# Protective Earth Conductor

The protective earth (PE) conductor is defined as a conductor that is provided for safety purposes (e.g. against the risk of electric shock) and which also provides a conductive path to earth. The PE conductor can be integrated inside a multi-core cable (e.g. 3C+E cable) or can be a separate cable.

## Minimum Protective Earth Conductor Size

The protective earth conductor should be sized so that during a fault, it will be able to withstand the prospective fault current. IEC 60364-5-54 provides two options for the sizing of protective earth conductors.

### Sizing from a Table

For protective earth conductors constructed of the same material as the phase conductors, the minimum size for protective earth conductors are as follows:

Phase Conductor (mm2) Min. PE Conductor (mm2)
0.50.5
0.750.75
11
1.51.5
2.52.5
44
66
1010
1616
2616
3516
5025
7035
9550
12070
15095
18595
240120
300150
400240
500300
630400
800400
1000500

For protective earth conductors that are not of the same material as the phase conductors, a factor $\frac{k_1}{k_2}$ must be applied to the minimum size PE conductor in the table above.

The numerator k1 is the k value for the phase conductors and the denominator k2 is the k value for the PE conductor. Calculation of the k values are described on this page.

### Sizing by Calculation

As per Clause 543.1.2 of IEC 60463-5-54, the size of protective earth conductors can be calculated by the adiabatic short circuit temperature rise equation (for disconnection times <5s):

$A = \frac{\sqrt{i^{2}t}}{k} \,$

Where $A \,$ is the minimum cross-sectional area of the PE conductor (mm2)

$i^{2}t \,$ is the energy of the short circuit (A2s)
$k \,$ is a constant term (this article has guidance for selecting the constant term)