The project will also produce seasonal variation correction factors for both deep drive and shallow trench installations to allow the existing and new GIS tools to respond to seasonal variations
The Phase 2 Electrical Earthing project: ‘Climate change and seasonal variation impacts on electrical earthing installations’ aims to investigate the temporal changes in earthing resistance. It is recognised that the earthing resistance of a system will change with time as the resistivity of the ground varies exponentially in response to changes in water content and temperature. In particular the value of legacy shallow trench earthing systems will be particularly affected. A number of climate change scenarios are available from climate modelling and these indicate that parts of the UK could experience dryer or wetter conditions and that the seasonal ranges of precipitation and temperature could be more extreme than today.
This project will provide qualitative and quantitative assessments of both seasonal changes and the impact of climate change on electrical earthing installations. The results of this study will provide a tool to identify those areas where earthing installations are most likely to go out of specification in future years.