These three 

systems are:

1. Ungrounded Systems
2. Resistance Grounded Systems
3. Solidly Grounded Systems

I’ve already talked a little bit about what grounding is, including giving a brief
overview of why we do it and what it’s used for. If you haven’t read that article
yet, go give it a read before continuing.

Finished reading about what grounding is? Alright then, let’s get to the meat and
potatoes of today’s topic.

Ungrounded Systems
“Whoa, hold on”, you might be thinking, “We just finished reading about how
important grounding is for safety! Why would we have ungrounded systems?”
The answer is that we shouldn’t really have ungrounded systems, but they do
exist and they do have their purposes.

You see, an ungrounded system isn’t really ungrounded. Electrically, your

system is connected to ground through the capacitance between the lines and
the earth, so you can say that it’s a capacitance grounded system. We just call it
ungrounded because of convention, and because there isn’t a direct physical
connection between any of your power lines and the ground.

Advantages
There are a few advantages to having an ungrounded system. The first is that
since your system is never physically connected to the ground, you have
negligible ground fault current. For example, in a 3-phase system, because all of
the ground fault current is capacitive, when you have a single line-to-ground fault
in an ungrounded system, the current and voltage you would lose is negligible,
and is instead carried by the other two lines. This allows you to continue
operation unimpeded during a single line-to-ground fault.

The other big advantage is that because of the negligible ground fault current,
special ungrounded systems can be used to minimize shock risk to people. An
excellent example would be medical equipment in a hospital: a patient is directly
connected to the machine, and if a fault were to occur, electricity might be able to
flow through the patient and into the ground. Because the ground fault current is
negligible in an ungrounded system, no power current will pass from the machine
through the patient into the ground.

Disadvantages
Of course, the disadvantages of an ungrounded system are obvious. If there is a
fault, you are now using two wires to carry an amount of current that was allotted
for three wires: the increase in current and voltage will jack up the heat, and the
extra heat will wear out your insulation much faster. Worn out insulation could
lead to unnecessary damage to your electrical system, particularly at motors.

The other big disadvantage of an ungrounded system is that it is incredibly

difficult and time consuming to locate any faults. Each line must be tested
individually, which is a very slow process that completely interrupts service. The
opportunity cost of a fault in an ungrounded system is very high.

Ungrounded systems were the norm back in the 40’s and 50’s, but because their
disadvantages outweigh their advantages in most scenarios, you won’t see too
many new ungrounded systems today.

Resistance Grounding
Resistance grounding is when you have a connection between your neutral line
and the ground through a resistor. This resistor is used to limit the fault current
through your neutral line: if your voltage doesn’t change, then your current is
dependent on the size of the resistor according to Ohm’s law (V=IR).

Advantages Over Ungrounded Systems

Because the current in the neutral is controlled instead of negligible, system over
voltages are also controlled. This reduced current and reduced overvoltage
means reduced heat, which keeps the wear and tear of your electrical system to
a minimum. This is especially important for keeping your motors safe, since the
reduced current will not damage the magnetic iron of the motor (which is costly to
repair). The reduced currents also reduce the risk of shock and arc flash/blast
hazards.

There are two types of resistance grounding: high resistance grounding and low
resistance grounding.

High Resistance Grounding

High resistance grounding is typically used to limit ground fault current to < 10
amps. The low ground-fault current also means that, just like an ungrounded
system, you can continue to operate the system on a single line-to-ground fault.
The low current will typically not trip your protective devices during a single line-
to-ground fault.

Overall, you want to use high resistance grounding when you need low fault
current and still want to operate with a single fault. High resistance grounding is
typically seen in retrofits of previously ungrounded systems in addition to new
systems.

Low Resistance Grounding

Low resistance grounding typically limits ground fault current to between 100 and
1000 amps. This offers a similar advantage to high resistance grounding in that
you can control the ground fault current, which means you can design your
system to withstand the currents without damage.

Low resistance grounding systems have the benefit of tripping your protective
devices when there is a fault. Their purpose is to immediately cut the power to
the circuit, and so unlike the high resistance grounding systems, a low resistance
grounding system will not maintain operation during a single line-to-ground fault.

Low resistance grounding also reduces overvoltage, and is used in medium

voltage systems of 15kV or less, typically where big generators/motors are used.

Solid Grounding
Solid grounding is what you get when you connect your system directly to the
ground, without any sort of resistance in the way. The ground is typically
connected to the system at a neutral point, like the neutral terminal of a generator
or transformer.

Pros and Cons

Solid grounding, like resistance grounding, can greatly reduce over voltages in
your electrical system. However, solidly grounded systems have the potential to
have huge amounts of ground-fault current. As a result, solidly grounded systems
cannot operate with a ground fault (since all of the current in the system is going
from fault to ground).

Solid grounding has two main uses:

 In systems with voltages of 600V or less, solid grounding can be used if it

is not necessary to maintain operation of a faulted circuit.
 In systems with voltages of 15kV or greater, solid grounding can be used if
high ground fault currents are desirable of any reason, such as quick
ground fault detection (since the high current will most definitely trip
protective devices).

Recap
 You can use ungrounded systems when you want to have negligible
ground-fault current.
 Resistance grounding offers the advantages of ungrounded systems
without the risk of large over voltages.
 Solid grounding reduces over voltages but has high ground-fault currents.

At the end of the day, the type of grounding you use for your system will depend
on which type of grounding best suits your needs and budget.