Silent Threats, Big Consequences: Why Plants Can’t Ignore Earth Leakage

Electricity is the backbone of industrial operations, yet it can also be one of the most dangerous hazards lurking within plants. Research shows that 25% of industrial fires are caused by electrical faults, often due to undetected leakage currents, short circuits, or under-voltage events.

Without early detection, these risks escalate, causing unnecessary downtime, damage to expensive equipment, and serious safety concerns for operators.

This is where earth leakage relays and advanced monitoring solutions from NewElec come in, offering critical early warning and automatic shutdown features that protect people, equipment, and productivity.

Electrical Hazards in Plant Environments

Industrial plants face multiple types of electrical hazards:

• Short circuits: Can rapidly cause fires, component explosions, or melted conductors.
• Earth leakage currents: Caused by insulation failure, moisture, or equipment aging,  early signs of risk.
• Under-voltage dips: Stress on motors and pumps, causing overheating or long-term mechanical strain.
• Unbalanced currents: Quietly reduce efficiency, driving up energy costs and increasing the chance of overheating.
• The challenge: these hazards often build up unnoticed until catastrophic failure occurs. Downtime, fire damage, and worker injuries are avoidable if faults are identified earlier.

Why Early Detection is Critical

Think of early fault detection as preventive medicine for industrial plants. Spotting the problem before it grows ensures:

1. Personnel safety – preventing shocks, arc flashes, and accidents.
2. Asset longevity – protecting costly motors and pumps from electrical stress.
3. Operational continuity – avoiding costly downtime and production bottlenecks.
4. Regulatory compliance – many safety standards require leakage detection systems.
5. Energy efficiency – cutting waste caused by unbalanced loads and electrical losses.

The Role of Protection Relays

At the frontline of industrial safety are protection relays. These devices continuously monitor circuits and automatically trigger breakers when electrical irregularities are detected. Among them, earth leakage relays stand out for their ability to sense small current leaks that traditional fuses or breakers overlook.

They:

• Detect unbalanced currents caused by insulation failure.
• Protect equipment through under-voltage monitoring.
• Automatically trip breakers during short circuit conditions.

As highlighted by NewElec’s advanced protection relays, modern solutions often integrate with vibration monitors, pump controllers, and automation systems, creating a multi-layered safety solution.

Real-World Example

A medium-sized factory in South Africa once experienced repeated but minor earth leakages on a motor line. The earth leakage relay quietly monitored these irregularities and eventually triggered a controlled shutdown when limits were breached.

Upon inspection, engineers discovered deteriorating motor insulation caused by long-term vibration. Without detection, this could have escalated into a fire within weeks. Instead, downtime was limited to a quick motor replacement,  saving the business from medium-term down-time while keeping staff safe.

The Cost of Ignoring Early Detection

Ignoring protection systems often ends up costing more than the upfront investment. Without earth leakage and protection relays, plants risk:

• Catastrophic fire and equipment loss
• Production downtime costing thousands per hour
• Insurance claims being denied for lack of safeguards
• Legal liability in the event of worker injury

For this reason, many insurers and regulators now expect protection relays to be present in high-risk industries like mining, water treatment, and manufacturing.

Industry Standards Are Raising the Bar

In high-risk environments like mining, electrical safety is not just best practice — it’s a documented requirement. For example, Anglo Platinum (part of the Anglo American group) mandates earth leakage protection with specific test functionality on switchgear circuits. This ensures that protection devices are not only installed but also regularly tested to verify their operation.

This is exactly where NewElec’s Earth Leakage Test Unit (ELTU) earth leakage relay become indispensable. Designed to comply with South Africa’s compulsory specification (VC 8035) for earth leakage devices, the unit makes testing faster, safer, and more reliable. With the push of a button mounted on the cubicle door, operators can simulate a real-time earth fault without opening the panel, ensuring both compliance and operator safety.

By injecting a genuine test fault, the NewElec solution provides peace of mind that protection relays will trip when they should. In industries where a single missed fault could result in catastrophic fire, equipment loss, or injury, this feature moves earth leakage detection from a passive safeguard to an actively verified layer of protection.

The Specifics:

Anglo Platinum electrical specification (part of the broader Anglo American group), there’s a clear and detailed requirement for earth leakage protection on outgoing circuits, including test functionality:

• Each outgoing circuit must include earth leakage protection wired to shunt‑trip the main MCCB.
• Earth leakage relays must be used—with specific ratings (240 mA instantaneous for up to 75 kW; 375 mA time‑delay for 90 kW+; 30 mA for reagent pumps)