What is heavy current?

Heavy current is a slang term

The colloquial term "heavy current" is actually a three-phase alternating current. But what does this actually mean?

• You have certainly seen the red plug connections, which are often referred to as high-voltage sockets and plugs.
• These contain five connections. Two of them are the protective conductor and the neutral conductor, which you may both be familiar with from the "normal" AC connection.
• The protective contact serves here, as with an AC socket, as a safety device, which is supposed to protect workers on machines from electric shocks caused by defects.
• The neutral conductor is, so to speak, the "return line" for the electrical current. In the case of direct current, this would be referred to as the negative pole or ground.


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• You will also find three single alternating voltages for heavy current or three-phase current, each of which is 120 degrees out of phase.
• These three alternating voltages each have a voltage of 230 volts, as you know them from a "normal" socket.

Three-phase current consists of three phases

• The three individual alternating voltages have a time offset, which is referred to as a phase shift.
• If you imagine these alternating voltages as a sine wave, they are not on top of each other, but are offset in time by 120 degrees.
• Due to the level of the individual alternating voltages, the phase shift results in a voltage of 400 volts from one phase to the next.
• The tapping of the individual voltages to the neutral conductor is referred to as a star connection, while the voltage tapping of the individual phases to each other is referred to as a delta connection.