Inadequate Earthing (Grounding) in distribution sector-root Cause for Many Maladies

Earthing facilitates the efficient and quick operation of protective relays in case of any earth fault and provides safety to costly equipments as well as working personnel. This paper presents the basics, types and purposes of earthing system. A low voltage (LV) distribution system may be identified according to its earthing system. These are defined using the five letters T (Direct connection to earth), N (Neutral), C (Combined), S (Separate) and I (Isolated from earth). Paper provides information about applications and importance of different system of earthing like TT, IT, TN-S, TN-C, TN-C-S. The paper also highlights the importance of grounding in the distribution system.