STARTING: The starting current drawn by an induction motor is about 6-8 times of its rated value

yet develops only 2-3 times of its full load torque. It happened due to poor starting pf owing to
maximum standstill rotor reactance. The lower starting torque is not sufficient to speed up the motor
quickly to rated speed. This prolonged the starting period, therefore larger input current flows for
longer time period. It causes

(1) Overheating of the machine which reduces its useful life due to waning of insulation.
(2) Voltage sag in the distribution feeder which may have serious consequences from the view
point of the supply system.

To limit the starting current of induction motors is therefore essential. This could be achieved with
the help of some suitable starter. In practice, no IM is permitted without starter if its rating is more
than certain specified value which may be as low as 3h.p.

Starting of Cage Motors: The cage machines, the rotor circuit provides short-circuit so no device
can be connected to it for performance enhancement. Though the starting torque developed by IM
is poor and it is squarely proportional to stator supply voltage, the limiting of starting current is
mandatory. Hence the stator supply voltage of the cage motors must be reduced during starting to
limit starting current. It should be noted that the reduced stator supply voltage directly affects the
magnetic conditions of the IM, therefore it should not be reduced too much and the cage motor
should preferably under no load or loaded lightly at standstill.

Direct-on-Line (DOL) Starting: There are three types of IM starters to control the stator supply
voltage i.e., stator rheostat, autotransformer and the star-delta switch. The performance of these
three starters can be compared on the basis of DOL starting, i.e. while motor is started with rated
supply voltage. Let,

Tn = kIn2/sn Rated torque

Tsc = kIsc2 DOL starting torque
Ts = kIs2 Starting torque through starter
If the stator voltage is reduced by the factor x then

Is = xIsc
Ts = x2 Tsc
Therefore, when stator voltage is reduced by the factor x, the stator current and motor torque are
reduced by the factor of x and x2 respectively as compared to DOL starting.

Note that

Tsc / Tn = sn (Isc / In)2

For DOL current to be 6 times of rated value and with rated slip of 0.06, Tsc is just about twice of Tn.

Ts /Tn = sn (Is / In)2= x2 sn (Isc / In)2 = x2 Tsc / Tn

For x to be 0.7, Ts is just about equal to Tn.

Stator rheostat starter: The stator supply voltage can be reduced by dropping its some % across
stator rheostat as shown in Fig. . If V be the rated stator voltage and xV is the voltage subjected to
each stator phase then

Motor current Is = xIsc

Line current IL = xIsc
Motor torque Ts = x2Tsc
This starter is suitable only for very small rating motors as it is highly inefficient, sufficient heat loss occur in this starter.

Autotransformer starter: To enhance efficiency of stator starters, it will be better if the stator
voltage is reduced by transformation rather by dropping across stator resistor. Autotransformers are
economical than two winding transformers as x<3. A reduced voltage can be given to each stator
phase by autotransformer of suitable kVA rating. The motor and line currents can be estimated by
Fig. , assuming the autotransformer to be ideal one.

Motor current Is = xIsc

Line current IL = x2Isc
Motor torque Ts = x2Tsc
Thus, a great reduction in line current is achieved using autotransformer starter. The
autotransformers are capital intensive therefore are recommended for IM of ratings more than 100
hp.

Star-delta switch: For moderate rating motors the autotransformer starters are found to be
uneconomical. The star-delta switch is quite cheap yet its performance is comparable with
autotransformer starters thus make them suitable for the IM ranging from 5-100 hp. This starter acts
merely as a switch which connects all the stator phases temporarily in star during starting period.
As the motor acquires rated speed, it once again reconnects them in delta configuration by manual
or automatic control. In fact, the performance of star-delta switch is identical to that with
autotransformer starting having tapping of 1/√3 as described below

Motor current Is = 1/√3 Isc

Line current IL = 1/3 Isc
Motor torque Ts = 1/3 Tsc
The star-delta switch can be used only for those IM where (i) starter phases are not permanently
connected in either star or delta and (ii) stator phases must be connected in delta for normal
operation. The star-delta switch has a serious drawback that it fails to start the motor when the
supply voltage is already too less.
Starting of slip-ring motors

Fig. Starting of slip-ring induction motors

The slip-ring motors have to start against heavy load conditions and as such, unlike cage motors,
the starting current can never be limited by applying reduced voltages across their stator terminals.
However, the starting current of slip-ring motors can be reduced by introducing some external
resistance of suitable value in rotor circuit with the help of a three-phase gang-operated star
connected rheostat. The added external resistance to each rotor phase not only limits the starting
current within safe limits but it also improves the power factor of the motor during starting period.
It is a fact that as the external rotor resistance is inserted, the slip corresponding to maximum torque
sm increases, however, the maximum torque Tm remains unaltered. The variation of torque-slip
characteristic with external rotor resistance is shown in Fig. At standstill, a critical value of external
resistance rc may produce maximum torque. The value of rc is (x2’-r2’). As the motor speeded up,
the external resistance is gradually cut out in such a way that the IM develops almost maximum
torque till its speed becomes close to the rated one. If the external resistance inserted is higher than
the critical value, the starting torque becomes less than Tm. The thick line show how the motor is
quickly speeded up from standstill and then operate stable at the operating point P while maintaining
almost maximum torque during the starting period. Therefore slip-ring motors can be used against
heavy starting loading applications. Rotor rheostat is an integral part of slip-ring motors so that they
can have smooth starting against heavy load conditions. The starting efficiency of the method poor
as significant heat loss occurred through rotor rheostat.

Speed control
The IM are inherently constant speed drives. Their speed regulation is just about 6-8%. Owing to
their intense popularity in industry, different methods have been developed to make them as variable
speed drives in order to meet some specific industrial applications. The speed of cage induction
motors can be controlled from stator side whereas that of slip-ring motors is controlled from the
rotor side.
The speed of an induction motor is a direct function of stator supply frequency and number of pair
of poles as is given by
n = (1-s)f/p
However, any variation in speed also varies torque of the motor as per the torque-slip characteristic.
Conversely, the speed of the motor can be controlled by varying torque.
Recalling, the maximum torque
Tm= KT /2 = 3V12/2ωsx2‘=3V12/4πnsx2‘= pV12/4πfx2‘
and the torque
T = KT.sα /(α 2+s2) = (pV12/4πfx2‘).sα /(α 2+s2), where α = r2‘/x2‘
Therefore, the torque and thereby the speed of an induction motor, in general, can be controlled
by varying the number of stator poles p, stator supply voltage V1, supply frequency f and rotor
resistance r2‘. The rotor reactance control is not possible as its minimum possible value of x2‘is
highly desirable while considering performance of the motor. Further, it should be noted that
the slip corresponding to maximum torque is given by
sm = r2’/kf
From the aforementioned discussion, the dependency of Tm, sm and n on various speed controlling
parameters of the induction motor can be summarised as below for a ready reference.
V1 f p r2 ’
Tm direct inverse direct independent
sm independent inverse independent direct
n independent direct inverse independent

Some typical methods of speed control are presented as below:

Speed control from stator Speed control from rotor
Stator pole changing Rotor rheostat control
Stator voltage control EMF injection method
Stator frequency control
Stator constant v/f control
Stator pole changing
The cage rotor possesses a typical characteristic that it adopts as many poles as that produced by the
stator winding. If the stator winding has been wound on consequent pole principle where the number
of poles may be changed in the ratio of 2:1, as shown in Fig. Fig. (a) symbolically shows two coils
a-aa and b-bb for the same stator phase where each of them carries same current in the same
direction. The flux pattern causes the production of consequent stator poles N-S-N-S. This is low
speed connection. Instead, the current through the coil b-bb is reversed using controller as shown
in Fig. (b), the number of stator poles produced are halved. This is high speed connection. With two
such independent stator windings, as many as four different synchronous speeds can be obtained in
a cage motor. Alternatively, four different synchronous speeds may also be possible with one stator
winding by series parallel connections of their equal halves with circulating currents in same or
opposite direction. Further, if the stator phases are connected in Δ or Y configuration will leads to
two different speeds. Therefore with only one stator winding, the cage motors may be run at different
eight speeds.

Fig. Principle of pole changing

Stator voltage control

The induction motors are operated very close to saturation to extract optimal output. If the stator
voltage increases beyond the rated value, the motor pulls into saturation. In the saturated region
there is no significant increase in machine flux while its magnetising current increases. This in turn
decreases the power factor and thus both the output and efficiency will suffer. However, if the stator
voltage decreased the flux decreases and a new operating point sets towards the linear range of B-
H curve. Since maximum torque Tm is squarely proportional to stator supply voltage whereas sm is
independent of the same, any alteration in stator supply voltage would affect Tm, but sm remains
unchanged. A set of torque-slip characteristic at reduced stator supply voltage is shown in Fig. It
can be observed from the figure that a new operating point is obtained by the intersection of load
characteristic and torque-slip characteristic and the corresponding new slip gives reduced speed.
Hence the speeds below the base speed are possible by stator voltage control. It should be noted that
the stator voltage should not be decreased below a certain threshold limit decided by loading of the
machine. It can be observed from the figure that very limited speed control is possible using this
method. However, this type of speed control is suitable only for fan-type loading.

Fig. Effect of stator supply voltage on T-s characteristic

Stator frequency control

Fig. Effect of stator supply frequency on T-s characteristic

The effect of varying stator frequency is opposite to the effect of varying stator voltage. Since stator
supply voltage V1 is kØmf. Any decrease in frequency tends to increase the flux for the given V1. The
increased flux may saturate core. Therefore, the speed of the motor can be controlled with increased
supply frequency in order to obtain the speeds above the base speed. However, it should be noted
that Tm is inversely proportional to square of the supply frequency thus certain limited variation in
supply frequency are permissible as it directly alters the synchronous speed of the motor. Moreover,
sm decreases with the increased supply frequency as it is inversely proportional to supply frequency.
Therefore, increased stator supply frequency results in reduced torque, increased speed and
decreased sm. torque-slip characteristic with increased stator supply voltage is presented in Fig. The
upper limit of supply frequency is governed by increased core loss and increase in standstill rotor
reactance which hampers running performance of the motor.

Constant V/f control

Fig. Effect of constant V/f input to stator on T-s characteristic

Either stator supply voltage or frequency control is not provide adequate speed control of cage
induction motors due to variation in magnetic conditions. A wider speed regulation could be
achieved if the magnetic conditions remain unaltered. Interestingly, the magnetic flux of an
induction motor remains unchanged if the both stator supply voltage and frequency are
simultaneously increased or decreased by the same factor, i.e. the motor is subjected to constant v/f
supply to stator. Using suitable thyristor-based control circuits a constant v/f can be easily managed.
In this control Tm remains unaltered as it is proportional to square of v/f, but sm changes on account
of variation in supply frequency. Any variation in supply frequency varies synchronous speed of the
air-gap flux, however, the magnitude of this flux which is being proportional to v/f does not changes
at all. Eventually, the motor cannot distinguish such variations in the stator supply voltage and
frequency. Therefore, motor speeds above the base speed are possible with higher values of supply
frequency and vice-versa. The set of torque-slip characteristics obtained using this speed control is
presented in Fig. It can be observed from the figure that a wider speed regulation is possible than
other methods of speed controls.

Rotor rheostat control

The rotor rheostat used for starting of slip-ring motors can also be acts as a speed controller. The
intersection of the torque-slip characteristic (stable region) for the given rotor resistance with the
load torque characteristic determines the motor speed. It can be observed from the figure that speed
decreases as one increases external rotor resistance and vice-versa. The method is a highly energy
inefficient rotor as the rated current that flows through external resistors causes significant joules
heating. Moreover, the method does not provide a good speed regulation. However, it is preferred
for medium-rated motors, as no fixed cost is associated with this speed control. The external rotor
rheostat is an integral part of slip ring motors. A good speed regulation is not obtained as depicted
in Fig.
Fig. Speed control using rotor rheostat control