What are Non-Linear Loads?

Today, non-linear loads make up a large percentage of all electrical demand. Rectified input, switching power supplies and electronic lighting ballasts are the most common single-phase non-linear loads. Harmonic currents and voltages produced by single phase, non-linear loads which are connected phase-to-neutral in a three phase four wire system, are third order, zero sequence harmonics (the third harmonic and its odd multiples – 3rd, 9th, 15th, 21st, etc., phasors displaced by zero degrees). These third order, zero sequence harmonic currents, do not cancel but add up arithmetically on the neutral bus, creating a primary source of excessive neutral current.