Assessing Energy Efficiency and Power Quality Impacts Due to High-Efficiency Motors Operating Under Nonideal Energy Supply

The search for more competitive equipment in the global market has led to the implementation of new materials and technologies in the search for greater energy efficiency. This is certainly a guideline followed by the electric motor industry that has introduced new technologies in rotating machines, such as the permanent magnet motor, evolving into increasingly efficient motor classes. However, subjecting these efficient motors under nonideal electric grid power conditions, such as voltage unbalance, can cause these efficient machines to generate additional distortions in the voltage and current waveforms, which in turn not only affect the performance of electric motors themselves but also that of the electrical system in general. This work presents a comparison between energy efficiency gain and the corresponding power quality degradation through a detailed harmonic analysis of the effects of voltage harmonics and voltage unbalance in three 0.75-kW electric motors classes: IE2, IE3, and IE4, The results show that for increasing percentages of a specific harmonic distortion, other harmonics are also increased in the higher efficiency electric motors sample analyzed, and similar responses were also observed for large percentages of voltage unbalance, mainly in the line-start permanent magnet motor class IE4. The results achieved are interesting but rigorously reflect only the tested motor sample and cannot be generalized to all motors, in other power ranges, of the respective motor classes tested. For generalization, exhaustive tests must be accomplished to formulate general conclusions according to the electric motors' classes commercially available.