AbstractThe paper has proposed a distributed‐line model of a buried bare conductor with horizontal and vertical configuration by assuming an artificial insulator outside of the bare conductor so that the characteristic impedance and the propagation velocity of the buried conductor is evaluated as an insulated conductor (cable) by the cable constants/parameters of the EMTP. A shunt admittance is added to the conductor at every short distance to represent currents flowing into the earth from the original bare conductor. The admittance circuit and the parameters are evaluated either by experimental results or by published references of grounding electrodes. The model circuit has been applied to simulate transient currents and voltages on horizontal and vertical buried conductors, and the simulation results are compared with the measured results. It has been observed that the simulation results of the currents agree satisfactorily with the measured results, but the results of the voltages do not seem satisfactory. The reason for this has been discussed based on the measured results. © 2006 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.