parallel grounded and grounding conductor

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sokkerdude

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Arkansas
I have a service lateral (480/277v) with 4- 500 mcm conductors and 1- 2/0 conductor. the utility company is going to land 1- 500 mcm neutral (white grounded conductor) on x-0 & land 1- 2/0 grounding (green) also on x-0 in there transformer. The ground bar and the neutral bar are bonded in the service entrance equipment. Making the parallel I believe? Here in Arkansas every other utility company will not allow a grounding conductor. I realize that they are paralleled. But they engineer see PVC conduit and expect a equipment ground. I don't have the knowledge to tell them why you don't want them paralleled. Can anyone give me more information?
 
What they are doing is the same as installing a MBJ (main bonding jumper) in

a sub-panel, the neutral current will split over both of the conductors.

It is not the normal way services are wired, is this for sure a service??
 
You definately don't want to run a ground wire in a service lateral! NEC 250.6 and 250.142 (1) cover this situation. It seems like there was another applicable article but I can't find it.
 
hungrycat said:
the service lateral or service drop is under poco authority.they have their own rules or codes.
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Do their rules include having different sized parallel grounded and grounding conductor in the service lateral? Something doesn't seem right with that requirement.
 
sokkerdude said:
the engineer see PVC conduit and expect a equipment ground. I don't have the knowledge to tell them why you don't want them paralleled. Can anyone give me more information?
Click to expand...

I see this from time to time. It usually isn't the PE that designed it....it was a young 'designer' in the PE's office. If you call it to the attention of the PE, he/she will likely know what is correct.
Hopefully he will help his designer to understand the problem so that he won't make the same mistake again.
(good help is hard to find...and when you find some, they leave for a 'better offer'.)
 
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