ABSTRACT
The structure of a district heating network lends itself to interactions among the grounding system of the generating plant, and those of the users, with the possibility that hazardous induced voltages may occur on the latter. Hazards are possible due to the bonding of the heating system pipes to customer’s grounding systems, as well as to possible high values of fault currents. District heating pipes are generally dielectrically separated in segments by means of insulating joints. An analysis of such joints shows that the hot water circulating in the pipes may bypass their insulation, rendering the effectiveness of the dielectric separation strongly dependent on the joint geometry, and on the water electrical conductivity. This chapter discusses possible schemes for the hot water pipe connections, and discuss their efficiency based upon the electrical configuration of the generation plant.
