Measurement and prediction of electrical substation generated electromagnetic field

A strong magnetic field exists within high voltage substations. People living close to these substations have expressed concern about the external electromagnetic field (EMF) generated from these substations. Salt River Project (SRP) utilizes EMF WorkStation, a simulation software package developed by Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) to evaluate the EMF level for existing and future substations. The objective of this study is to measure and map the EMF field inside a selected SRP urban substation, compare field measurement with simulation results, and then provide an independent and impartial evaluation of the EMF WorkStation software. The comparison results show that EMF WorkStation is able to provide acceptable estimation of the EMF generated by the substation.