Technology Comparison of Induction Motor and Synchronous Reluctance Motor

Electric motors play an important role in global efforts to reduce energy consumption as they account for almost half of the total electrical energy usage in the world. The energy consumption of electric motors can be reduced by using more efficient motors and by applying frequency converters to feed the motors, thereby enabling accurate control according to the load. The induction motor has been - and still is - the dominant motor technology in the industry, but also more efficient motor technologies are available in the market. Considering industrial motors, the two most important competing technologies are probably permanent magnet synchronous motors and synchronous reluctance motors. This papers provides a comparison between the induction motor and synchronous reluctance motor technologies. The main differences between the two are covered and measurements are made with a frequency converter supply to compare the efficiencies over a wide operating range of 10-100% of rated torque and 10-140% of rated operating frequency.