Comparison study of usage as grounding electrode between galvanized iron and copper with and without earth additive filler

With increasing price-hike for copper and its vulnerability to theft, there is some concern to telecommunications, utility company and building contractors to find an alternative material to copper as a grounding network. It has been known that galvanized iron is one type of steel that has been used extensively as a strengthener in pole construction, especially in Malaysia. Because of its electrical characteristics and reasonably low price, galvanized iron also can be considered as an alternative to copper as a grounding material. In this paper, evaluation is being done in order to verify the performance of stranded galvanized iron as grounding network. Mock up systems with both copper tape and galvanized iron wires have been constructed in the same site, which having 2 layer soil models based on soil resistivity measurements which have been conducted and simulated by using Current Distribution, Electromagnetic Fields, Grounding and Soil Structure Analysis (CDEGS) software by Safe Engineering Services & Technologies Limited. The performance of both copper tapes and galvanized iron wires has being monitored for 6 months from the installation date. By referring to the measured data, the performance of both copper and galvanized irons can be viewed and compared. The results prove that there is significant effect of better usage of copper as grounding electrode compared to galvanized iron, in terms of overall grounding impedance of the systems, based on 25 weekspsila data, especially for grounding systems which have been added with earth additive filler (EAF).