Dust explosions can lead to major damage and pose notable challenges for the industry concerned. However, due to the large number of potential influencing factors they could not yet be precisely described. Therefore, so-called safety-related parameters, which are determined in standardised procedures, are used for evaluation. Due to the respective experimental setup, however, the results often differ greatly from those under real conditions. This leads to problems not only in container design, but also in the development of suitable simulation models. In the Siwek 20 l apparatus, the maximum explosion overpressure and the KSt value are determined, with the ignition being triggered chemically according to the standard. However, this type of ignition has strong influence on the behaviour of the dust explosion. In order to minimise the effects of ignition, this work examined how the behaviour of corn starch and aluminium dust explosions develops with electrical ignition after different ignition delay times. Furthermore, the flame suppression effects resulting from the addition of extinguishing powder on electrically ignited aluminium dust explosions were investigated.