Circuits and techniques are described for detecting a ground fault leak between the PSE and the PD. Prior to PoDL voltage being applied to the PD, a test switch is temporarily closed for sensing a voltage drop in a loop between the positive terminal of the PSE voltage source and any ground leakage path between the PSE and the PD. If the resistance of the ground leakage path is below a certain threshold, a fault is declared. A similar test may be performed without a test switch by supplying a known test current through the loop and sensing the voltage drop. Another test is to connect the positive terminal of the PSE voltage source to the loop and sense the resulting current. After the full PoDL voltage is applied to the PD, a ground fault may be detected by sensing the equivalence between the source and return PSE currents.