High efficiency testing laboratory for motors, drives and generators

Conventional approaches to the testing of electric motors and drives are energy inefficient and inflexible. This paper describes the development of a new laboratory that combines modern technologies to provide a highly flexible and adaptable test platform and dynamometer. The laboratory can test generators in addition to motors and drives in both conventional steady-state and dynamic modes and can provide locked-rotor conditions by electrical rather than mechanical means. In order to achieve appropriate accuracies, several sets of transducers are employed. The electrical service to the laboratory needs only supply the inherent losses of the motor system under test and the dynamometer.