Review of the development of motor energy efficiency evaluation standards in the past 10 years

In the past 10 years, the motor market has developed rapidly, the level of motor production has been continuously improved, and the evaluation standards for technological development have also been improving over the years.

Today's motors are no longer the same level as they were then. The newly issued classification standard regards IE1 as general energy efficiency, IE2 as high energy efficiency, and IE3 as energy saving and high energy efficiency. Such standard division improves the energy efficiency level of the motor as a whole.

“IEC MEPS”

As early as 10 years ago, the motor energy efficiency evaluation standards have been put forward. At that time, there was still a big debate between the United States and Europe on this issue, because they could not reach an agreement on the energy efficiency of the motor. Over the past five years, things have changed.

The early standards were uniformly promulgated by IEC, and the classification of IE1, IE2, and IE3 established a unified standard for the evaluation of motor energy efficiency. However, the situation of each development is different, and there are some inevitable problems in the evaluation of unified standards.

Bruner, chief ConradU of the energy efficiency organization "topten Energy Conservation Center", told the reporter of "National Economic and Information Technology" that in addition to IEC standards, they are formulating their own mandatory energy efficiency standards, which are uniformly called "MEPS".

“MEPS”

MinimumEnergyPerformanceStandards, low energy efficiency standards. Over the past five years, many have adopted models with low energy efficiency standards. "At present, there are two or three such organizations in China, including the United States, Canada and Mexico, with Australia as the representative and Europe and China as the typical countries. The European standard was formulated in 2009 and implemented in 2011, and the standard is almost the same time.

The "IEC MEPS" standard constitutes the energy efficiency test standard system of the entire country's motors. Under such standards, each motor continues to study energy efficiency in its own field. But the implementation of this system also encountered many resistance and problems.

Standards are initially implemented through laws and regulations to regulate the market. However, three factors are needed to regulate the market: first, product registration, each model needs to be registered, and then classified into grades; second, testing and certification. Users who buy a motor from the market should put it into a laboratory for testing to obtain the measured value, so as to check whether the motor energy efficiency label is true. The third is reward and punishment measures. If the measured value of the motor is different from the marked value, the manufacturer of the motor will be punished.

The three-step measure of low energy efficiency standards is currently only available in Australia. Others only do a little more or less. Among them, there is only a registration link in the United States, but no inspection. Only when reporting behavior occurs will it come out for monitoring. In Europe, three steps have not been taken.

The implementation of the situation is relatively complex, the current low energy efficiency standards are no post-punitive measures. Some legislative amendments are also being made to punish these non-energy-saving manufacturers. However, at the beginning, there was no laboratory that could do monitoring, and there was no similar national recognition standard, so at that time there was no testing and supervision mechanism of its own. However, with the inclusion of motors in the implementation of energy efficiency standards, this application has gradually begun to improve.

Increased user autonomy

Although there are standard requirements and corresponding threshold restrictions on motor production, there are still problems in the promotion of motors in the market. Conrad analysis said: "In Switzerland, we investigated 4000 motors from 12 different factories. We found that 50% ~ 60% of the 4000 motors are old motors. Too old means no energy saving, so they need to be replaced."

The motor can achieve savings with a very short payback period, but as a user may not be aware of this situation, or know it and do not act. This requires the transformation of the market, from inefficient.

At present, there are also obstacles to the transformation of the country, and some enterprises will still not buy motors because of price constraints. Conrad thinks it is a very silly behavior. "Users who use motors can make money, companies that manufacture motors can benefit from it, and the environment can be improved."

In order to promote the motor smoothly, three measures should be taken to ensure. First, low energy efficiency standards require financial support for the production of motors. Third, capacity building, soft power improvement, through learning to use new software tools to do some specific calculations, through some soft things such as products and standards to stimulate the market. Conrad pointed out that the country's low energy efficiency standards are already in use and tax policy plans are being implemented, but soft power is still relatively weak.

Not only soft power is weak, most of the country's motor users are lack of initiative, how to let users buy the motor has become a big problem. For this, in some developed countries, the new national motor standards will be learned through information disclosure, subscription newsletters, etc., and users can grasp the information at any time, thus ensuring that users have a correct understanding of the motor.

In addition, the lack of initiative is largely due to the high price of the motor, the price of a motor is 30% higher than that of an ordinary motor. In the United States, the cost of motors has been reduced a lot, from 30% higher a few years ago to about 10% higher, so there is basically no price barrier for users.

There are many large-scale motor factories and many famous motor enterprises, but due to the late start, they have stopped at IE1 in the past 30 years, and 50% of the enterprises are still making inefficient products. In addition, industrial electricity charges can enjoy subsidies, which has led to most enterprises will not take the initiative to produce motors.

"If there is no subsidy policy for the industrial electricity piece, the market will update its technology a little faster, so once the industrial electricity price goes up, the popularity of motors in the market will be faster. In this piece, Europe is doing very well, in addition to electricity prices, it will also increase the carbon tax." Conrad said so.

Many potential problems

Overall, the operation of the motor is relatively slow. However, the three-level energy efficiency divided by the national standard is not limited to these three levels. IE4 and IE5 also exist among them. IE4 studies permanent magnet motors, which use permanent magnet technology. The permanent magnet technology needs to use rare earth, which is the world's export of rare earth, so it has advantages. However, most of the rare earths are used for export and have not been put into research and development.

In addition, there are still many problems and potential room for improvement in the motor market. Conrad believes that producers should upgrade in several ways.

First of all, pay attention to the production and use of frequency converters. ABB, Siemens, Wannan Electric and other enterprises are making motors and frequency converters, so that electrical appliances can use frequency converters when there is no load and reduce the burden on motors. This idea is worth learning.

Secondly, at present, 50% ~ 60% of the motors on the market are still IE1. Compared with the load, it is easy to form a big horse-drawn car. Many motors are large in scale, but in fact the load is not enough. Such operation is inefficient and cannot give full play to the energy efficiency of the motor.

Again, there is a lack of thinking about "what would happen without load control. The latter is the transmission system, including the transmission belt. For example, there are many transmission devices in a car, and the investment of power transmission in the transmission system is far greater than that of the engine. The cost savings from the use of a good conveyor can even reach 10%.

In addition, system integration and operation management also need to be paid attention. To achieve the above points, we can technically solve the embarrassing problems encountered by the motor. Not only abroad, but also can be used very well. Conrad admitted that there is still a large market for motors.