Solutions

Volume 8, Issue 2
( . . . continued on page 2)
Monitoring Induction Motors for
Energy Savings (Part 2)
With limited natural resources and the ever increasing global demand for energy,
it only stands to reason that energy costs will continue to increase into the future
(barring some revolutionary technological development in the energy sector).
And as energy costs rise around the world, the incentive for facilities to operate
their equipment more effciently will compound over time. There are mandatory
means (e.g., regulations) that authorities use to enforce conservation, and
compensatory means (e.g., special rate tariffs) that reward users for using less
energy. In either case, decreasing energy consumption will decrease the bottom
line costs to the user.
To effectively reduce energy costs, industrial facilities should begin by evaluating
their number one energy consuming culprit: motors. Many studies have shown
that motors in industrial facilities consume by far the largest percentage of
energy of any electrical device used in the US infrastructure. Tens of billions of
kWh are consumed by motors each year accounting for over 25% of all electricity
sales in the US. The most common type of motor in use today is the polyphase
induction motor, over 90% of which are squirrel cage induction motors. Because
of their prevalence throughout the industrial (and commercial) sector, polyphase
induction motors offer a great potential savings opportunity in both energy and
operational costs during the motors useful life.
An adequate assessment of the impact that induction motors can have on your
energy bill requires a detailed knowledge of the motors many operational and
electrical parameters. Permanently-installed monitoring devices are the most
effective tool in the arsenal to reduce energy consumption, especially in motors.
Knowing which parameters to monitor and evaluate will help the user maximize
energy savings.
Monitoring your Motors
Each motor within a facility operates with some level of distinctiveness from other
motors. This distinctiveness may be due to a mixture of factors including:
Nameplate ratings
Voltages
Load/Application
Duty cycle
Environment
Adjacent loads
Impedances
Age
The more knowledge that can be accumulated about a motor and how it
operates, the easier it is to reduce energy costs associated with that motor.
Permanently-installed monitoring systems are particularly useful because they
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are able to capture a great deal of information (both
real-time and historical) over the motors life.
A fundamental issue that can affect a motors energy
usage is its suitability for the intended application.
Motors are designed to operate most effciently at
their nameplate rating. Selecting the wrong motor
for a particular application or operating the motor
outside its recommended parameters will decrease
the motors performance, introducing additional
losses into the electrical system. Monitoring systems
are able to identify many symptoms that result in
reduced motor performance including deviations
from various nameplate parameters. For example,
Figure 1 illustrates several consequences that
occur when the voltage deviates from the motors
nameplate voltage rating.

Where to Look for Savings
There is a wealth of information about a motors
wellbeing buried in the characteristics of the
electrical signals at the motors terminals. With
the motors nameplate data and these electrical
characteristics, it is possible to quantify many
energy savings opportunities for a given motor.
The fundamental electrical characteristics include
the voltage, current, and frequency data for each
phase. By collecting data on these fundamental
characteristics, monitoring devices can provide
additional information needed to maximize energy
savings including:
Power factor
Voltage variations
Voltage imbalance
Motor load (based on current)
Harmonic distortion
Frequency deviations
Monitoring systems also have the ability to measure
and record temperatures, number of starts, running
time, and even vibration through the use of I/O
modules (topics not be covered in this article).
Power Factor Improvement
The frst and most obvious opportunity for motor
energy savings is power factor correction. Most
monitoring systems provide a wide range of data
directly or indirectly associated with power factor
including:
Displacement power factor (total and per phase)
True power factor (total and per phase)
Distortion power factor (total and per phase)
Min/max power factor
Reactive power and energy
Real power and energy
Apparent power and energy
To briefy discuss how power factor relates to energy savings, polyphase induction
motors use current composed of both resistive and inductive components (See
Figure 2). The resistive component includes the load current and the loss current;
the inductive component includes the magnetizing current and the leakage
reactance. It is possible to cancel out the inductive current component by
supplying a counter current using a capacitor. The addition of a capacitor does
not affect the magnetizing current or the leakage reactance of the motor, but it
offsets the inductive component at the point where the capacitor is installed. As
more capacitance is added, the power factor angle, , becomes smaller until a
unity power factor is achieved (= 0). At unity power factor, the electrical system
is at its optimum performance for maximum power transfer. Please note that
placing excessive capacitance on the circuit will result in a leading power factor (
is negative in this case), which can lead to serious complications.
Example 1
A three-phase induction motor uses 200 Amps of current at a power factor of 0.78
(old = 38.73).
To ensure these values are correct,
The reactive (inductive) component can be reduced by adding a capacitive load
(generally a capacitor bank) near the motor. The capacitive load is also expressed
Figure 1. Effect of Voltage Variations on nduction Motor Characteri
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A reduction in current (and energy) of approximately 18% is obtained by
the addition of capacitance to the system based solely on the power factor
improvement*. Each kVArh of reactive energy passing through your electrical
system produces superfuous line losses and higher energy bills. Permanently-
installed monitoring devices can quantify these losses and offer additional
savings opportunities within the facility.
* A word of caution: Most industrial systems use motors with adjacent loads
that are complex (e.g, non-linear loads such as adjustable speed drives).
These complex load-types may react negatively to the addition of standard
power factor correction capacitors due to the capacitors interaction with other
frequencies produced by the complex loads. More information is available on the
internet regarding the interaction between complex-load types and power factor
correction capacitors (also see displacement power factor versus true power
factor).
Voltage Imbalance
Voltage imbalance (including single phasing) is both a leading cause of motor
failures (See Motors, Part 1 Article) and a major contributor to energy losses in
motors. The subsequent current imbalances that result produce additional losses
in the motor. Monitoring systems are typically used to quantify voltage imbalance
for power quality purposes, but may also be used to provide information on the
losses due to voltage imbalance at the terminals of three-phase induction motors.
Figure 4 illustrates the effect of voltage imbalance on a motors effciency.
Example 2
A 200 horsepower three-phase induction motor operates 4,500 hours each
year at an average load of 80%. The motors effciency () is 93% at 80%
load assuming a negligible voltage imbalance. However, it is discovered after
reviewing the monitoring systems data that the average voltage imbalance to the
motor over the course of year has been 3%. The facilitys average energy cost is
$0.13/kWh and the average demand charge is $16/kW.
The reduction in effciency (based on Figure 4) is roughly 3.5% giving the new
effciency (
new
) as 89.5% (93% - 3.5%). The losses due to the voltage imbalance
are determined as follows:
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Figuro 3. Motor Curront witn PF Corrootion Capaoitors
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Figuro 2. Compononts o Motor Curront
? old
as reactive in nature, but it uses the current 180 out of phase from the inductive
load; thus, a canceling effect occurs (see Figure 3). To bring the power factor from
0.78 (
old
= 38.73) to 0.95 (
new
= 18.19), a capacitor bank would have to be
sized such that its corresponding current would be:
Figure 4. Efficiency Reduction Due to Voltage mbalance
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voltago mbalanoo (%)
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To determine the total cost due to the voltage imbalance each year,
PowerLogic
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The cost of energy losses is substantial in this case and is further multiplied by
additional motors exposed to the voltage imbalance within the facility. Moreover,
other voltage quality issues also adversely affect the effciency of induction
motors. Operating a motor at 90% of its rated nominal voltage will result in roughly
a 2% decrease in effciency (See Figure 1). Harmonic distortion at the motors
terminals produces additional currents including counter rotational (negative
sequence) currents that reduce a motors effciency. Even variations in the system
frequency result in energy losses for motors. All of these factors (and many more
not mentioned in this article) contribute to losses and an untapped means of
reducing operational expenditures.
Historical and real-time data provided by monitoring systems is not only the key
to locating motors that are operating uneconomically, but these systems can allow
the user to more easily determine the root cause of the problem(s). Remedies that
are employed can also be assessed on an as needed basis by the monitoring
system, and modifed to insure they are effective. Concurrently, the return-on-
investment (ROI) for a given solution can be easily established.
Conclusions
Permanently-installed monitoring systems collect vast amounts of data that can
be scrutinized for motor savings. In general, actions taken to improve the motors
effciency will also increase the operating life of the motor. The payback period
for improvements to the electrical system (including the initial costs of installing
a monitoring system) can be relatively short especially if multiple motors are
impacted. As steps are taken to operate motors as closely as possible to their
optimal parameters, the effect will be decreased capital expenses, less process
downtime, lower stress on the supporting infrastructure, and of course, reduced
operating expenses including energy bills.
References
United States Industrial Motor Systems Market Opportunities Assessment,
Prepared for the U.S Department of Energys Offce of Industrial Technologies
and Oak Ridge National Laboratory by Xenergy, Inc., Burlington, Massachusetts,
December 1998.
Electrical Engineering Pocket Handbook, EASA, Inc., 1997-99.
Motor Circuit Analysis for Energy, Reliability and Production Cost Improvements,
Howard W. Penrose, Ph.D., BJM Corporation, Old Saybrook, CT, 2001.
2006 Schneider Electric All Rights Reserved
Doc # 3000HO0602 April 2006
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