Effects of unbalance load / current of induction motor :

1. The unbalance decreases the motor efficiency by causing extra heating in the motor.
Heat generated also effect the equipment life by increasing the operating temperature,
which decompose the grease or oil in the bearing and de-rate the motor windings.

2. In induction motors connected to unbalanced supply, the negative sequence currents

flow along with positive sequence current resulting in decreased percentage of productive
current and poor motor efficiency. Any unbalance above 3% hampers the motor efficiency.

3. Torque (and thus the speed) produced by the motor becomes fluctuating. These sudden
changes in torque cause more vibration in the gear box or the equipment connected to it.
The vibration and noise produced damages the equipment and also reduces the efficiency
of equipment.

4. The variable frequency or speed drives connected to an unbalanced system can trip off.
VFD treats high level unbalances as phase fault and can trip on earth fault or missing phase
fault.

5. Unbalances cause de-rating of power cables and thus increase I2R losses in the cable.
For distribution cables de-rating factor represents the part of total current giving fruitful
outcomes.

6. UPS or inverter supplies also perform with poor efficiency and inject more harmonic
currents in case of unbalances in the system.

7. Negative phase sequence current flowing due to unbalance can cause faults in the
motor, resulting in, tripping or permanent damage of the electrical equipment.

Quantifying the losses-

An unbalance of 1% is acceptable as it doesn’t affect the cable. But above 1% it increases
linearly and at 4% the de-rating is 20%. [3] This implies that- 20% of the current flowing in the
cable will be unproductive and thus the copper losses in the cable will increase by 25% at
4% unbalance.

1. For motors, an unbalance of 5% will result in capacity reduction by 25%. That

means, the motor current will increase to match the equipment’s torque needs which
will result in proportional copper losses in motor. The voltage unbalance of 3%
increase the heating by 20% for an induction motor. [4]

2. The resistance for negative sequence current is 1/6th of the positive sequence current
which means a small unbalance in voltage waveform will give more current and thus losses.
[4]
 2. Effects on the distribution Transformer-
Transformer offers high reactance to negative phase sequence currents and thus reduces
the level of unbalance on the other side of the system.

– Ideally any distribution transformer gives best performance at 50% loading and every
electrical distribution system is designed for it. But in case of unbalance the loading goes
over 50% as the equipments draw more current.

– Following data represents the efficiency of transformer under different loading conditions-
[5]

1. Full Load- 98.1%

2. Half Load- 98.64%

3. Unbalanced loads- 96.5%

For a distribution transformer of 200KVA rating, the eddy currents accounts for 200W but in
case of 5% voltage unbalance they can rise upto 720W. [5]

. [4] That means, the motor current will increase to match the equipment’s torque needs
which will result in proportional copper losses in motor. The voltage unbalance of 3%
increase the heating by 20% for an induction motor. [4]

2. The resistance for negative sequence current is 1/6th of the positive sequence current
which means a small unbalance in voltage waveform will give more current and thus losses.
[4]

Control Measures-
1. All the single phase loads should be distributed on the three phase system such that they
put equal load on three phases.

2. Replacing the disturbing equipment’s i.e. with unbalanced three phase reactance.

3. Reducing the harmonics also reduces the unbalance, which can be done by installing
reactive or active filters. These filters reduce the negative phase sequence currents by
injecting a compensating current wave.
4. In case the disturbing loads cannot be replaced or repaired, connect them with high
voltage side this reduces the effects in terms of percentage and even controlled disturbance
in low voltage side.

5. Motors with unbalanced phase reactance should be replaced and re-winded.

To identify the exact reasons for unbalance, Zenatix recommends metering at different
loads in the distribution. Zenatix can collect high resolution data from these metering
locations and analyze it to identify the exact causes and control measures that can result in
improvement in the unbalance. Further, such detailed metering will provide data that can be
used to identify other wastages that happen in the day to day operations of a facility thus
providing further benefits of the installed solution.

Case Study-
For further clarification on the voltage and current unbalance, three phase currents of two of
the zenatix’s customers were analyzed. For the purpose of case study, we can name the
two clients as client1 & client2.

First, the readings of three phase currents were taken at the frequency of 15 minutes for a
month. Then we need to remove the readings during non-working hours too, as during such
times load current will be quite low and thus a current unbalance of only 2-3 amps can
shown very high percentage unbalance. After refining the data, percentage of unbalance
was calculated by running simulation on R-software. As all the readings mentioned are
taken at the duration of 15 minutes, we got percentage unbalance readings for the whole
month with the frequency of 15 minutes. These continuous readings were then plotted.
It is clear by only looking at the plot that for client1’s system is more balanced as compared
to client2’s. Further analysis was done for getting consolidated data on what is maximum
unbalance, what is the average unbalance and which phase is causing it.