Earthing is not just ‘Earthing’

This article will analyse some of the most important safety issues related to
design and use of LV electrical installations. Besides explanation of relevant
terms in this field defined by IEC standards, some misinterpretations and
confusions which may be seen in practice will be illustrated and clarified.

When can we say that earthing arrangement is safe for people? (on photo:
An old earthing bar in LV switchgear; photo credit: Richard Cadena)
Table of contents:
1. Introduction and basic terms
1. Lightning strike
2. Electric arc
3. Direct contact
4. Indirect contact
2. Earthing arrangements and efficiency of protection
1.  TN earthing arrangement
 2. TT earthing arrangement
3. IT earthing arrangement
3. Additional comments and FAQs

1. Introduction and basic terms

The only electrical shock caused by indirect contact as a life hazard will be
considered, while the safety of the equipment will not be a subject of this
article. We can say that some part of the electrical installation is safe for
people if inside that part of installation human life cannot be jeopardized by
any unintentional action or technical fault.

A short survey of occurrences that may be potentially dangerous to human

life, including definition and protective measures, is given below.

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1.1 Lightning strike

Definition:  Atmospheric electrical discharge into structures on the ground.
Additional voltage induced by this discharge shall also be considered.
Safety risk: Electric shock may be caused by increased voltage which is a
consequence of direct or indirect lightning discharge. Both touch and step
potential differences may be critical. Thermal effects of discharge
current flowing through conductors or creating electric arc may also be
dangerous.
Protective measures:  Installation of efficient external and internal lighting
protection system. This subject was analysed within one of the previous
articles. However, more about this topic you can read below:
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1.2 Electric arc

Definition:  Arc created by increased current caused by some fault inside
installation, usually a short circuit.
Safety risk: Large amount of heat and light emission may cause serious
injuries if there are people nearby, even if fault current is not flowing through
human body.
Protective measures:  Proper selection of overcurrent devices, conductors,
and switchgear assembly, above all adequate separation (segregation) form.
The use of personal protective equipment (shoes, gloves, eyeglasses) during
interventions.
This subject will not be analysed within this article. However, more about this
topic you can read below:

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1.3 Direct contact

Definition:  Physical contact between human body and conductive parts with
potential higher than earth potential during normal operation. These parts are
so called “live parts” and usually we are talking about bare conductors,
switchgear terminals and cable terminations.
Safety risk: Electric shock may be caused by increased voltage which is a
consequence of potential difference between live part and earth. In the case
of LV networks, usually touch voltage is critical.
Protective measures:  Use of safety low voltage, physical barriers,
increased insulation, placing of live parts outside human reach.
This subject will not be analysed within this article.

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1.4 Indirect contact

Definition: Physical contact between human body and conductive parts with
potential no higher than earth potential during normal operation. These parts
are sometimes called “exposed conductive parts” or also “non live conductive
parts” and usually we are talking about metallic cubicles and supporting
structures, protective busbars, and other earthed structural parts inside or
outside cabinets.

Safety risk: If galvanic connection (short circuit) between live part and
exposed conductive part is established because of a fault, electric shock
may be caused by increased voltage which is a consequence of potential
difference between faulty conductive part and earth. In the case of LV
networks, usually touch voltage is critical.

Protective measures: Use of overcurrent protective devices (usually circuit

breakers and RCDs) and nonconductive cubicles. Note that, unlike direct
contact, indirect contact assumes a fault to occur and cause potential danger
to human life.

Selection of overcurrent device as a protective measure and criterion for

efficiency of protection against indirect contact is closely related to earthing
arrangement (TN, TT or IT) applied inside installation.
However, this subject will be analysed in the rest of this article, but if
interested, you can learn more below:

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2. Earthing arrangements and

efficiency of protection
In this article, the term “earthing arrangement” will assume the principle of:

1. Transformer’s or generator’s neutral point earthing (first letter in

earthing arrangement designation)
2. Connection between exposed conductive parts within installation and
transformer’s neutral (second letter in earthing arrangement designation)
Protection against indirect contact is considered to be efficient if, in the case
of a fault, protective device prevents exposure of human body to dangerous
amount of increased voltage.

In general, longer duration of exposure means that lower voltage may be

dangerous during indirect contact, and vice versa. Hence success of this
operation is closely related to protective device’s tripping time, i.e. a
fault duration.
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2.1 TN earthing arrangement

Transformer’s neutral is earthed directly, or via low impedance (letter T).
Exposed conductive parts are connected to transformer’s neutral via
protective “PE” conductors (letter N).

See Figure 1.
 Figure 1 – Illustration
of TN earthing arrangement
If protective conductor has, in the same time, the role of neutral conductor,
designation TN-C shall be used (four wire system), while if protective and
neutral functions are separated, designation TNS shall be used (five wire
system). Both systems may be used together within power supply system
from the same source, TN-C system up to the one point, and TN-S system
downstream of that point.

In such case, we say that TN-C/S system is used.

Fault loop is consisting of phase conductors from the source up to the

point of fault, and protective conductors from the point of fault back to
transformer’s neutral. Fault loop impedances are low, while fault currents
are high, several times bigger than rated current of the circuit, or even
higher, depending on the place of the circuit within installation.
Even though permissible voltage value is physically related to fault duration,
IEC standard specifies only one upper value for each rated voltage of the
circuit, regardless of real indirect contact potential difference during the fault.
These values are given in Table 1.

This practically means that, for the purpose of protection efficiency checking,
no real touch voltage calculation is necessary, which significantly simplifies a
method for efficiency checking.

Table 1 – Maximum allowable disconnection time according to IEC

standard
Rated phase to earth voltage (V) Maximum disconnection time (s)
Final circuits
120 0.8
230 0.4
277 0.4
400 0.2
 >400 0.1
Distribution circuits (switchboards)
5

We can say that protection against indirect contact by means of automatic

disconnection of supply is efficient if:

(Equation 1)

where:

 Ia is the value of current which will cause overcurrent protective device
to trip within time specified in Table 1,
 U0 is rated voltage to earth, and
 Zs is fault loop impedance.
For example, in the case of 3×400/230 LV network, 230/Zs ratio shall be
greater or equal to the current which will cause protective device to trip
within 0.4 s.

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2.2 TT earthing arrangement

Transformer’s neutral is earthed directly, or via low impedance (letter T).
Exposed conductive parts are, via protective conductors, connected to
earthing electrode (letter T).

See Figure 2.
 Figure 2 – Illustration
of TT earthing arrangement
Fault loop is consisting of phase conductors from the source up to the point
of fault, and protective conductors together with earthing resistance from the
point of fault back to transformer’s neutral. Fault loop impedance is not so
low as in the case of TN system, because earthing resistance of
underground electrodes is also part of this impedance.

We can say that protection against indirect contact by means of automatic

disconnection of supply is efficient if:

(Equation 2)

where:

 Ia is the value of current which will cause overcurrent protective device
to trip, and
 RA is the sum of protective conductors and earthing resistance
connected to faulty exposed conductive part.
If RCD is used as protective device , rated sensitivity current ∆I n shall be
used for efficiency checking in Equation 2.

In other words, protective device shall disconnect a circuit in such a way that
current flowing through protective conductors and earthing electrodes does
not cause a potential difference between exposed conductive part and
reference earth greater than 50V, which is the upper limit for safe AC
voltage.

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2.3 IT earthing arrangement

Transformer’s neutral is not earthed, i.e. it is isolated from the ground (letter
I). Exposed conductive parts are, via protective conductors, connected to
earthing electrode (letter T).

See Figure 3.

Figure 3 – Illustration
of IT earthing arrangement
Fault loop is consisting of phase conductors from the source up to the point
of fault, and parasitic capacities between phase conductors and earth. Since
these capacities are very low, fault loop impedances are high, and fault
currents are also very low, significantly lower than working currents.

Because of that, overcurrent protective devices cannot be used for

protection against indirect contact. For that purpose, monitoring devices
capable to detect such small currents are used.
IT systems are used for installations with high level of required availability
(hospitals for example). That is why first phase to earth fault is usually not
disconnected for some time, but only sound and/or lighting alarm is
generated.

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3. Additional comments and FAQs

Each earthing arrangement has some advantages and drawbacks in
comparison with others. TN system can usually be created very easily, since
no low impedance earthing electrodes are mandatory to be installed. In most
cases, protective conductors are laid together with phase conductors, as
fourth or fifth core in the same multicore cable, or separately as single core
cable.
However, fault currents are very high, hence conductors and equipment must
be designed to withstand such currents during fault. Also, a low impedance
loop formed by protective conductors may cause EM interferences to be
induced into a circuit easily.

The lack of TT system is related to non-reliable earthing connections,

which have large influence on condition for protection efficiency given in
Equation 2. Therefore this condition shall be checked frequently, since
earthing resistance may be easily increased by time.
As already explained above, first phase fault inside IT system is ignored, for
the purpose of increased availability of critical power supply systems .

However, voltage of two phase conductors not affected by the fault are
higher than nominal during that period, which may increase the possibility for
insulation breakdown and dangerous direct contact.

FAQ № 1 –  Is there a need for earthing connections

inside TN system?
Answer: Even though earthing resistance doesn’t have the influence on
efficiency requirement given in Equation 1, it is common practice that PE
busbars inside switchboards shall be earthed. The purpose of this custom is
to decrease potential differences at the place of fault.

Also, remember that earthing electrodes  are part of lightning protection

system, so surge arresters inside the switchboard shall be solidly connected
to the earth via PE busbar.

FAQ № 2
Since earthing connections inside TN arrangement are
also common, how can we distinguish TN from TT system
for sure?
Answer: Inside TN arrangement, return path of fault current, from the point
of fault back to the system’s neutral, is consisted of galvanic connections
(conductors) exclusively.

So, if exposed conductive parts are connected with neutral point via earthing
electrodes galvanically, we are actually talking about TN system. This would
be the common case, for example, in large facilities where several rooms or
even buildings share the same earthing mesh.
However, if fault current flows through the earth even partially, we are talking
about TT arrangement.

FAQ № 3 – Is the use of RCD mandatory inside TT

system?
Answer: Let us first answer why the use of RCD can be seen so often in the
case of TT system. Since resistance of protective conductors (especially of
small length) is usually much smaller than earthing resistance, requirement
for latter, in accordance with Equation 2, will be:

Hence, the smaller Ia, the larger RA is allowed to be, in order to achieve

efficient protection. Since RCD’s sensitivity current is much smaller than
circuit breaker’s tripping current, the choice of RCD will cause requirement
for earthing resistance to be much easier to fulfil.

This is very important, because in practice, it is sometimes very hard to

construct an earthing system of low resistance.

For example, if 16A rated MCB shall trip in the case of fault, and we assume
that at least 20A will cause a certain trip, earthing resistance shall be lower
or equal than 50/20= 2.5 Ω. On the other side, if RCD with sensitivity
current of 30mA is used, the same earthing resistance shall be lower or
equal than 50/0.03= 1667 Ω, which is much less demanding requirement.
So, the use of RCD is not mandatory in the case of TT system. However,
requirement for efficiency of protection against indirect contact will be much
easier to fulfil if RCD is used.

Even if this requirement can be achieved without the use of RCD at the moment of

installation start up, it may still be a good idea to use it, because earthing resistance may

increase by time during the use of installation.

More about understanding of earth (ground) resistance testing you can learn
below: