Unbalanced voltages impacts on the energy performance of induction motors

Abstract

This paper presents the results of a study about the effects of unbalanced voltages on the energy performance of three-phase induction motors. The principal contribution of this paper is that presents a detailed analysis of the influence of positive and negative sequence voltage components and the angle between them on several characteristics such as: line currents, losses, efficiency and power factor under different voltage unbalanced conditions. A three-phase induction motor of 3 HP was used as a case study. The results of the investigation show that the positive sequence voltage must be considered together with the voltage unbalance factor (VUF) or percent voltage unbalance (PVU) index to evaluate the performance of the induction motor. It is also shown that the behavior of the motor load influences on the positive sequence parameters next to the voltage, while in the case of negative sequence only influences the negative sequence voltage.