Issued by Chief Engineers Division

Electrical Technical Note

ETN 11/02
Reissued 12/02/2013
Earthing Designs for RailCorp’s High Voltage AC system
Expires
This ETN stipulates design requirements for step, touch and transfer potentials with 12/02/2015
regard to HV earthing designs for RailCorp.

This ETN supercedes ETN 10/04 issued 30 July 2010. There are no material
changes between ETN 10/04 and this ETN.
Audience
Standards • Infrastructure Maintenance
Engineers
Earthing designs shall use the latest versions of relevant RailCorp, Australian and • External and Internal Earthing
international standards, and industry guides. In particular, the provisions of the Designers
following documents must be followed to provide an outcome that has used the • Designers
ALARP principles and is acceptable to RailCorp: • Electrical Construction
Engineers

1. ENA EG1-2006 Substation Earthing Guide

2. AS/NZS 60479.1:2010 Effects of current on human beings and livestock –
General aspects
3. ENA C(b)1-2006 Guidelines for design and maintenance of overhead
distribution and transmission lines Main Points
4. AS/NZS 4853:2000 Electrical hazards on metallic pipelines • Supercedes ETN 10/04
5. AS/NZS 3835:2006 Earth potential rise, protection of telecommunications • Step, Touch & Transfer
network users, personnel and plant Potentials and Compliance to
6. RailCorp Signalling Standard SPG 0729 Specification – Signalling Power prescribed Standards.
Systems • RailCorp Guidelines to be
implemented.
RailCorp standard arrangements shall be used where such arrangements are • Design Management process
available and can be applied to the site specific design. Where the Designer has to be followed.
determined that RailCorp standard arrangements are not suitable, the Designer • Information required at each
shall provide justification for not using them. Under these circumstances it is stage of Technical Review
preferred that the standard arrangements be modified to suit the site specific
requirements.

Application
Step potential
Contact
AS/NZS 60479.1:2010 is primarily concerned with heart fibrillation limits which allow Neal Hook
significantly greater step potential limits as compared to ENA EG1-2006. However, 8922 1133
the more widely accepted approach of ENA EG1-2006 shall be used for step
potential control limits for RailCorp designs.
Disclaimer
This document was prepared for use on the RailCorp Network only.
RailCorp makes no warranties, express or implied, that compliance with the contents of this
document shall be sufficient to ensure safe systems or work or operation. It is the document
Distribution
user’s sole responsibility to ensure that the copy of the document it is viewing is the current
version of the document as in use by RailCorp.
RailCorp accepts no liability whatsoever in relation to the use of this document by any party, and Open
RailCorp excludes any liability which arises in any manner by the use of this document.
Copyright
Last Open Distribution
The information in this document is protected by Copyright and no part of this document may be
reproduced, altered, stored or transmitted by any person without the prior consent of RailCorp. ETN 11/01

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Electrical Technical Note
ETN 11/02
Reissued 12/02/2013

Touch potential

1. Touch potential limits for both ENA EG1-2006 and AS/NZS 60479.1:2010 shall be determined.
2. For determinations using ENA EG1-2006, “50kg limits” shall be applied to area with public access, while
“70kg limits” shall be applied to other areas.
3. For determinations using AS 60479.1:2010, left hand to both feet touch potential limits shall be determined
using Table 2 Body impedances for large surface areas of contact in water-wet conditions with
ƒ Body impedance for less than 5% of population
ƒ Contact resistance inclusive of 1100 Ohms per shoe for areas not accessible to the public
ƒ Contact resistance without shoes for areas accessible to the public
ƒ Contact resistance of zero for hand to metal
ƒ Compliance not exceeding the AC-3 region defined in Table 11 and depicted in Figure 20.
ƒ 70% of the defined limit as a safety factor with reference to Note 1 of Table 2 in the AS/NZS
60479.1:2010.
4. Where the limits derived from ENA EG1-2006 are higher than those from AS/NZS 60479.1:2010, these
limits shall be used as the upper and lower limits of the tolerable region in the risk assessment. An ALARP
assessment in accordance with RailCorp document SMS-06-GD-0031 Hazard Identification and Safety
Risk Assessment shall be carried out.
5. Where the limits derived from AS/NZS 60479.1:2010 are higher than those from ENA EG1-2006, the EG1
limits shall be used and the ALARP assessment is not required.

HV aerial line pole earthing

Limits for step and touch potentials derived from ENA C(b)1-2006 may be used as the upper limits of the tolerable
region if:

1. All reasonable and practical attempts at compliance to EG1 and AS/NZS 60479.1 have been exhausted
and compliance can not be reasonably and practically achieved, and
2. The earthing system is outside the 800m zone of protection required for substation lightning mitigation

System Substation Physical Implementation for Design Redundancy

System substations are typically a critical element in maintaining compliance with applied earthing standards over
an area which is generally much wider than the substation alone. Hence RailCorp system substations should not
be designed to rely heavily on one part of the earth grid.

All System Substation earth grids shall be designed to ensure;

1. Compliance with RailCorp Standard EP12100010SP,
2. There is no reliance on a single wire connection to electrodes or any part of the grid, which if broken may
cause non compliance to the applied safety standards,
3. No electrode in a high voltage system substation shall be designed to provide more than 10% current flow
to earth with respect to the remaining substation earth grid.

Design Process
All earthing designs shall be done in accordance with RailCorp Engineering Design Procedures. In particular, a
Hazard and Risk Assessment shall be done in accordance with RailCorp Design Procedure EPD 0008 Technical
Reviews and document SMS-06-GD-0031 Hazard Identification and Safety Risk Assessment.

Earthing design deliverables shall be provided for each stage of Technical Review in accordance with Appendix 1
of RailCorp Design Procedure EPD 0013. These requirements are repeated and further elaborated below:

SDR
• Site Investigation and Hazard Assessment. This should include all services search data, and documented
Preliminary Hazard and Risk Analysis.

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Electrical Technical Note
ETN 11/02
Reissued 12/02/2013

• Soil Resistivity Measurement and Modelling. This should include

a. Resistivity profiling planning based on review of services search
b. Resistivity profiling implementation with metal detection over the intended traverse
c. Interpretation of the resistivity profiling
• AC fault level calculation / information.
• Design Targets. Limits for step, touch and transfer potentials shall be assigned for all identified hazards.

PDR
• Fault Current Modelling and Distribution
• EPR Calculation. This should include calculation of any identified Transferred EPR.
• Step and Touch Voltage Calculation

Design solutions to achieve the design targets shall be provided and demonstrated through the modelling and
calculations listed above. The Preliminary Hazard and Risk Analysis shall be updated, as required, particularly
when further hazards and risks are identified in the design process.

CDR
• Final Earthing Design Report. This should include final calculations and analysis, as well as the final
Hazard and Risk Analysis.
• For Construction Drawings and Information.

Wilfred Leung
A/Chief Engineer Electrical
Dated: 09/02/2011

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