Earthing & Lightning

Types
There are mainly 3 types of earthing systems provided for instrumentation.
Safety Earth (SE) / Dirty Earth / Protective Earth / Electrical Earth / Power Earth
Instrument Earth (IE) / Electronic Earth / Reference Earth / Clean Earth / Signal Earth
Intrinsic Safety (IS) Earth for IS circuit. This is only required when you have IS instruments.

 Drilling of Earth Holes Installation of Earth rods and Marconite Filling.

 Underground cable /conductor installation & release for backfilling.
 Exothermic weld joints for underground cables.
 Installation of earth electrode & Inspection of Pits.
 Installation of Earth Bar.
 Bonding to equipment & accessories.
 Above ground connection. / Mechanical bonding.
 Earthing of Neutral point.
 Connecting to net. (Where applicable).
 Installation of lightning protection system.
 Installation of Instrument Earthing System.
 Grounding connection to equipment, structure, instruments, cable, tray & pipe etc.
 Inspection & Testing - A. - Continuity Test - (Point to Point).
 Earth electrode and network earth resistance test.

Drilling of Earth Holes Installation of Earth rods and Marconite Filling.

Size of drill shall be as per AFC drawing only copper rods shall be used to reduce resistivity, marconite slurry is
used as filler material around electrode, marconite filling shall be as per approved procedure.
Complies with installation details & layout drawings

Underground cable /conductor installation & release for backfilling.

Route and installation as per AFC drawings.

Size of trench as per AFC drawing.
Size and type of cable / conductor as per AFC drawing & specification.
Correct tools and material used.
Check & ensure that cables are installed at correct depth
Verify clearance between other underground services
Complies with installation details
& layout drawings.

Installation of earth electrode & Inspection of Pits.

Approved Earthling Layout drawings used.

Earth rod installed at correct depth.
No loose soil around the rod compacted properly and ensure good contact with soil.
Petroleum jelly shall be used to avoid oxidation on bare conductor.
Connection inside earth pit chamber shall be accessible for easy connection and maintenance
& this connection shall be used for purpose of testing.
Complies with installation details of testing.
Installation of Earth Bar.
Approved Earthing Layout drawings used.
Size of busbar as per drawing Busbar installed at correct location.
Verify dimensions correct Verify that correct type of nut/bolt/washers
are used & connections correct and properly tightened
Complies with installation details & drgs.

Bonding to equipment & accessories.

AFC Drawings & Earthing layout drgs. Used.

Compression type or thermit or cad welding.
Size of mould should match the conductor size.
Joint visually inspected for good bonding.

Above ground connection./ Mechanical bonding.

Connection as per drawing

Compression type jointing or thermit welding
Correct size of mould to be used Compression type cable lugs. Inter- Connection shall be directly clamped with
Compression type branch connections
Maximum area of contact should be maintained

Earthing of Neutral point.

Connection as per drawing

Neutral shall be directly connected to independent earth pits.

Installation of lightning protection system.

Approved Earthing Layout drawings used.
Ensure correct material used i.e.- grounding tape, conductor etc.
Air terminals are at correct location
Correct installation of grounding tape.
Correct installation of test terminals.
Connection to grid is correct and tighten.
Complies with installation details & layout drawings.

Installation of Instrument Earthing System.

Approved Earthing Layout drawings used.

Ensure connection to common ring is as as per Manufacturer's recommendation.

Grounding connection to equipment, structure, instruments, cable, tray & pipe etc.
Approved Earthing Layout drawings used.
Verified connection to each equipment and Non-current carrying metallic parts are bonded to earthing system.
Earth connection redundancy if applicable.
Continuity of each connection checked.
Verify that correct type of nut/bolt/washers are used & connections correct and properly tightened
Complies with installation details & layout drawings.

Inspection & Testing - Continuity Test - (Point to Point).

 Conformity to approved
Drawings Specification, Point to point continuity test performed-
from each connection to nearest bus/grid.
like structure,panels etc.
Reconnect wires,if any after the test.
Complies with installation details & layout drawings.

Earth electrode and network earth resistance test.

Each ground electrode to be tested separately prior to network test /network resistance test.

Acceptance valve for earthing system is as below-Power Stations→1Ω

132 kV Substations with earth mats →1Ω
Earth grids (permanent installation) → 4Ω
Local Earthing non-electrical equip.→10Ω
Lightning Protection - general → 10Ω
Static Electricity earthing →10Ω
Clean earth system → 4Ω

Instrumentation Earthing
Transfer of the immediate discharge of the electrical energy directly to the earth by means of the low resistance path is
known as the earthing.

Types
There are mainly 3 types of earthing systems provided for instrumentation.
Safety Earth (SE) / Dirty Earth / Protective Earth / Electrical Earth / Power Earth
Instrument Earth (IE) / Electronic Earth / Reference Earth / Clean Earth / Signal Earth
Intrinsic Safety (IS) Earth for IS circuit. This is only required when you have IS instruments.

Instrument Earth
The primary aim of the instrument earth/signal earth is to provide a low impedance path to the noise currents induced by
RFI/EMI, which may result in the induction of faulty unwanted noise signals into the analog signals.
Shields of Single pair /Multi pair analog instrument signal cables are connected to this earth (IE).

Safety Earth
hazards
need
Undetected
electrical
suchearth
asearth
equipment
faults
/ Safety
pose
malfunctions,
earth.
safety risks fire,
to personnel
and electric
also
shock.
mayThat
leadistowhy
safety
we
Earth Resistance
Allowable earth resistance as per codes or control system vendor recommendation should be considered for Instrument
Earthing system design.

Below is a reference table that can be updated based on the project-specific requirement.

There should be isolation between each type of earthing mentioned above. If there is no isolation which means that the
purpose of the above earthing requirement will not be fulfilled.

There are mainly two areas in which earthing system is envisaged.

1. Indoor (Building like control room, Switch-gear rooms etc where cabinets/panels/consoles etc are installed)
2. Outdoor (Process area where instruments and related installation items are installed)
Control panels inside the control room fall under the Indoor type. Depending upon the cabinet’s functions each type of
earthing bars are provided.

Control room equipment including system cabinet & marshaling cabinets, power distribution panels, Packaged control
system cabinets, Workstations, Auxiliary consoles, printers, etc. should be considered for earthing requirement.

e.g. System and marshaling cabinets should have – SE, IE and IS Earth bars.

Network cabinets / server cabinets / Power distribution panel should have – SE only.

Within the Cabinet, the Instrument Earth bar shall be isolated from the Safety Earth bar by mounting the Instrument Earth
bar on insulating buses.

All the instrument earth bars in the cabinets should be connected to a common instrument earth bar provided in the false
floor / Cable cellar using an insulated redundant copper conductor cables.

This common Instrument Earth bar shall be further connected to the nearest Instrument earth grid using copper cables.

It should be agreed with the Control system supplier for earthing philosophy of Cabinet’s earth bar connection with the
building earth bar network. E.g. Star connection or series connection.
Earthing philosophy should cover Scope of supply, grounding wire/strip sizes, earth stud size, wire color as a minimum.

All the safety earth bars in the cabinets should be connected to a common safety earth bar provided in the false floor /
Cable cellar using insulated redundant copper conductor cables.

This common Safety Earth bar shall be further connected to the nearest safety earth grid using copper cables. The Main
Earth grid conductor size can be calculated based on the desired fault current within the required time to be earthed.
Ultimately, this network/grid is connected to earth pits. The surrounding soil of the earth pit must be kept moist. The effect
of the soil temperature on soil resistivity is more influencing near and below the freezing point, which will result in the
installation of the earth electrode at the depth to which frost will not penetrate.

Instrumentation Earthing

Main objective of the earthing system in plant is described as below:

 It provides low impedance path to ensure the proper function of system under fault condition
 It ensures that personnel are not exposed to unsafe potential due to uncleared fault
 It ensures compliance to EMC requirements
 IS earth avoids ignition sources in Hazardous Area.
Items or equipment which require earthing, are but not limited to below,

 field instruments,
 control system cabinets,
 analyzer shelters,
 junction boxes,
 enclosures,
 ducts,
 cable trays,
 stanchions,
 field local panels,
 Consoles,
 Motors,
 Tanks,
 vessels,
 pipes,
 steel structure, etc.
This article mainly focuses on earthing requirements for instrumentation items of any industrial plant.

Good Practices

 Cable shield shall be insulated and floated at the field instrument side (Cut and Tape). Cable Shield is the drain wire
attached with Aluminum Mylar or metal braid cover on the instrument signal cables i.e. 4-20 mA analog signal,
low voltage digital signals, etc
 Main cable (i.e. from Junction box and control room) shields shall be grounded at one place i.e. control system end
Instrument earth bar Isolated type. All the connections to the Instrument Earth bar within the cabinet shall be of
screw type of non-corrosive metal.

Similarly, for IS cable, individual and overall shield shall be connected to the IS earth bar inside the cabinet.

Ensure continuity of all earth cables up to earth bar & up to earth pits.

 Cable armors shall be earthed at both ends for lightning protection i.e. at the junction box and at the control system
end. Since the Junction box body and Control system cabinet body is connected to the Safety earth bar, cable armors
are ultimately connected to the safety earth.
 All instruments (24V DC or 110 V /220V AC operated) body should be earthed to the nearest field safety earth bar
located on the Steel structure.
 Earth continuity should be ensured between tray, tray fittings, and tray sections. This will be ensured by Earth
cable/strips at every 25 meters of tray length.
 Earth bar connection should be such that painting should not act as bad contact between earth bar and
Structure. Continuity shall be ensured.

Junction Box Earthing (Safety Earth)

Transmitter Earthing (Safety Earth)

Junction Box shield Termination on Isolated Instrument Earth

terminals

Instrument Cable Tray Earthing (Safety Earth)

Instrument Earth inside the Control System cabinet (Isolated from

Safety Earth)

Safety Earth inside the Control system cabinet (Non Isolated)

Testing and Commissioning of Earthing System
Earthing system / connections to be tested as follows :

Resistance of individual earth electrodes to be measured after disconnecting it from the grid by using
standard earth test mugger. Earthing resistance of the grid to be measured after connecting all the earth
electrodes to the grid. The resistance value of an earth grid to the general mass of earth to be as follows:
 • For the electrical system and equipment a value that ensures the operation of the protection
device in the electrical circuit but not in excess of 4 ohms. However for plant grid, resistance value
shall not be more than 1 ohm.

• For lightning protection, the value of 5 ohms as earth resistance to be desirable, but in no case
it to be more than 10 ohms.

The resistance to earth to be measured typically at the following points : a) At each

electrical system earth or system neutral earth.
b) At each earth provided for structure lightning protections.
c) At one point on earthing system used to earth electrical equipment enclosures.
d) At one point on earthing system used to earth wiring system, enclosures, such as metal conduits
and cable sheaths or armour.
e) At one point on fence enclosing electrical equipment.