Step Potential
When a problem happens at a tower or substation, the current goes into the ground. Depending on the soil’s resistivity distribution, there will be voltage in the ground. This can be dangerous for people near the grounding system, especially if they step in the direction of the voltage. Step Potentials occur when there’s a potential difference between a person’s legs, allowing electricity to flow. To ensure safety, calculations are needed to figure out acceptable step potentials and compare them to the expected step voltages at the site.

Dangerous step potentials, or step voltage, can happen quite far from a site. The more current going into the ground, the higher the risk. The soil’s resistance and layers are crucial factors in how risky a fault on a site might be. High soil resistance usually means higher step potentials. If the top layer has high resistance and the bottom layer has low resistance, the worst step voltages happen close to the ground electrode. Fault clearing time matters too. If it takes the electric company a long time to fix the fault, there’s a higher chance that the current could cause serious heart issues.

Touch Potential
When something goes wrong at a power tower or substation, the electric current can travel through metal objects and go into the ground. People touching things near the area where this happens might get shocked, which can be dangerous.

We advise our clients to maintain a meter’s distance from hazardous objects. If there are two or more things nearby, we use a two-meter rule. We use a three-meter rule, if someone might be using a tool with a long cord. This helps them make sure people stay safe from electric shock.

Choosing the right spots for reference points in Touch Potential calculations is super important to figure out how risky a place is. When we calculate Touch Potentials, we pick something specific, like a tower leg, as the first reference point. The farther the other point is from the tower, the bigger the potential difference.

We mitigate the problem by 
• Minimising Resistance to Ground
• Appropriate Placement of Ground Conductors
• Reducing Step and Touch Potential Hazards
• Telecommunication Lines in High-Voltage Environments