IEEE Standard 80 — Guide for Safety in AC Substation Grounding

IEEE Standard 80 (Guide for Safety in AC Substation Grounding) is the primary reference standard for the design and evaluation of grounding systems at AC substations operating at 1 kV and above. The current edition is IEEE Std. 80-2013 (Reaffirmed 2023).

The standard defines tolerable step voltage and touch voltage limits based on body weight (50 kg or 70 kg) and fault clearing time, and provides the methodology for calculating ground potential rise (GPR), mesh voltage, and step voltage across the grounding system.

Key IEEE 80 design steps include: soil resistivity testing per IEEE Std. 81, two-layer soil model derivation, ground grid conductor sizing, GPR calculation, mesh and step voltage analysis, and verification that calculated voltages are below the IEEE 80 tolerable limits.

E&S Grounding Solutions provides full IEEE 80 compliance services: soil resistivity testing, CDEGS modeling, ground grid design, step and touch voltage analysis, and PE-stamped engineering reports. We have completed IEEE 80 studies for substations from 4 kV to 500 kV on six continents.