Verification of global earthing systems

This paper is dealing with the verification of global earthing systems (CGS) with a special focus on dangerous voltages to people (touch and step voltages) and to technical systems (telecommunication lines). CGS are defined in a way that no dangerous voltages occur [2], which might be a weak or incomplete definition. In this paper results from own and published earthing measurements [4], [5], [7], [8] (especially touch voltages) in different areas (city, villages, rural areas) are analyzed and compared to simulation results [6], [9] of global earthing systems. Additionally these results are compared to values of earthing systems of large substations and power plants. Measurements of touch and step voltages inside global earthing systems show that these values are far below given limits in standards. The question arises if this is true in all cases or if there are exceptions.