Electrical Potential Transfer Through Grounding and the Concern for Facility and Worker Safety

摘要

A faulty ground circuit can have lethal potential to the worker, can damage electrical equipment or components, and can lead to higher consequences. Proper electrical grounding is essential to mitigate the electrical hazard and improve work place safety. A designer must ask the question, 'What grounding is proper' continuously through a process design and in its application. This question must be readdressed with any process change, including tiom layout, equipment, or procedure changes. Electrical grounding varies from local work area grounding to the multi-point grounding found in large industrial areas. These grounding methods become more complex when the designer adds bonding to the grounding schemes to mitigate electrostatic discharge (ESD) and surfkce potentials resulting from lightning currents flowing through the facility structure. This paper discusses electrical grounding methods and their characteristics and identifies potential sneak paths into a process for hazardous electrical energy.