Wiring and Grounding

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 Introduction to Wiring & Grounding
• Many power quality variations that occur within customer
facilities are related to wiring and grounding problems. It is
commonly stated that 80% of all the power quality problems
reported by customers are related to wiring and grounding
problems within a facility.

• While this may be an exaggeration, many power quality

problems are solved by simply tightening a loose connection
or replacing a corroded conductor.

• Therefore, an evaluation of wiring and grounding practices

is a necessary first step when evaluating power quality
problems in general.

• The basic principles of wiring and grounding are presented

in this lecture to provide a fundamental understanding of
why things are done.
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Resources
• Selected definitions are presented here from

the IEEE Dictionary (Standard 100),

the IEEE Green Book (IEEE Standard 142), and

the NEC (National Electrical Code).
These are the fundamental resources on wiring and
grounding.

• The IEEE Green Book and the NEC provide extensive

information on proper grounding practices for safety
considerations and proper system operation. However, these
documents do not address concerns for power quality.

• Power quality considerations associated with wiring and

grounding practices are covered in Federal Information
Processing Standard (FIPS) 94, Guideline on Electrical Power
for ADP(automated data processing) Installations (1983). This
is the original source of much of the information interpreted
and summarized here. 3
Resources
• The IEEE Emerald Book (ANSI/IEEE Standard 1100-1992,
IEEE Recommended Practice for Powering and Grounding
Sensitive Electronic Equipment) updates the information
presented in FIPS 94. This is an excellent resource for wiring
and grounding with respect to power quality issues and is
highly recommended.

• Grounding guidelines to minimize noise in electronic circuits

are also covered in :
IEEE Standard 518, IEEE Guide for the Installation of
Electrical Equipment to Minimize Electrical Noise Inputs to
Controllers from External Sources.

• EPRI’s Wiring and Grounding for Power Quality (Publication

CU.2026.3.90) provides an excellent summary of typical wiring
and grounding problems along with recommended solutions.
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Definitions
Some of the key definitions of wiring and grounding terms from
these documents are included here.

IEEE Dictionary (Standard 100) definition

Grounding A conducting connection, whether intentional or

accidental, by which an electric circuit or equipment is connected
to the earth, or to some conducting body of relatively large extent
that serves in place of the earth. It is used for:
 establishing and maintaining the potential of the earth
 for conducting ground current to and from the earth (or the
conducting body).

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Definitions
IEEE Green Book (IEEE Standard 142) definitions

• Grounded system A system of conductors in which at least one

conductor or point (usually the middle wire or neutral point of
transformer or generator windings) is intentionally grounded, either
solidly or through an impedance.
• Grounded solidly Connected directly through an adequate
ground connection in which no impedance has been intentionally
inserted.
• Grounded effectively Grounded through a sufficiently low
impedance such that for all system conditions the ratio of zero
sequence reactance to positive sequence reactance (X0/X1) is
positive and less than 3, and the ratio of zero sequence resistance
to positive sequence reactance (R0/X1) is positive and less than 1.
• Resistance grounded Grounded through impedance, the
principal element of which is resistance.
• Inductance grounded Grounded through impedance, the
principal element of which is inductance.
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Definitions

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 NEC Definitions
• Grounding electrode The grounding electrode shall be as near as
practicable to and preferably in the same area as the grounding
conductor connection to the system. The grounding electrode shall be:
1. the nearest available effectively grounded structural metal
member of the structure; or
2. the nearest available effectively grounded metal water pipe.

• Grounded Connected to earth or to some conducting body that

serves in place of the earth.

• Grounded conductor A system or circuit conductor that is

intentionally grounded (the neutral is normally referred to as the
grounded conductor).

Grounding conductor A conductor used to connect equipment or the

grounded circuit of a wiring system to a grounding electrode or
electrodes.
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NEC Definitions
Grounding electrode system include:

Metal underground water pipe;

Metal frame of the building;

Concrete-encased electrode; and

Ground ring.
When these elements are available, they are required to be bonded
together to form the grounding electrode system.

• Bonding jumper, the main connector between the grounded

circuit conductor (neutral) and the equipment grounding
conductor at the service entrance.

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NEC Definitions

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Reasons for Grounding
• The most important reason for grounding is safety.
• Two important aspects to grounding requirements with respect
to safety and one with respect to power quality are:

Personnel safety

Grounding to assure protective device operation

Noise control

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 Reasons for Grounding

Personnel safety. This is designed to prevent the possibility of

high touch voltages when there is a fault in a piece of equipment.
The touch voltage is the voltage between any two conducting
surfaces that can be simultaneously touched by an individual. The
earth may be one of these surfaces.

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Reasons for Grounding
Grounding to assure protective device operation

• A ground fault return path to the point where the power source
neutral conductor is grounded is an essential safety feature.

• An insulation failure or other fault that allows a phase wire to

make contact with an enclosure will find a low-impedance path
back to the power source neutral. The resulting overcurrent will
cause the circuit breaker or fuse to disconnect the faulted circuit
promptly.

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Reasons for Grounding
Noise control

• Noise control includes transients from all sources. This is

where grounding relates to power quality.
• Grounding for safety reasons defines the minimum
requirements for a grounding system.
• Anything that is done to the grounding system to improve the
noise performance must be done in addition to the minimum
requirements defined in the NEC and local codes.
• The primary objective of grounding for noise control is to
create an equipotential ground system.
• Potential differences between different ground locations can
stress insulation, create circulating ground currents in low-
voltage cables, and interfere with sensitive equipment that may
be grounded in multiple locations.

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Typical Wiring and Grounding problems
Many of the problems can be detected through simple
observations. Other problems require measurements of
voltages, currents, or impedances in the circuits.

Problems with conductors and connectors.

Missing safety ground.

Multiple neutral-to-ground connections

Additional ground rods

Ground loops

Insufficient neutral conductor

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Problems with conductors and connectors

• One of the first things to be done during a site survey is to

inspect the service entrance, main panel, and major
subpanels for problems with conductors or connections.

• A bad connection (faulty, loose, or resistive) will result in

heating, possible arcing, and burning of insulation.

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Missing safety ground

• If the safety ground is missing, a fault in the equipment from

the phase conductor to the enclosure results in line potential
on the exposed surfaces of the equipment.

• No breakers will trip, and a hazardous situation results.

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Multiple neutral-to-ground connections
•The only neutral-to-ground bond should be at the service
entrance.

•The neutral and ground should be kept separate at all panel

boards and junction boxes.

•Downline neutral-to-ground bonds result in parallel paths for

the load return current where one of the paths becomes the
ground circuit. This can cause:

misoperation of protective devices.

during a fault condition, the fault current will split

between the ground and the neutral, which could
prevent proper operation of protective devices

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Additional ground rods
• Ground rods should be part of a facility grounding system and
connected where all the building grounding electrodes (building
steel,water pipe, etc.) are bonded together.
• Multiple ground rods can be bused together at the service
entrance to reduce the overall ground resistance.
• One very important power quality problem with additional
ground rods is that they create additional paths for lightning
stroke currents to flow.
• With the ground rod at the service entrance, any lightning stroke
current reaching the facility goes to ground at the service
entrance and the ground potential of the whole facility rises
together.
• With additional ground rods, a portion of the lightning stroke
current will flow on the building wiring (green ground conductor
and/or conduit) to reach the additional ground rods.
• This creates a possible transient voltage problem for equipment
and a possible overload problem for the conductors. 19
Ground loops
• Ground loops are one of the most important grounding
problems in many commercial and industrial environments
that include data processing and communication equipment.
• If two devices are grounded via different paths and a
communication cable between the devices provides another
ground connection between them, a ground loop results.
• Slightly different potentials in the two power system
grounds can cause circulating currents in this ground loop if
there is indeed a complete path.
• Even if there is not a complete path, the insulation that is
preventing current flow may flash over because the
communication circuit insulation levels are generally quite
low.
• Likewise, very low magnitudes of circulating current can
cause serious noise problems.
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 Insufficient neutral conductor
• Switch-mode power supplies and fluorescent lighting with
electronic ballasts are widely used in commercial
environments.

• The high third-harmonic content present in these load

currents can have a very important impact on the required
neutral conductor rating for the supply circuits.

• Third-harmonic currents in a balanced system appear in the

zero-sequence circuit. This means that third-harmonic
currents from three single-phase loads will add in the neutral,
rather than cancel as is the case for the 60-Hz current.

• In typical commercial buildings with a diversity of switched-

mode power supply loads, the neutral current is typically in
the range 140 to 170 percent of the fundamental frequency
phase current magnitude.
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The possible solutions to neutral conductor
overloading include the following:
• Run a separate neutral conductor for each phase in a
three-phase circuit that serves single-phase nonlinear loads.

• When a shared neutral must be used in a three-phase

circuit with single-phase nonlinear loads, the neutral
conductor capacity should be approximately double the
phase conductor capacity.

• Filters to control the third-harmonic current that can be

placed at the individual loads are becoming available. These
will be an alternative in existing installations where changing
the wiring may be an expensive proposition.

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Solutions to Wiring and Grounding Problems

Proper grounding practices

Ground electrode (rod)

Service entrance connections

Panel board

Isolated ground

Separately derived systems

Grounding techniques for signal reference

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