PIPELINE GROUNDING CONDITION: A CONTROL OF PIPE-TO-

SOIL POTENTIAL FOR AC INTERFERENCE INDUCED

CORROSION REDUCTION

K.B. Adedeji†, B.T. Abe†, Y. Hamam†, A.M. Abu-Mahfouz*†, T.H. Shabangu† and
A.A. Jimoh†.
*
Department of Electrical Engineering, Tshwane University of Technology, Pretoria, South Africa.
†Meraka Institute, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Pretoria, South Africa.
Corresponding author: [email protected].

Abstract: The interference effect from high voltage overhead lines on nearby metallic pipelines is a
major challenge for utility owners due to the induced AC potentials on metallic pipelines.
Nevertheless, numerous mitigation techniques have been proposed in the past to curtail the effect of
AC potentials on pipelines. One of these techniques is the use of grounding conditions for the metallic
pipelines. In this paper, we present through modelling, the computation and comparison of the various
approaches for grounding metallic pipe installed near high voltage overhead lines for AC mitigation
purposes. A Rand Water pipeline installed near an Eskom 275 kV transmission line at Strydpan,
South Africa was used as a case study. The model simulation results of the studied network show that
the pipe grounding condition in which the pipeline isolated at both ends of the parallel region with an
insulating flange gives better performance in terms of AC potential reduction. This, in conjunction
with other AC mitigation techniques can reduce the level of AC potential to the barest minimum or
below a threshold in which AC corrosion possibilities are lower.

Key words: AC interference, pipeline, grounding, mutual impedance, pipe-to-soil potential.

1. INTRODUCTION (ii) 4 V when the soil resistivity is less than 25 Ωm [6].

For pipeline in perfect parallelism with the transmission
The problem of AC interference from high voltage lines, the magnetic line of flux cuts across the metallic
power lines on metallic pipelines has captured all-round pipe at maximum strength and as a result, the effect of the
recognition in the past years. This is due to the tendency inductive coupling is mostly felt. Moreover, with the
to locate metallic pipelines in the same utility corridor increasing human population, there are more tendencies
with transmission lines. In addition, due to the land use of installing pipelines in the same utility corridor with an
regulation and environmental issues, pipelines and power existing HVTL. Therefore, the threat posed by AC on
lines are now frequently being installed to follow the metallic pipelines increases. This makes it an important
same route. The currents flowing through the research area over the last years.
transmission line conductors produce a time varying
electromagnetic field which couples to metallic pipelines AC assisted corrosion has been a major challenge to
(buried or aerial) placed in parallel with the line. pipeline owners around the world. While it has gained
Unfortunately, the ground does not provide shielding to widespread recognition, the past years have seen a surge
magnetic field and therefore makes underground metallic of research activities in this area. Research activities in
pipeline in proximity to overhead high voltage this area, to mention but a few, include; the influence of
transmission lines (HVTLs) to be prone to inductive magnetic field distribution on metallic pipelines [8-11],
coupling from the lines. Consequently, voltage is induced induced voltage analysis on buried and aerial pipelines
in the pipelines. The induced voltage is known to [12-15], the influence of soil topologies on the induced
accelerate the corrosion process of pipelines [1, 2]. More potential on metallic structure from nearby faulted power
so, its effect on the operational condition of the pipeline line [16-18], the influence of energy demand on the
cathodic protection system has also been reported [3-5]. corrosion rate of pipelines [19]. In [19], the authors
revealed that pipelines installed in urban cities where the
Several standards and safety guides dealing with this energy demand is high has the greatest possibility of
problem are available in the published literature. These accelerated corrosion. Conversely, for pipes installed in
standards are meant to protect the pipeline from corrosion rural areas, AC corrosion possibility is minimal due to the
[6] as well as for operational personnel safety [7]. reduced energy demand. It follows, therefore, that in any
According to [7], the induced potential on pipes should of the cases, whether rural or urban cities, pipelines are
be mitigated if the value exceeds 15 Vrms, for personnel public asset and must be prevented from damage through
safety. More so, in order to reduce the corrosion AC corrosion. In the past, several AC mitigation
probability, the potential on the pipe at any point along techniques were reported to include the use of Faraday
the parallel route of the transmission lines should not cage, insulation joints, AC decoupling devices and pipe
exceed; grounding [20-24] to mention but a few. Even with the
(i) 10 V when the surrounding soil resistivity is greater use of these techniques, several cases of AC assisted
than 25 Ωm; and corrosion are still being reported [22, 24]. Pipeline

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 grounding is an equivalent of a reduction in the coating phase currents IR, IW, IB and the earth wire current can be
resistance of a pipe and has been reported to be an expressed as
effective means of reducing the AC induced potentials n
[23]. Ep I R Z Rp IW Z Bp I B Z Bp I gi Z gi p (1)
i 1

In this paper, the different pipe grounding conditions where, IR, IW, IB and Igi are the steady state currents in the
to arrest AC potential is examined through modelling. A phase conductors and the ith earth wires, and ZRp, ZWp, ZBp
Rand water pipeline installed in the energy utility , Zgip are the mutual impedances (Ω/m) between the phase
corridor of high voltage transmission line at Strydpan, conductors, the ith earth wire and the pipeline, n
South Africa is used as a case study. The rest of the paper represents the number of earth wires on the tower. The
is organised accordingly. Section 2 presents the potential drop across the ith earth wire due to the effect of
methodology used featuring the model description and the phase conductors can be expressed as
formulations. In Section 3, the simulation results of the
model were presented while Section 4 concludes the Vgi I R Z Rgi IW ZWgi I B Z Bgi (2)
paper.
Therefore, the currents in the earth wires Igi is given as
2. NETWORK MODEL Vgi 1
I gi I R Z Rgi IW ZWgi I B Z Bgi (3)
Z ggi Z ggi
2.1 Network of the HVTL and Pipeline Description.
The studied network consists of a single circuit where, Zggi denotes the self-impedance of the ith earth
transmission line in horizontal configuration (one of the wire. By substituting (3) into (1), the emf induced on the
Eskom transmission line at Strydpan, South Africa) and a pipeline is expressed as
buried pipeline of depth hp as illustrated in Figure 1. n Z Rgi Z gi p n ZWgi Z gi p
Ep I R Z Rp IW ZWp
i 1 Z ggi i 1 Z ggi
(4)
n Z Bgi Z gi p
I B Z Bp
i 1 Z ggi

The mutual impedance between a kth conductor and the

buried pipeline is given by equation [25, 26]

0 0 e
Zk p j log e k (R, W,B,gi ) (5)
8 2 Dk p

In (5), µ 0 represents the permeability of free space, ω is

the angular frequency of the line, Dk-p represents the
geometric mean distance (GMD) linking the R,W,B or gi
conductors and the pipeline. The earth’s skin depth (depth
of penetration) δe, with the earth relative permittivity µ r,
is expressed as [12, 27]

e (6)
0 r f

From (5), the GMDs linking each of the R-W-B or gi

Figure 1: Schematics of the study network (a) conductors and the pipeline or between the R-W-B phase
transmission line-pipeline right of way (ROW) (b) conductors and the ith earth wire can be derived using
coordinates of the pipeline-transmission lines. Figure 1 (b) from (7)
2 2 1/ 2
Considering the Figure 1, the pipeline with a radius rp is Dk p xp xk yk yp k (R, W, B, g i ) (7)
coated with fusion bonded epoxy with a coating thickness
of tc, runs parallel to the HVTLs for a distance L. The where xp represents the horizontal position of the pipeline
dimension of the transmission line tower obtained from across the transmission line ROW, yp=hp+rp+tc represents
the Eskom power utility is also illustrated in Figure 1. the pipe depth from the ground to the centre of the pipe.
Considering the single-circuit overhead line with ith earth Also, yk k (R, W, B, g i ) are the various heights of the
wire, each current in the phase conductors induces a
phase conductors or the earth wire from the ground
voltage on the pipeline through the appropriate mutual
surface while their horizontal position is represented by
impedance between the pipeline and the conductor. The
xk k (R, W, B, g i ) on the x-coordinate.
longitudinal emf induced on the pipeline due to the three-

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 More so from (4), Zggi denotes the self-impedance of the Dividing through by dx,
ith earth wire conductor and can be expressed as [25, 26]
d
I x YV x (13)
1 dx
0 0 e
Z ggi Rgi j log e (8)
8 2 4 RGM i Differentiating (13) with respect to x, results to
where Rgi and RGMi denote the AC resistance and the d2 d d
geometric mean radius of the ith earth wire conductor V x E x Z I x (14)
respectively. dx 2 dx dx
By substituting (13) into (14),
The equation (4) can be used to estimate the longitudinal
emf (V/m) induced on the pipe length exposed to the d2 d
transmission line in parallel route. Moreover, a pipeline V x ZYV x E x (15)
dx 2 dx
has a finite impedance to earth, which is strewn along its
length. Therefore, to estimate the pipe-to-soil potential at If ZY , then (15) can be re-written as
points along its length, the magnetic field coupling from
the transmission lines to the pipeline can be pictured as a d2 d
2
distributed induced emf source on the pipeline [25]. To V x V x E x (16)
this end, the pipeline can be modelled as a lossy dx 2 dx
transmission line having a series impedance Z (Ω/m) and where ɤ represents the propagation constant of the pipe.
a shunt admittance Y (Ω-1/m) as shown in Figure 2. The Z and the Y of a buried coated pipe is expressed as
[29]
1 f 0
Z f p 0 p
Dp 4
(17)
1 3.7 soil
j f p 0 p 0 f ln
Dp Dp 2 f 0

Dp Dp
Y j 2 f
0 c
(18)
t
c c tc

In (17), Dp denotes the pipe diameter, ρp represents the

resistivity of the pipe material (Ω.m), ρsoil is the resistivity
of the soil (Ω.m), µ 0 is the permeability of free space, µ p
is the relative permeability of the pipe material and f
denotes the operating frequency of the line. While in (18),
tc, ρc and ɛc represent the coating thickness, coating
Figure 2: Schematics of a pipeline-power line inductive resistivity and the relative permittivity of the coating
coupling (a) pipeline section parallel to a power line and material respectively. ɛ0 is the permittivity of free space.
(b) pipeline equivalent circuit [25, 28].
Along the length of the parallel section of the pipeline,
In Figure 2, E(x) represents the induced emf (V/m) the induced emf is constant under both steady state and
derived from (4) while Z1 and Z2 are the impedance at the fault conditions of the line [25], that is, E(x)=Ep.
termination ends of the pipeline (ends A and B). Therefore, to appraise the pipe-to-soil potential V(x)
Analysing Figure 2(b) using Kirchhoff’s law, along the length of the pipeline section at any point
V x ZdxI x E x dx V x dV x 0 (9) 0 x L , the equation (16) has a solution given by (19)
[25, 28]. Where in (19),
And from (9),
Z
dV x E x dx ZdxI x (10) Z0 , denotes the pipeline characteristic impedance
Y
Dividing (10) by dx, therefore, in (Ω).
d In order to adhere strictly to the safety regulations and
V x E x ZI x (11)
dx protection of pipeline from AC corrosion cases, the level
More so, considering the Figure 2(b) and applying of the estimated potential along the length of the pipe
Kirchhoff’s current law to node c, must be reduced. Several efforts for reducing the AC
potential effect using pipe grounding conditions have
I x I x dI x YdxV x (12) been proposed. As reported earlier in previous section,
pipeline grounding is an equivalent of a reduction in the
dI x YdxV x
coating resistance of a pipe and has been reported to be

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 L x L L x
Ep Z 2 Z1 Z 0 Z1 Z 2 Z0 e e Z1 Z 2 Z0 Z 2 Z1 Z 0 e e
V x L L
(19)
Z1 Z0 Z2 Z0 e Z1 Z 0 Z2 Z0 e

an effective means of reducing AC induced potentials AC resistance 3.44 10-3

[23]. At the ends of the parallel routing (ends A and B), Ω/m
impedances Z1 and Z2 are usually chosen to represent the Pipeline parameters
electrical characteristics of the pipeline parallel section Material type Steel
[25, 28]. The different conditions for choosing these Parallel exposure length 1000 m
impedances were compared in this paper. These Diameter 1000 mm
conditions are highlighted as the following cases [25]; Burial depth 1m
Case (i): The pipeline continues for several Coating type FBE
kilometres after the end of the parallel route with the Coating thickness 4 mm
power line (ends A and B); Z1=Z2=Z0. Coating resistivity 2 106 Ωm
Case (ii): The pipeline continues at x 0 and it’s
isolated at x=L (terminal B in figure 2) with an
insulating flange; Z1=Z0; Z2=∞. 3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
Case (iii): The pipeline is grounded at x=0 (terminal
A) and continues beyond x L; Z1=0; Z2=Z0. Figure 3 shows the profile of the pipe-to-soil potential
Case (iv): The pipeline is isolated at both ends of the on the pipeline placed at the transmission line servitude
parallel region (terminal A and B) with an insulating distance of 24 m suggested by Eskom [30] for the case
flange; Z1=Z2=∞. (i). Observing the figure, one can see that the maximum
potential occurs at both ends of the pipeline section, that
is, point x=0 and x=L. Beyond the point x=0 along the
2.1 Case study parameters. pipe length, the potential reduced drastically until it
Table 1 shows the case study parameters used for the reaches zero at the midpoint of the pipeline. Afterwards,
simulation. In the computation, the longitudinal induced it increases with distance till the other terminal end (end
emf on the buried pipeline below the power lines was B) of the pipe. One can deduce from this result that, with
obtained for a balanced system in which the current in the this type of condition, the maximum level of the potential
conductors is at a phase angle of 120o to one another. will occur at the start and end points of the parallel route.
More so, a symmetrical load current and homogenous soil
with a measured resistivity of 12.96 Ωm were considered.
The longitudinal induced emf was evaluated for the
pipeline placed at a horizontal distance of up to 24 m
measured from the centre line of the power line being the
transmission line servitude stipulated by Eskom in South
Africa for 275 kV–400 kV lines [30]. The computations
of the pipe-to-soil potential was performed and compared
for the four pipe grounding conditions. MATLAB
software was used for the computation and presentation
of result.
Table 1: Parameters of the studied transmission line and Figure 3: Pipe-to-soil potential on pipeline due to case (i)
pipeline. for the pipe grounding.
Transmission line configuration type Single circuit
horizontal
Operating voltage 275 kV
Number of bundle conductors 2
Conductor type Zebra
Template temp. 50oC
Thermal rating 676 MVA
Max. allowable current at 275 kV 410 A per
conductor
Earth wire parameters
Type 19/2.65 mm
galvanised
steel Figure 4: Pipe-to-soil potential on pipeline due to case (ii)
Diameter 13.48 mm for the pipe grounding.
Resistivity 45 10-8 Ωm

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 In Figure 4, the profile of the AC potential on the pipeline such as Faraday cage can be installed along the parallel
with the same condition of placing the pipeline in the route, though at the expense of cost of mitigation.
transmission line servitude, for the case (ii) is presented. Moreover, choosing an appropriate AC reduction
Analysing Figure 4, the AC potential for this case condition shall take into account a careful selection of the
increases gradually from a level, say 5 V, at the start pipe coating materials as it has an effect on the AC
(point A) to the end (point B) of the parallel route. The potentials on pipelines [28]. A detailed study on the effect
maximum induced AC potential at this point is lower of pipe coating on the AC induced potential can be found
compared to the one in Figure 3. in [28].

A similar result is obtained for the case (iii) as depicted in 4. CONCLUSION

Figure 5. In Figure 5, the profile of the AC potential
increases drastically from a level, say 3, at the start to end A comparison of the pipe grounding conditions for
point of the parallel route. While the potential at the start curbing the effect of AC potential on pipelines is
point (point A) is lesser than that of the case presented in presented. The case study further affirmed that a reduced
Figure 4, the potential at the other end of the parallel potential on pipeline can be achieved with different pipe
route (point B) is relatively high. grounding conditions. The model simulation results of the
studied network show that the case (iv) of the pipe
grounding conditions gives better performance in terms
of potential reduction on pipelines. The potential is
greatly reduced to near zero level with this condition.
This, in conjunction with other AC mitigation techniques
can adversely reduce the level of AC potential to the
barest minimum or below a threshold in which AC
corrosion possibilities are lower.

5. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors acknowledge the management of the
Tshwane University of Technology, the Council for
Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and Rand
Figure 5: Pipe-to-soil potential on pipeline due to case Water Company of South Africa for the financial support.
(iii) for the pipe grounding.
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