With the tremendous increase in demand for power and expansion of infrastructure comes greater risk for more workers on the job site. Although workers are thoroughly trained, high voltage accidents still take place. Even well-trained linemen may not often realize that nearby energization and faults in substation or transmission lines can result in dangerous conditions. Concern over these risks is what spurred The GroundHound inventors to find solutions to prevent shock incidents caused by the phenomenon of “Ground Potential Rise” (GPR), “Earth Potential Rise” (EPR) also called “Step & Touch”, “step voltage”, “touch voltage”, and “transfer touch voltage”. Their goal was to give high voltage workers on the ground warning of unexpected dangerous events. Ours was to build it to be accurate, safe to operate and provide high voltage workers with the best real time situational awareness possible.
Everyone from NASA to Medical Directors to Utility Safety Managers are talking about the need for paradigm shifts in their safety culture. Strategically changing the context in which people are operating requires employing advances in the state of risk analysis and in the status of the requirements and procedures. Not long ago workers had only a vague understanding of the phenomenon of “Ground Potential Rise” (GPR), “Earth Potential Rise” (EPR) also called “Step & Touch”, “step voltage”, “touch voltage”, and “transfer touch voltage”. Transients were something that was “known about” but could not previously be measured in real time. Clearly, high voltage workers needed a warning system that would alarm for different levels of danger so that they knew specifically what actions to take at each level. So, we introduced a site-safety instrument that can be controlled and read from a safe distance, using a smart phone. Like no other instrument on the market, it accurately records the data so operational changes can be made if needed.
Enabling Utilities to more effectively monitor, measure and record events that are a potential threat, assits the current safety culture of a Utility to move toward better integrated activities utilizing the best available technology.
The GroundHound system has been fully validated in the field with rigorous testing by Bonneville and Western Area Power Administration. Crucial to a safety instrumentation, the GroundHound is the only GPR monitor that has passed all Underwriters Laboratory safety testing and earned its safety marks.
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