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What are Power Surges

How a surge protective device can protect your facility

Posted 09.28.2020 in Workplace Safety
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Surges, or transients, are brief overvoltage spikes or disturbances of a power waveform that can damage, degrade, or destroy electronic equipment within any home, commercial building, or industrial and manufacturing facilities. Transients can reach amplitudes of tens of thousands of volts. Most equipment is designed to handle minor variations in their standard operating voltage. However, surges can be very damaging to nearly all equipment.

A typical building experiences multiple power surges every day.

The average cost of downtime caused by power surge is $130,000 per event.

Symptoms of Power Surges

  • Circuit board failure
  • Lighting failure
  • Motor failure
  • Phantom equipment restart

Causes of Power Surges

  • Internal Sources
    60 – 80% of power surges originate within facilities. These are typically caused from large loads switching off and on
    • Switching of electrical loads from
      • Contactor, relay & breaker operations
      • Switching of capacitor banks and loads (e.g. power factor correction)
      • Discharge of inductive devices (motors, transformers, etc.)
      • Fault or arc initiation
      • Arcing faults (ground)
      • Fault clearing or interruption
      • Power system recovery (from outage)
      • DC Battery storage systems
    • Magnetic & inductive coupling from
      • Elevators
      • HVAC (with variable frequency drives)
      • Fluorescent light ballasts
      • Copy machines
      • Computers
  • External Sources
    • Lightning
    • Grid & capacitor bank switching
    • Damage to power lines or transformers

For more information, visit NEMASurge.org

Workplace Safety
    Surge, Surge Protection
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Related News & Resources

ESFI Promotes NEMA’s 5VS White Papers Concerning Power Surge Damage
ESFI Promotes NEMA’s 5VS White Papers Concerning Power Surge Damage
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ESFI Addresses The Importance of Surge Protective Devices for Your Facility
ESFI Addresses The Importance of Surge Protective Devices for Your Facility
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ESFI Releases Comprehensive Surge Protective Devices Materials
ESFI Releases Comprehensive Surge Protective Devices Materials
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