Over-voltage causes equipment lifetimes to be reduced, and increases the energy consumed with no improvement in performance. Most load types are sensitive to being supplied with the incorrect voltage, but motors will suffer particularly from a supply voltage that is too high.
Power supplies in the UK are characterised by over-voltage, for the reasons described in the previous post, as the 242V average supply level is considerably higher than the 220V optimum operating point for most equipment. Various technologies can be used to remove this difference, but there is a need to do this efficiently so that the energy savings that result from bringing the voltage to the correct level are not offset by energy wasted in the device itself.
