Review on the Development of Motor Energy Efficiency Evaluation Standards in Recent 10 Years

The test standards issued by the International Electrotechnical Commission IEC (hereinafter referred to as IEC) make it possible to evaluate the energy efficiency of motors. In the past 10 years, the motor market has developed rapidly, the international motor production level 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. This 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 international standards were uniformly promulgated by IEC, and the classification of IE1, IE2, and IE3 established a unified standard for the evaluation of international motor energy efficiency. However, the development of each country is different, and there are some inevitable problems in the evaluation of unified standards.

ConradU Bruner, chairman of the international energy efficiency organization "topten Energy Conservation Center", told the reporter of "China Economy and Information Technology" that in addition to the IEC standard, each country is formulating its own mandatory energy efficiency standard, which is uniformly called "MEPS".

“MEPS”

MinimumEnergyPerformanceStandards, low energy efficiency standards. In the past five years, many countries have adopted the model of low energy efficiency standards. "At present, there are two or three such organizations in the world, including the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Australia is the first representative, and Europe and China are typical. European standards were formulated in 2009 and implemented in 2011, while Chinese standards were formulated at about the same time.

The "IEC MEPS" standard constitutes the entire international motor energy efficiency test standard system. Under this standard, each country continuously studies the motor energy efficiency in its own field. But the implementation of this system also encountered a lot of 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 with governments of various countries, and then classified into grades; second, testing and certification. Users who buy a motor from the market need to 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. Other countries have done little more or less. Among them, there is only a registration link in the United States, but no inspection. Only when there is a report, the government will come out to monitor. In Europe, three steps have not been taken.

China's implementation is relatively complex, and there is no post-penalty for low energy efficiency standards. Now China is also making some legislative amendments to punish these non-energy-saving manufacturers. However, at the beginning, there was no laboratory that could do monitoring, and there was no similar international recognition standard, so China did not have its own testing and supervision mechanism at that time. But with the motor is included in the implementation of energy efficiency standards, China's measures have 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.

There are also obstacles to the current international transformation, and some companies 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. The first is the low energy efficiency standard "meps", the government's mandatory requirement, the second is the financial support for the production of motors, the third is capacity building, soft power improvement, through learning to use new software tools to do some specific calculations, through some products and standards and other soft things to stimulate the market. Conrad pointed out that China's low energy efficiency standards are already in use, tax policy program stimulus has also begun to implement, but the soft power is still relatively weak.

Not only the soft power is weak, but most of the motor users in our country lack the initiative. How to let the users buy the motor independently has become a big problem. For this, in some developed countries, the new international 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 in China is largely due to the high price of motors, and 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 in China. However, due to the late start, they have stopped at IE1 in the past 30 years, and 50% of Chinese enterprises are still making inefficient products. In addition, industrial electricity charges can enjoy subsidies, which has led to the majority of Chinese enterprises will not take the initiative to produce motors.

"If there is no subsidy policy for the industrial electricity piece, the technology update in the Chinese market will be a little faster, so once industrial electricity prices go up, the popularity of motors in China will be faster. On 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, China's motor operation is relatively slow. However, the three-level energy efficiency divided by international standards is not limited to these three levels. IE4 and IE5 also exist among them. IE4 studies permanent magnet motors, which use permanent magnet technology. And permanent magnet technology needs to use rare earth, China is the world's export of rare earth more countries, so have an advantage. However, most of China's rare earths are exported and not 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 in foreign countries, but also in China can be very good use. Conrad admitted that there is still a big market for Chinese motors.

(This article source international motor exhibition)