Breaking capacity and selectivity headroom
The 3VA2325-6JQ32-0AA0: The 242 kA at 240 V and 187 kA at 415 V are the interrupting ratings for this frame — not the continuous load. That means the breaker can safely interrupt a fault current up to those levels without welding contacts or rupturing the case. For a site electrical engineer building a coordinated distribution board, those numbers give selectivity headroom downstream: you can size feeder breakers with lower interrupting ratings and still clear a fault before this main trips. At 690 V the rating drops to 7.5 kA, so if your system runs at 690 V, verify the available fault current is under that threshold.
Thermal performance and derating
The 250 A rating holds flat from 40 °C up to 70 °C — no derating needed across that band. That's unusual for a molded case breaker; most frames start dropping current above 40 °C. The ETU560 electronic trip compensates for ambient temperature, so if your panel runs hot near a drive or transformer, you still get full 250 A continuous. Power loss is 37.5 W maximum, which matters for enclosure heat rise calculations.