Grounding remote panel

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sfav8r

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San Francisco Bay Area
I'm bidding a job that will require setting a panel in a parking lot. The panel will feed some receptacles, lighting etc. I know if this was a remote building, it would have to be grounded at the structure. I'm not sure about the condition where it is in a parking lot. Any references? Thank you.
 
Cow said:
We would drive a couple of rods and be done with it.
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often these things are out in a parking lot though and you are required to have a certain amount of distance like 6 feet between them and that is not always real easy to do in a parking lot
 
petersonra said:
often these things are out in a parking lot though and you are required to have a certain amount of distance like 6 feet between them and that is not always real easy to do in a parking lot
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I don't think the code cares.

If it was fed underground, it stands to reason you could drive them in the ditch. If overhead, you're going to have to get creative.
 
Thanks for the input. It isn't a big deal to run a couple of rods, I just wanted to understand the code, which I think has been answered. I confess I don't really understand why a ground rod is helpful in this situation. The panel is already grounded with the ground wire that feeds the panel. This has always felt like a ground-loop to me which creates problems of its own. The impedance of the rods will be higher than the impedance of the ground wire running back to the main panel. If the concern is the ground wire from the main panel becoming disconnected, then that concern would be true of all panels, not just those in an outbuilding. :?
 
Think of it as making sure that the earth around the building is at the same potential as the electrical ground.
 
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