A Primer on a Good Instrument Grounding System

by William (Bill) L. Mostia, Jr. PE, SIS-TECH Solutions

Introduction
The origins of this paper stem from questions asked of the author about instrument grounding systems over the years and the fact that there are repeated questions about instrument grounding on the various technical mail lists that the author belongs to. It seems that each new generation learns anew. Also, there are not too many good grounding references that are written strictly from an instrument perspective, particularly for the process industries. This paper is based in part from training courses and workshops given by the author on this subject over the years. Grounding in the general sense can be quite a complex and technical subject. It can range from grounding power distribution systems to grounding small scale electronics in chips or on boards used in computer systems, from instrument systems to communications systems, and from lightning protection systems to protection of electronics from static electricity sparks that can jump off of our fingers. Grounding can be the ultimate common cause due to its ubiquitous nature of connecting everything electrical together and a great unknown because much of it and its operation are invisible to us, couched with uncertainly. For this paper we are interested in grounding as applied to instruments systems (DCS, PLC, BPCS, etc.) and what makes up a good instrument grounding system and why. It is not the intent to cover all the details about instrument grounding systems (which would take a book or two), but rather some of the basic principles and practices that make up good practice for instrument systems and their technical basis.

Why Do We Ground?
Why do we ground and what reasons are pertinent to our discussion? The main reasons we ground are: 1. Personnel safety 2. Electrical system protection 3. Lightning protection 4. Electrostatic discharge protection 5. Electrical noise control 6. Intrinsic safe circuits 7. Power quality 8. To provide a reference plane for our electrical and electronic circuits & systems

We are going to look at each of these in regards to how instrument systems may fit in. Before we get in too far, we must divide the instrument systems up the incoming power side, which is nominally the AC side, and the instrument side, which is nominally the DC side (see Figure 1). The DC side can be further divided up into the DC power side (nominally 24 VDC), control, and the signal side (both powered by DC). The AC and DC power sides are normally isolated through transformers while on the DC side the power and signal are shared. The grounding system is typically shared by both sides for reasons to be discussed later. Our discussion will be primarily about the DC side.
AC Side DC Side

Incoming Power

AC Power

DC Power

Control

DC Signal (I/O)

Field

Figure 1
1. Personnel Safety Personnel safety is always a concern. This is primarily a concern on the AC side (or high voltage side) of the instrument system. Maintenance personnel test and repair instrument systems and the Operator can also interact with the instrument systems frontend and field instruments. Because of the low voltage on the instrument side, this side is often worked without concern about electrical shock (nominally 24 VDC). An Instrument Tech may be in for a rude surprise, even a fatal one, when working on an instrument circuit where you have an ungrounded DC instrument circuit that has somehow come into contact with a higher voltage source (e.g. 120 or 277 VAC), which did not trip the high voltage circuit over current protection. The National Electrical Code (NEC) Article 250 and other application specific NEC Articles provides requirements for grounding for personnel safety. [1] This is a US code, also known as

National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) 70, which is used worldwide, however, each country or legal identity may have their own electrical code or provide additional requirements to the NEC. You cannot take exception to requirements of the NEC or similar codes just because the system is an instrument system, not an electrical system. Equipment grounding and bonding are used to help insure that there is a low impedance path back to the source during the fault conditions. [1,25] This allows the system over current protection to open up and protect the electrical system and remove dangerous voltage from the circuit in a timely manner. Figure 2 illustrates how you may serve as a grounding conductor if the over current protection does not open during a fault to the frame of a piece of equipment due to a high resistance ground return path through the frame. Common codes and standards grounding for personnel safety are: NFPA 70, National Electric Code (NEC), Article 250 and specific application Articles. [1] IEC 60364, Electrical Installations for Buildings, Part 5, Section 54 [2] IEEE 142 Std. IEEE Recommended Practice for Grounding of Industrial and Commercial Power Systems (commonly called the Green Book), [3] IEEE Std. 80 - IEEE Guide for Safety in AC Substation Grounding. [4] Electrical Instruments in Hazardous Locations by Ernest C. Magison [17] has an excellent chapter human electrical safety. The Soars Book on Grounding and Bonding [16] is an excellent general reference on grounding and has a chapter on grounding of electronic systems.

Return
Figure 2
Electrical System Protection The NEC also provides requirements for electrical protection to limit the damage to equipment and wiring. This is also safety related in regards to minimize the potential of a fire caused by an electrical source. From an instrumentation perspective, a properly designed grounding system for the AC side of our instrument system can minimize the potential damage to equipment from an electrical fault, surge, lightning strike, etc. and contribute to the reliable operation of the equipment. [26] Figure 3 illustrates the operation over current protection via the equipment ground during an electrical fault.

Figure 3
Common codes and standards grounding for this are essentially the same as those for electrical safety given above. NEC Article 250-50 also requires that all grounding electrodes that are present at each building or structure served shall be bonded together to form the grounding electrode system (commonly called a ground grid in petrochemical facilities). [1] This has given rise to the one of the most controversial aspect of grounding in regards to electronic and digital instrumentation as to whether it is necessary to connect the DC side of the instrument system to that noisy, nasty electrical safety ground. In the early days of the DCS systems, the manufacturers commonly called for an isolated, clean ground. This requirement has for the most part been superseded, but still raises its ugly head occasionally, both as a manufacturers requirement and in questions raised on various internet forums. The answer to the question by NEC is a solid Yes. We will talk about why this is actually a good idea later in the paper. It should also be noted that there is no such thing as a clean ground which will also be discussed later. 3. Lightning Protection Lightning is always a concern for instrumentation systems and increasingly so with new technology that has smaller and smaller dimension high speed digital circuitry, signals with increasingly smaller signal-to-noise ratios, and tighter common mode specifications. These make our digital instrumentation more sensitive to lightning RF generation, induced currents, and power quality disturbances.

The common standards applied to lightning protection are: NFPA 780 Standard for the Installation of Lightning Protection Systems, [5] API 2003 Protection Against Ignitions Arising out of Static, Lightning, and Stray Currents. [6] If you dont get your lightning protection right, you will have equipment failures in your DCS and PLC systems. Grounding is an important part of this. We will talk a bit more about this later in the paper when we talk about grounds and ground grids. 4. Electrostatic Discharge Protection Electrostatic discharge is primarily a concern in the handling, touching, or being in close proximity to digital based electronic chips and cards. Analog electronics are not as sensitive to electrostatic discharge. There are standard manufacturers recommended grounding practices for handling digital equipment that should be followed. It is also common practice for raised floor installations to specify a resistivity for the floor tile or a resistance to ground specification. For example, the IBM spec [7] is no greater than 2 x 1010 ohms to the ground reference. ANSI/ESD S20.20 has a specification of 1 x 109 ohms. As you can see a little ground goes a long way when dealing with static electricity but it is necessary consideration. This is normally satisfied by specifying the proper floor tile, the design of a good floor stringer grounding system, and using grounding wrist straps when needed. Static electricity can also generate radio frequency interference (RFI), which can interfere with the proper operation of instrumentation with lightning being the extreme case of this. The author is aware of a control room installation where the operators chair seat backing crinkled as the operator adjusted themselves in their chairs, which generated small, static electricity discharges which generated RFI that interfered in their control displays. 5. Electrical Noise Control Electrical noise is always a concern in instrumentation and electronic systems, but not as much in electrical systems (though modern electrical equipment many times have digital based monitoring and communication systems associated with them). Noise is any electrical signal present in a circuit other than the desired one. All electrical and electronic circuits have noise in them. Interference is when the noise has an undesirable or detrimental effect on the operation of a circuit or system operation. A common refrain is that ground is a place to drain your noise to. The ground is not a sump for noise and can actually be a source of noise. A basic principle of circuit electricity is that electricity always seeks to return to its source. This principle applies to the noise we are interested in, i.e. once coupled into a circuit, noise always works in complete circuits, and ground can serves as a return path for noise. For instrumentation systems, most noise of interest is coupled into the instrumentation circuits by four basic methods Capacitive, inductive, radiated, or conducted (See Table 1). We will talk more about this later in the paper when we talk about grounding in regards to shielding.

Table 1

6. Intrinsic Safe Circuits For facilities that use intrinsic safe circuits to satisfy requirements for instruments in electrically classified hazardous areas, grounding can be an issue for certain types of intrinsic safe barriers. Zener type of barriers (Figure 4) requires a high integrity ground to shunt any dangerous electrical energy to ground. The nominal grounding specification is a maximum ground resistance of 1 ohm.[8] The intrinsic safe ground is connected to the plant safety ground grid. For the intrinsic safe ground, the concept of an equipotential ground plane is important to insure that the ground potentials in the intrinsic safe circuit are as equal as we can make them so that there is not an unwanted spark due to a voltage differential between it circuit parts and ground. Transformer or galvanically isolated barriers typically do not require a ground connection.

Figure 4
The standards for intrinsic safety are: ISA RP 12.06.01, Recommended Practice for Wiring Methods for Hazardous (Classified) Locations Instrumentation Part 1: Intrinsic Safety, [8] ANSI/ISA 60079-11 (12.02.01) Explosive Atmosphere Part 11: Equipment protected by intrinsic i. [27] NEC Article 504 Intrinsic Safe Systems, [1] 7. Power quality Power quality is also a large concern in reliability and the safe and efficient operation of instrumentation systems. Grounding can play a large part assuring good power quality. Having a stable ground reference is important for power quality, particularly with our distributed control systems. A good ground system and grounding practices are also necessary for surge protection devices to work properly. Following the grounding practices of the NEC and the IEEE std.1100, Recommended Practice for Powering and Grounding Electronic Equipment, commonly called the IEEE Emerald Book, will help achieve good power quality and good grounding engineering practice. [11] 8. Circuit Reference Plane Grounding is also used to establish a circuit voltage reference point for our instrumentation systems. Complex and sometimes widely distributed instrument systems need a common, stable reference point for the signals that they are transmitting amongst themselves so that they can understand each others signals. Circuits just work much better if they have a common reference between them.

Technical Discussion
Grounding can be a technically a difficult subject primarily because of its complexity (breath of scope, infinite number of potential connections, internal and external actors and bad actors, etc.) and uncertainty (invisibility - cant see what is going on below the surface, the ground is different anywhere you look, unknown influences, limited available models that can help the practicing engineer, etc.). It also can raise the specter of many electrical engineers least favorite subject - electromagnetic fields and Maxwells equations when circuit theory isnt enough. Fortunately, much of the basics can be understood by analogy and a bit of circuit theory. This can lead us to some good engineering practices in regards to grounding our instrumentation systems. We will be discussing three topics which commonly arise when discussing instrument grounding 1. What should the ground resistance be?; 2. Do I have to connect my clean instrument ground to that dirty power ground?; and 3. Do I connect my shields to ground at one end or both? Along the way we will learn some of the basic principles of instrument grounding.

1. What should the ground resistance be?

A common grounding question is what the ground resistance should be for a DCS/PLC system (this question applies to the DCS/PLC ground prior to any connection to other grounding systems). The National Electric Code Article 250.53 specifies that a second ground rod is required if the resistance of a single ground rod is greater than 25 ohms. [1] The various DCS manufacturers have a recommend resistance range from 1-5 ohms. Communication sites specifications are typically on the order of 5 ohms or less. The question also arises as to whether we should be concerned about impedance rather than resistance. For instrument systems which have high frequency components in the ground circuit, impedance is generally a concern for the above ground part of the ground system as conductors tend to change from resistors to inductors as the frequency goes up. It is not as much a concern for the below ground part of the instrument ground system. Lightning has high frequency components and the response of the overall ground grid is impedance driven which should be taken into account in the overall design of the power ground grid. A common engineering specification for DCS systems is 1 ohm or less to ground. There is, however, no technical reason that a DCS system will not to operate at a higher ground resistance. For example, a DCS will operate correctly if built on top of rock. In general, you should make every attempt to meet the manufacturers recommended ground resistance specification. If this is not possible, the DCS should be equal to or better than the associated power system ground resistance specification. Various grounding resistance specifications are given in Table 2.

Source
Yokogawa [12] Emerson Delta V [13] Honeywell TDC 3000 [14] ISA RP 12.06.01 (Intrinsic Safe) [8] Motorola (Communication Sites) [15] Substations [4,18]

Recommended Grounding Resistance Specification

100 ohms 1 ohms 5 ohms 1 ohms 5 ohms 1-5 ohms Table 2

Testing of ground to determine resistance is a whole other subject and is beyond the scope of this paper. Testing the instrumentation ground prior to connection to the main power grounding grid using tradition means such as the Fall of Potential method three point method is generally adequate. Some designs have a switch for testing purposes on the connection line between the instrument ground and the system power ground grid with a spark gap around the switch for safety purposes. There are some good primers on earth resistance testing by Megger [18], Fluke [20], and Aemc [21]. It is recommended that you use a tester that uses a AC test current source. You should not try to use a clamp-on ground tester for the initial test but it can be used for subsequent checks after you connect to the main power grid and do a benchmark to start with. The clamp-on ground tester is an excellent tool to use to determine if you have any grounding degradation when comparing readings to an initial benchmark. It cannot be overstressed that a grounding system must maintained, which means that it has to be periodically inspected and tested (this also applies to the power system ground grid that it is connected too). If you let your grounding system degrade, you are asking for trouble and not just from an instrument system perspective but from an overall electrical perspective too.

2. Do I have to connect my clean instrument ground to that dirty power ground?

In the past, there was a common refrain by manufacturers and some engineers and even heard some times today, that they want a clean or quiet ground for their equipment. When asked to quantify what such a ground is, they generally fall back on a ground not connected to that dirty, nasty power ground. It seems that they expect that noise or problems will somehow arise out of the ground and strike down their equipment. This is basically a question of whether to have a separate isolated (hence somehow clean) instrument ground or to have it a part of the overall facility grounding grid. If we theorize a perfect ground, it would be one which never varies in potential, e.g. zero potential anywhere it is (potential because it is single ended, unlike voltage which is double ended or a potential in reference to another potential). This theoretical ground would also have

zero impedance, e.g. current flowing through the ground would encounter no resistance to flow, e.g. anything connected to our theoretical ground would always be at the same ground potential. Unfortunately, for better or worse, we are stuck with the Earth which is everywhere that our instrument systems are, which can be significantly geographically distributed. This earth can be defined at any single point as the zero reference potential point of out instrument system, but will be different anywhere else, to a greater or lesser extent. It turns out, that that so called clean ground, isolated from the rest of the grounds (but which is subject in isolation to many of the underground events that the other grounds are subject to) can the very source of the problems that we wished to avoid. Under quiescent conditions, such a ground may have less variation in ground potential but under non-quiescent conditions can be subject to considerable variation relative to other ground systems. One should remember that ground is not a sink for noise but can be a path if the ground path completes a noise circuit (conducted noise in a circuit flows in complete circuits) and Ohm's Law (impedance version) applies to conducted noise.

A Ground is a Ground of Course, of Course, Unless of Course the Ground is...

For you older folk, you will remember this as a paraphrase of the early TV hit comedy show that had as one of the stars a talking horse named Mr. Ed and his friend Wilber. The trouble essentially with grounds, of course, is that they are all different. When the author was young engineer, he attended a grounding course put on by Longview Power and Light. As part of the course, there was a field demonstration where we were shown two ground rods about 50 feet part. A wire was run between the two ground wires and a clampon ammeter was clamped on the wire and low and behold a current was measured between the two ground rods. The fact that a current was flowing indicated a potential differential between the two grounds indicating the grounds were not the same. This small epiphany provided the spark for a lifelong interest in grounding. So why are the grounds different? The first difference might be due to different resistivity and in some cases different impedances in the earth. This can be due to different soils, non-conductors like rocks and voids, moisture content, salt content, ground water, underground artifacts (like pipelines), etc. It can also be due to the weather and annual climate change. The current drought is affecting our grounding systems by drying out the soil, soil shrinkage away from ground rods, and reducing the level of ground water. The resistivity of the earth is three dimensional in that it has length and width as well as depth. Figure 3 show a resistance mapping of the earth from a side view. From this one might infer why grounds can be different.

Courtesy of: GeoModel, Inc. 750 Miller Dr., SE, Suite B-3

Figure 3

Leesburg, VA 20175 www.geomodel.com/home

The second reason a ground can be different is that there are currents flowing in the earth, some man-made, others caused by nature. Man-made currents can be transient in nature like ground fault current returning to its source through the ground or continuous like the currents induced in the ground by our high voltage power distribution systems, electric trains, stray currents, or circulating ground currents caused by poor grounding. Nature is also a big cause of ground currents flowing in the earth such an obvious one like lightning which causes a large, rapid charge re-distribution which will result in currents flowing and changing ground potential. A good analogy of a lightning strike to earth is dropping a large rock in a pond and watching the ripples spread out. This is illustrated in Figure 4. By several estimates, there are about 2000 thunderstorms worldwide providing 100 flashes per second (not all of these are ground strikes). [9,10]

Figure 4
But we dont need lightning strikes to cause current flow in the earth, we only need a moving thunder storm and is some cases just moving clouds (Google clear sky lightning). Clouds become charged and can induce currents in the earth. Think about this happening in a global sense all around us. See Figures 5 & 6 as illustrations of a moving thunder storm.

Figure 5

Figure 6

Lightning can also induce currents in the ground and generate RF interference. Figure 7 provides an illustration of this.

Figure 7
There are other currents in the earth such as geomagnetic currents that result from space weather interacting with the earth magnetic fields inducing currents on long conductors like power lines and buried pipelines. These currents are also called Telluric currents. We want to use some further analogies to help better understand grounding. A good analogy for currents flowing and earth potential varying is the use of the ocean. The ocean has currents flowing we cannot see and waves varying in height which can represent varying potential. This is illustrated in Figure 8.

EARTH

GROUND PLANE

Earth Currents

Figure 8
If we take the ocean analogy a bit further, we can understand why we want to connect all of our grounding systems together to create (as much as we can) an equipotential grounding plane for our instrumentation systems, electrical systems, communication systems, and our computer systems. IEEE std. 1100 [11] has some good discussion on the equipotential plane. Visualize two ships separated by several waves or troughs but connected to each other by electrical cables (power, signal, etc). We will use the analogy that the water height above a theoretical reference point represents ground potential. So the ships relative to each other could at any time be on a wave or trough of the same height (same potential), on a wave or trough of different heights (potential difference), or one ship could be on a wave while the other in a trough (larger potential difference). Since the electrical cables from one ship are at one potential relative to their wave/trough height, while at the other end where the cables connected, the equipment is at a different potential relative to than the other ships wave/trough height, there can potentially be a large potential differences between the electrical cables and the local ground.

Having the two ships on the same wave height (or equipotential plane) would reduce the potential to zero.

Figure 9
To illustrate how much the potential difference can be between two ground points where the resistance between the points is one ohm and the current from lightning flowing through the earth is 10,000 amps, the potential difference between those two points is 10,000 volts, which would exceed the nominal arc over voltage of wiring of 6,000 volts. This is illustrated in Figure 10.

Figure 11
To sum up the issue of the interconnection of the power and instrument ground, there are good reasons to connect them together. What we want is for our instrument systems to ride up and down the varying ground potential with the rest of the facility like a ship riding up and down on waves. This creation of an equipotential grounding plane to ride up and down as evenly as possible as our ground potential waves vary and to provide a safe ship in time of storms is extremely important to the reliable and safe operation of our instrument systems. If we have to connect to another ship, we should use isolators or connect using non-electrical means, e.g. fiber-optics (like ships at sea communicating with each other via blinking signal lamps, sometimes called Aldis lamps). Another important concept in instrumentation grounding is that of a low frequency single point ground, i.e. all ground references be connected to a common ground to minimize any potential differences on the DC side of our systems. These connections should not be daisy chained and should provide a low impedance path back to our DC ground. This ground should be connected to the power grounding grid at only one point. Selection of this point of connection should consider the power distribution system (how large ground faults might occur and how they will return to their source; smaller leaks return using the same path), where the lightning protection system is connected to the grounding grid (not too close these connections), location of Cathodic protection systems (generally stay away from), location of underground pipes (stay away from

too), etc. Figures 12 and 13 illustrates an example DCS grounding scheme and a ground grid (Not to scale).

Figure 12

Figure 13 (NTS)
At higher frequencies, multipoint grounding systems are used because these systems will be grounded anyway through distributed capacitances and it is better to specifically ground these systems. Dont, however, confuse low frequency grounding requirements with higher frequency ones. Before we leave this topic, we should address ungrounded systems. The NEC Article 250 addresses which AC systems must be grounded. Instrument systems which are powered typically by 12-28 VDC systems are not addressed. People do use ungrounded systems for DC instrument loops many times where they have an isolated DC power supply or 4-wire instrument loop. These loops will function this way and there are applications where this may be necessary. There are, however, some potential pitfalls to having loops like this as listed below: 1. The loop is not referenced to the rest of the instrument system. 2. If it becomes inadvertently grounded at an undefined point, this may affect the operation of the loop in a negative way.

3. It may not be apparent to an instrument technician that this loop is different from

other loops and they may not understand why their voltage readings are not correct. 4. If the loop inadvertently come into contact with a higher voltage, e.g. 120 VAC, the Instrument Technician may be info a rude surprise, or even a fatal one.

3. Do I connect my shields to ground at one end or both?

This question has a life of its own it and seems come up time and time again. Shielding is a complex subject that can be very application dependent. This discussion is primarily directed at shielding in petrochemical plants. The purpose of shielding is to keep noise in or to keep noise out of a circuit, more toward the latter than the former. Noise can be defined as any unwanted electrical signal in a circuit, while interference is noise that has a detrimental influence on the circuit. To understand shielding and the related question of grounding shields, we must understand how noise gets into a circuit. Noise can be generated internal to the circuit to which shielding is not much help except to keep it from getting out of the circuit. There are four basic means that noise is coupled noise into a circuit capacitively, inductively, radiated, and conducted, which were summarized in Table 1. Shielding of Capacitively Coupled Noise Capacitive or electrostatic coupled noise is coupled through distributed capacitances formed between the source of the noise and the receptor or victim of the noise. [22, 23, 24, 25] This type of noise is voltage based. This is illustrated in Figure 14.

Figure 14
We shield against this type of noise coupling by placing a grounded shield between the noise source and the receptor circuit to provide a conductor for the distributed capacitances to connect to rather than to the signal conductors. This normally takes the form of a thin, aluminum coated Mylar film with a drain wire running the length of the shield around the protected wires. This type of shielding is illustrated in Figure 15. Any noise coupled to the shield is returned to the source via ground connection and does not couple to the protected signal wires since it has zero potential relative to the signal wire. This shield is grounded at one end at the zero potential reference point of the circuit (nominally the DC ground reference point). [22, 23] This is typically done in the main or master termination boxes in the DCS/PLC equipment room. The only exception commonly to this is grounded thermocouples whose shields are commonly grounded at the field junction box closest to the thermocouple head or at the T/C head. The reason we ground at one end is that our field devices can be a long distance from the receiving element and try as hard as we can, we will still have differences in ground potential and if we connect at both ends, we can have circulating currents in our shields. This can be particularly detrimental during ground disturbances. Some keys here are to make sure you do a good job of terminating the shield in the field so that it cannot come into contact with ground or something that is grounded, run your shields as close as you can to any termination points, and keep your exposed drain wires as short as possible.

C IRC U IT #1 S OUR C E

V1

C 1-G C -1 2 C 2 -S
S hi eld

C 1 -S 2 C IR CU IT #2 R ECEP TO R

SG C -S G C1 -G Vnoise

EL E C T R O S T AT IC S H IE L D M O D EL
Figure 15

Shielding of Inductively or Magnetically Coupled Noise Shielding against inductively or magnetically coupled noise is a bit more difficult. This noise is coupled or induced by a varying magnetic field similarly to how a transformer works. [22, 23, 24, 25] This noise is current based, e.g. the more the current is at the source, the more noise is coupled at the receptor. This type of noise is illustrated in Figure 16. As such the aluminum shield is no barrier and for a metallic shield to be successfully, it must be made of a ferrous material. However, connecting the shield at both ends can provide some protection against magnetically coupled noise by inducing a counter current on the shield to the noise current coupled to the signal wires. That being said, we still have the problem that if we connect our shields at both ends, we will have circulating currents in our shields from other sources besides our magnetic coupled noise. In addition, the aluminum shields used in our typical shielded, twisted paired cables are not designed to be current-carrying conductors and in the extreme case, you may burn through your cable. Some people have been successful in grounding the other end

of the shield through a capacitor to provide solidly grounded shield at one end at DC and a varying impedance at frequency, grounded at both ends through the capacitor.

Figure 14
If the cable is contained in the same building and share a common equipotential plane, you may be able get away with grounding the shield at both ends (but it is a last resort sort of thing for our type of instrumentation systems). There is one application were this is commonly used and that is to get rid of hum in audio systems (however, they typically meet the previous indication limitations). All is not lost, though not a grounding thing, twisted pair is an effective means of reducing magnetically coupled noise as is differential inputs in 4-20 mA circuits. In summary, the correct practice is to ground your shields at one end at the zero potential reference point of the circuit.

Radiated Noise

Radiated noise protection isnt generally about grounding since it is a function of reflection and absorption which do not require grounding to work. Radiated noise can be picked up by antennas that are there by construction in the equipment that are tuned to the radiated noise wavelength. Once in a circuit, this noise behaves like conducted noise. It is good practice to specifically ground your field junction boxes. Noise Reduction Techniques in Electronic System by Henry W. Ott [23] has a good discussion on this. Conducted Noise Conducted noise is noise that has gotten into a circuit by various mean which has been successfully conducted past their initial entry point. Many times this type of noise is filtered out which may include shunting the noise through ground back to its source. A good ground system is a key to doing this successfully.

Conclusions
The basic principles of a good instrument system can be summed up as: 1. A well designed and maintained plant ground grid is priceless; follow the standards. 2. A well designed grounding and bonding system is key to the reliable operation of your instrument system. 3. Follow your control or instrument systems manufacturers recommended ground resistance where possible. In lieu of such a recommendation, as a minimum, keep your instrument ground resistance to less than 5 ohms where possible. 4. Connect your DC instrument systems to a single point ground and connect this ground to the plant ground grid at only one point. 5. Inspect, test, and maintain your ground systems. 6. Connect your shields at only one end. Remember that the Devil is in the details.

References:
1. NFPA 70 (NEC), National Electric Code, National Fire Protection Association, 1 Batterymarch Park, Quincy, MA, www.nfpa.org 2. IEC 60364, Electrical Installations for Buildings, Part 5, Section 54, International Electrotechnical Commission, Geneva 20 Switzerland, www.iec.ch 3. IEEE 142 Std. IEEE Recommended Practice for Grounding of Industrial and Commercial Power Systems (commonly called the Green Book), Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, New York, NY, www.ieee.org 4. IEEE Std. 80 - IEEE guide for safety in AC substation grounding, Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, New York, NY, www.ieee.org

5. NFPA 780 Standard for the Installation of Lightning Protection Systems, National Fire Protection Association, 1 Batterymarch Park, Quincy, MA. 6. API 2003 Protection Against Ignitions Arising out of Static, Lightning, and Stray Currents , American Petroleum Institute, Washington, DC, www.api.org 7. IBM Power7 Information Static electricity and floor resistance, IBM Corp. 8. ISA RP 12.06.01, Recommended Practice for Wiring Methods for Hazardous (Classified) Locations Instrumentation Part 1: Intrinsic Safety, International Society of Automation, Research Triangle, NC. 9. All you ever Wanted to know about lighting, http://www.coursealert.com/22.html 10. The Lightning Discharge, Martin A. Uman, Dover, 1987 11. IEEE std.1100, Recommended Practice for Powering and Grounding Electronic Equipment, (commonly called the Emerald Book). Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, New York, NY, www.ieee.org 12. Integrated Production Control System CENTUM VP System Overview (Vnet/IP Edition), Yokogawa Electric Corporation, GS 33K01A10-50E GS, pg. 17, 2011. 13. Site Design and Preparation for DeltaV_ Digital Automation Systems, D800015X052, pg. 4-7, Emerson, September 2005. 14. Data Hiway Planning, DH02-501, Pg. 103, Honeywell, 9/95. 15. STANDARDS AND GUIDELINES FOR COMMUNICATION SITES, 68P81089E50-B, Motorola, Pg. 4-47 16. Soars Book on Grounding and Bonding, 9th Edition, International Association of Electrical Inspectors, Richardson, Tx, 2004. 17. Electrical Instruments in Hazardous Locations, 4th Ed., Earnest Magison, ISA, 1998. 18. Notes on Substation Grounding, Jeff Jowett, Megger 19. A practical guide to earth resistance testing, Megger, http://www.megger.com/us/story/Index.php?ID=146 20. Grounding Principles, testing methods and applications, Fluke Corporation, http://support.fluke.com/find-sales/Download/Asset/2633834_6115_ENG_A_W.PDF 21. Understanding Ground Resistance Testing, Aemc, http://www.aemc.com/techinfo/techworkbooks/ground_resistance_testers/950-WKBKGROUND-WEB.pdf 22. Grounding and Shielding Techniques in Instrumentation, 3rd Ed, Ralph Morrison, Wiley-Interscience, New York, NY,1986. 23. Noise Reduction Techniques in Electronic Systems, 2nd Ed., Henry Ott, Wiley Interscience,New York, NY,1988. 24. Grounding and Shielding in Facilities, Ralph Morrison & Warren H. Lewis, Wiley-Interscience, New York, NY, 1990. 25. Grounding and Bonding, Volume 2, Michael Mardiguian, Interference Control Technologies, Inc., Grainesville, Va, 1988. 26. Practical Grounding, Bonding, Shielding, and Surge Protection. G. Vijayaraghavan, Mark Brown, & Malcolm Barnes, Elsevier, Burlington, Ma, 2004. 27. ANSI/ISA-60079-11 (12.02.01)-2011, Explosive Atmospheres Part 11: Equipment protection by intrinsic sadety I, International Society of Automation, Research Triangle, NC.