Earthing

Two key points to explain earthing in your property:  

• External earthing: When a new house is built we install a new power cable which is connected to the wider electricity network. We make sure we provide an earthing terminal so a customer’s electrician can connect to this terminal to safely earth the property. There are two types that we will provide. TNS-(Separate earth wire) where an earth is provided off the lead sheath of our electricity cable, or PME (Protective Multiple Earthing) using our neutral cable as a combined neutral earth. 

• Internal earthing: An electrician takes the external earth that we have provided and safely earths the inside of a property. The property owner is responsible for ensuring they have internal earthing to protect their home and appliances inside their homes.

It's common for customers living in older properties to contact us about their earthing. We can visit at no cost, to give customers and electricians advice about safely earthing their property. It's worth noting that safety standards have changed over the years and the connection to the external earth was not always required. In older properties it's quite common to find no external earth installed. This does not necessarily make them unsafe, many properties have had no earth for over 50 years and never had an issue. 

If there is an issue with your external earth we can visit you to let you know if there is PME earthing available in your area. PME can be installed across most areas. However for some areas the electricity cables will not be compatible for this type of earthing. If this is available then we will provide an earthing connection for your electrician to connect your internal earth to. We may need to visit you a second time to carry out this work. However if there is no PME available then your electrician can arrange an alternate earthing system for you.