Research Result Summaries

Substation H-Frame Inspection Report: EPRI was asked to provide a condition assessment of an H-Frame within a substation. The survey consisted of understanding the present condition, the weld integrity, the material loss through corrosion and the penetration rate of the pits.

Substation Ground Grid Corrosion Study 1: Gaps were identified within IEEE Std 81 “Guide for Measuring Earth Resistivity, Ground Impedance, and Earth Surface Potentials of a Grounding System” for identifying and locating corrosion damage within substation ground grids. To satisfy these gaps, EPRI has been developing methods based on soil characterization and electrochemistry to augment the existing methodology.

Substation Ground Grid Corrosion Study 2: Gaps were identified within IEEE Std 81 “Guide for Measuring Earth Resistivity, Ground Impedance, and Earth Surface Potentials of a Grounding System” for identifying and locating corrosion damage within substation ground grids. To satisfy these gaps, EPRI has been developing methods based on soil characterization and electrochemistry to augment the existing methodology.

Corrosion Monitoring System (CMS): The Corrosion Monitoring System (CMS) has migrated from a research tool into a standalone data collection system to help us understand corrosion anomalies and monitor “at risk” structures. The CMS has its own power supply, data collection, cellular connection and a host of atmospheric and subgrade sensors to identify changes in both the environment and the degradation rate of the asset. That data may be used to model conductor degradation, ground grid degradation or any asset in atmospheric or soil exposure. Perhaps the greatest benefit of deploying the CMS is understanding severe types of corrosion such as stray current or circulating current corrosion.