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KVA Size for A Variable Speed Drive

for an ESP Application
Selecting the proper VSD for an ESP application is important to make sure we have
enough VSD for the application. The following will give us a quick guide on how to
know what KVA is required by a VSD for an ESP application after we have properly
selected and sized the down hole ESP system. The following process requires that you
have properly selected the down hole equipment and matched the pump and motor for
proper operations.
Once we have sized the pump and motor, we can select a VSD. All variable speed drives
are rated in terms of KVA similar to transformers. In order to select a drive, we will need
to determine how much KVA we need. We need to determine the surface KVA
requirement for the ESP application and not just the down-hole requirements. An
example will best illustrate this evaluation.
As an example, say the motor we select has a 60 Hz (nameplate) rating of 2306 volts and
82.5 amps and we want to operate it up to 70 Hz. Since the motor requires a constant
volts-to-hertz ratio, the voltage at any other frequency will be:
Step 1. Determine the actual motor voltage at the operating frequency for the
application.

Volts Hz = Volts 60

Hz
60

Step 2. Determine the actual nameplate current at operating conditions or use

nameplate current.
So at 70 Hz the motor voltage will be 2690 volts at 70 HZ. We do not know what the
actual amperage will be at 70 Hz (although we could calculate it), for sizing purposes we
will use the motor nameplate rating of 82.5 amps.

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Step 3. Determine the voltage drop in the down-hole cable.

Next we need to determine the losses for the down-hole cable and the transformer used in
the ESP application. For the sake of illustration, we will assume that we have 5000 feet
of #2 AWG cable between the transformer and the motor.
From the cable voltage drop chart for #2 AWG and 82.5 amps, we will have a loss of 23
volts per thousand feet, which is a total of 115 volts lost in the 5,000 foot length of cable.
Step 4. Determine the transformer losses or 5%.
Consider next the transformation losses, because the VSD is a low voltage device and we
need 2805 volts at the surface, we will need a step-up transformer between the VSD and
the motor to transform the VSD output voltage to the voltage required by the ESP system.
Transformers are not going to be 100% efficient and we can typically expect about a 2%
to 4% KVA loss in the transformer for a well made transformer. To be on the safe side
we will use 5%.
Step 5. Determine the actual drive KVA requirements.
Next we determine the actual surface KVA requirement for the VSD by taking into
account the motor kva, the cable kva and the transformer kva losses.

KVA = Volts x Amps x 1.732

1000
Therefore drive KVA is:
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Drive Output KVA = ((Motor Voltage @ Freq + Cable Voltage Drop) x Amps) x 1.7321 + KVA transformer
1000

Therefore for our example:

Drive Output KVA = ((2690 volts motor + 115 Cable Voltage Drop) x 82.5 Amps) x 1.7321 + 5%
1000
Drive Output KVA = ((2690+ 115) x 82.5) x 1.7321 x (1/0.95)
1000
Drive Output KVA = 422 KVA
Now that we have selected a down-hole unit and a VSD, we need to decide how we want
to set up the VSD. When setting up the VSD at the well site, we need to determine what
the "base frequency" of the drive will be. The base frequency is the frequency at which
the drive will output the 480 volt maximum. Since the VSD provides a constant volts-tohertz ratio, the output voltage will vary linearly with the frequency. At lower frequencies
the drive will output a lower voltage.

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