Unmatched Partial Load Efficiency
Enabling Feature: BWP’s Proprietary Air Core
Design Advantage: Unmatched Partial Load Efficiency
Economic Benefit: Higher Energy Production
The BWP design eliminates the mechanical losses associated with a gearbox, while leveraging the higher efficiencies at lower operating speeds enabled by permanent magnet rotor excitation. In addition to these advantages common to all PMDD generators, the BWP stator losses are limited primarily to conductive losses (I²R). Eddy current losses are minimized and the hysteretic losses associated with all iron-core generators are eliminated.
The efficiency comparison provided below highlights the unmatched partial load efficiency of our air-core PM generator compared to a well-designed iron-core PM machine and a wound field synchronous machine. In this example the BWP and iron-core PMDD machines were designed to achieve 95% at rated power, while the wound field synchronous machine was designed to 93.5% at rated power to account for rotor excitation losses. Although it is feasible for all three machine types to achieve rated efficiencies in excess of the 95% and 93.5% figures, the economics of such designs in multi-megawatt low-speed applications is unfavorable as the incremental financial benefits generally do not justify the additional costs incurred to achieve higher efficiencies.
