Premium efficiency is a design standard for electric motors that aims to reduce energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions. The highest performance grade is IEC IE3, awarded to motors that exceed horsepower output expectations. Efficiency is calculated by comparing usable shaft power to electrical energy used, and expressed as a percentage. The required efficiency percentages vary based on motor power output, with higher output motors requiring higher efficiency for the IE3 award.
Premium efficiency is an engine design standard that aims to improve carbon dioxide emissions, reduce overall energy consumption, and reduce the environmental impact of electric motors. According to the world standard, a high efficiency motor is the highest performance grade, labeled as IEC IE3. This grade is awarded to those engines that exceed the highest levels of horsepower output expectations. The standard for qualifying as a high-efficiency motor runs on a sliding scale, depending on the number of kilowatts the motor produces.
When considering the efficiency of an electronic motor, the ratio of the usable shaft power of the motor is compared to the amount of electrical energy used to operate the motor. Just like a car’s gas engine, where the horsepower rating of the engine doesn’t represent the actual amount of power getting to the crankshaft to turn the wheels, no electric motor runs at 100 percent efficiency; there are always friction and transmission losses as the power moves through the engine. In electric motors, these losses arise from resistance in the coil, losses to the magnetic iron core, and losses in the slip rings and rotor bars.
Once efficiency is calculated as a ratio, it can also be expressed as a percentage. For example, an electric motor that has an efficiency ratio of 5:1 – a situation where 100 units of horsepower going into the motor will result in only 20 units of horsepower actually powering the motor – would have a 20% efficiency rating. In contrast to the standards required of a highly efficient motor, a motor producing approximately 75 kilowatts of power must meet or exceed a 95% efficiency level to be considered a highly efficient motor. This is a high enough standard to meet.
The percentages required to qualify as a high-efficiency engine are not uniform across the board; vary according to the power generated by the engine. The general rule, however, is that the higher the power output of the motor, the more efficient it must be for the quality of a highly efficient motor. While a motor producing 0 to 50 kW of power requires between 90% and 95% efficiency, a motor producing 200 kW of power requires an efficiency rating well above 95% for the Commission’s IE3 award international electrical engineering (IEC).
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