Energy Efficiency in Electrical Motors

Electrical motors are the driving mechanism for majority of operations in industries, agriculture, commercial complexes etc. In India, 80% of the electrical power consumed in industries, 50% of power consumed in domestic and commercial connections and about 90% of power consumed in agricultural connections are through electrical motors. Hence, electrical motors are the major component to address when we talk about energy efficiency. Today is the day of energy efficiency. In good old days, when electrical power was a cheap commodity, none was giving due importance to the efficient use of power. However, there is a sea change in the situation now. Power is no cheaper and for most of the industries, electrical energy has become almost a raw material. Most of our traditional industries like sugar, textile etc. are dying down. One of the main reasons is the efficiency in operation and the comparatively high operating cost, which makes the product incompetent in the current global market. The recent initiatives taken by the government by way of enacting the energy conservation act 2001 and electricity act 2003 are to help the industries in coping with the efficiency crisis and to make them energy efficient, thereby leading them to become competitive. If we analyse the Indian power scenario, it is being reported that the transmission and distribution losses is about 25–30% or even more. At the same time, a critical analysis of the performance of electrical motors reveals that the power loss due to in-efficient electrical motors is also as high as 25-30%. This shows the importance of maintaining proper operational efficiency of the electrical motors.