A site's electrical ground system only proves its worth at the moment of a fault. A ground connection accidentally cut, loosened or removed during maintenance, cabling works or equipment changes is a silent failure: everything keeps running normally until the day a fault current needs a safe path to earth.

The PWR-GROUND continuously measures the resistance of the ground connection. The moment continuity is lost, resistance rises out of range and the base unit raises an alert via email, SMS or voice call — so the ground system is repaired before it is ever needed.

With three independent ground terminals, a single sensor covers up to 3 separate ground systems at the site.

Copper ground bars, clamps and conductors corrode over time under the influence of humidity, salt air, industrial atmospheres and soil conditions. Corrosion does not fail a ground system overnight — it degrades it gradually, raising the resistance of the path to earth.

Because the PWR-GROUND measures resistance continuously in Ohms, a slow upward trend is visible long before the ground system falls out of specification. That turns grounding from a periodically inspected item into a continuously monitored one, with alerting the moment a set threshold is exceeded.

Monitoring atmospheric conditions that drive corrosion? See also the ENV-CORROSION atmospheric corrosion sensor.

Copper grounding conductors at remote and unmanned sites — telecom towers, substations, edge facilities — are a prime target for metal theft. A stolen ground conductor leaves the site unprotected against faults and lightning, and without monitoring the theft is typically only discovered at the next site visit.

The PWR-GROUND detects the removal of a ground conductor the moment it happens: the measured resistance goes out of range and the base unit alerts via email, SMS or voice call. Combined with the base unit's other sensors, it gives remote sites a defensible, continuously verified ground system.

Measuring an electrical ground system means physically connecting to it — so the sensor is engineered for safe, non-intrusive measurement:

- Cabling to the ground system runs through fuse cables.
- The measurement uses a low 0.7 mA injected current at 3.0 V.
- 1,000 V AC IO isolation between the ground terminals and the sensor electronics.
- Terminal connectors accept wires from 26 up to 16 AWG (solid or stranded).

Three independent ground terminals allow one sensor to monitor up to 3 different ground systems — for example separate building, equipment and lightning protection grounds.

- Connects to the base unit over standard network cable.
- BMS integration over Modbus TCP, BACnet IP & Modbus RTU (RS-485, with the optional RTU addon).
- SNMP GET and SNMP TRAPS for NMS & DCIM platforms.
- MQTT for Industrial IoT applications (BASE-6).
- Alerting via email, SMS and voice call from the base unit itself.
- Plug & play — no configuration required on connection.

For projects and jurisdictions requiring certified components, the grounding sensor is available as the PWR-GROUND-L: a UL Recognized (UR 61010) version with the same measurement capabilities as the standard PWR-GROUND.

Specify the -L version at ordering when your project requires the UL Recognized Component Mark.