2019 IEEE PES Innovative Smart Grid Technologies Asia
Research on the load model and characteristics of
inverter-fed motors for transient stability analysis
Baorong Zhou, Siyu Lu
Electric Power Research Institute
China Southern Power Grid
Guangzhou, China
zhoubr@csg.cn; lusy@csg.cn
Abstract—Nowadays, the applications of inverter-fed motor
(IFM) are largely increasing. Due to load characteristics of the
IFM different from that of the asynchronous motor (AM), if the
traditional load model based on AM is routinely used, it will
challenge the credibility of the analysis of system transient
stability. Therefore, this paper adopted both experimental and
digital methods to study steady-state and dynamic power
characteristics of IFM, and construct the dynamic model of
IFM. First, the widely-used IFM based on rotor-vector control is
established on MATLAB platform. An actual IFM is tested in a
self-designed physical system accordingly. Finally, the steady-
state model and the multi-stage mathematical model in dynamic
process are built for IFM. The simulation results show that the
IFM will not produce power rush after system shocks, which is
more beneficial to system voltage recovery. The proposed
dynamic load model of IFM could help the transient stability
analysis task.
Index Terms--Asynchronous motor; Inverter-fed motor; Load
model; Load power characteristics; Motor experiment
I. INTRODUCTION
The induction motor is the most common dynamic load in
power system, and it accounts for more than 90% of industrial
load [1]. Its steady-state and dynamic load characteristics have
significant influence on the operation of power system.
Frequency converter has high performance and outstanding
energy conservation characteristics, and the energy saving rate
of motor system that uses induction motor can even reach
40%~60% [2]. With the fast development of power electronic
technology, it has become more popular for the induction
motor load to adopt frequency converter for power supply [3],
[4]. According to optimistic estimation, in the next 10 years or
so, the capacity proportion of inverter-fed motor (IFM) will
increase to 70% [5], [6]. Compared to the traditional induction
motor, the induction motor that adopts the PWM frequency
converter for power supply has different load characteristics
[6], and it will also generate different influence on the
operation and control of power system.
Literatures [7] and [8] studied the influence of the load
characteristics of induction motor on the system transient
The work is supported by Key Science and Technology Project of China
Southern Power Grid (No.CSGTRCK163007) and the National Natural
Science Foundation of China (No.51577071).
978-1-7281-3520-5/19/$31.00 ©2019 IEEE
Haoqin Zhan, Fang Zhao, Zhaobin Du
School of Electric Power
South China University of Technology
Guangzhou, China
371129902@qq.com; epduzb@scut.edu.cn
voltage stability. Besides, literature [9] proposed using the
static equivalent model of induction motor in the PV curve
calculation of power system. However, at present, there are
few researches on the load model of IFM and the influence of
IFM on power system stability. In [10], according to a motor
unit, they compared the differences between IFM and
common asynchronous motor (AM) in load characteristics
during system voltage decline through simulation, and the
results show that the IFM had smaller reactive power demand
during voltage dip. In [11], they built a mathematical model of
IFM with PWM frequency converter, analyzed its steady-state
and dynamic load characteristics through simulation and
compared them with the load characteristics of traditional
induction motor, but they did not further analyze its
application as a load model in transient stability analysis. In
[7] and [12], they studied the load characteristics of IFM
online, and pointed out that the reactive power demand
increased during voltage decline. In the next step of dynamic
process, [13] conducted voltage sag experiment on single-
phase AM, and found that in the state of motor stalling, when
the voltage recovered to normal level, it will generate
extremely high active power and reactive power demand. In
[4] and [14], without considering the low-voltage protection of
frequency converter and the motor stall, they simulated the
active power and reactive power characteristics of IFM, and
pointed out that the active power and reactive power quickly
declined to 0 at the moment of voltage drop and it would
generate short active impact after voltage recovery, and they
also believed that the load of IFM is seen as constant-
impedance. In [15], they believed that the IFM may be the
parallel of induction motor and constant-power load. In
summary, so far, researchers have different ideas on the model
of IFM, and the research space for the application of IFM
model to transient stability is large.
In the future, when many IFMs are employed in the power
grid, the main component of load characteristics will change.
If traditional dynamic load model based on AM is still used, it
will generate uncertain influence on the transient stability
calculation results of power system. The load characteristics of
IFM involve both steady-state and dynamic characteristics.
The former was studied and used to build steady-state model
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first, and the latter to build the multi-stage load model for the
dynamic process of IFM and to study its influence on the
stability of power system. In this paper, for the AM with
PWM frequency converter, we built an experimental platform
to analyze its steady-state and dynamic load characteristics.
While the widely-used IFM based on rotor-vector control is
established on MATLAB platform, and comprehensive
simulations with and without low-voltage protection of IFM
were conducted to compare and analyze the results from the
experiment [16]. It has laid down the basis to explore the load
model of power system during the transient process, and to
supply available IFM model for transient voltage stability
study while using direct method in future.
II. STEADY-STATE CHARACTERISTICS AND LOAD MODELS
In this section, we analyzed the difference between IFM
and common AM in characteristics, and conducted necessary
simulations and experiments. In the experiment, the regular
three-phase AM and frequency converter were adopted to
represent the IFM. In MATLAB platform, we built an IFM
model with rotor flux vector control as shown in Fig.1, and the
parameters of three-phase AM in the model are as shown in
Table I.
converter were used. The frequency converter has the rated
power of 5.5kW, which has under-voltage and over-voltage
protection functions, and when the input voltage is lower than
0.75pu, the under-voltage protection of frequency converter
will activate and remove the AM from the power grid. The
physical system and the structure charm of experiment are as
shown in Fig.2 and Fig.3 respectively.
By adjusting the voltage setting value of power supply
within 0.75pu-1.2pu, we measured and recorded the static
characteristics (power-voltage curves) of the AM and IFM
respectively, which will be used in the later section.
Dynamometer
Asynchronous
Motor
Power
Measurement

Three-phase
TABLE I. PARAMETERS OF THREE-PHASE AM IN SIMULATION MODEL AC source Variable
Frequency
Rated voltage UN (V) 380 Stator resistance (Ω) 0.435 Drive
Rated speed nN (rpm) 1400 Rotor resistance (Ω) 0.816
Figure 2. Experimental system with AM, frequency converter,
Stator and rotor dynamometer and power measurement
Rated frequency fN (Hz) 50 2
inductance (mH)
Excitation mutual
Rotational inertia (kg·mg2) 0.19 69 Three-phase
inductance (mH)
AC source
Obtain active power/reactive
power waveforms
Breaker

Frequency converter

Three-phase Obtain torque, speed and

asynchronous motor output power waveforms

Dynamometer

Figure 1. IFM model with rotor flux vector control

Figure 3. Experimental structure charm of IFM

TABLE II. PARAMETERS OF THREE-PHASE AM ON EXPERIMENT

SYSTEM A. Static load characteristics of AM
During the experiment and simulation process, the AM
Rated power PN (kW) 2.2 Power factor cosϕ 0.85 was measured in steady-state with a frequency of 50Hz. The
Rated voltage UN (V) 380 Motor stator resistance (Ω) 1.459 voltage was regulated with the voltage regulator, and the
obtained static power-voltage curves are as shown in Fig.4 and
Rated speed nN (rpm) 2875 Motor rotor resistance (Ω) 1.589 Fig.5 respectively.
Motor stator and rotor
Rated torque TN (N⋅m) 7.3
inductance (mH)
339.8 According to Fig.4 and Fig.5, we can see that on both
experimental curve and simulation curve, when the voltage
In the experiment, the CC100KS/F dynamometer, the changed slowly, the AM kept steady-state operation, and the
YE3-90L-2 AM and the AMB100_5R5G_T3 frequency

413
active power presented small change, which was nearly
constant, and it was approximately seen as constant power
load. In comparison, the change of reactive power was more
significant, and with the voltage decline, the reactive power
presented obvious decrease.
Figure 4. Experimental power-voltage curves of AM
Figure 5. Emulational power-voltage curves of AM
B. Static load characteristics of inverter-fed motor
Figure 6. Experimental power-voltage curves of inverter-fed motor
The static power-voltage curves of IFM are as shown in
Fig.6 and Fig.7, respectively. During the experiment and
simulation process, the steady-state operation of IFM was also
maintained.
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Figure 7. Emulational power-voltage curves of inverter-fed motor
According to Fig.6 and Fig.7, we can see that when the
voltage changed slowly between 0.8pu and 1.2pu, the IFM
kept steady-state operation. Both active power and reactive
power were nearly constant, and so, they were approximately
considered as constant-power load. Noticeably, when the
voltage declined to 0.75pu, the speed had obvious change, and
the change of power is too large to use the same constant-
power pattern in higher voltage.
By comparing Fig.5 and Fig.7, we can see that when
voltage dropped and still operated in the range above 0.8pu,
the active powers of both AM and IFM increased, and this
negative characteristic will aggravate insufficiency of power at
system failure, which is not good to system recovery. When
the voltage declined from 0.8pu to the removal voltage of
frequency converter, the active power of IFM turned to
decrease. In addition, due to the effects of frequency
converter, the IFM consumes smaller reactive power. During
failure, this power characteristic of IFM is helpful to lessen the
burden of system recovery than that of AM.
Because the frequency converter has low-voltage
protection, when the voltage of power supply to frequency
converter is smaller than 0.75pu after voltage regulation, the
frequency converter will start low-voltage protection, and the
motor will be automatically removed.
C. Load models under steady-state operation
Under steady-state operation, motors can be expressed by
static load model such as power function. Because power
function needs less parameters, it has higher precision [17].
During the actual operation, the frequency of power grid
presents small fluctuations, so this static model only considers
the voltage characteristics. The static model expression [12] of
power functions are as follows:
p
P = PU
0 (1)
Q = Q0U q (2)
in which, P0 is the reference power of static load. Q0 is the
reference reactive power of static load. U is the per-unit value
of load terminal voltage. p is the voltage exponent factor of
active power. q is the voltage exponent factor of reactive
power. According to the simulation data, the parameters of
static model are given in Table III and Table IV.
 TABLE III. STATIC LOAD MODEL OF AM the input voltage went down from 0.47pu, its active power
Voltage (pu) p q Voltage (pu) p q
quickly and monotonously declined, while the reactive power
firstly increased and gradually decreased. During the voltage
0.9 -0.0610 1.3766 1.1 -0.0388 1.5971
recovery, the active and reactive powers of motor both
0.8 -0.0859 1.1907 1.2 -0.0355 1.6631 presented exponential growth, which caused power rush.

TABLE IV. STATIC LOAD MODEL OF IFM

Voltage (pu) p q Voltage (pu) p q

0.9 -0.2289 -0.7195 1.1 -0.0380 -0.0312
0.8 -0.2213 -0.7915 1.2 -0.0298 -0.2373

According to Table III and Table IV, it can be seen when

the voltage dropped to different levels, the obtained p and q
values were also different. The p values of AM and IFM were
negative and small, which indicates that when the voltage at
power grid side declined, the active powers of both motors
increased slightly, but they can still be regarded as
approximate constant-power loads. The q of AM was positive
and higher than 1, while the q of IFM was negative and small.
This is because during voltage decline, the power factor at the
Figure 9. Reactive power-voltage characteristic curves of AM
input side of frequency converter declined accordingly, and its
power compensation was weakened. At this moment, the
reactive power demand increased, and this was different from B. Dynamic load characteristics of inverter-fed motor
the load characteristic of AM. a) Low-voltage protection action
Considering the low-voltage protection function, the
III. DYNAMIC CHARACTERISTICS AND LOAD MODEL
voltage decline at power grid side will cause tripping of
In order to further study the load characteristics of AM and frequency converter. After tripping, it generally requires
IFM, we investigated the change of active and reactive powers manually restarting the IFM, so that the power is considered
of AM and IFM during the voltage drop and recovery, and as 0 after voltage recovery. In this case, the active and reactive
discussed the difference of two models in dynamic powers of IFM under various voltages are shown in Fig.10.
characteristics.

A. Dynamic load characteristics of AM

The input voltage slowly changed from 1pu to 0, and then
recovered to the rated value, and the whole process of change
lasted for 1s. The active and reactive characteristic curves of
AM are as shown in Fig.8 and Fig.9.

Figure 10. Power characteristic curves of IFM with low-voltage protection

According to Fig.10, we find that within normal operation

Figure 8. Active power-voltage characteristic curves of AM
According to Fig.8 and Fig.9, it can be seen that the AM
stalled under low voltage (around 0.47pu). When the input
voltage was higher than 0.47pu, the changes of active power
and reactive power were not salient. In this process, the AM
can be approximately regarded as constant-power load. When
scope, the active and reactive powers of IFM gradually
increased with the decline of voltage, but the change was
small, and the IFM could still be regarded as constant-power
load. When the voltage declined to around 0.8pu, it triggered
the low-voltage protection of frequency converter, and the
IFM was automatically turned off.
b) Low-voltage protection inaction

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 When the low-voltage protection of IFM malfunctioned, or
the duration when system voltage lower than the protection
setting value doesn’t reach the limit, the frequency converter
would not remove motor from the power grid. In this case, the
active and reactive powers of IFM under various voltages are
shown in Fig.11 and Fig.12.
Figure 11. Active power-voltage curves of IFM without low-voltage
protection
Figure 12. Reactive power-voltage curves of IFM without low-voltage
protection
According to Fig.11 and Fig.12, it can be seen that when
the voltage declined to 0.8pu or below, the active and reactive
powers decreased and presented nearly linear relation with the
voltage. Before the voltage increased to 0.1pu, both the active
and reactive powers of IFM were 0. Then, with the increase of
voltage, the active and reactive powers increased and then
linearly declined to 0. This reason is during the voltage
recovery process, due to the constant-torque load the IFM
inherited, the IFM didn’t recover from the stall state. The IFM
thus had lower active power and reactive power demands
compared to the AM. As for nonconstant-torque load, further
research will be conducted in future.
From the perspective of power grid, high active power and
reactive power demands will be an obstacle when the system
has just recovered from voltage failure. If the IFM is removed
at low voltages and restarts when the voltage recovers to
nominal value, the power will gradually and smoothly
increase, which will not generate high impact. In another
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situation, the low-voltage protection of IFM does not operate,
and the motor fails to recover from the stall state during
voltage recovery, the IFM has obvious lower power demand
due to the effects of frequency converter than that of AM,
which is beneficial to the system transient stability.
C. Dynamic load model
To sum up, the AM and IFM have different dynamic
characteristics, which have different states during processes of
voltage disturbance. According to different states of IFM, the
multi-stage mathematical model in dynamic process can be
built in segments. By observing Fig.11 and Fig.12, polynomial
function is preliminarily used for each stage.
During the initial phase of voltage recovery, both the
active and reactive powers of IFM were 0, and because the
duration was short, this phase can be ignored. Therefore,
during the voltage decline and recovery process, the model
can be approximately divided into four phases: Phase1,
Phase2, Phase3 and Phase4. In Phase1 (P1,Q1) and Phase4
(P4,Q4), power expressions are constants, while those are
linear functions in Phase2 (P2,Q2) and Phase3 (P3,Q3).
Actually, if the better control of IFM could produce enough
support to load, IFM may recover successfully after voltage
recovery, then the model of Phase3 and Phase4 could be
adjustable. The phase diagram is as shown in Fig.13.
U (pu)
1 (P4,Q4)
U2 (P1,Q1)
U1
(P2,Q2) (P3,Q3)
0
t (ms)
Figure 13. Section diagram of IFM load model
In which, U1 represents the stall voltage of IFM, and in
Fig.13, U 2 is the voltage mark when the power declines to 0.
Each expression of phase is as shown in Formulas (3)-(6):
 P1 = a0
 U1 ≤ U ≤ 1, U t ≤ U t −1 (3)
Q1 = b0
 P2 = a1U + a2
 0 ≤ U ≤ U1 ,U t ≤ U t −1 (4)
Q2 = b1U + b2
 P3 = a3U + a4
 0 ≤ U ≤ U 2 , U t > U t −1 (5)
Q3 = b3U + b4
 P4 = 0
 U 2 ≤ U ≤ 1，
,U t > U t −1 (6)
Q4 = 0
In which, U t and U t −1 represent the voltage of t th time
stamp and the voltage of t − 1 th time stamp.
 According to the simulation results in MATLAB
environment, we set U1 = 0.8 , U 2 = 0.9 , and the following
parameters can be obtained by MATLAB cftool:
TABLE V. PARAMETERS OF MULTI-STAGE MATHEMATICAL MODEL
a0 10.807 b0 1.4039
a1 b1
11.78 1.638
a2 0 b2 0 model, and it has laid down the basis to evaluate the stability
a3 -2.551 b3 -0.3567
a4 2.297 b4 0.2936
If the low-voltage protection action of frequency converter
is considered, then P2 = P3 = P4 = Q2 = Q3 = Q4 = 0 .
In system transient stability analysis, the analytical load
model is needed when using Lyapunov's Direct Method. The
current proposed IFM model would be potentially employed
by this kind of analysis methods although it is in terms of
piece-wise linearity. Traditional Power system plus this non-
continuous model could be considered as the Switched System
[18] and relative work on stability analysis of such systems
have been reported [19].
IV. CONCLUSION
In this paper, we analyzed and compared the load
characteristics and load model of AM and IFM. We observe
that with the decline of voltage, the active power presents
small change, which can be seen as approximate constant-
power load. When studying the load model during the
dynamic process of IFM, we found that these two motors
presented different dynamic characteristics, and the main
differences include:
• When the voltage was lower than a certain level, e.g.
0.5pu, the AM stalled and the active power quickly
declined, while the reactive power firstly increased
and then gradually decreased. As for IFM, when the
voltage declined to around 0.8pu, it triggered the low-
voltage protection of frequency converter, and the
IFM was automatically turned off, and both the active
and reactive powers became 0. If low-voltage
protection is discarded, when the voltage decreased
from 0.8pu, the power presented approximately linear
decline at a gentler slope compared to that of the AM.
• After the voltage recovery, AM and IFM suffering
constant-torque load failed to recover from the stall
state. Due to the effects of stall, the active power and
reactive power of AM both presented exponential
growth, which would cause power rush. For IFM, due
to the effects of frequency converter, the active and
reactive powers increased and then linearly declined
to 0. Actually, if the better control of IFM could
produce enough support to load, IFM may recover
successfully and the load model and characteristics
could be obtained by the same method used in this
paper.
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Compared to AM, the IFM generated small power demand
during the power recovery process, which was more beneficial
to the recovery of power grid voltage. By adopting the load
model of IFM, it could more accurately simulate the actual
operation of power grid. In this paper, we combined
experiment and simulation to verify the reliability of
simulation model, which ensured the accuracy and credibility
of simulation results. The built dynamic process of IFM was a
multi-phase load model, which has expanded current load
of power system. In the future, more accurate dynamic load
model will be built according to the load characteristics of
IFM during the transient process.
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