Bringing Grounding Down to Earth

Don't let the rules and requirements intimidate you. Grounding isn't as mysterious
as you might think.
By Tim Janof, P.E.

(published in EC&M, February 2005)

Do the myriad rules about impedance of the path through the

grounding sometimes seem a bit too much to
handle? Do grounding implementation
problems sometimes leave you dazed and
confused, with the correct solution
seemingly a bit over your head? If so, don’t
feel alone.
Despite the extensive literature on
grounding, some of its important concepts
seem to be missing from the electrical
industry's oral tradition and regular practice
— and some grounding misconceptions
seem to be solidly anchored in their place.
Consequently, many designs and
installations aren't as reliable or as safe as
they could be.
But you can steer clear of the
confusion if you understand the concepts
behind the rules. With a better
understanding, you can have more
confidence that your grounding system will
function as you intended.
grounding/grounded conductor.
If you're unsure about this at your
facility, measure the impedance of a copper
wire from the electrode to the source and
compare it with the impedance through the
earth.
This difference in impedance means
only a minute amount of fault current flows
through the grounding electrode. The fault
typically travels along the equipment ground
(conductors and metal raceway systems),
through the neutral-ground bond, and back
to the source through the grounded (neutral)
conductor. It's the high fault current through
the low-impedance path that causes an
overcurrent device to trip—not the
negligible amount of current that flows
through the dirt via a ground rod (Figure 1).

Back to basics
The first thing to understand is that
ground-fault current — like all electricity —
seeks to return to its power source. This
principle is what makes electrical circuits
work in the first place. What's the source of
ground-fault current? It doesn’t originate in
the earth, but at the utility transformer.
Kirchoff’s Law states that current
will flow in inverse proportion to the Figure 1 -- Each path's relative impedance
impedance of the paths presented to it. Thus, determines where most of the ground fault
the relative impedances of the various paths current flows.
determine how fault current gets back to its
source. If that's the case, what's the function of the
The impedance of the path between grounding electrode? Believe it or not, it has
the grounding electrode and the source is several, including the following:
almost always significantly higher than the
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 Limiting voltages imposed by

lightning, surges, or accidental
contact with higher voltage lines.
 Stabilizing the voltage to earth
during normal operation, helping to
maintain the voltage within
predictable limits.
 Assisting the utility in clearing its
own faults by basically becoming Figure 2a -- Overlapping effective resistance
part of the utility's multi-point areas increase net resistance.
grounding system.
 Providing a path to earth for static
dissipation.

Ground rod spacing

Suppose you drive the first ground
rod for a system. If it has a ground resistance
of 25 ohms or more, 250.56 of the 2005
NEC requires you to drive a second rod. But
many contractors don’t bother measuring the
ground resistance. They simply plan on
driving two rods because doing so will meet
the requirements of 250.56, regardless of
actual ground resistance. Thus, two-rod
installations are common, but are they
necessarily correct?
The Code requires you to space rods
at least 6 feet apart [250.53(B)]. However,
this spacing is a minimum—and far from
ideal. When using the typical 8-foot or 10-
foot ground rod, you get the best results by
spacing the rods at least 16 or 20 feet apart,
respectively. This is much greater than the
Code minimum 6-foot spacing.
Ground rods spaced less than two
rod-lengths apart will interfere with each
other because their effective resistance areas
will overlap (Figure 2A). For reference, see
IEEE-142 and Soares Book on Grounding.
The overlap increases the net resistance of
each rod, making the grounding electrode
system less effective than if the rods were
spaced farther apart (Figure 2b).
Figure 2b -- Non-overlapping effective
resistance areas reduce net resistance.
Main bonding jumper
The main bonding jumper is the link
between the neutral and the equipment
ground bars within the service. This vital
connection allows the ground-fault current
to return to the source. Without the main
bonding jumper, the fault would have to
travel through high-impedance earth rather
than low-impedance copper. This high-
impedance path would most likely limit the
current and prevent circuit breakers from
tripping — or at least prevent them from
tripping soon enough to avoid equipment
damage.
Size the main bonding jumper per
Table 250.66. Many people assume this
table indicates the maximum size main
bonding jumper is 3/0 AWG, but that’s
another common misconception. The
bonding jumper must be at least 12.5% of
the equivalent area of the phase conductors
[250.28(D)]. If you're running 11 sets of 500

kcmil conductors (a 4,000A service, for
example), the main bonding jumper would
need to be 700 kcmil minimum, not 3/0
AWG.
This issue is less of a concern with
bonding jumpers for secondary derived
systems, such as transformers and
generators, since fault currents are typically
much lower in those systems.
Sizing equipment grounding conductors
Designers typically use Table
250.122 when sizing equipment grounding
conductors. In most cases, the size will be
adequate, especially for small branch
circuits. But when the available fault current
is high — say 100,000A — and when an
upstream circuit breaker is set to delay its
trip for several cycles, you must size
grounding conductors more carefully.
Metallic raceways, which typically
carry more current than equipment
grounding conductors, may not be installed
properly or may come apart over time.
Consequently, the equipment grounding
conductor may be the only ground return
path available. Under-sized grounding
conductors may melt during a fault before
they serve their purpose of providing a
continuous low-impedance current path back
to the source during a fault condition.
It’s important to understand that
conductors have withstand ratings. The
Insulated Cable Engineers Association
provides a standard called Short-Circuit
Characteristics of Insulated Cable, number
P 32-382 (1994). This standard says that for
a 5-second period, a conductor's withstand
rating is 1A per 42.25 circular mils.
For example, a 3/0 AWG conductor
can safely carry 3,972A for 5 seconds. The
I2T, 5-second withstand rating is therefore
78,883,920A. Now assume a circuit breaker
is set to open in 30 cycles—a delay you
might see at the service. You can quickly
determine that the maximum current a 3/0
AWG can carry for 30 cycles (0.5 sec) is:
3
I2T = 78,883,920
I = (78,883,920 ÷T)
I = (78,883,920 ÷0.5)
I = 12,560A
But if the available fault current is
65,000A or 100,000A at the load end of the
grounding conductor, the grounding
conductor will be quickly destroyed in the
event of a fault, assuming the circuit breaker
takes 30 cycles to open. You should be
mindful of the available fault current and
allow for the opening time of the circuit
breakers, especially the main and feeder
breakers in the main switchboard. Perform
I2T calculations as described above,
particularly when the available fault current
is high. You can see that correctly sizing
equipment grounding conductors isn't as
simple as applying NEC minimums.
Grounding system currents
Current is present in the grounding
system during normal operating conditions,
not just during a fault condition. This
probably explains why the Code permits
ground-fault sensors to be set to as high as
1,200A to prevent nuisance tripping
[230.95(A)].
Other than ground faults, several
things can produce current in the grounding
system, including the following:
 Induced currents from adjacent
current-carrying wires.
 Induced currents from motors
(particularly single-phase).
 Capacitive coupling between the
phase and neutral wires to the
grounding conductors. This
phenomenon is known to cause
nuisance GFCI tripping in long
circuits.
 Electrostatic discharge from
equipment.
Ground loops
You can form ground loops through
the interaction of power grounding and low-
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voltage cabling. Low-voltage cabling often various grounding points. TIA/EIA J-STD-
contains a signal ground conductor that can 607-A recommends a maximum potential of
essentially bond the internal signal grounds 1V between grounding points. Interestingly,
between different pieces of electronic it also recommends one large ground loop
equipment together. If an internal bond also for grounding multi-story buildings (Figure
exists between the power ground and the 4). In computer networks, limiting the
signal ground within the electronic potential between grounding points clearly
equipment, current can flow through this takes precedence over concerns about
loop. Though shielded low-voltage cables circulating loops of ground currents.
are typically grounded only at one end to Audiovisual equipment is much more
prevent ground loops, a separate signal sensitive, however.
ground wire within the shield may still
create a bond.
For an example of where this
commonly occurs, think about a computer
network and the shields on devices like
printers, routers, and workstations. If you're
linking different pieces of equipment
together, you're interconnecting devices that
have a potential between their respective
ground pins (Figure 3). If you have a
complete circuit through the signal wires,
you have a ground loop. Ground currents
will flow because of this potential, and
they'll create electrical noise that can
interfere with system operation.
Electromagnetic fields that pass through this
loop could also cause current to flow.

Figure 4 -- Note the loop topology in this excerpt

from TIA/EIA J-STD-607-A.

Any given building has hundreds, if

Figure 3 --A ground loop can be formed between
power and signal grounds.
To minimize this phenomenon, you
must limit the potential between these
not thousands of low-voltage cables, and
each may form its own ground loop in
combination with the power grounding
system. Unfortunately, there's no practical
way in a standard building to guarantee an
even ground plane throughout.
The best you can do is properly
ground the key pieces of equipment. This
means providing ground bars in all
telecommunications and audio/video rooms,
and making sure every piece of equipment
within these rooms is tied to these ground
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bars. This ensures a fairly even ground plane

within the room—at least in the lower
frequency range.
A commonly prescribed cure for
these kinds of grounding issues is to provide
equipotential ground planes over a wide
range of frequencies. Methods include using
ground meshes within slabs and signal
reference grids beneath raised floors. Given
the cost of such measures, these methods are
typically reserved for the most sensitive
communications facilities — not typical
commercial or institutional facilities. An
equipotential ground plane is only one step,
though. It’s not a cure-all for ground loops,
because currents can always be induced by
electromagnetic fields that pass through
conductors.
Don’t be overwhelmed by the vast
amount of minutia related to grounding.
Having a handle on a few basic grounding
concepts should help you sort things out.
Good grounding is key to the operational
success of any facility, so the more informed
your designs, the more reliable the
installation will be and the fewer power
quality issues will surface.

Tim Janof, P.E. is an associate and senior

project manager at Sparling, an electrical
engineering and technology consulting firm
with offices in Seattle and Portland.