IE3 Motors Switching and Protecting
Eaton contactors, motor-protective circuit-breakers, and motor-starter combinations are all designed to handily overcome the challenge of protecting and switching
The ErP directive 2009/125/EC
One of the European Union's environmental policy targets is to significantly cut its greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption levels by 2020. As part of its "20/30-20-20" strategy, the EU is committed to achieve the following by 2020:- Reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 30 %
- Increase the share of renewable energy to 20 % and
- Boost energy efficiency by 20% in general.
The legal basis for these targets is the ErP Directive, which was passed on July 6th, 2005 (2005/32/EC) and sets forth requirements for the environmentally friendly design of energy-using products. An amended version of this directive (2009/125/EC) came into force on October 21st, 2009, and expanded the aforementioned requirements to include the environmentally friendly design of energy-related products (hence the name "ErP"). In Germany, the directive has been implemented with the Energiebetriebene-Produkte-Gesetz (EBPG – the German Energy-Using Products Act), which is more commonly referred to as the Ecodesign Directive.
Meanwhile, Regulation (EC) No. 640/2009 and Regulation (EC) No. 04/2014 set forth mandatory minimum efficiency levels for a wide variety of rated output powers for low-voltage, three-phase asynchronous motors. As part of these regulations, EFF classes, which had been voluntarily adopted by the industry, were replaced with the IE classes defined in standard IEC 60034-30 for induction motors.
These classes are as follows:
- IE1 (standard efficiency)
- IE2 (high efficiency)
- IE3 (premium efficiency).
The motor regulation's scope of application will be expanded in the next few years, with the goal being to save even more energy in industrial motor and drive systems. As of this writing, the regulatory framework for standard asynchronous motors is as follows:
Regulation (EC) No. 640/2009, Article 3 (excerpt)
- From 16 June 2011, motors shall not be less efficient than the IE2 efficiency level.
- From 1 January 2015: all motors with a rated output of 7.5 - 375 kW shall not be less efficient than the IE3 efficiency level or shall meet the IE2efficiency level and be equipped with an electronic speed control.
- From 1 January 2017: motors with a rated output of 0.75 - 375 kW shall not be less efficient than the IE3 efficiency level or shall meet the IE2 efficiency level and be equipped with an electronic speed control.
- 2- to 6-pole
- Rated operating voltage UN up to 1000 V
- Rated output power PN between 0.75 kW and 375 kW
- Rated for continuous duty operation.
Moreover, the following motors are exempt from the regulation: brake motors, motors for potentially explosive atmospheres, motors designed to operate wholly immersed in a liquid, and motors completely integrated into a product (e.g., a machine) that makes it impossible to measure the motors' efficiency exactly. The original version contained additional exemptions, but these were heavily limited in updated Regulation (EC) 4/2014, which came into effect on July 27th, 2014.
More specifically, the following exemption limits were changed, widening the regulation's scope of application:
- Altitudes exceeding 1,000 m were changed to altitudes exceeding 4,000 m
- Ambient temperatures exceeding +40 °C were changed to ambient temperatures exceeding +60 °C
- Ambient temperatures of less than -15 °C were changed to ambient temperatures of less than -30 °C (for all motors) or less than 0 °C for water-cooled motors
- Coolant temperatures at the inlet to a product of less than 5 °C or exceeding 25 °C were changed to temperatures of less than 0 °C or exceeding 32 °C.
For more information, please refer to the "Motor protection for the IE3 revolution" whitepaper.
Podcast: Successful Implementation of the new EU ErP Directive with Eaton
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Listen to Eaton's energy efficiency experts! Here's what some of the experts at Eaton have to say about embracing energy efficiency today - to seize a world of opportunity tomorrow. Time: 00:07:18 |
Repercussions on motor design resulting from the change to IE3
The requirements set forth in the ErP Directive and the motor regulation are forcing electric motor manufacturers to make design changes to their products. In turn, these changes are also affecting motors' electrical characteristics: A variety of motor design changes have increased resistance, an optimized lamination cross-section has reduced stray-load losses, etc.
All these changes mean that high-efficiency motors have higher inductance levels, which stems from the fact that the corresponding copper losses are smaller. This, in turn, causes the motors' starting currents to be higher. The end result of all this is that the corresponding switchgear, such as contactors and motor-protective circuit-breakers, need to be modified as well.
Study of the behavior of switchgear when starting IE3 motors with DOL starting
As one of the world's leading experts in safe motor driving, switching, and protection, Eaton recently conducted a study to closely examine the behavior of motor-protective devices in real-life tests. To check how the design changes on IE3 motors would affect its protective devices, the company carried out tests using IE3 motors from various well-known manufacturers.
 | 1: Inrush Peak 2: Starting current 3: Operating current |
The tests showed that the starting currents of the IE3 motors were significantly higher than those of IE2 motors.
For starters, the aforementioned higher starting currents can result in nuisance tripping though no fault or short circuit has occurred. This, in turn, can lead to dangerous situations, such as contact pitting due to contact bounce, and even contacts sticking. If the contacts melt, this can result in expensive machine downtimes and expensive servicing. And, in addition, it will shorten the contactor's service life.
We are IE3-Ready!
Higher starting factors
After exhaustive testing, Eaton has optimized its DIL contactors and its PKZ and PKE motor-protective circuit-breakers as required for the new challenges that IE3 motors pose. In order to guarantee maximum levels of reliability and safety, the motor protection solution experts have increased the response threshold for short-circuit releases, as the previous starting factor was not sufficient for IE3 motors. Moreover, the company has perfected a delicate balancing act with its contactors, which have a hold-in power that is as low as possible in order to optimize energy efficiency while still being able to safely switch the higher starting currents that characterize IE3 motors. This does not include our Eco contactors (DILEM12, DILM15, DILM38, DILM72, and DILM170), which are not suitable for operation with IE3 motors.
A global solution for everything
Eaton is one of the first manufacturers to offer a solution that is demonstrated to cover both IE2 and IE3 motors – worldwide. In other words, using Eaton products ensures that users do not have to worry about figuring out which products should be used with which energy efficiency classes, effectively simplifying life despite the new directive. On top of this, the fact that a single product line covers both IE2 and IE3 applications eliminates the need for extra engineering and warehousing work.
Clear identification
Both the contactors in the DIL series and the motor-protective circuit-breakers in the PKZ and PKE product lines are already perfect choices for safely operating IE3 motors. And in order to enable users to easily identify these devices so that they can select their products more easily, the company is using a label on their package that clearly indicates that these products are "IE3-ready".
Configurator for Motor Starter Combinations
It doesn't matter if you:
– Want to configure your motor starter as a DOL, reversing, or wye-delta starter for IE2 or IE3 motors,
– Prefer fused or fuseless configurations
– Prefer electromechanical motor starters or electronic motor starters:
The configurator for motor-starter combinations will help you pick the right solution in just a few clicks. It is linked to the online catalog, providing a convenient way to create complete order lists, including wiring sets. Once you're done, you can send the finished list to your sales partner – it's as simple as that.
- Enter motor data
- Select type of starter
- Select the contactor you want based on the control voltage
- Generate order list.
Click to go to the motor-starter combination configurator...
CurveSelect – Characteristics program for short-circuit and overload protection devices
CurveSelect V1.24 is adapted to the modified parameters of the "IE3-Ready" protective devices and accounts for the modified trigger response curves.
Click here for more info...
