Kessler4130
Senior Member
- Location
- Maryland
Good evening gentlemen,
My questions is regarding the grounding of lighting fixtures outdoors supplied by utility company power. I understand that the NEC does not apply to most utility installations, but let me fill you in on what is going on.
We installed some light fixtures on wooden utility poles in the District of Columbia, in place of existing fixtures. The utility is not supplying us with a neutral and a ground, just one bare conductor connected to XO on the transformer, and both our neutral and fixture casing/arm ground are connected to that, as it was originally.
The inspector is making us remove the ground wire from the bare XO conductor, run a bare wire down the pole, and drive a ground rod instead. Now to me this seems to defeat the purpose as I would think the fixture casing could remain energized as would the ground around the ground rod if there was a ground fault. I don't see how this installation serves anything but his ego. Please correct me if I am wrong.
Thank you for your time.
My questions is regarding the grounding of lighting fixtures outdoors supplied by utility company power. I understand that the NEC does not apply to most utility installations, but let me fill you in on what is going on.
We installed some light fixtures on wooden utility poles in the District of Columbia, in place of existing fixtures. The utility is not supplying us with a neutral and a ground, just one bare conductor connected to XO on the transformer, and both our neutral and fixture casing/arm ground are connected to that, as it was originally.
The inspector is making us remove the ground wire from the bare XO conductor, run a bare wire down the pole, and drive a ground rod instead. Now to me this seems to defeat the purpose as I would think the fixture casing could remain energized as would the ground around the ground rod if there was a ground fault. I don't see how this installation serves anything but his ego. Please correct me if I am wrong.
Thank you for your time.