An Open Question to All Electrical Engineers

Written by Bill Hinton and Dan Princinsky

Consider the electrical safety mechanisms in a facility or industrial workplace. Assume that you are responsible for these safety mechanisms.

An Open Question

Would you intentionally disconnect the ground from each piece of equipment from your facility and allow it to run?

Most engineers would say no. However, when we observe the electrical issues found in the typical industrial work environment, it seems that employees and equipment are just as unsafe as though their equipment were not grounded.

When we look at industrial studies of power quality within a facility, the most common power issues include transient voltage spikes, voltage waveform distortion, harmonic noise, and ground faults. As electronic technology evolved, the impact of these problems has grown similarly.

Because of this, electrical protective devices came into prominence. These include products such as transient voltage surge suppressors (TVSS), line reactors, voltage snubbers, and so on. However, these devices do not actually protect employees or equipment: they merely redirect the problem of uncontrolled voltage into a short and wasteful surge in current. Problems such as ground faults and arc flash are still highly likely.

This means when a worst-case scenario arises, your employees and equipment are just as unprotected and unsafe as if all your equipment were ungrounded!

Because current control is wasteful and does not actually protect your equipment from uncontrolled voltages, this leaves only one option: voltage control.

There exists only one product that has been proven to eliminate all power quality problems associated with unbalanced voltage. The Voltage Stabilizing Ground Reference (VSGR) from Applied Energy, LLC is the world’s only laboratory-tested, industrially-hardened, energy-saving, energy-efficient, future proof, harmonic noise eliminating, ground fault/arc flash preventing, lightning arresting, EMP mitigating system.

For those who agree that your equipment must remain grounded, then stabilizing the voltage potential between phase and ground should be the next logical step in your operation. There are multiple reasons why voltage stabilization is the most reasonable approach: not only does it protect employees and equipment, it also is the first step in proper facility-wide energy conservation.

If Phaseback isn’t already installed where you work, ask your manager: Why not?