Efficiency Measurement of Induction Motors

Electric motors use more than 50% of all electricity produced in industrialised countries. Of
these motors, squirrel cage induction motors are the most commonly used in industry. They
can be found from a few hundred W up to several MW. The induction motors are
characterized by data provided by the manufacturer as rated speed, power, voltage, current
and efficiency.

Nowadays, with the increasing emphasis on energy conservation, efficiency values have
become very important and even dominant for applications in industry. The efficiency values
given by the manufacturers are measured or calculated according to certain standards. World-
wide, several standards for testing electric machinery exist. For induction motors, the three
most important standards are the American IEEE Standard 112-Method B, the European IEC
60034-2 and the Japanese JEC 37. The IEC standard is being replaced by the new IEC 61972.
All these standards are defined for sinusoidal supplied motors. For converter fed motors, no
standards exist.

In the lab, as well as in industry, measurements have been performed on a large number of
motors from 5.5 kW to 160 kW to compare the different standards. The efficiency values
emerging from the considered measurement standards differ by several percent, as shown in
Figure 1. This is due to the fact that the stray-load losses, which range from 0.5 up to 4%, are
ignored in the Japanese standard, and arbitrarily fixed at 0.5% in the old IEC standard. Only
the IEEE standard provides a correct procedure. As a consequence, motor manufacturers in
Europe or Japan can sell more expensive “high-efficiency” motors, which are in reality less
efficient than some standard design motors from other manufacturers.

Efficiency [%]
91
Catalogue
90
JEC 37
89
IEC 34.2
88

87
IEEE 112-B
86
Pout/Pin
85

84

83

82
0 20 40 60 80 100 120

T/Tnom [%]

Figure 1 : Catalogue and standard efficiency values

The new IEC 61972 standard is similar to the IEEE standard, but still allows an alternative
procedure with a fixed percentage to be used as approximation for the stray-load losses. This
procedure makes a comparison between motors futile, as indicated by Figure 2.

Difference in efficiency [%]

11 kW 55 kW 75 kW

1%

IEC IEEE IEC IEEE IEC IEEE

Figure 2 : Difference between real efficiency (IEEE) and

efficiency with fixed percentage stray-load losses (IEC)

Contact: Peter Van Roy Personal website