SITP Electrical Installation

6.0 ELECTRICAL GROUNDING SYSTEMS AND

PROTECTION

There are two reasons that proper electrical grounding systems must be installed
in electrical distribution systems. The first, and primary, reason is to protect
operational personnel and other people around the equipment from receiving
electrical shocks. Proper electrical grounding can minimize or eliminate these
shock hazards. The second reason for electrical grounding involves the
equipment. Proper grounding can protect equipment from failure. Also, some
electronic equipment will not work properly without a good, almost perfect
grounding system. Most grounding systems are connected to building grounds. A
few others have a relative ground wire, which runs directly from device to device.
Examples of equipment requiring good electrical grounds are computer systems
and communications equipment.

A conventional 115/230 V distribution system is shown in Figure 1. There are

three wires from the distribution transformer secondary to the breaker or fuse
panel. Two wires have 230 V across them. Half of the voltage, 115 V, appears
between each 230 V wire and the centre wire. The centre wire is electrically
grounded at the distribution transformer. This ground consists of a wire run from
the transformer centre tap to a spike in the ground soil. At the distribution panel,
the voltage is fed to various 115 V and 230 V load through circuit breakers or
fuses. An electrical ground is run from the neutral bar in the distribution panel to
earth ground via a water pipe. For good soil conditions, the resistance between
grounds is effectively near 0Ω .

Figure 2 illustrates what can happen if the frame or case of an electrical device is
installed without a ground. Assume that there is only two-conductor wiring to the
device. The electrical device can be a monitor, computer, lamp, or some other
such device, or it can be the conduit, receptacle, or similar element.

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Improper equipment grounding would occur if a three-wire system with a three-

prong, grounding receptacle plug were not used. Metal conduit and receptacles
are to be grounded by a separate wire, which is missing in this instance. To
compound the safety problem, the device case is not grounded with a separate
ground wire. There is no GFI, either.

An example of this situation could be a fan motor on a bare ground floor. The fan
motor is installed on a plastic, non-conducting frame. The bare floor has moisture
on it. Suppose that the wire connected to terminal B has an insulation crack. The

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SITP Electrical Installation

copper of the wire with the cracked insulation touches the frame. Now someone
who wants to clean the motor touches the frame. The person is in luck. The
frame is nearly at ground potential, and nothing happens. Now, suppose the ″hot”
wire, A, touches the frame. When the person touches the frame, he or she
becomes a parallel load to 115 V. A person has about 1500 Ω resistance. Then,
the race is on as to which goes first –the fuse or the person. The person will
probably be badly hurt or even killed. A few milli-amperes are enough to cause
serious injury. A current of 120mA is enough to kill a person.

In contrast, the proper grounding system shown in Figure 3 would prevent injury.
As soon as B becomes shorted, the fuse blows. The circuit is therefore
deenergized. A person touching the frame is protected. Figure 3 has an ideal
grounding system of 0Ω . Such an ideal cannot always be attained. One sure way
to make sure the ground has very low resistance is to run a separate ground wire
as shown.

One word of caution: You may assume that the larger, round grounding prong on
the plug works infallibly. It does not. There have been cases where the cord
ground wire has opened up. In such a case there is no ground shock protection.

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In another situation the receptacle ground is not connected to anything. This

connection can be checked visually or with an ohmmeter.

Ungrounded plug ground connections are especially possible in older building

installations. An appropriate ohmmeter check is always good insurance that the
proper ground circuit exists.

Grounds are not always perfect. A ground wire has resistance depending on
its size. Connections have some resistance. The earth soil itself has resistance,
which varies with the soil type and moisture content. The distribution-panel
ground-bar connection can also have some resistance value. Figure 4 shows
some imperfect grounds, which can be typical of actual installations. The ground
at the transformer, the ground at the panel, or the ground from the load device to
building ground can have some resistance. Three possibilities are shown.
Assume there is a short from wire A to the metal case, as before. By Ohm’s law,
the current for A in Figure 4A is 115 V/16Ω = 7.2 A. The fuse will not necessarily
blow –only if the load current is an added 7.8 A or more. By voltage divider, the
frame will have 15/16 × 115 V, or 108 V above ground potential. This is
dangerous.

The other examples, in Figure 4B and C, can have values calculated similarly.
For part B there will be 5.5 A and only 5 V (a better situation) at the frame. For C
there are two-ground resistance in parallel to consider. The wire will have only
3.4 A, but there will be 78 V at the frame. The whole point is that a poor ground
will not give good personnel hazard protection. Improved grounding systems are
needed in these cases.

Sometimes, no ground is used in a transformer secondary circuit. The grounding

of the supply voltage can cause instrumentation or operational problems.
Ungrounded AC supplies are generally satisfactory at low voltages, such as 115
V or 240 V. There can be some hazard with no ground of the supply voltage as

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shown in Figure 5. There is a 2300 V primary of a transformer. Its feeder line is

grounded back at the previous transformer. Suppose that the primary becomes
shorted to the secondary as shown. Now lines A and B are at 2300 V above
ground-a dangerous situation. If the transformer secondary were grounded at
one terminal, the 2300 V protective fuse would blow. In any case, the frame of
the load should be grounded as shown, even if the 115 V circuit is not.

As a further ground shock protection, newer plug receptacle combinations have

one of the two load current prongs larger than the other. The plug and its proper
wiring are shown in Figure 6. The high or 115 V, side is required to be connected
to the fuse. If the fuse blows, the device will then be at ground potential, near 0
V. If either the receptacle or the plug is wired incorrectly, there is a problem. If
the fuse blows, the device’s inner wiring will remain at 115 V above as illustrated.

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Single-phase circuit grounding has been discussed. Grounding of three-phase

circuits is smaller, but more involved and complicated. Figure 7 shows two basic
methods of wye circuits grounding. In Figure 7A is a system in which the neutral
doubles as the ground. This arrangement generally functions safely. What if the
neutral was to open up? There would be no safety ground even though the main
lines were still energized.

A more costly but surer wye grounding system is shown in part B. A separate
grounding wire is run in addition to the neutral. If neutral opens up, there is still
protection. This system is called the three-phase, five-wire distribution system.

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Delta systems are grounded in various ways. Three of the delta grounding
methods is shown in Figure 8. These are; no ground, ground at one corner, and
ground in the middle of one phase. These grounds must match the grounding
systems of parallel delta connections

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