“The motor, destined for a steel plant in India, has achieved an efficiency rating of 99.13% during testing, a substantial improvement over ABB’s previous world record of 99.05% set in 2017,” according to the company. “Getting closer to 100% efficiency becomes increasingly challenging in terms of the motor design and manufacture. This is why the previous world record stood for eight years.”
It is an 11kV 50Hz synchronous motor, created for a steel plant in India where it will compress air for a separation plant which produces oxygen and nitrogen.
“The average efficiency for this type of synchronous motor typically ranges between 98.2 and 98.5%,” said ABB. “Opting for an optimised motor, rather than the standard design with 98.64% efficiency level, will enable the customer to save around 61GWh and $5.9m in electricity costs over a 25 year lifespan. It will also support avoiding 45,000 tons of CO2 emissions.”
Record motor’s specification plate
ABB has created an internal programme for such motors, called ‘Top industrial efficiency’, where it works to an extrapolation of the IEC’s IE1 to IE4 efficiency ratings, proposing IE5 and IE6. “In fact,” said ABB, “on a delivered synchronous motor rated at 44MW, ABB achieved an energy efficiency of 99.05%, which would be in line with an IE7 standard.”
