Electricity data exposed a grid operator's fault
When equipment in a manufacturing plant kept breaking down without explanation, the answer wasn't in the customer's own production. It was in the grid — and eWatt's data proved it to the second.
- Production equipment broke down repeatedly without a clear cause in January 2026
- eWatt's 10-second electricity data captured the exact current spikes from three separate events
- The data proved beyond doubt that the disturbance came from the grid, not the customer's own equipment
- The data report was delivered to the grid operator as an attachment to the complaint
The situation
In January 2026, unexplained faults began to occur at a manufacturing plant in Central Finland. Sensitive production automation crashed repeatedly, the compressed-air compressor broke and the crane was damaged. Maintenance staff had to react urgently several times during the month.
The cause was first sought from within. Equipment was checked, processes reviewed, automation investigated. No clear fault was found. Meanwhile production stood still and repair costs grew.
Fortunately, eWatt electricity monitoring had already been installed at the site. It had been quietly collecting data in the background every day, every ten seconds, alongside everything else.
What the electricity data revealed
When the equipment failure occurred on 27 January at 9:53, eWatt's system recorded exactly what happened. In ten seconds the current rose explosively in all three supply phases simultaneously, and at the same instant the voltage dropped in every phase.
But this wasn't a single event. The historical data revealed exactly the same pattern on 7 January and 22 January. Three separate hits in the same month, all alike.
Timeline of events
Sudden current spike in all three phases simultaneously. Power grew momentarily by 61 kW and voltage dropped 2.5 volts in each phase. The event was recorded with exact timestamps.
A similar current spike repeated. L1 phase current grew by 156 A, L2 by 161 A and L3 by 169 A within ten seconds. Reactive power grew by over 112 kVAr. The spike was clearly visible in the daily chart.
The third and most powerful spike. The current changes were the largest of the entire 30-day measurement history. The compressed-air compressor and the crane were damaged. eWatt's data captured the event to the second.
Imagine a water pipe that normally delivers reasonable pressure. Then for some reason the pressure briefly surges to many times normal and slams into the equipment. A surge like that can break sensitive devices even if it lasts only a second. That is exactly what happened — but instead of a water pipe, it was the electricity grid.
Why this could not have been the customer's own fault
Here is the decisive detail: the current spike happened in all three supply phases at exactly the same time. When some piece of the customer's own equipment starts up or shuts down, it typically shows in one or two phases, not in all three this strongly and symmetrically.
In addition, the plant simply did not have enough equipment from which a spike of this size could have originated. The existing equipment base could not have produced this large and rapid a change. This rules out an internal fault entirely.
The spike came from the grid. It was a supply disturbance from the grid operator that struck the production plant and damaged the most sensitive equipment.
Without monitoring, the situation would have looked like this: equipment breaks for no clear reason, gets repaired, and you hope it doesn't happen again. With monitoring: you know exactly what happened, when, why, and who is responsible.
Outcome
eWatt's measurement data was compiled into a documented report that was delivered to the grid operator as an attachment to the complaint. The data contained exact timestamps, current values and voltage changes for every phase from three separate events. No guesswork. No suspicion. Indisputable evidence.
The customer gained a strong position for negotiations with the grid operator and valuable knowledge about the state of their property's power quality. Going forward, eWatt's real-time alert notifies immediately if power quality drops to a critical level, so the root cause can be identified before equipment is damaged.
- Equipment breaks down without a clear cause
- Repair and wait for the next failure
- No evidence to present to the grid operator
- No knowledge of when the next disturbance will hit
- Exact measurements are recorded automatically
- The origin of the fault is proven beyond doubt
- Data report as an attachment to the complaint
- Real-time alerts for future disturbances