection engineers face over time due to the transformation of energy systems, advancements in protection technology, evolving maintenance requirements, and keeping up with the latest developments to do their work effectively. Two seasoned protection testing experts describe these challenges and suggest ways to address them based on their experience and expertise.

Ignaz Hübl studied electrical engineering at the Technical University of Graz in Austria. From 1987, he worked at KELAG-Kärntner Electricity as a protection technician in operations. Until his retirement in 2018, he worked in management positions at KNG-Kärnten Network. Until 2016, he was the Protection Technology Department chairman at Austria Energy. He has been with CIRED in the “Technical Committee, Session 3” since 2009. Since 2021, he has been chairman of CIRED in the “Technical Committee - Session 4” Protection, Control, and Automation.

Oliver Skrbinjek has several years of experience with protection technology in medium-voltage and high-voltage networks and with the entire process of automation technology within energy distribution. He heads the secondary technology department at Energienetze Steiermark in Austria. In addition to standardization and communication in energy distribution systems, his current focus is on protection technology, cross-system principles, expert questions, and information security in technical systems.

Ignaz and Oliver presented this topic at a recent OMICRON German User Meeting focused on protection and control technology.

More information about protection testing.