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One of the most current and widely discussed factors that could lead to the ultimate end of man's existence and the world at large is global warming. Global warming, described as the greatest environmental challenge in the 21st century, is the increase in the average global air temperature near the surface of the Earth, caused by the gases that trap heat in the atmosphere called greenhouse gases (GHGs). These gases are emitted to the atmosphere mostly as a result of human activities, and can lead to global climate change. The economic losses arising from climate change presently valued at $125 billion annually, has been projected to increase to $600 billion per year by 2030, unless critical measures are taken to reduce the spate of GHG emissions. Globally, the power generation sector is responsible for the largest share of GHG emissions today. The reason for this is that most power plants worldwide still feed on fossil fuels, mostly coal and consequently produce the largest amount of CO2 emitted into the atmosphere. Mitigating CO2 emissions in the power industry therefore, would significantly contribute to the global efforts to control GHGs. This paper gives a brief overview of GHGs, discusses the factors that aid global warming, and examines the expected devastating effects of this fundamental global threat on the entire planet. The study further identifies the key areas to mitigate global warming with a particular focus on the electric power industry.

Site dependent parameters such as soil resistivity, maximum grid current, fault duration, shock duration, surface layer material resistivity, and grid geometry have substantial impact on the design and performance of an earth grid. The grid geometry, i.e. the area occupied by the grid system, conductor spacing and the depth of burial of earth grid specifically have much impact on the mesh, step, touch voltage and earth potential rise, while parameters such as the conductor diameter and the thickness of the surfacing material have less impact on the safety criteria. In this paper, a distribution substation earth grid was designed using the CDEGS software by varying the spacing between grid conductors (compression ratio) from 1 to 0.5 in steps of 0.1. The safety criteria were studied under three scenarios, without surface layer material, with surface layer material of resistivity 3000Ω-m, and surface layer material of resistivity 5000Ω-m. Results indicated that the grid resistance and earth potential rise were lower for a compression ratio 0.9, while the step and touch voltages were found to be similar for each case of surface layer material.

Split factor is a fundamental consideration when designing a distribution substation earth grid. Arbitrary choice of split factor in earth grid design process may lead to technical and economic implications resulting in underestimated or overestimated designs. In this paper, a distribution substation earth grid was designed using SESCAD and executed in MALT module of CDEGS. The energization current was varied by 100%, 75%, 50% and 25% of the short circuit current available at the secondary terminals of the upstream transformer to determine the impact on safety criteria of the earth grid. Results indicated that, the EPR for 100% fault current was higher, whereas the step and touch voltages were lower. It was also revealed that, there was no difference in step and touch voltages when energization current was set at 75%, 50% and 25%.

Design of distribution substation earthing grid can be very challenging in high resistivity soils especially in two layer soils where the top layer resistivity is lower than the bottom layer. This paper presents the design of a distribution substation earth grid using Current Distribution Electromagnetic Field Grounding Soil Structure Analysis Software (CDEGS). Soil resistivity measurement was carried out at the substation site using a 4-pole Megger earth tester based on Wenner method. The soil structure was determined using RESAP module, while the design was implemented using SESCAD and executed by MALT module. Results indicated a slight reduction of earth grid resistance, 0.6%, 5.8% and 6.5%, respectively as the grid burial depth was varied from 0.5m to 1.5m in steps of 0.5m. The touch and step voltages were found to be lower when surface layer material was not applied and higher when surface layer materials of 3000Q-m and 5000Q-m resistivity were interchangeably applied on the grid surface. It was also found that, the calculated earth grid resistance from IEEE Std. 80-2000 equation was lower than the grid resistance computed by MALT.

Lightning related accidents in Nigeria, a country of high lightning density, have been collected and analyzed. Results show that lightning related human injuries and deaths are very high in Nigeria, where the actual figure may reach as high as 500 deaths per year. However, due to the social stigma attached to lightning incidents and the lack of unbroken news chains reaching media, collection of accurate statistics has become a daunting task. Apart from human and livestock related hazards; property damage is also of high concern due to probable devastating consequences of such incidents. Extra attention has been paid on collecting damage records related to aviation industry as there are several serious accidents related to lightning have been reported in this area. The data collected and analysed is used to develop a set of national level recommendations for lighting safety and protection which can also be applicable in neighbouring countries, as they also experience extremely high lightning occurrence density.

Earth resistance of buried steel cages, encased in bentonite mixed concrete has been investigated. A reference pit was constructed with steel cage encasing in ordinary concrete. The land mass of the site has somewhat uniform surface soil resistivity which is in the range of 100 Ωm. The performance of earth resistance in each electrode has been measured for five months. The results show that for the first month, the lowest earth resistance and the highest decrement in earth resistance are shown by the pit with concrete having 20% bentonite. However, for the following four months, pits with bentonite mixed concrete showed increased earth resistance compared to the reference pit. These results indicate that the long-term reduction in earth resistance in electrodes encased with bentonite, as observed in previous studies, is not the case with electrodes embedded in bentonite mixed concrete. The initial reduction of earth resistance observed at pits with bentonite mixed concrete may most probably be due to the presence of hydrated bentonite which is not mixed with other constituents of concrete. Other than the pits with 20% and 70% bentonite, the outcome of this research thus far reaffirms the capability of concrete blocks to maintain earth resistance with small fluctuation.