The Korea Electrotechnology Research Institute (KERI) has developed a ‘super premium’ industrial electric motor, opening up more opportunities for domestic companies to access high-performance electric motors.

The Korea Electric Power Research Institute recently announced that its Electric Power Research Center has succeeded in not only developing the efficiency of industrial electric motors (three-phase induction motors) to the “super premium level (IE4)” for the first time in Korea, but also in establishing an “open platform” that allows small and medium-sized enterprises to effectively utilize related technologies.

Industrial motors are the largest power consumers in the world. In Korea, the proportion of electric motors in total power consumption is as high as 50%. In 2018, KERI published a report stating that if the efficiency of electric motors around the world were increased by just 3%, 108 1GW nuclear power plants would not need to be built, and if converted to value, approximately 34 trillion won could be saved.

Improving the efficiency of industrial motors is the most effective means of saving energy and reducing greenhouse gases. To this end, many countries are implementing policies to phase out low-efficiency motors and mandating the use of more efficient motors, and are investing huge amounts of money in their development.

The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) classifies motors into general (IE1) - high efficiency (IE2) - premium (IE3) - super premium (IE4) - ultra premium (IE5) motors according to international efficiency standards. Korea has been taking measures to produce and sell only IE3-class motors in the industrial sector since 2018, but some advanced countries are already ahead of the curve by starting IE4-class regulations.

KERI's achievement is the development of core original technology that can upgrade the capacity of motors of 15kW or less, which account for 80% of domestic industrial motors, to IE4 level. IE3-level motors are already high enough to be called premium. To achieve a higher goal, the research team was able to develop an IE4-level motor that is 1-2%p higher in efficiency than IE3-level and can reduce energy loss by 20% through several years of research and development.

Achieving IE4 level was important not only for improving efficiency but also for reducing material costs. It is easy to achieve high efficiency with expensive materials, but we also focused on securing market competitiveness that domestic small and medium-sized companies can access. To this end, we joined hands with the best research institutes in each field. KERI and the Korea Electronics Technology Institute took part in the motor, the Korea Institute of Industrial Technology took part in the production and manufacturing process, and the Korea Institute of Materials Science took part in the material technology. Their expertise created a synergy effect, allowing us to kill two birds with one stone: high efficiency and reduced costs.

In addition, the research team also built a 'web-based open platform (URL: iexdesign.com)' to spread and apply IE4-class motors to industrial sites. In order for companies to properly use high-efficiency motors, they need a lot of R&D investment, design capabilities of skilled experts, and expensive foreign analysis programs. It was a difficult situation for small and medium-sized companies, but KERI was able to provide an open platform at a lower cost than before by utilizing the design program developed by KERI, the Korea Electronics Technology Institute, and Clue Co., Ltd. and an analysis program based on open source. The companies that worked together during the project period (2019~2022) have already seen great results, such as an average annual increase of 20% or more in sales of motors, so the technology's ripple effect is expected.

KERI’s Dr. Han Pil-wan said, “We will be able to significantly lower the entry barriers for domestic companies to IE4-class industrial high-efficiency motor technology through an open platform that provides databases on motor design, material utilization, and production processes.” He added, “Policy support and promotion are also necessary so that domestic demand companies can actively introduce IE4-class high-efficiency motors to respond to the energy crisis.”

The global industrial electric motor market will be worth $68 billion in 2023. The domestic industrial electric motor market is worth 2 billion dollars and is expected to grow at an average annual rate of 7.9%. Korea is expected to implement IE4-class electric motor regulations by 2026 to achieve carbon neutrality, and many electric motor companies are expected to grow during this period.

KERI, which has published 11 SCI(E)-level papers on technology and applied for 11 patents, aims to prepare for the needs of the times by developing IE4-level motors for medium and large capacities from 15 kW to 200 kW, and variable-speed and non-rare earth permanent magnet motors for IE5.

Meanwhile, this study was conducted as a project called 'Establishment and Operation of Next-Generation High-Efficiency (IE4) Electric Motor Open Platform' (May 2019-December 2022) supported by the 'Energy Demand Management Core Technology Development Project' hosted by the Korea Institute of Energy Technology Evaluation and Planning under the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.

Meanwhile, KERI has been conducting research to secure high-efficiency motor technology for small and medium-sized enterprises, including ‘premium-grade high-efficiency induction motors’, ‘high-efficiency induction motors according to minimum efficiency system implementation’, and ‘inverter-driven super-premium (IE4) synchronous reluctance motors’ with support from the Korea Energy Technology Evaluation and Planning Institute.