Losses in electrical systems Losses in electrical systems In an electrical or electronic circuit or power system, losses can be classified into two categories: technical and non-technical losses. The term technical losses refers to part of the energy in play dissipates by unwanted effects, including energy lost by unwanted heating of resistive components (electricity is also used for the intention of heating, which is not a loss), the effect of parasitic elements (resistance, capacitance, and inductance), skin effect, losses in the windings and cores of transformers due to resistive heating and magnetic losses caused by eddy currents, hysteresis, unwanted radiation, dielectric loss, corona discharge,
Townsend discharge discharge sets the upper limit to the blocking voltage a glow discharge gas-filled tube can withstand. This limit is the Townsend discharge breakdown voltage, also called ignition voltage of the tube. The occurrence of Townsend discharge, leading to glow discharge breakdown shapes the current-voltage characteristic of a gas discharge tube such as a neon lamp in a way such that it has a negative differential resistance region of the S-type. The negative resistance can be used to generate electrical oscillations and waveforms, as in the relaxation oscillator whose schematic is shown in the picture on the right. The sawtooth shaped