In order to meet the safety requirement of the step voltage, the electrode site for the conventional horizontal earth electrodes is very demanding, but the vertical earth electrodes can effectively lower the step voltage, and greatly reduce the difficulty of searching the electrode sites. This paper based on the ground electrode of±800 kV Pu’er converter station, designs both the horizontal and vertical programs and calculates the main technical parameters of each scheme. The result shows that only the the vertical earth electrode can meet the design requirement. In view of the advantages of the vertical earth electrode, it will become an important electrode category for converter station.