Accurate design of substation grounding system aid expert system methodology

This paper presents an expert system approach for design and analysis of substation grounding systems. The methodology is applicable to equally spaced as well as unequally spaced grounding grids. The knowledge required to perform the substation ground design has been acquired from IEEE Std 80-1886, IEEE Std 142-1991 and safety practices and then represented by using production rules technique. Graphic user interface (GUI) is provided to familiarize the user with the proposed expert system. In this paper, general system structure as well as rules and data representations are discussed. An illustrative example is presented using a 132-kV transformers substation rehabilitation project of Misr Aluminum company. This expert system can assist grounding system engineer to obtain a safe grounding system which is one of most important design aspects of substations.