Sustainable, Multi-sector Electrification using Advanced Integrated Motor Drive Technologies

The world energy council has highlighted energy efficiency and renewable energies as the most prominent action priorities which would deliver the highest impact and least uncertainty to the energy trilemma (security, sustainability, accessibility). The UK Govs ambitious target to deploy low-carbon resources for 95% of the energy generation by 2030, and both on and offshore wind expected to become the backbone of electricity generation, electric generator deployment will dramatically increase together with energy and CO2 emissions associated with the increased raw material usage. In addition, electric motors consume 50% of all global energy generation and this is also bound to increase as demand from cross-sectorial electrification increases to achieve the targeted 2030 CO2 emissions reductions. The systems that these motors drive are however typically very inefficient and contribute to a significant amount of energy wasted. All applications using a rotating electrical motor or generator can benefit significantly from variable (optimal) speed operation by employing a Variable Speed Drive (VSD). VSDs utilise electronic components such as Power Semiconductor devices, arranged in a Power Converter, together with control devices such as micro controllers to generate the desired Voltage and Frequency to drive the rotating machine at the desired speed. Variable speed operation yields significant energy savings since it allows the energy delivered (speed) to be tailored and adjusted exactly to the application requirement, eliminating wastage. Despite the clear advantages however, installation costs, together with complex heavy cabling which connect the VSD to the rotating machine remain the main barriers to a much more widespread uptake of VSDs in industrial applications.

The physical combination of the power converter and the electric motor into one unit, in an integrated motor drive (IMD) solution, immediately eliminates many of the barriers to adoption. Expensive and bulky cabling and connectors are removed together with environmentally controlled cabinets/rooms for the power converter. This enables higher power density, lower costs of installation and intrinsically higher reliability due to lower part count. Moreover, a further reduction in energy consumption at the manufacturing stage is achieved with a significant, overall reduction in material usage.

By considering a multi-disciplinary approach, this program will focus on removing the technological barriers which make fully integrated motor drives the answer to the problem of achieving, more sustainable electricity generation, more efficient and lower weight industrial and transport applications and dramatically reduced CO2 emissions for manufacture.

Our ambition is to investigate and deliver innovative technological solutions that reduce energy wastage and minimise life cycle impacts: in manufacture by reducing the quantity of material used; through life by increasing electrical system efficiency and dramatically improving power to weight and power to volume ratios; at end of life by facilitating recycling through material reduction together with increased service life. Together, our innovations will result in a step increase in energy efficiency and reductions in environmental impact- accelerating the route to Net Zero and long-term sustainability.