Addressing the risk of electrification: A smarter energy strategy

Business performance goes hand in hand with power availability in manufacturing, food and beverage, water, rail, chemical, and other industries. However, ongoing change in the energy landscape can introduce power quality issues that pose risks to the reliability of electrical networks. 

As companies push towards decarbonisation and digitalisation, technologies such as EV chargers, renewable energies, and variable speed drives are cutting energy consumption and carbon footprint. The result is that electrical networks that were originally designed for predictable and lower-power patterns must now cope with higher loads and dynamic supply and demand. 

Introducing new technologies is done with the best of intentions, but they can unintentionally affect power quality, leading to issues such as harmonics, low power factor, and phase imbalance. These conditions can, in turn, result in increased apparent power consumption, overheating of equipment, and voltage disturbances, including flickering lights or unexpected shutdowns of sensitive electronic systems. 

A smarter energy strategy 
With all this in mind, it’s become critical for site managers to prioritise their electrical networks and create a strategy to future-proof their electrical networks for long-term protection of business continuity, profitability, safety, and sustainability.
 

Read the full article in DPA's January 2026 issue