Assessing Voltage Unbalance Conditions in IE2, IE3 and IE4 Classes Induction Motors

Abstract

Brazil has started an energy transition process through more efficient electric motors. The new legislation determining the IE3 Class as the minimum efficiency level in commercial electric motors became valid in August 2019. Currently, four induction motor classes are defined by the IEC 60034-30-1, with the IE4 class being the most efficient, and in the same way, proposals to achieve IE5 efficiency class are available in the market. Considering the upcoming new technologies, it is necessary to know the impact of power systems disturbances in IM's in view of future substitutions. This paper presents a detailed analysis of the impact of different percentages of under and over voltage unbalances on the temperature and performance of electric motors classes IE2, IE3 and IE4. Results show that the IE4 hybrid motor presents non-linear characteristics, being observed this motor shows less dependence on voltage variation, mainly undervoltage unbalance. An analysis of how this phenomenon impacts on the current harmonic distortions in the induction motors operation is also developed through Spearman's correlation matrices. Finally, models that represent the temperature increase of each motor with different voltage unbalance conditions are presented.

Keywords

• Energy efficiency
• electric motors
• permanent magnet motor
• temperature measurements
• power quality