Trends in Energy-Efficiency Standards and Regulations for Electric Drive Systems

Energy efficiency is identified by the United Nations as the key factor for strengthening the energy security, protecting the environment, as well as contributing on sustainable development goals. Within this context, IEC via standardization enables technology transfer and promotes different efficiency solutions and services in a global level. It is the IEC Standards that provide the basis for testing, certification, and measurement of efficiency of energy using/relating products; this is also applied to electric drive/motor systems. Energy-efficiency improvement is supported through a systematic selection of the most efficient converter and drive system technology via the IEC 61800-9 series. In parallel, the recently published regulation EU 2019/1781 refers to minimum efficiency requirements for the direct-on-line motors and variable speed drives, namely, frequency converters. This chapter addresses the trends in eco-design standards for drive system components and focuses on the innovative points to be included in the forthcoming edition of the IEC 61800-9-2. Especially, the scope of IEC 61800-9-2 is updated by providing the efficiency evaluation and classification of frequency converters with extended functionalities in respect to the reference complete drive module. Correction factors are introduced to adapt the reference system losses rather than new models. Completing all recent activities in eco-design standardization, the recently published IEC 60034-2-3 is discussed that specifies loss determination methods for converter-fed AC motors.