I inspected a condo a couple weeks ago. I called out the electric panel for not having any grounding/bonding to the panel. I understand if it is wired as a remote panel the neutrals would be isolated from the panel but the grounds would still be bonded. There was no grounding screw or strap.
An electrician came out and said it was fine that the condos are wired like this.
On the exterior, there was one disconnect - not sure which condo it was for.
If it is ok not to bond the grounds please explain.
The bus bar on the left must be bonded to the cabinet and it also must be isolated from the neutral bar on the right. Cannot tell if it is from the photos.
I agree with Robert. Definitely needs to bonded but can’t tell if it is separate. The left side bar that is resting on plastic has to be connected to the enclosure.
It should be bonded at the first point of disconnection(the disconnect outside). Since it has a primary disconnect switch, the panel is effectively a sub-panel. The neutral and ground should be isolated from each other at sub-panels.
To answer your original post question, yes, I believe there is a circumstance where you wouldn’t need a bond screw or strap. In a condo, they often use metal conduit for the service cable and /or BX cable for branch wiring. In your pic, there appears to be a ground heading back to the main panel from the ground bus, and IF there is metal conduit connecting the sub and main panels, and the main panel is bonded, then the sub panel is also bonded.
Yes that would be true if there were feeder and branch circuit wiring methods that did not utilize a wire type EGC like AC cable, metallic conduit and wire, or some MC cables. In those installations you would expect to see no separate EGC bus in the panel.
