WHITE PAPER

From devices to system: rethinking

eff iciency to unlock savings in
motor control

It is estimated that nearly half of our electricity is System, no longer single component
consumed by electrical motor-systems. It is thus no
surprise that in the past two decades there has been The IEC 61800-9, parts 1 and 2, introduce the
a push for ever more efficient devices in the world concept of an extended product. No longer looking at
of motor control. The progression is evident from each component individually, the standard considers
the EC 640/2009 directive in Europe and 2013 NEMA the complete chain from energy source to end use
Program in USA, to present day EU 2019/1781 that (Figure 1).
has just taken effect on July 1, 2021.
Let’s browse the chain backward: from the end use
At first glance, this latest eco-design directive once to the source through a simple example:
again pushes for more efficient motors and variable
speed drives by imposing IE3 and IE4 efficiency A pump needs a certain amount of mechanical
levels. While any push for efficiency is commendable, energy when displacing a fluid.
in practice this will have a very limited impact. The  This energy is delivered by a motor through a
directive doesn’t apply to existing installations which mechanical transmission.
represent the vast majority of energy consumed.  The motor receives its energy from a complete
drive module system.
It is by digging deeper into the directive and, more  The power drive system is connected to the
specifically, into its reference to IEC 61800-9 that the energy source.
crux of the efficiency puzzle is unlocked.

FIGURE 1

Extended product

Motor system
Power drive system (PDS)
Complete drive module (CDM) Driven equipment

Mains Basic
and Feeding Auxilia- drive Auxilia- Trans- Load
section ries ries Motor mission machine
mains module
cabling (BDM)

Motor starter
(contactor,
softstarter, etc.)

Motor control equipment = CDM or starter

IEC

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Each element of this chain delivers energy to the
next element, while losing some amount of energy Energy saving with variable
depending on its structure and operation. It is the f requency drive.
efficiency and loss of each component that defines
its impact on the rest of the system. It has been demonstrated repeatedly that controlling
a motor with a variable frequency drive, instead of a
direct-on-line (DOL) starter, can yield huge savings.
Decision making: efficiency vs. loss

Efficiency and loss are used to tell us about the same Where are the savings coming from?
concept but they trigger different reactions from a
decision maker. Let us take the example where, to get the biggest
energy saving, a variable frequency drive (VFD) is
Efficiency is a relative performance indicator. used to control a motor driving a centrifugal pump.
Power delivered divided by power consumed, given
in percentage. While efficiency is not a tangible As a reminder, the affinity laws of a standard
measurement and is stripped from any unit of variable-torque centrifugal pump demonstrate: that
measure, it is understandable: 96% of efficiency the power or the energy consumption vary with the
speaks louder than 368 W losses. cube of the speed, pressure or head varies as the
square of the speed, and flow volume varies linearly
This perception could lead the decision maker to with the speed.
make the wrong choice.
Controlling the speed of the pump to match the actual
The important metric is power losses, power need of pressure or flow yields a huge potential of
consumed minus power delivered, given in Watts. saving as shown in Table 1.
Understanding what a Watt is in itself is however
different than sizing the extent of a loss.

The reality lies in the amount of power that is TABLE 1

consumed by the system and invoiced by the power Speed Ratio Mechanical Power Required
companies. That is kW*$, not % efficiency.
100% 100%
The standard IEC 61800-9 forces the user to pay 90% 73%
attention to the losses of the whole system rather
than just to a percentage as a performance indicator. 80% 51%
75% 42%
That does not mean that we should forget about
efficiency value when choosing between several 60% 22%
systems for an application. Verifying the efficiency 50% 13%
of the systems is an important preliminary step.
40% 6%
But when estimating the system cost, users must 30% 3%
consider the energy cost of the system among the
other expenditures. For a motor with drive that will
operate for about 20 years, the initial purchasing When the pump turns at 90% of its nominal speed,
cost is only 2% of the total expense. Energy will it only requires 73% of its rated power, and only 42%
count for 90%, with the remaining expenses when turning at 75% of its nominal speed.
being maintenance and impact from downtime.
Therefore, a smart selection of the drive system can Using any variable frequency drive to control the
dramatically impact the overall system cost through motor of a centrifugal variable pump instead of DOL
a reduced energy bill. starter unlocks those savings by matching the pump
speed to the required flow or pressure.

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The savings are easy to estimate TABLE 2
For example, let us imagine that this pumping Mechanical Power
Speed Ratio Time Ratio
Required
equipment requires 13 HP to perform its work of
producing the desired output flow and pressure. 100% 20% 100%
90% 0% 73%
Without going into all the details of motor choice
optimization, the common practice is to choose a 80% 0% 51%
motor with a nameplate power rating greater than
75% 40% 42%
that required by the pump. A 15 HP motor (average
FLA 27 A for a 3-phases 460 V motor), being the 60% 0% 22%
next nominal size above 13 HP would commonly be
50% 40% 13%
chosen.
40% 0% 6%
When selecting an IE3 class motor, the system uses
30% 0% 3%
a motor with an efficiency of about 92%.
20% 0% 1%
Driving a 13 HP pump (excluding any transmission in
10% 0% 0%
between), its load ratio is 13/15=85%.
100%
In order to estimate the savings that will be realized
when a DOL is replaced by a VFD, it is necessary to
calculate the full load power consumed by the DOL The final step in the analysis is to calculate the time
solution. Full load power = motor HP x 0.746 x load weighted power consumed by the VFD equipped
ratio / efficiency. In this example, 15 HP x 0.746 x system. Table 3 shows this simple spreadsheet
85% / 92% = 10.33 kW. calculation where the time ratio and full load power
are used to calculate time weighted power at each
When comparing this solution against a VFD one speed ratio. In our example the time weighted power
must estimate the amount of time the system is 4.33 kW.
operates at each speed ratio. A typical example is
shown in Table 2. With a system running 24/7 all year long, it’s 365
days * 24 hours = 8,760 hours of operation.

TABLE 3
Mechanical Power Mechanical Power
Speed Ratio Time Ratio Time Weighted Power
Required (%) Required (kW)
100% 20% 100% 10.34 2.07
90% 0% 73% 7.54 0.00
80% 0% 51% 5.29 0.00
75% 40% 42% 4.36 1.74
60% 0% 22% 2.23 0.00
50% 40% 13% 1.29 0.52
40% 0% 6% 0.66 0.00
30% 0% 3% 0.28 0.00
20% 0% 1% 0.08 0.00
10% 0% 0% 0.01 0.00
100% 4.33

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Then simply 8,760x4.33 = 37,930 kWh consumed by The total loss of this complete drive system is
the system over one year. simply the sum of the losses from each component
as shown in Figure 2.
This has to be compared with 8,760x10.33 = 90566
kWh consumed by the system with DOL starter. Increasing attention to energy efficiency coupled
A huge saving of 52,636 kWh, with an energy cost of with heightened enforcement of standards and
$0.1 per kWh, it’s more than $5,000 saved per year. regulations, has led most equipment manufacturers
to publish their efficiency data. The estimations in
Table 4 use average efficiency values published by
VFD savings as part of the overall system major equipment manufacturers. In our example,
715 W of power are wasted to control a 15 HP motor.
Now let’s continue with this example and look at the
requirements of the IEC standard. It is possible to reduce the up-front cost and the
overall loss of the system by replacing the Passive
With a 3-phase power line, the basic choice of the VFD Input Filter with an AC Input Choke and by replacing
shall be a 480V/11 kW (15 HP) device. Remember the Sine Wave Output Filter with a dv/dt filter
that the VFD choice must be made according to the (assuming short cable length between the VFD and
current drawn by the load. Power only serves as a the motor). The typical loss of an AC Input Choke is
rough guide during the initial pre-selection process.

To mitigate the negative impacts of the PWM signal TABLE 4

generated by the VFD, this example will include a Component Estimated Average Loss
passive filter on the input side of the VFD (to reach
a THDi <= 5%) as well as a dv/dt filter or a sine wave Circuit Breaker 25W
filter (depending on the cable length) on the output
Fuses 7W
side of the VFD.
Passive Input Filter 183W
Finally, to complete the drive module specified in IEC Variable Frequency 350W (at 90% of
61800-9, we need to add a circuit breaker and fuses Drive (6-Pulse) speed/100% of torque)
upstream of the VFD.
Sine Wave Output
150W
The bill of material that industry best practice Filter
dictates is presented in Table 4 with its estimated Total 715W
average losses.

FIGURE 2 Energy loss

Total losses
Energy required by the system
to cover the useful energy and Energy to perform
the sum of all losses the required work

M
Main Feeding section Input filtering VFD Output filtering

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100 W and the corresponding loss for a dv/dt filter experiences lower losses and longer life expectancy
is 55 W, yielding a net efficiency improvement of 178 due the clean sinusoidal output signal. Figure 3
W. However this comes at the cost of much higher illustrates this clean power VFD setup and Table 5
harmonics injected onto the electrical network and summarizes the performance of each solution.
also experienced by the motor itself.

Selecting lower purchasing solution

Lower power loss is saving
impacts negatively the overall energy money.
efficiency
With the clean power VFD, the losses are reduced by
The performance of the motor itself is of critical 40% compared with a 6-pulse drive properly filtered
importance when evaluating the overall efficiency and reduced by 32% compared with a 6-pulse drive
of a power drive system as defined by the standard. with limited filtering.
The PWM output of a typical 6-Pulse VFD increases
the motor losses by an average of 15% compared In a scenario where the equipment is running
with a clean sinusoidal signal. Continuing with our 24/7/365, this yields up to 2,472 kWh in energy
previous 11 kW (15 HP) example, this yields a loss savings for a single motor drive system.
of 672 W.
By multiplying the savings by the equipment lifetime
In order to realize the benefits of a VFD while and by the number of motor systems in a plant, it
simultaneously minimizing end-to-end power losses, is easy to realise substantial savings by replacing
the innovative solution is to use a clean power VFD conventional direct on line (DOL) starters and
with an integrated active front end (AFE) which conventional 6-Pulse drives with clean power VFDs.
delivers a pure sine wave to the motor. In this
solution, filters are not needed on either the input or A water treatment plant for a population of 200,000
the output side. For the power loss estimation, the frequently uses between 50 and 100 VFDs. Using a
common 6-pulse VFD is replaced by the clean power very conservative estimate of 50 VFDs all at 11 kW
VFD, having an average power loss of 400 W at 90% the annual savings would be $12,000 per year.
of speed / 100% of torque.
Looking at a life expectancy of 15 years for equipment
Returning again to our 11 kW example, a clean in a water treatment station, the savings would be
power device will experience losses of 432 W. The about $180,000. Extended over the 45 to 60 years
THDi of this solution is less than 5% and the motor lifespan of a water treatment plant, our scenario
yields $540,000 to $720,000 in energy savings.

FIGURE 3 Energy loss

Savings

Total losses
Energy required by the system
to cover the useful energy and Energy to perform
the sum of all losses the required work

M
Main Feeding section Clean Sine Wave
VFD with AFE

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 TABLE 5

Solution 1 Solution 2 Solution 3

Fuses average losses Type J 7W 7W 7W

Circuit breaker average
25W 25W 25W
losses
Passive input
Type AC choke None
Input Filter filter
Average power loss 183W 100W 0
Common 6 Common 6 Clean-Sine-
VFD Type
pulses pulses Wave
Average power loss at 90%
350W 350W 400W
speed / 100% torque
Output filter Type Sine Wave dv/dt None
Average power loss 150W 55W 0
System impact on motor +15%
0 0
loss ~135W
Total Loss 715W 672W 432W

The link between electrical energy and carbon

emissions is clear. Therefore the smart selection
of a motor drive system reduces its overall carbon
Active front end contribution
There are more savings coming from a VFD with AFE.
footprint.
An AFE VFD will provide additional cost savings
through power factor control and regenerative
Conclusion braking.

The environmental impact of energy savings is real: When the power factor of a drive is low (< 1) it
with nearly half of the world’s electricity flowing must draw higher current to feed its load. Most
through motors, it is no surprise that ever more energy providers apply penalties to compensate
stringent standards are being released for variable for the costs associated with low power factor.
frequency drives and motors. However, more While the threshold varies by provider, a power
attention should be paid to the overall efficiency of factor of 0.9 or lower is commonly subject to
the motor system than to the discrete devices. By some form of increased cost. Since an AFE drive
deploying an optimized system, significant energy operates at close to unity power factor, it does not
savings and lower maintenance costs can be draw additional current and does not impair the
realized. power factor within the facility. This makes an AFE
drive more cost effective in many environments.
As demonstrated in this white paper, VFD producing
a clean-power-signal can greatly improve the An AFE VFD is also able to feed the energy
overall system efficiency by allowing motors to run generated by a decelerating motor back onto
more smoothly and removing other energy-hungry the electrical grid. This is in contrast to a typical
components from the system. 6-pulse VFD where the regenerated energy is
dissipated as heat inside a braking resistor and
New technologies such as wide-bandgap transistors within the VFD itself. Thus the AFE VFD saves
are now available and are making clean-power VFDs energy by returning it to the grid rather than
a reality. This new generation of variable frequency wasting it as heat. The actual energy and cost
drives exceed the energy efficiency requirements at saving will obviously depend on the number of
the extended product level and translate into opex deceleration cycles experienced during normal
saving and smaller environmental footprint. operation.

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 ___________________________________________________

References:
European directive EU 2019/1781 can be downloaded
here:
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/homepage.html?locale=en
IEC 61800-9 part 1 and part 2 standard can be
purchased from:
https://webstore.iec.ch/
Nema publication General Specification for
Consultants -- Industrial and Municipal: NEMA
Premium Efficiency Electric Motors (600 Volts or
Less) can be download here:
https://www.nema.org/standards/view/general-
specification-for-consultants-industrial-and-
municipal-nema-premium-efficiency-electric-motors

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