230.95 GF for greater than 1000 amps - when did this first appear?

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mayanees

mayanees

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Can anyone tell me when the 230.95 Ground-Fault Protection of Equipment section came into effect?

We're doing a Power Study and there's a 480V, 1600-amp secondary main breaker without gf protection, and if the system was installed before 230.95 was instituted then I won't flag it as a violation.
I have digital NEC files to 1999 and see that it was a requirement then.

Thanks for any assistance.
 
Hey jumper, thanks for the response.
I just found a 2017 Handbook and the blue narrative says that the requirement first came in the 1971 edition. This facility was built in 1997.
But it feeds a fire pump and I found an exception 695.6(G) in the handbook narrative that prohibits gf on fire pumps.
Thanks again.
 
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mayanees said:
I just found a 2017 Handbook and the blue narrative says that the requirement first came in the 1971 edition.
Click to expand...

Phooey!

maxwell_smart.jpg
 
GF protection existed back in those stone ages of the 70s and beyond, it was just done with separate CTs, a relay and a shunt trip in the breaker. When I started, we used a lot of these, made by a company in Florida called ITI (Instrument Transformer Inc), but it was sold by all of the major brands under their names; GE, Westinghouse, ITE, Allis Chalmers, Square D, even many of the smaller switchgear-only companies like S&C, Boltswitch, PowerCon etc..
image.jpg
As I recall, GF trip built into the breaker trip units didn't start showing up in large breakers until some time after the NEC started requiring it, maybe almost 1980, probably because of needing to get them UL listed.

In typing that, it occurred to me how all of the major player names are not only merged/gone, but also now no longer owned by US companies... GE is now owned by ABB, Westinghouse was split between Eaton and ABB, ITE and Allis Chalmers became Siemens, Square D is now Schneider. All of them foreign corporations (for those who don't know, Eaton moved to Ireland as a tax dodge).
 
mayanees said:
Can anyone tell me when the 230.95 Ground-Fault Protection of Equipment section came into effect?

We're doing a Power Study and there's a 480V, 1600-amp secondary main breaker without gf protection, and if the system was installed before 230.95 was instituted then I won't flag it as a violation.
I have digital NEC files to 1999 and see that it was a requirement then.

Thanks for any assistance.
Click to expand...

Actually your thread heading is incorrect.

This 230.95 applies to 1000 amps and above.

JAP>
 
mayanees said:
Can anyone tell me when the 230.95 Ground-Fault Protection of Equipment section came into effect?

We're doing a Power Study and there's a 480V, 1600-amp secondary main breaker without gf protection, and if the system was installed before 230.95 was instituted then I won't flag it as a violation.
I have digital NEC files to 1999 and see that it was a requirement then.

Thanks for any assistance.
Click to expand...


You said secondary main breaker, is there GFP ahead of that 1600 amp CB?
 
infinity said:
You said secondary main breaker, is there GFP ahead of that 1600 amp CB?
Click to expand...

Along this line.
Is this a utility service entrance? 230.95 applies, GFI required since the early '70's.
Is this the secondary of a of a customer owned transformer? GFI was not generally required until the '90's along with popular concept of treating secondaries as if they were service entrance locations. There were loopholes for 'supervised industrial' installations (maybe your installation was one of them).


sidetrack
Many manufacturers ship their GF devices at the minimum setting. The minimum setting of a 1200A GF will almost never coordinate with anything larger than a 20A branch breaker. This is partly why nuisance trips happen.
/sidetrack
 
jap said:
Actually your thread heading is incorrect.

This 230.95 applies to 1000 amps and above.

JAP>
Click to expand...

I stand/sit corrected.
As to the other replies:
No there is no GFP ahead of the 1600-amp breaker.
Yes this is a secondary of a facility-owned transformer that was built in the mid 90s. I wonder how I could find anything that would have allowed that? They are their own AHJ so they could have allowed it based on that I suppose.
This is a school in PA.
Thanks for the replies.
 
mayanees said:
Yes this is a secondary of a facility-owned transformer that was built in the mid 90s. I wonder how I could find anything that would have allowed that? They are their own AHJ so they could have allowed it based on that I suppose.
Click to expand...

I know of quite a few installations that seem to be based on a liberal use of the 'industrial occupancies' exception to 215.10 and to the use of 240.90.

Over the past 20 years it seems the NEC has been tweaked in order to close, or at least tighten, some of these loopholes that have allowed GFP to be skipped.
 
The reason GF protection was added was due to destructive ground faults on 277/480, a fault won't burn clear.
Interesting it was a school...
 
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