Papa Ray. “A ground from your elecrical supplier…” is not a ground, it is a neutral, and an entirely different thing. In old days they were frequently combined on site.
Neutrals are about generators, Grounds are about safety.
Anything built, legally, in the last 50 years or so has independent grounds and neutrals. In residential and light commercial work, where there were still copper water lines into the house, that served very well indeed and grounds were simply strapped onto the copper pipe. Plastic water lines now require the use of a ground plane as you describe. Electric Co/ inspector tests its resistance to ground (ie will it dump elec. to the ground fast enough to trip the breaker and ‘make safe’) as part of code.

PS the neutral is part of the reason one of the holes on a 110VAC recepticle is larger than the other, it is for polarity.

In bigger projects, those designed by an EE, the details are more rigorous. Indeed.

enjoy.