Energy Saving with Variable Speed Drives in Industry Applications

摘要

One of the major costs incurred by most industry worldwide is energy. Therefore in the competitive markets of today where reducing costs is an important part of surviving, any methods of reducing the amount of power used in the processes that industry performs will be advantageous. With induction motors so widely used they account for a significant part of the energy requirements of many companies. This paper examines the feasibility of adding ac variable speed drives to control the existing pumping applications in one of New Zealand industrial site. The aim is to identify the energy savings that were possible from the implementation of ac variable speed drives and determine the payback period. The first task was to identify which motors would benefit the company most by having variable speed drives controlling them. The next step was to build a small scale experimental pumping system to determine the energy saving a variable speed drive would give. Then, using the motors identified in the first stage and the data collected in the second stage, the payback periods could be calculated.