Proper bonding and grounding of a meter base and main disconnect

Punkin

New User
Location
Florida
Occupation
Building Official, Electrical Inspector
I am a Building Official in N Florida and all my subject matter experts are not returning to work until after the 1st of the year.
I have a meter that is grounded but there is no ground running to the main disconnect/panel. The feeders are fed to the main panel protected by PVC conduit.
The main panel also has a bonding screw.
It seems like the ground wire should extend to the main panel and disconnect?

I look forward to your opinions!

Happy New Year!
 

roger

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Fl
Occupation
Retired Electrician
From the service to the main disconnect the neutral plays a dual role and is all that is needed. At the Main Disconnect the bond screw (Main Bonding Jumper) establishes the fault clearing path downstream, If you were to install an EGC from meter to Main you would have a parallel neutral.
 

infinity

Moderator
Staff member
Location
New Jersey
Occupation
Journeyman Electrician
The feeders are fed to the main panel protected by PVC conduit.
You do not have a feeder which is where the confusion lies. A feeder would begin after the service disconnect OCPD so what you actually have after the meter are service conductors. All metal parts on the line side of the service disconnect are bonded to the neutral as Roger noted. There are no EGC's ahead of the service disconnect and to install one here would violate 250.6.
 

texie

Senior Member
Location
Fort Collins, Colorado
Occupation
Electrician, Contractor, Inspector
I am a Building Official in N Florida and all my subject matter experts are not returning to work until after the 1st of the year.
I have a meter that is grounded but there is no ground running to the main disconnect/panel. The feeders are fed to the main panel protected by PVC conduit.
The main panel also has a bonding screw.
It seems like the ground wire should extend to the main panel and disconnect?

I look forward to your opinions!

Happy New Year!
You are using a number of wrong terms that make this difficult to answer. There is no such thing as a "main" panel in the NEC. Also you can not use the term "ground" without using the proper terms. You need to determine what is the service disconnect. This determines how grounding and bonding is done for a service.
If you have a stand alone meter socket with a typical factory bond with a PVC riser from the POCO and then PVC to either an enclosed MB or a panelboard with a main breaker, then that is the service disconnect and will require a MBJ (typically a green screw supplied by the manufacturer).
No other "ground wires" would be required or even allowed up to the service disconnect in this example. Anything downstream of the service disconnect is a feeder and requires an EGC.
The point here is that grounding and bonding have very big differences in requirements depending if you are on the line side of the service disconnect or the load side.
 

NEC_NERD

Member
Location
Ocklawaha, FL
Occupation
Electrician
I have a meter that is grounded but there is no ground running to the main disconnect/panel.
If by "grounded" you mean there is a properly sized and terminated Grounding electrode conductor that is connected to a Ufer, ground rod(s) or other apporoved electrode, then this is where your Grounding conductor and grounded(neutral) become bonded and continue into the panel as one. Any grounding conductor ran past that point would create a parallel path to ground which is a big no no.
 
Top