Coordination and Alignment of IEC and ISO Standards for Energy-Efficient Electric Motor-Driven Systems: From CAISEMS to IEC and ISO JAG 22

Electric motor-driven systems (EMDS) are responsible for approximately 53% of global electricity consumption (IEA 2017). Optimal interaction of the respective components toward an integrated system is a prerequisite for large energy savings in operation. The design of components, their sizing and selection, and their match to form an optimal system, together with well-controlled operation, need a series of aligned agreements. In 2019, the IEC Advisory Committee on Energy Efficiency (ACEE) launched with its Task Group 6 the CAISEMS project. It tries to apply the principles of systems’ approach in EMDS as outlined in the IEC ACEE Guides 118 and 119 through the instrument of Basic and Group Publications, promoting the collaboration of involved Technical Committees (TCs) to improve the overall energy efficiency of the entire EMDS. About ten different IEC and ISO TCs cover the components of an EMDS, such as controllers and switchgear, converters, motors, belts and pulleys, gears, and the eventual application in pumps, fans, and compressors, etc. The match of all these components at full load and any other load requires a clear strategy of testing, calculation, and interpolation methods, as well as proper guidelines for sizing of the multiple components. To avoid multiple testing and certification efforts for the manufacturers, a common approach with an integrated alignment and coordination of all these performance aspects is needed. Where, for example, for fans, the system performance can be determined accurately using ISO 5801, a calculation from component parts can result in significant variations. Aligning the component standards for fans to wire-to-air standards and equally for pumps to wire-to-water standards needs to include all the losses that occur when components come together as a system. A first survey of some 37 standards for IEC and ISO energy-efficiency publications in EMDS shows the status quo of standardization and the open needs for further clarification and coordination. This coordination effort will benefit the manufactures of individual components, the system integrator, the industrial user as well as the government regulator, and the market surveillance authority. The launch of the CAISEMS project with the above-mentioned stakeholders took place as side event of EEMODS’19 in September 2019 in Tokyo at JEMA headquarters. In October 2021, the CAISEMS project group has converted into an official IEC and ISO Joint Advisory Group, including at the outset IEC TC 2 (motors), IEC TC 22 (converters), and ISO TC 117 (fans). This newly formed IEC and ISO JAG 22 has started to work on the path toward a widely accepted guideline for well-coordinated and energy-efficient EMDS. The IEC ACEE has lent itself as the platform between these and other interested TCs that will want to join JAG 22 to organize what eventually might evolve toward a Basic Standard for the horizontal energy-efficiency aspects of many kinds of different EMDS. In this article, we describe the major societal, political, labor market, economic, and environmental trends that provide the context for the digitalization possibilities and barriers of EMDS systems.