Large Motor Starting 101:

Discover the Constraints

April 5, 2018 | 20804 views
3 min read | Delcho Penkov

Motor starting is a hot topic for many of us, and I had an opportunity to verify this at the
last PCIC Oil & Gas conference  during the presentation of the tutorial for large motor starting.
So, in a series of 3 blog posts I will discuss the constraints for large motor starting, the various
motor applications, and their relation to motor starting methods, and discuss how it influences
the motor feeder, according to the 5 steps for efficient motor management . As you can guess,
our topic not only concerns the oil and gas industry  but also mining and water industries,
where large motors are widely used.

A failure in large motor starting can take down an entire electrical installation. It can lead to
motor overheating, excessive mechanical stress, disconnection of parallel loads, and even loss
of the synchronism of generators. Of course, this is a rare occurrence and motor starting is
usually problem free.

What makes motor starting so special?

First, an important reason is that the current, hence the power drawn from the system during
the start, can be 5-7 times the motor rated power. This means that compared to other “normal”
loads, starting a motor will multiply its power by a factor that may put the installation in a
critical situation if not considered early in the design. This can also have an economic
consequence because excessive reactive power demand and low power factor can lead to
penalties from electric utilities.

The next figure presents a typical case of critical motor starting where the motor leads to an
almost 20% voltage drop. Due to the voltage drop, the starting current of the motor is also
reduced by % of its expected value and is ~4.2 times the rated motor current.
In this case parallel motors suffer a reduced torque, which in some cases may lead to
instability.

In practice, the maximum allowed voltage drop is around 15%, and undervoltage  protection
relays are usually set to trip for values above 20%.

But not only the electrical system is affected during the start.

A second consequence of motor starting is rotor heating. During the starting, the thermal
exchange of the rotor with the stator and cooling system is very low. The thermal losses in the
rotor are not evacuated and there is an accumulation of heating that can causes the rotor to
reach temperatures as high as 500°C. The consequences of repetitive thermal stress are the
deterioration of the electrical insulation of the rotor, which later will lead to internal faults, or
even an unbalance of the rotor magnetic field and vibrations. Therefore, protection relays
evaluate the prospective heating of the motor at finished start and motor starting is not allowed
if the motor will get overheated. Usually the objective is to maintain the motor below 90%
heating. Depending on the starting method and the motor and application parameters, heating
during start can be 40-90%.

Mechanical stress is the third consequence of the motor start. It is generated by the torque
applied to the motor shaft at the beginning of the starting. The higher the value and the higher
is this stress. Depending on the starting solution there could be oscillations increasing the
overall impact of the start.

For that reason, frequently started motors will typically use progressive starting solutions
where the oscillations will be reduced or eliminated and the torque will be controlled and
smoothly increased.

Don’t miss the second post of this blog series to learn more. I will discuss motor applications,
their characteristics, and their relationship with motor starting methods.

You can find more information about motor starting in the 2017 PCIC Conference  tutorial
here.