Power quality “Power quality” can seem to be a pretty abstract term – how does one judge the quality of such an unseen commodity as electricity? But, as commercial and industrial facility managers know, good power quality can boost both productivity and employee safety, while poor power quality can mean a drain on the bottom line, thanks to damaged equipment, lost productivity and product spoilage...

   A factory operates on a three-phase, four-wire power supply system. Recently, due to a break in the external neutral wire and the absence of protective circuits such as zero-sequence current protection in the distribution system, multiple PLCs and instruments were damaged, resulting in production and financial losses. Below, we discuss how to diagnose and prevent neutral wire breakage...