I'm going to wire a detached garage and grounding the panel in the garage is subject to much confusion to me with respect to the 2002 NEC. The detached garage will also have telephone and coax cable coming from the house.
I was planning on running a 2/2/2/6 feeder cable from the main 200 amp panel at the house to a 100 amp subpanel with main breaker at the detached garage. Subpanel would have a floating neutral and separate ground bus. Also would sink a ground ground rod at the garage and connect it to the ground bus of the subpanel.
After researching this forum this appears the safest method to wire the garage panel.
The local permit office says I only need a 3 wire feeder, bond the neutral and ground at the garage panel, and sink a ground rod and connect to panel at the garage, In other words, he said this was just like another service panel since the garage is detached. I don't need a fourth ground wire from the main panel. He said the telephone/coax wire isn't an issue.
Sorry for the long explanation, but do I have a potential safety issue here if I go with the permit office advice and use 3 wire for the feeder cable?
What if I use 4-wire for the feeder? It would be contrary to what the permit office said. It meets NEC code, so technically it would pass inspection.