I Q Theory. Three Phase Suppfy.

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Three phase electricity is a clever way of generating electricity. In order to understand it, it
is better to start the discussion with single phase electricity, and build the reasoning up from
there.

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(1) Single Phase: When a single sinusoidal Voltage is being produced, the load on the
generator fluctuates between zero (at the cross- over points) and a maximum (at the peaks
and the troughs). The load goes as the square of the Voltage, having two peaks for each
cycle. This means that the torque on the shaft of the generator cycles at twice the
frequency of the Voltage. This cycling load leads to vibration, cyclic fatigue and wear. Two
_ wires (Live and Neutral) are needed to deliver a single phase (50% utilisation efficiency ).
We will call the peak Voltage of the single phase Vp.
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(2) Two Phase: If two phases wrere to be used (PI and P2) the coils wrould be at 90
degrees to each-other. The two Voltages would be in phase quadrature, and the sum of the
powrers (Sine squared + Cosine squared) wrould be constant. This means that the torque
loading on the generator shaft wrould be constant, minimising vibration and cyclic fatigue
wrear. Three wires (Phase 1, Phase 2, and Neutral) wrouki be needed to deliver two phases
(67% utilisation efficiency). The peak Voltage between PI or P2 and the Neutral is still Vp,
but the peak Voltage between PI and P2 is 1.42 x Vp.

(3) Three Phases: When three phases are used, each coil is orientated 120 degrees from
the others. The sum of the squares of the three Voltages add up to a constant, so again
there will be minimum vibration and cyclic fatigue. Notice also that the sum of the three
Voltages is zero! In principle, this means that the Neutral wire wras not needed (this wrould
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only be true if each of the phases was equally loaded by consumers - which is what
. engineers try to achieve). In practice, the Neutral wire is still used (though is often thinner) ,

j Four wires are used to deliver 3 phases (75% utilisation efficiency). The Voltage between
any of the three phases and Neutral is still Vp - and can be used in normal households.
Roughly a third of the houses is connected to each phase. The inter -Phase Voltage
difference peaks at 1.73 Vp, and so can deliver significantly more powrer at similar
currents. Three phase electricity is also useful for consumers wishing to run large electric
motors when they wrant them to run smoothly with a minium of vibration.

Adding more phases beyond three does not offer any further advantages in terms of
uniform loading or number of wires used for distribution.