
Power Distribution Electrical Enclosures

Power distribution electrical enclosures are designed to supply power to electrical equipment, to start or stop the flow of power to electrical equipment and to monitor and detect the operation of electrical equipment. Power distribution cabinets protect the internal components from the surrounding environment and protects operators from electric shock. They come in many different shapes, sizes and materials. The power distribution enclosure will have holes made for pulling cables inside for incoming electric current and cables leaving for power distribution. Having the proper connectors are essential for maintaining the NEMA rating of the enclosure.
Current transformer cabinet connections are used in the process of lowering or stepping down a high current to a lower, safer level for measurement and management. The current transformer cabinet is part of an electrical distribution system and house the current transformers, which are used for metering.
Terminal box connections split feeder circuit conductors into multiple branch circuit conductors. Terminal boxes are insulated blocks that secure two or more wires together.
Receptacles (din rail mount) are designed to mount easily to a din rail and provide convenient plug-in surge protected power to an electrical enclosure that contains cord-connected equipment.
Enclosure grounding is an essential safety measure that must be installed in order to clear any electrical faults and to protect equipment from damage and operators from electric shock. Ungrounded or poorly grounded enclosures will not clear the electrical fault and can remain operating and energized. The ground path resistance from the enclosure back to the source ground must be very low, resulting in the fault current traveling quickly to ground.
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Power distribution basics
Identification. Identify the type of power coming into the industrial electrical panel (three phase, 120 single phase, solar power, etc), where the power is entering (usually on the top of the panel) and properly label the power.
Protection. Power greater than 120 volts entering a panel should have an external disconnect. Power distributed throughout the panel should include branch and supplementary protection. Circuit breakers and fuses must always be sized correctly. For example, a 2 amp fuse would blow if 20 amps flowed through it. A 15 amp circuit breaker would not be used to protect a PLC or a network switch because too much current would be allowed to run through those devices causing them to prematurely fail.
Grounding. It is critical for every industrial control panel to have proper grounding. All devices should be grounded to a grounding bus. The grounding bus should be tied to the main ground coming into the panel. If there is DC negative within the panel, that should be tied to a DC negative bus which in turn is tied to the grounding bus.