For a separate building or structure supplied by a separately derived system, the supply conductors shall contain an equipment grounding conductor.

• A. True
• B. False
• C. Not specified
• D. Depends

Answer: (A)

When a separate building or structure is fed from a separately derived system, the feeders to that structure must include an equipment grounding conductor. This brings a low-impedance path for any fault current back to the source, which allows overcurrent protection devices to trip promptly and keeps metal enclosures and equipment bonded. Even though the structure has its own grounding electrode system, the equipment grounding conductor from the feeder must be present and bonded to that system to maintain a reliable fault path back to the source. This requirement is not optional or dependent; it’s a definite NEC obligation for safe operation of feeders to separate structures.