ELECTRICAL SYSTEMS FOR INSTRUMENTATION

Summary of SAES-J-902

MOHAMMED AFZAL ASIF

CONTRACTING AND TRADING COMPANY “C.A.T.”

JANUARY 23, 2020
 CONDUIT AND CABLE SEALING
Conduit and cable sealing shall be installed in accordance with NEC Article 505 but in case of armored cables sealing,
 Cables used on all instruments and enclosures requiring sealing as per NEC, they shall be sealed by means of compound barrier type cable
glands.
 Stainless steel parallel thread (metric) entry threads into instruments and wiring enclosures are preferred but if 5 full threads is ensured or
junction box/adapter is used then NPT is also permitted.
And for individually Shielded Twisted Pair/Triad Cable, treating it as single conductor, shall be sealed with the outer jacket intact. In addition, the cable
end within the enclosure shall be sealed by an approved means.
ENCLOSURES & JUNCTION BOX
For outdoor non-corrosive areas Shall be (a) NEMA 250/NEMA ICS 6 Type 4 or (b) IEC 60529 Type IP65
For severe corrosive environments outdoor Shall be (a) NEMA Type 4X or (b) IEC 60529 Type IP66..
Material As a minimum, shall be made of 316 SS or cast copper-free aluminium (0.6% max. copper)
Having an internal volume exceeding 2,000 cm³ (122 in³) shall be provided with Type 300
Breather and drain fittings
Series stainless steel breather and drain fittings, or a combination breather and drain fitting.
CONDUITS, CONDUIT FITTINGS, AND SUPPORTS
Shall comply with SAES-P-104, Wiring Methods and Materials and metal conduits shall be grounded as required in SAES-P-111. However,
 A conduit outlet box (e.g., GUAC or equivalent) shall be installed within 460 mm (18 in) of the field device.
 Flexible fittings (For Class I, Zone 1 hazardous locations) and LFMC (For Class I, Zone 2 hazardous locations). Where practically possible, the
length of the flexible conduits should not exceed 1,000 mm (≈ 39 in).
CABLE TRAYS
 Ladder (two side-rail) type. However, cable tray supporting armored cables extending between field instruments
Type Used and and junction boxes shall be ventilated bottom, channel cable tray.
Material  Material shall be copper-free aluminum (with a maximum of 0.6% copper). All fasteners shall be 304 SS and in severe
corrosive environments, 316 SS fasteners shall be used.
Rung Distance and
 Distance between consecutive rungs shall not exceed 229 mm (9 in).
Load Capacity
Maximum Working Working load = weight of cables + concentrated static load of 45 kg at the centre of the span. It shall not exceed the rated
Load Capacity load capacity of the cable tray defined in NEMA VE 1.
Covers The channel cable tray system shall be installed with flanged covers.
CONNECTIONS
Shall be made on screw type terminal blocks or pressure-loaded (screw-less) terminal blocks. Wire nuts and spring type
At field instruments
terminals shall not be used.
 All instrument wiring shall be routed to field junction boxes and should enter through the bottom. All unused entry ports
shall be fitted with approved plugs.
At Junction Boxes
 The terminals shall be mounted on vertical DIN rails. The DIN rail shall only be mounted on the inside panel (back-pan) of
the junction box. Twenty percent (20%) un-used DIN rail length shall be provided in field junction boxes.
POWER SUPPLY
 Where instrument-circuit power distribution panels are used, each panel
shall be dedicated to a single voltage level. Distribution panels shall be
furnished with a minimum of 20% spare circuit breakers.
 Power wiring for field instruments shall be individually fused and provided
Supply Voltages
with a means of disconnecting the power without disturbing terminated
wiring.
 For supplies to DC instrument loads, voltage stabilization shall be
provided.
 All process instrumentation shall be power by UPS. But UPS power and utility power shall not share the same cable or be
routed in the same conduit.
Backup Supply
 UPS systems powering critical instrumentation shall consist of redundant UPS units.
Systems
 UPS battery requirements, such as capacity determination, installation and charging systems, are detailed in SAES-P-103. The
time during which the battery bank shall supply power to the instrumentation system shall not be less than 30 minutes.
 SIGNAL/CONTROL WIRING
 Splices are not permitted in wiring. When wiring must be extended, connections shall be made via terminal blocks in a junction box installed
aboveground but twist-on wire nut connectors shall not be used in any case.
 All in plant redundant process automation networks shall be routed in separate cables.
 Data link cables shall not be routed in the same conduit, duct, or tray with other instrument cables.

Wire and Cable

Minimum
Requirements
for Instrument
Circuits
 ROUTING
Aboveground Underground
(N.B.: Aboveground is the preferred routing method within a process facility)
 Cable between field Instruments and Junction Box:  Instrumentation cables installed beneath raised
 Single twisted pair/triad cables shall be installed in steel conduits. computer floors in control rooms shall be placed in
 Armored instrumentation cable shall be independently routed on a cable tray ladder, trough or solid bottom cable tray.
 Cable from Field Junction Box to Control Room Marshalling Cabinets and Marshalling  Cable trays beneath raised floor shall be adequately
Cabinet to Control Room Instrumentation and Control identified using suitable permanent tag plates. These
Systems: tag plates shall be installed at each end, tee connection
 May be routed in conduits, on trays, or direct buried. and at 3,000 mm (≈ 118 in) intervals.
 All signal wiring from field cables shall terminate in dedicated marshalling cabinets.
 Each cable or group of cables leaving a specific junction box and carrying similar
signals shall contain a minimum of 20% spare terminated at both the field junction
box and the marshalling cabinet.
 Emergency shutdown system (ESD) wiring shall have dedicated cabling, junction
boxes and marshalling cabinets.

SIGNAL SEGREGATION
Level – 1 - High to Medium Susceptibility Level – 2 - Low Susceptibility
Analog signals of less than 50 V and discrete instrument signals of less Switching signals greater than 30 V, analog signals greater than
than 30 V. 50 V, and 120-240 AC feeders less than 20 amps.
 Multi-pair/triad cable shall not be used to route more than one signal level. In addition, junction boxes shall be segregated based on
signal level
 Cables with the same noise susceptibility level may be grouped in trays and conduit
 SIGNAL SEPARATION
Unit: millimetres (inches)
Minimum This also applies to the distance between
trays and power equipment of less than
Tray Spacing
100 kVA.

Unit: millimetres (inches)

Minimum
Tray-Conduit Spacing

Unit: millimetres (inches)

This also applies to the distance between
Minimum
steel conduits and power equipment of
Conduit Spacing less than 100 kVA.

 When minimum space in the tables above cannot be maintained, parallel runs shall not exceed 5 ft in the overall run.
 Near sources of strong electromagnetic fields, a minimum spacing of 1,500 mm (≈59 in) shall be maintained between the cables and the devices. If a steel
conduit is used, the distance may be reduced to 750 mm (29.5 in).
 When routing Instrumentation cables (level 1 & level 2) near power cables carrying higher loads than the limits specified in level 3, the separation distances shall
be 1,000 mm (39.4 in) as a minimum. If the routing is to be done through a steel conduit, or crossed at 90 degrees, the minimum separation distance shall not be
less than 500 mm (19.7 in).

NOISE AND SIGNAL INTERFERENCE REDUCTION

 Utilizing common return lead for more than one circuit shall be avoided to minimize noise.
 Twisting and shielding of instrumentation wiring shall also be used o minimize the impact of noise on instrumentation signals.

Terminal Block and Accessories
Terminal Strip Assemblies
Wire Ducts and Gutters
TERMINATION
 Shall be channel (rail) mounted, strip type, with tubular box clamp connector and compression bar or
yoke for wire termination. As a minimum, the thickness of the terminals shall be 5 mm or higher.
 Shall be fire retardant in accordance with UL 94, V0 and made of halogen free, high strength material.
 Terminals for similar (AC or DC) current service shall be grouped together and physically separated from
terminals for different service by means of dividers, separate mounting rails or separate enclosures.
 Terminals for 120 VDC and 120/230 VAC power for field contacts shall be segregated from other systems.
 Terminal strips for ESD wiring shall be completely separate from all other wiring including power, control,
and instrumentation.
 Plastic wire ducts with removable covers shall be installed in control panels and marshalling cabinets.
 A minimum of 50 mm (≈ 2 in) shall be maintained between the duct and terminal strips.
 Wire ducts for ESD wiring shall not contain any other types of wiring.
IDENTIFICATION

Wire Tagging Shall comply with SAES-P-104, Wiring Methods and Materials

 Homerun cables shall be tagged with the assigned “IC” cable number.
 The cable tagging philosophy for cables routed from junction boxes to field instruments shall be defined
by the Proponent Representative.
Cable Tagging
 Cable-tags for outdoor applications shall be 316 SS with permanently marked alphanumeric characters,
i.e., raised or stamped characters and for indoor applications high quality plastic cable tags secured using
cable ties.
GROUNDING
All exposed non-current-carrying metallic parts must be reliably connected to the equipment grounding circuits with a minimum copper wire size
of 14 AWG. Two copper conductors, 25 mm² minimum, shall be connected from the safety ground bus to a single tie point on the safety
ground grid in a closed loop configuration. Instrument grounding should comply with SAES-P-111.