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Cable-Capacitance Discharge Time With and

Without the Application of Grounding Device

Article in IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications · March 2011

DOI: 10.1109/TIA.2010.2091380 · Source: IEEE Xplore

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286 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 47, NO. 1, JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2011

Cable-Capacitance Discharge Time With and

Without the Application of Grounding Device
Dev Paul, Senior Member, IEEE, Peniamin R. Chavdarian, Senior Member, IEEE, and
Vahik Haddadian, Member, IEEE

Abstract—This paper provides inherent cable capacitance, its of inherent cable capacitance, charged transient voltage, and
stored energy, its maximum transient voltage, and time to dis- energy and their discharging time profile with and without the
charge such a voltage and energy to a safe level with and without application of a grounding device. This discussion is based
the application of a grounding device. Maintenance procedures
require that appropriate grounding devices be applied to electrical upon an actual cold-ironing project at a specific port. To comply
equipment upon its deenergizing before performing inspection with new air-pollution laws, many large ports with large ships
or maintenance for safety reasons. The authors have not come all around the world are facing the challenge of implementing
across published literature describing how to determine the dis- cold-ironing infrastructure, and the design of such a power
charge time of an inherent cable-capacitance charged voltage. system must implement all components known to a power
Shore power supply to a berthing ship is called cold ironing; it
helps to minimize air pollution. In the cold-ironing power system system engineer for safety reasons.
design, medium-voltage heavy plug and receptacle assemblies are The authors performed a medium-voltage power system
required to make and break shore power connections to the ship analysis of cold-ironing projects [11], [12] and determined that
power system as the ship arrives and leaves the port after the there is a need of a cable-capacitance charged voltage/energy
cold-ironing operation. Therefore, there was a need to know the discharging device at some location in the power system, be-
discharge time of the cable capacitance without the application
of the grounding device for safety reasons. A recommendation cause the time of discharging the charged voltage to a safe level
for a future research project to develop a recording/measuring was close to an hour without the application of a grounding
device for the cable-capacitance voltage discharge time to validate device. Many ideas have been suggested such as follows: 1) Use
the calculated discharge time presented in this paper is included. a metal-clad breaker that grounds the load side automatically
For safe and efficient operation of the cold-ironing operation, (breaker available in Europe); 2) use a second cubicle close to
implementation of a grounding switch key interlocked with an as-
sociated main disconnect switch and power plugs (for discharging the main breaker to accommodate the grounding switch; and
quickly cable-capacitance voltage and charged energy to ground) 3) simply request that plug/receptacle assembly manufacturers
shall be included. provide grounding means properly interlocked so that, before
Index Terms—Cable capacitance, capacitance voltage profile, separating such an assembly, the cable system is discharged.
cold ironing, grounding switch, power receptacle. All these methods required for cable discharging are great, but
they have their own limitations and drawbacks. An in-depth
discussion of this subject is beyond the scope of this paper.
I. I NTRODUCTION This paper first provides a brief introduction of a cold-ironing
power system for readers to understand why we needed to know
T HE SHORE-SIDE power system infrastructure requires a
medium-voltage power system to provide large amounts
of power of up to 10–20 MW to bigger ships. The exact voltage
the discharging time of the medium-voltage cable system. Next,
it discusses the present day design of a cold-ironing power sys-
rating of such a power supply system lies with the ship’s tem requiring an individual feeder cable system disconnecting
owners, who make provisions inside the ships to receive shore switch and associated feeder cable discharging switch for each
power. At present, there are two common voltages, namely, 11 underground power receptacle vault. This cable discharging
and 6.6 kV, at 60 Hz, three-phase, and three-wire, at the ships switch method is the current thinking and recommendation
for shore power connections. This paper provides a discussion of Draft IEEE Std. P1713 [3], since it provides safety to
operators at all other underground receptacle vaults connected
to a dedicated shore power substation (see Fig. 1). Finally, the
Manuscript received January 29, 2010; revised May 18, 2010; accepted
electrical equivalent circuit and engineering calculations of a
June 27, 2010. Date of publication November 11, 2010; date of current version cable-capacitance voltage discharging time with and without
January 19, 2011. Paper 2010-PSEC-016.R1, presented at the 2010 IEEE/IAS the application of a grounding disconnect switch are presented,
Industrial and Commercial Power Systems Technical Conference, Tallahassee,
FL, May 9–13, and approved for publication in the IEEE T RANSACTIONS ON
which is the main subject of this paper.
I NDUSTRY A PPLICATIONS by the Power System Engineering Committee of
the IEEE Industry Applications Society.
D. Paul is with AECOM, Oakland, CA 94612 USA (e-mail: II. P OWER S YSTEM D ESCRIPTION
dev.paul@aecom.com).
P. R. Chavdarian is with The Port of Long Beach, Long Beach, CA 90802 The power supply infrastructure consists of a dedicated
USA (e-mail: chavdarian@polb.com). step-down power transformer substation, switchgear assem-
V. Haddadian is with The Port of Los Angeles, San Pedro, CA 907311 USA
(e-mail: vhaddadian@pola.org). blies, underground and above-ground parallel power feeder
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TIA.2010.2091380 cables, a communication cable, power receptacles, and a cable

0093-9994/$26.00 © 2011 IEEE

PAUL et al.: CABLE-CAPACITANCE DISCHARGE TIME 287

is necessary to optimize the spacing of such vaults to be every

200–250 ft apart along the wharf. Each AMP box may need
as many as four receptacles to meet the power demand. So far,
the available rating of such receptacles is limited to 350 A at
15 kV. Only one AMP box will be used at a time for the shore
power supply to a berthing ship at the port. This means that,
for safety reasons, during the cold-ironing operation, all other
AMP boxes should be under deenergized conditions for safety
reasons. This design is shown in Fig. 1, using two AMP boxes
with shore power supply cables connected to AMP box No. 1,
while the load-interrupter switch of AMP box. 2 will be in an
open position.
It is calculated that, without the application of an appropriate
grounding device, it may take up to 25–30 min for the stored
voltage and energy to go to a safe level; see Section III for
this analysis. To minimize operational time, increase safety
of the operators, and to provide protection to plug/receptacle
assemblies, a main disconnect and associated grounding switch
with proper interlocking are required. The operation of such
switching devices is limited to only when both power circuit
breakers on the shore side and the ship side are in the open
position. Without the application of an appropriate grounding
device, quick separation of the power plug and receptacle
assembly on isolated power cable assemblies may lead to an
arcing and unintentional contact with live elements of the plug,
or the receptacle may prove to be dangerous to the operators.
A one line diagram of the cold-ironing power system is shown
in Fig. 1. A complete power delivery system consists of three
cable sections as follows.
Section 1: AMP substation switchgear assembly (AMP-A) to
load-interrupter electrical switchgear (ES).
Section 2: Load interrupter (ES) to AMP box (1 or 2).
Section 3: AMP box (1 or 2) to ship power receptacle.
A CMS (flexible power cables with a built-in ground con-
ductor mounted either on the ship or on shore) will be used
to connect the shore AMP boxes with the ship. For simplicity,
Fig. 1 does not show elements of the ship power system because
it is not the subject of this paper. It should be stated that only
two AMP boxes with two power receptacles inside each AMP
box are shown in Fig. 1; however, as many as four AMP boxes
with each AMP box having up to four power receptacles can
be used depending upon the ship load requirements and their
berthing location at a particular project.

III. C ABLE C APACITANCE

Each cable section uses its own equipment grounding con-
Fig. 1. Cold-ironing project—power supply system.
ductor to comply with NEC Article 250-88 [4] requirements.
For the portable (CMS flexible) cable, this equipment ground-
management system (CMS) with matching power plug as- ing conductor is integrally built as part of the cable. The phase
semblies for each berth that requires a cold-ironing upgrade. conductors’ parameters, which contribute to the charged cable
A relatively longer and parallel set of cables is required between capacitance, are listed in Table I. All equipment grounding
the shore power source and the ship switchgear to meet the conductors and cable shields are bonded to equipment enclo-
berthing power requirements of the ship. Ships with different sure ground busses to ground each cabinet locally. With this
makes (year of make and country where they were manufac- installation configuration, all cable capacitances are between
tured) at a particular berth will be using shore power recep- each individual cable conductor and its shield/ground.
tacle vaults commonly known as alternative maritime power Parallel cables are relatively long, resulting in higher inherent
(AMP) boxes. To accommodate different ships at the berth, it capacitance. Therefore, at the end of the cold-ironing process,
288 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 47, NO. 1, JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2011

TABLE I
F EEDER C ABLE PARAMETERS

Fig. 2. Isolated cable system—π equivalent circuit.

Fig. 3. Isolated cable system—T equivalent circuit.

when cables are isolated from the shore and the ship (upon
automatic tripping of shore-side and ship-side power circuit The calculated values of the total insulation resistance
breakers), the cable system will be fully charged, with certain (RT ) and total insulation capacitance (CT ) for an actual
trapped energy and voltage on each phase conductor. Each cold-ironing project described in Section II with various pa-
phase will be at a different peak voltage and stored energy rameters included in Table I are shown in the following
depending upon the instant of switching. We will not go into expressions:
the detailed accurate analysis of the precise magnitude of the
1
stored energy or transient peak voltage at each phase other RT =  1 1 1
 = 1.282 × 109 Ω (3)
than the analysis of establishing the discharge time of such R1 + R2 + R3
voltage and energy to a safe level without the application of
the cable discharging device, which is the main subject of this CT = C1 + C2 + C3 = 3.441 × 10−7 farads. (4)
paper. The safe voltage (touch potential) level for shore power
The fully isolated shore power cable system electrical equiv-
operators is the subject of another paper [2], [10]; however,
alent circuits for the charged voltage and energy are shown in
currently, 30 V or less is the committee consensus to use in
Figs. 2 and 3. In each equivalent circuit, it should be noted that
IEEE Draft Std. P1713 [3].
no power supply current flows through the cable system linear
In the determination of a charged cable-capacitance volt-
inductance and resistance when the fully charged cable system
age and its discharge time, the first task is to establish the
gets isolated from shore power source voltage and the ship. It
magnitude of the cable system capacitance, which is related
is clear from the equivalent circuit that the cable capacitance
to cable parameters [5]–[9]. For cable-capacitance analysis
is responsible for retaining the charged voltage and associated
purposes, Table I provides basic and derived cable parameters
trapped energy. Since the cable system construction is uniform,
for the three cable sections used in the cold-ironing project
it can be assumed that the distributed cable capacitance and
(see Fig. 1).
insulation resistance are also uniform. The time constant (τ )
The cable insulation resistance (R) and cable insulation
of the equivalent circuit, which is equal to that of the RT CT
capacitance (C) are related to its basic parameters (Table I)
circuit, will not change if we assume a T equivalent or a
represented by the following expressions, respectively [5],
π equivalent circuit from the RT and CT parameters shown in
      Figs. 2 and 3.
D 1 1
R = K · log · · Ω (1)
d L n
  A. Cable-Capacitance Voltage
SIC
C = 7.35 ·   · L · n picofarads. (2) Consider that the cable capacitance is charged to supply the
log D
d system voltage. Various phases, a, b, and c, and line-to-neutral
PAUL et al.: CABLE-CAPACITANCE DISCHARGE TIME 289

Fig. 4. Isolated cable system—discharge voltage profile.

supply voltages can be represented by the following group

expression:
√ Fig. 5. Isolated cable system—energy discharge profile.
Va = 2V (sin ωt + 0)
√ three phase voltages. This transient voltage is represented by
Vb = 2V (sin ωt − 120) (10) and (11), with a calculated time constant of 441 s. Clearly,
√ there is no source voltage in the system except the charged
Vc = 2V (sin ωt − 240) (5) capacitance voltage and associated energy. To actually measure
such a voltage and to record the time constant are a research
where V represents the line-to-neutral rms supply voltage.
work for the future
If the shore power and ship power circuit breakers are tripped
simultaneously at the time when one of the three phase voltages − τt
VC (t) = V · e E (10)
is at its peak amplitude, then the initial peak capacitance
charged voltage (phase-ground) trapped on this disconnected − τt
VR (t) = V · e E . (11)
phase for a 6.6-kV power distribution system will be repre-
sented by This transient voltage shown in Fig. 4 will exponentially
√ 6.6 kV decay to zero after a considerable time if no grounding device is
V = 2· √ = 5.39 kV. (6) applied to discharge the voltage to the ground. The magnitude
3
of insulation resistance is very high, and it is acting like an open
circuit across the capacitance.
This RC circuit will discharge 93% of its voltage in five
B. Cable System—Circuit Time Constant
time constants, which will be 27.56 min, close to one-half
The transient voltage (V ) and associated time constant (τ ) hour. The remaining 7% voltage on the system, which may be
of the equivalent RC circuit for the cable system can be equal to 377 V (7% of 5390 V), can pose danger to the ship
shown by operator.
 t 
−
V = V (t) · e RT CT (7)
C. Cable-Capacitance Energy
τ = RT CT = 441 s. (8) Cable-capacitance (C) stored energy with voltage (V ) is
provided by (12) [8]
We expect some “sneak circuits” in the RC circuit that will
result in damping these transient voltages more quickly than the 1
Energy(EC ) = CV 2 (12)
calculated time constant of 441 s. Sneak circuits may be due 2
to some dust particles on the cable ends, or cable shields left
1  2
− t
connected to the switchgear bus on the shore-side switchgear, EC (t) = CT V e τE . (13)
2
or some other stray effects. To account for this sneak damping
effect, let us assume that the actual circuit time constant (τE ) is Maximum energy of one phase will be at time t = 0 as
equal to 75% of the calculated value, as indicated by (8). Thus, follows (see Fig. 5):
the time in minutes to discharge the cable-capacitance voltage 1
to 37% of its maximum expected voltage will be Energy = (3.441 × 10−7 )(5390)2 = 5.00 joules.
2
1 min
τE = 0.75 · τ · = 5.51 min. (9)
60 s
D. Capacitance Voltage Discharge Time
In other words, after 5.51 min, the voltage will be equal to
Using Grounding Device
1.994 kV (37% of 5.39 kV). This can be seen from a voltage
plot shown in Fig. 4, where the transient voltage profile of When a grounding device is applied to discharge the
capacitance and insulation resistance are equal in magnitude charged cable capacitance, it will appear as a resistive
with decay governed by (7). This voltage decay is of one of the path in parallel with the RC circuit. For simplicity of the
290 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 47, NO. 1, JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2011

cable-capacitance voltage discharge time analysis using a disconnect switch cannot be operated unless the shore power
grounding device, let us assume that the grounding device circuit breakers on the shore side and ship side are both in
has a 1-Ω resistance which will make the equivalent value an open position. To enhance equipment protection and safety
of insulation resistance (RT ), shown in (3), so low that the of the operators, additional audio/visual communication cable
time constant indicated in (8) will be practically zero. This systems between the shore-side operators and ship on-board
indicates that the grounding switch is very effective in dis- operators should be implemented in a cold-ironing project. This
charging the charged cable voltage to the safe level needed for type of design assures the safe operation of grounding switches
an operation of the plug/receptacle assembly in a cold-ironing before heavy plug and receptacle assemblies can be operated
project. under a deenergized cable system [3].
The question is how to measure the discharge time of the
charged cable system shown in Fig. 4. It appears that any
recording or measuring device applied to the isolated cable IV. C ONCLUSION
system to measure or to record the voltage profile will act as 1) A fully isolated cable system with an inherent capacitance
a grounding device. This could be a future research project charged voltage discharge profile and charged energy
where, perhaps, optical devices may be required to record the discharge profile has been presented in this paper with
voltage and trapped energy in the cable system. and without the application of a grounding device. In
the example presented in this paper, it should be noted
E. Capacitance Voltage Discharge Grounding Device that it may require more than one-half hour before the
cable-capacitance charged voltage will decay to a safe
Appropriate grounding devices should be applied to the level without the application of a grounding device. As
isolated cable system for the safety of personnel handling the expected, with the application of a grounding device, the
portable cables and associated heavy power plugs/receptacle voltage will disappear instantaneously.
assemblies. The safety of the operators is related to the touch 2) A discussion of the design requirements of a ground-
potential at the isolated plug/receptacle assemblies. Much lit- ing device for discharging the cable-capacitance voltage
erature is available on this subject of safe touch potential, to safely use the power plug and receptacle assembly
which relates to an excellent technical paper by Dr. Dalziel has been included in this paper. As shown in Fig. 1,
[10]. Safety from touch potential can be achieved by de- each feeder disconnect switch is key interlocked with a
signing special grounding-type circuit breakers (one on each grounding switch and power plugs to assure the safe op-
side of the cable system), which will automatically ground eration of the power plugs. This design recommendation
the cable system when they are in the open position. Such a shall be included in IEEE Draft Std. P1713 [3].
design would require a full-size cubicle next to each feeder 3) Future research is needed to develop a measuring method
breaker compartment in the shore-side switchgear plus a similar that may record the cable-capacitance transient voltage
grounding device cubicle on each ship that will receive shore and decay time of the cable RC circuit discussed in this
power. Such grounding cubicles might not be cost effective paper. This is needed to validate the cable discharging
and will require space both on shore and on ships, particularly time derived using an electrical equivalent circuit in this
when there are multiple feeder cable circuits to multiple AMP paper.
boxes connected to a single dedicated shore power transformer
substation. An alternative grounding method is to develop a
grounding device that may be an integral component of the R EFERENCES
power plug and receptacle assembly to ground the isolated [1] National Electrical Safety Code, NESC-C2, 2007.
cable system. Such a device needs to be interlocked with the [2] IEEE Guide for Maintenance, Operation, and Safety of Industrial and
Commercial Power Systems, IEEE Std. 902, 1998.
shore-side and ship-side power circuit breakers so that the [3] IEEE Recommended Practice for Electrical Shore-to-Ship Connections,
grounding device will ground the cable system when it is fully IEEE Draft Std. P1713, Sep. 2009.
isolated from both circuit breakers. However, the development [4] National Electrical Code, NFPA 70, NEC 2008, 2008.
[5] Engineering Data for Copper and Aluminum Conductor Electrical
of a grounding device that will drain the trapped capacitance Cables, Bulletin EHB-98, Okonite Company, Ramsey, NJ, 1998.
voltage and associated energy to the ground before attempting [6] D. S. Baker, “Charging current data for guesswork-free design of high-
to separate the plug and receptacle assembly is a future research resistance grounded systems,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl., vol. IA-15, no. 2,
pp. 136–140, Mar./Apr. 1979.
project for the manufacturers of power plug and receptacle [7] Electrical Transmission and Distribution Reference Book, 4th ed.,
assemblies. Westinghouse Electric Corp., East Pittsburgh, PA, 1964.
As shown in Fig. 1, the individual feeder circuit system to [8] A. Greenwood, Electrical Transients in Power Systems. New York:
Wiley, 1971.
each AMP box can use load-interrupter switchgear assembly [9] IEEE Recommended Practice for Electric Power Distribution for Indus-
using one feeder disconnect switch and an associated grounding trial Plants, IEEE Std. 141-1993, 1994.
disconnect switch. The feeder disconnect switch and associ- [10] C. F. Dalziel and W. R. Lee, “Lethal electric currents,” IEEE Spectr.,
vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 44–50, Feb. 1969.
ated grounding switch and plugs shall be key interlocked to [11] D. Paul and V. Haddadian, “Cold ironing—Power system grounding and
assure that the grounding switch cannot be operated unless safety analysis,” in Conf. Rec. IEEE IAS Annu. Meeting, Hong Kong,
the feeder disconnect is in open position. This key-interlocking Oct. 2–6, 2005, pp. 1503–1511.
[12] D. Paul and P. R. Chavdarian, “System capacitance and its effects on cold
scheme will not allow operation of the power plugs unless the ironing power system grounding,” in Proc. ICPS Conf., Dearborn, MI,
grounding switch is in closed position. In addition, the feeder May 2006, pp. 1–11.
PAUL et al.: CABLE-CAPACITANCE DISCHARGE TIME 291

Dev Paul (M’73–SM’90) received the M.S. degree Vahik Haddadian (M’97) received the B.S. de-
in electrical engineering from Punjab University, gree in electrical engineering from the University of
Chandigarh, India, in 1971. Southern California, Los Angeles.
In 1972, he joined Kaiser Engineers, which after He is currently the Chief Electrical Engineer with
merging with other design engineering companies is The Port of Los Angeles, San Pedro, CA, responsi-
currently AECOM, Oakland, CA. As a Design Engi- ble for implementing cold-ironing infrastructure for
neer, he has worked in a variety of heavy industries, cruise and container ships. He participated in the
Department of Defense and Department of Energy design, construction, and testing of the world’s first
facilities, and commercial and electrified rapid transit container ship cold-ironing project at The Port of
projects. Currently, in the transportation division in Los Angeles. He has worked on various port facility
the Oakland, CA, office, he is the Senior Project projects and has supervised the design, construction,
Director responsible for electrical work related to cold-ironing projects, airport and testing of such projects.
projects, and ac/dc rail transit projects. He is the author of 20 technical papers Mr. Haddadian is a very active working member of the committees re-
which have been published in American Public Transportation Association and sponsible for developing IEEE/ISO/IEC Standard P1713 for the shore power
IEEE conference proceedings. connection to ships and the Draft IEC Standard “High Voltage Shore to Ship
Mr. Paul is an active member of many IEEE committees responsible for up- Plug and Socket.” He is a Registered Professional Engineer in the State of
grading the Color Book series into mother books. In the past, he has served as a California.
Treasurer and Vice-Chair for the IEEE/IAS Oakland Eastbay Chapter. He is the
Vice-Chair of the committee developing Draft IEEE/ISO/IEC Standard P1713
on shore power connections to ships. He is the Chairperson of the Draft IEEE
Standard P1627, “Standard for Grounding Practices for DC Electrification OCS
including Application of Lightning Surge Arresters.” He received the Ralph H.
Lee award from the IEEE for his paper on “DC Power Systems Grounding”
in 2002.

Peniamin “Ben” R. Chavdarian (M’65–SM’03)

received the B.S. degree in electrical engineer-
ing from California Polytechnic State University,
San Luis Obispo.
Currently, he is the Chief Electrical Engineer
with The Port of Long Beach, Long Beach, CA,
responsible for providing guidance on the design and
construction of port facility projects, including major
power system infrastructure upgrades requiring plan-
ning and implementation of cold-ironing projects.
Other projects include crane power supply bus-bar
design, high mast lighting, communication system, telephone system, security
system, public address system, closed-circuit television, fire alarm system, and
wireless communication system.
Mr. Chavdarian is an active member of the committees developing Draft
IEEE/ISO/IEC Standard P1713 on shore power connections to ships and Draft
IEC Standard “High Voltage Shore to Ship Plug and Socket.” He is an expert
member of the U.S. National Committee of the IEC. He has served the local
IEEE/IAS chapter for many years and has been a member of the City of Los
Angeles Technical Advisory Code Committee since 1979 and a member of
the National Council on Qualifications for the Lighting Professions (LC) since
1999. He is a Registered Professional Engineer in the State of California.

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