Ghosts in your Electrical Network

Published On: Sep 23, 2019

Electricity and ghosts have had an intriguing relationship. Somewhat akin to how the Bollywood movies from 90s influenced beliefs about ‘snakes’ coming back as ‘re-incarnations’ to take revenge on the past injustice. For most kids from the 90s, who grew up on an overdose of these films, such stories are undebatable facts. The beliefs instilled by the films where the ‘snake’ plays the protagonist are so deep rooted, that even as adults it takes some effort to ‘react’ rationally upon seeing a snake. Well, reactions to electrical network events are not very different.

Often, in the movies, the flicker or a sudden power cut is used as one of the indicators of presence of ghosts. In the Indian context where beliefs play a key role in personal and professional life, it is not uncommon to blame the performance of equipment on luck, or relate it to auspicious time etc. The acceptance of ‘not so normal’ behavior of the equipment must be also understood from the perspective of the individual belief and adequate awareness.

This blog focuses on highlighting and providing a rational view behind some of the irrational ways of treating the electrical networks.

INTRODUCTION

The debate on whether ghosts are a reality or myth are intriguing. But, perhaps an equally intriguing topic of investigation is how the modern folklore adopted the flickers in electrical lights as an indicator of ghost in the room? One theory says that Ghosts are involved with electricity because our modern experience involves environment defined by electricity. Another one relates it to darkness and lightening from electricity, which have been the traditional anchors for presence of ghosts. Then there is the one which links the unexpected behaviour of the network due to EMF induced in the electrical networks. In summary, folklore and narratives evolve and the presence of ghosts in electricity, perhaps, is used to strengthen and establish their presence through quantifiable effects.

In the Indian context – the ‘Vaastu Shastra’ plays a highly influential role. While the debate around scientific validation of principles in ‘Vaastu Shastra’ are a separate discussion, its popularity is beyond any debate.

For instance, take this video from youtube channel of one of India’s largest news publications on the topic – “Are your electronics creating a Vaastu dosh?

The video states that habit of preserving old mobile phones, broken chargers, music systems generate bad energy in the house OR Wires of various appliances and gadgets should not be mingled together – as it shows affairs of the house are in a jumbled-up state.

The ‘Vaastu Shastra’ blog on another popular property website doles out an equally interesting recommendation: “Appliances which are used for heating purposes such as geyser or oven must be placed in the southeast corner, whereas refrigerator and cooler can be placed in the northwest”

(Source: https://www.makaan.com/iq/buy-sell-move-property/home-sutra-vastu-tips-for-electrical-appliances)

The end users knowingly or unknowingly fall-back or follow such explanations while trying to understand or safeguard from electrical faults. It has thus become even more important to develop a more rational point of view around such narratives.

Well, for all the scientific and spiritual theories of EMFs inducing hallucinations of ghosts, to the Electrical and Maintenance folks in industries and consumers in general, sometimes the electrical network itself behaves in ways that remains unexplained to them.

This blog is about investigations into the myths and realities surrounding the electrical networks. It spots the ‘unexplained’ or the ‘deep dark’ realities of the electrical network which often puzzle the electrical and maintenance managers.

UNEXPLAINED BEHAVOIRS IN ELECTRICAL NETWORKS

Several events constitute unexplained behaviours in an electrical network. The unexplained element in here is often the visible impact that is seen by the User on the electrical network. The range may include anything from the flicker of a light, tripping event whose cause is difficult to detect, to undesirable behaviour of equipment due to high EMIs.

For this blog we will consider three such events which are commonly observed or experienced in most modern electrical environment.

Lights Flicker
Computer lockups
Relay and contactor chatter
Equipment and system shutdowns
Electro Magnetic Induction (EMI) effects – data losses, shutdowns
Nuisance tripping
Unexplained electrical fires
Spurious and unexplained alarms and shutdowns

Essentially, all these events indicate an adverse impact on reliability of the electrical network. The events are rather difficult to predict and control, unless they occur. However, these can be prevented with proactive appreciation of related concepts and taking care of ‘power quality’ within the electrical network.

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF BELIEFS

Before we delve into individual events, it may be pertinent to mull over some ways in which we react to these events when they are observed first or repeatedly.

The first reaction to the ghosts
The first reaction is almost always to treat the event as ‘a one-time occurrence’. Given the complex and interdependent nature of PQ events, as a user it is convenient to hope that the event would not recur rather then investigate why the event occurred.

Later reactions
The later set of reactions would range from blaming internal procedures, procurement qualifiers, equipment makers, electrical contractors, maintenance to utility power supply.

Depending on the severity and frequency of the event investigations are initiated. But it is not uncommon to express helplessness at the occurrence of the event, rather than take control to resolve the issue. Worst still, such events are even accepted as being normal in the electrical environment under consideration, with no action for resolution. The potential losses to performance and property from such events and higher risks to reliability, safety and availability of electrical networks are underestimated.

KNOWING THE ROOT CAUSES AND REALITY

Flickr Changing light intensity caused by fluctuations in the voltage.	It is the most common power quality problem causing anything between irritation to even medical consequences. The root cause of a flicker can be traced to the rapid fluctuation in voltage resulting from a motor operating on varying load, electric furnace firing up or similar non-linear load.
EMC (Electromagnetic Compatibility) The sensitive electronics in your facility starts to behave rather insensitively.	The diverse technologies in equipment coupled with inadequacy of installations procedures and facilities lead to emission of electromagnetic energy that creates problems of electromagnetic compatibility (EMC).
Nuisance trips Unwarranted circuit breaker trips with either no electrically based reason for the trips, or, the breaker deems there to be a fault when one does not exist.	Most likely to be caused by an overloaded system, the nuisance tripping are difficult to detect. Overload occurs due to internal or external events and solutions vary depending on the intensity and length of the outage caused by the tripping breaker.
Equipment shutdowns Loss of power but only for a moment and without clear linkage to the mains power.	The momentary loss of power can be attributed to interruptions. Interruption is defined as the decrease in the voltage supply level to less than 10% of nominal for up to one (1) minute duration. Further, interruptions are divided into three types: Instantaneous (1/2 to 30 cycles), Momentary (30 cycles to 3 seconds) and Temporary (3 seconds to 1 minute).

CONCLUSION

From increasing use of renewable energy to power electronic intensive automation systems to use of LED lights, almost every element that’s being added in modernising the electrical network also affects reliability.

In the ‘electrical’ ghosts we may have a key that will unlock many mysteries of the psychic world. But to solve the power problems there is no option other than doing a reality check on the issues concerning electrification and its quality.