If you have an AC motor-driven application that does not need to be run at full speed, then you can increase your energy efficiency by controlling the motor with a variable speed drive (VSD). Variable speed drives allow you to match the speed of the motor-driven equipment to the process requirement.
VSD ENERGY SAVING:
A VSD regulates the speed of the motor, and in turn the speed of the pump or fan, by controlling the energy that goes into the motor, rather than restricting the flow of a process running constantly at full speed. A VSD can save over 60% of the energy as it controls the energy at source, only using as much as is necessary to run the motor with the required speed and torque.
In particular, VSD`s can dramatically reduce energy consumption in fan and pump systems. The power required to run a centrifugal pump or a fan is relative to the cube of the speed. This means that if 100% flow requires full power, 75% requires 0.753= 42% of full power, and 50% flow requires 0.53= 12.5% of the power. As a small reduction of the speed can make a big difference on the energy consumption, and as many fan and pump systems run at less than full capacity a lot of the time, a VSD can make huge savings compared to a motor driving a load under mechanical control.
A VSD can also make it possible to stop a motor completely when it is not required as re-starting with a VSD causes far less stress than starting direct-on-line – soft starting is an inherent feature of the VSD. Regulating the motor speed has the added benefit of easily accommodating capacity rises without extra investment, as speed increases of 5-20% is no problem with a VSD as long as there is enough spare capacity in the system.
Other benefits of Variable Speed Drive Control include:
- Flexibility of operation
- Reduced hardware requirements – starters, power factor correction, metering/monitoring, PI control, etc. no longer required
- Lower starting current
- Reduced noise levels
- Reduced mechanical stress
RECENT VSD PANEL:
