as motors, transformers and electrical drives, and by switching between power generation sources to balance supply and demand. Although they typically only last thousandths or millionths of a second, transients can damage electronic systems causing data loss, degrading equipment components and shortening equipment life. Some voltage optimisation devices include transient protection. Phase voltage imbalance Industrial and commercial sites are supplied with 3-phase electricity. Imbalance between the phases causes problems such as heating in motors and existing wiring, leading to wasteful energy consumption. Some voltage optimisation devices are able to improve balance on the building's electrical supply, reducing losses and improving the longevity of three phase induction motors. Power dips Power dips are reductions in voltage, mostly of short duration (<300 ms) but sometimes longer. They may cause a number of problems with equipment, for example contactors and relays may drop out causing machinery to stop. There are a number of low voltage ride through techniques including Uninterruptible Power Supplies, the use of capacitors on low voltage DC control circuits, the use of capacitors on the DC bus of Variable Speed Drives. Care must be taken that Voltage Optimisation measures do not reduce the voltage to an extent that equipment is more vulnerable to power dips. Power factor and reactive power The power factor of an electrical supply is the ratio of the real power to the apparent power of the supply. It is the useful power used by the site divided by the total power that is drawn. The latter includes power that is unusable, so a power factor of 1 is desirable. A low power factor would mean that the electricity supplier would effectively supply more energy than the consumer's bill would indicate, and suppliers are allowed to charge for low power factors. Reactive power is the name given to unusable power. It does no work in the electrical system, but is used to charge capacitors or produce a magnetic field around the field of an inductor. Reactive power needs to be generated and distributed through a circuit to provide sufficient real power to enable processes to run. Reactive power increases significantly with increasing voltage as the reactance of equipment increases. Correcting this with voltage optimisation will therefore lead to a reduction in reactive power and improvement in power factor. Effects on electrical loads A common misconception as far as Voltage Optimisation is concerned is to assume that a