Motors and Variable Speed Drives

By Hans De Keulenaer / Published on Mon, 2007-02-12 17:23

By Erik Mertens, Laborelec

Motor driven systems, such as pumps, fans, compressors and conveyers, account for about two-thirds of the total electricity consumption, making them prime targets for energy efficiency improvement measures. Induction motors, the workhorse motor of industry, are very efficient, but modern motors are significantly more efficient than their counterparts of a decade ago. Many systems benefit from improved control measures – using variable speed drives to replace throttle valves, for example. Motors that have been rewound can be considerably less efficient than new motors.

This Application Note introduces the principles of motors and drives and their important characteristics.

 

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Motors and Variable Speed drives

By Colin Hargis / Published on Mon, 2007-02-19 12:35 On page 8 one of the "contras" for VSD is given as "sensitive to voltage dips". There is no intrinsic reason why a VSD should be any more sensitive to dips than a directly-connected motor, and in fact if configured correctly the VSD can contribute to a well-controlled and co-ordinated reaction to a power dip or interruption. It can make use of the mechanical stored energy in the load, and a three-phase drive can ride through the loss of one phase for a time only limited by thermal constraints. If VSDs are perceived as sensitive to voltage dips then this is a problem for their manufacturers, and suggests that we need to pay more attention to good quality user-oriented commissioning instructions to ensure they are set up correctly for the application, with due attention paid to their power-dip behaviour.