2016 the 4th IEEE International Conference on Smart Energy Grid Engineering

Analysis of Elevator Drives Energy Consumptions with Permanent Magnet

Machines

Anand R. M. Mahesh
Research and Development Faculty of Electrical Engineering
Otis Elevator Company India Limited People Education Society Institute of Technology
Bangalore, India Bangalore, India
e-mail: [email protected] e-mail: [email protected]

Abstract—This paper examines the energy consumption of the the torque and frequency is varied in order to adjust the
electric drives and permanent magnet machines considering speed. Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) control is used for
the actual system performance of machine and variable speed varying the voltage.
drive. Most common solution in the current trend of elevator Elevators, which are driven by gearless machines, have
technology is permanent magnet synchronous motor with recently gained more admiration. Technology of gearless
variable frequency drive with direct current voltage bus elevator is the one, which requires a low speed and high
intermediate. Energy consumption has been understand with torque permanent magnet motor that eliminates the gear box.
actual measurements and examine the behavior to understand Gearless modular technology provides superior efficiency,
the load on the system that would be higher efficient.
compact design, and environment friendliness. Needless to
Keywords-vertical transportation; elevators; permanent
say some prominent features such as light weight, low noise,
magnet synchronous machine; adjustable speed drive; elevator energy efficiency, ease of installation and maintenance [1],
industry; quality; safety; reliability; robustness in addition direct driven elevators having advantage of oil
free with not as much of work for sustaining it operational.
I. INTRODUCTION Modern gearless elevator drive systems have ability to
In every building taller than two stories and above, the control speed and other parameters of motion like
regulations will require you to provide elevator due to the acceleration, jerk [2]. Also techniques for indirect vector-
requirement for the physically handicapped people for being control of induction motor provide possibility for efficiency
independent in the society, reason is because of wheelchair optimization [3],[4]. In an medium sized buildings generally,
access laws, elevators are often a legal requirement in new which are less than 10 floors passenger elevator carries a
multilevel buildings, especially where wheelchair ramps load of 340kg to 884kg at a speed of 0.5m/s to 1m/s, 3kW to
would be impractical to construct and build. In the current 8kW would the capacity of the motors required to be adopted
generations where the sky scrapers are more in urban along with the shaft speed generally less than 150 RPM. Higher
with multistory buildings are becoming trends in rural capacity and higher speed elevators would require higher
districts, places especially in developing country like India, it rating of the motors generally can go up to 500kW[5].
becomes essential for educating the people about the safeties, The Fig. 1 represents the gearless machine, which is
basics of the elevator technology and energy scenario. adopted by several elevator industries; the identical sample
Also there are rapid changes in the technology where machine is validated for proposed prototype case study
people value more for time, comfort and want to reach analysis. The proposed machine will be integrated in the
destination earlier which indeed has created lot of research in system test prototype elevator in one of the test hoist way.
the elevator technology especially for the speed of the
elevators, multiple elevators in single shaft, higher capacity
elevators, rope less elevators, steel belt elevators and so on.
The current scenario is such that it has been evident not
very luxury to have an elevator at home, in lieu of all the
demands the electrical energy situation in India is not very
prominent, we should be aware of the situation and
understand the basics of the elevator technically and practice
the best methodology to save energy.
Generally, all type of lift controllers is using ACVVVF
(AC Variable Voltage Variable Frequency) control. Using
ACVVVF control energy can be saved up to 50%. In VVVF Figure 1. Gearless machine of elevators.
control, voltage is varied in accordance with frequency in
order to control the motor torque and speed. The voltage is The elevator system integration which is generally used
varied in such a way that voltage and frequency ratio (V/f) is represented in Fig. 2.
ratio should be constant. Voltage is varied in order to control

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 by pole-changing, brake stopping etc. This latest technology
has achieved to develop by adopting electronic controlled
system composed of semiconductors such as integrated
circuits, transistors & insulated gate bipolar transistors. It
provides a very high operational efficiency with perfectly
smooth riding, reliable & accurate levelling. It has a speed
feedback device, which will monitor the whole distance
travel of this ac induction motor or a permanent magnet
synchronous machine.
Using alternating current three phase motor as drive is
cheap and relatively easy to control. However, certain
building operation requires very high leveling accuracy,
where then the direct current motor drive using the ward
Leonard method of control is employed. The demerits
situation is the high capital cost and troublesome
maintenance of commutators and brakes.
The hoisting motor in the elevator applications is usually
 driven by ACVVVF converter with intermediate direct
Figure 2. Block diagram of elevator system. current link using an encoder as a feedback to control the
speed, torque and various other parameters for the ride
A. Counter Weight comfort to the end users. [5], [7].
A tracked weight that is suspended from cables and The fundamental frequency ‘f’ of the power electronic
moves within its own set of guide rails along the hoist way converter is given by the required speed in revolution per
walls. This counterweight will be equal to the dead weight of minute (RPM) of the synchronous motor and its number of
the car plus about 50% of the rated load. poles,
Elevator Car 120 .
A heavy steel frame surrounding a cage of metal and N = (1)
P
wood panels. The top of the car frame is called the So, Nsv f
“crosshead”. Roped elevators are usually suspended from the evI
crosshead. The bottom of the frame is usually referred to as where,
the “safety plank
Major components of the elevator has been discussed for Ns = Synchronous speed,
understanding the terminologies, now we will have a brief
introduction of the energy guidelines that is the total energy = Supply Frequency,
consumption over the entire life cycle of the elevator P = Number of Poles,
includes the energy to manufacture, install, operate and
finally dispose of the elevators. Managing urban energy use e = Electro Magnetic Force (EMF) generated,
is an important task for sustainable socio-economic I = Magnetic Flux.
development in the face of rapid urbanization globally [6]. Permanent magnet motors having lesser number of poles,
However for the purpose of the standardization and designed for a higher speed outputs, this can be operated at
utilization we would consider only the performance of the low speeds if the supplied frequency is low, as long as
operating energy in the elevators. mechanical system coupling and shaft of the machine can
II. ELEVATOR TOPOLOGY operate with higher torque. However, this solution is not
efficient since the supplied frequency gets much lower than
There are basically two different classifications with the rated frequency range of the converter. With a low
respect to the motion control of the elevators, which are frequency, the transistors have to be over-dimensional to
generally named ACVVVF and a non ACVVVF. The main withstand the thermal vibrations. Therefore, machine with
difference between an ACVVVF and a non ACVVVF are higher poles are preferable reason being the supplied
the control system and traction machines. The traction motor synchronous frequency is around 50 Hz.
commonly used for standard lift is the two speed alternating With the induction machines, the power factor drops with
current induction motor. It is designed to have two higher number of poles due to an increased leakage
completely independent windings on a common stator core. inductance [8]. Therefore the induction machines are not
Each winding has a different number of poles per phase as to suitable for the low speed direct drive applications. On the
product a rotating magnetic field having different contrary the, the power factor of the permanent magnet
synchronous revolutions per minute. With the advent of machines is not affected by the change in the number of
microprocessors and microcomputer introduced the poles. Therefore permanent magnet machines can be
ACVVVF lift system for public housing, which dissolved the generally adopted for low speed applications and these are
demerits of two speed system via uncomfortable ride caused getting more applicability in the elevator technologies.

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 III. EQUATIONS TABLE I. ELEVATOR MOTOR DETIALS

The motors used in the machine of an elevator system Particulars Machine

Motor Rating 3.5 kW
depends on the duty load, generally duty load denoted by Q
Motor Rated Torque 210 Nm
and is given by, Motor Rated Current 6.5 A
Motor Supply Frequency 8.4 Hz
2.T Duty Load 408 kg
Q= (2)
9.81.R.Overbalance % Rope Diameter 0.008 m
Safety Type Progressive
where, Speed 0.7 m/s
T = Torque in Nm Supply Voltage 415 V
R = Radius of traction sheave in meters Nominal Voltage 400 V
Traction Method 2:1
The equations are mentioned are for the power Number of Stops 8
consumptions [9],
We would look into the actual behavior of the elevator in
S = U. I (3) the various loads in this section, here we are more focused in
the practical application and efficiency of the system with
S 2 = P 2 + Q2 (4) respect to the energy consumption, the case study has been
considered in real time results of the system actual
Also, performance.
The sample elevator data for energy consumption is
P = U. I CosI measured while empty cabin is travelling up and down for
are specified in table 1 above, when the elevator car travels
Q = U. I SinI in down direction the machine is working in the motoring
regime. When the elevator is travelling up the machine
where, works in the generator regime, the maximum out of balance
S: Apparent Power torque is when the full load car travels up or the empty car
P: Active Power travelling down from the top landing. The machine when in
Q: Reactive Power the generator regime, the generated power is generally
U: Effective value of the Line voltage dissipated in the form of heat through dynamic braking
I: Effective value of the line current. resistors.
: Phase angle between current and voltage. The data once triggered can continiously capture the
For Elevator drives the load supplied are always non- wave form and later the same is analysed. The cycle readings
linear, the presence of distortion power is inevitable and is from the terminal landings. The initial start was carried out
should be considered, the system would be more complex when the elevator was at the bottom most landing, the car
and power equations for non-sinusoidal as per IEEE 1459- acceleration rate was 0.3 m/s2 for a period of 5.5 s untill it
2000. reaches the normal rated speed. Then it travels in the rated
speed for a period of 30 s later it starts decelration at a rate of
IV. MEASUREMENT FOR THE ENERGY
0.508 m/s2 for a period of 6.9 s untill it reaches the terminal
Energy measurements was conducted on elevator system top landing. Travelling from bottom to top and vice versa
of permanent magnet synchronous machine (PMSM) with have the same travelling diagram.
ACVVVF, the sample elevator and hoist motor data
specification of the system integration are listed represents in V. RESULTS
table 1 for machine which are tested in real time, this sample The analysis of the sample recorded for machine has
which has been tested actually in the physical shaft with been represents in Fig.s 4-5, these wave forms represents
results are validated, the readings with actual system current and speed reference along with the time representing
measurement recorded in real time to analyze the machine, in x-axis The elevator has accelerated with a constant rate of
Typically represents Fig. 3 represents the capturing of the 0.3m/s2, as the speed increases the demand of the power
data from the inverter to the operator. The Sampling analysis incresases, the current has increased proportionally against
was captured out accordingly with readings and wave forms the increase in the speed for the whole period of the
are recorded with drive wizard plus application oscilloscope acceleration current has linear trend to attain a maximum
along with lap top. value of 7.9 A, for machine when travelling in down
direction from the top landing, also there was an observation
of voltage drop of 2.9 V to 3.2 V during this regime.
We should clearly understand that the typical mechanical
system was tested with sample in test shaft. Just after the
constant normal speed attained by the elevator the running
current was 5.4 A, which eases the power demand from the
Figure 3. Simple block representation of measurement system.
source indicating the effectiveness of the PMSM. The

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amount of the energy consumed is with minimum losses due very shorter duration and would have very minimum effect
to the inherient performance of the PMSM where the total on the system performance. The THD was less than 4.3% for
harmonic distortion (THD) which reaches the peak is for a one cycle of operation.


Figure 4. Current and speed reference of machine from bottom to top landing.


Figure 5. Current and speed reference of machine from top to bottom landing.

The table 2 emphasises the detials operating efficiency of

the proto machine and the total dynamic regime analysis and
behaviour has be carried out for achieving energy efficient
performance to the end user.
TABLE II. ELEVATOR MOTOR MEASURED DETIALS

%age of
Torque Speed Voltage Current
Load Efficiency
(Nm) (RPM) (V) (I)
(kg)
25 53 84 228 1.7 80.34% 
Figure 6. Graphicsal representation of load and current of the system.
50 107 84 258 3.4 74.68%
75 161 84 333 5.0 61.65%
100 215 84 356 6.5 54.0%
125 268 84 391 8.1 45.63%

Graph represented in Fig.6 was captured for load v/s

current of the actual consumptions with proto machine
sample on the system with different loading,
Graph represented in Fig.7 was captured for load v/s
voltage by proto machine sample on the system with
different loading.
Graph represented in Fig.8 was calculated for load v/s
efficiency by proto machine sample on the system with

Figure 7. Graphical representation of load and voltage of the system.
different loading,

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