## 5 Conclusions  
The DC grounding electrode is affected by factors such as operating environment, service life, and external stress damage during operation, which will lead to corrosion and breakage at the connection between the feeder rod and the distribution cable in the local area, affecting the overall current dispersion performance of the grounding electrode. Therefore, aiming at the problem that it is difficult to detect the location of the breakage in the local area of the DC grounding electrode, this paper analyzes the current distribution law of the feeder rod in DC grounding electrodes, studies the impact of localized feeder rod breakage on the surface potential distribution characteristics of the grounding electrode, and proposes an Operational State Detection Method (OSDM) for DC grounding electrodes based on potential distribution. The conclusions are as follows:  
(1) After the local area of the DC grounding electrode is broke, the distribution current of some feeder rods near the broken area will increase slightly, but the distribution current of the remaining part of the grounding electrode is still approximately evenly distributed as a whole.  
(2) The surface potential value of the corresponding area after the breakage of the local area of the DC grounding electrode decreases. The more the number of fractures, the wider the range of surface potential changes.  
(3) According to the influence of local breakage of the DC grounding electrode on the change in the surface potential distribution, a detection method of the DC grounding electrode operation state based on potential distribution is proposed. Through case analysis and verification, the proposed method has high measurement accuracy and can realize the detection of the DC grounding electrode operation state.  
This method helps the power grid staff repair and maintain the broken grounding electrode in time, so as to avoid affecting the safe and stable operation of the power system due to the breakage of the grounding electrode. In addition, this paper focuses on the detection method of the DC grounding electrode operation state based on the surface potential distribution. Only the influence of a single feature quantity is considered, and the influence of local fracture of the grounding electrode on other electrical parameters (such as grounding resistance, step voltage, current distribution, and soil temperature rise) is not comprehensively considered. In the future, the detection method of the DC grounding electrode operation state based on multidimensional feature fusion can be studied, and the feature weight distribution can be carried out to further improve the measurement accuracy.  
Conceptualization, Methodology, Software, Validation, Writing--original draft preparation, Writing--review and editing: Y.J.; Supervision, Conceptualization: J.Z.; Funding acquisition, Supervision: Z.Z.; Conceptualization, Supervision: Y.D.; Formal analysis, Resources: H.W. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.  
This research received no external funding.  
**Informed Consent Statement:** Not applicable.  
**Data Availability Statement:** The original contributions presented in this study are included in the article. Further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding authors.  
**Conflicts of Interest:** Author [PERSON] was employed by the company State Grid Sichuan Chengdu High-Tech Power Supply Branch. The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.