58 ASHRAE Jour nal ashr ae.

or g J une 2010
VFDs for Large Chillers
Large Energy Savings Per Installation
By John Dieckmann, Member ASHRAE; Kurtis McKenney; Matthew Guernsey; and James Brodrick, Ph.D.,
Member ASHRAE
This third column in a ve-part series on variable frequency drives will cover application of VFDs to large chillers in commercial
building air-conditioning systems.
U
sing variable frequency drives (VFDs) for compressor motors in large chill-
ers is a newer application than using VFDs with blowers (discussed in last
months column). VFDs are being used with centrifugal compressors and screw
compressors, the two major compressor categories for large chillers.
Applying a variable speed drive to the
compressor provides energy-efficient
capacity modulation. While the focus of
this series has been on using VFDs for
induction motors, high-speed brushless dc
motors are an important class of motors.
Such motors generally are used to directly
drive high-speed centrifugal compressors.
Large tonnage chillers generally are
capable of capacity modulation, which
enables the chiller to run continuously
while delivering constant-temperature
chilled water as the cooling load varies
from maximum to minimum design load.
The traditional methods of capacity
modulation have been:
For centrifugal compressors, prerota-
tion vanes, also called inlet guide vanes,
reduce capacity while avoiding surge, down
to around 40%. Hot gas bypass (directing
compressor discharge gas to the evaporator)
is used to reduce capacity further.
Screw compressors have been
equipped with slide valves that simultane-
ously vary the inlet displacement and the
discharge displacement, maintaining a rela-
tively constant built-in volume compression
ratio, typically modulating down to about
30% of full load before hot gas bypass is
needed for further capacity reduction.
Staged operation of multiple com-
pressors (or multiple chillers) has been
used with both types of chillers, as well
as with chillers that use other compressor
types, such as scroll or reciprocating.
Two metrics commonly used to rate the
efciency of chillers are full-load steady
state performance and the integrated part
load value (IPLV). The IPLV metric is in-
tended to approximate typical seasonal per-
formance as the load on the chiller varies.
Figure 1 shows the air or water tempera-
ture entering the condenser versus load that
is used to determine the IPLV for air-cooled
and water-cooled chillers. In each case,
reduced load is assumed to correlate with
lower outdoor wet- and dry-bulb tempera-
ture, resulting in lower temperature of the
cooling medium entering the condenser.
The IPLV is a widely accepted metric
for comparing the seasonal average
performance of chillers. However, in
actual applications, chillers operate over
a much wider range of loads and con-
denser temperatures than the IPLV rat-
ing load-condenser temperature curves.
Reasons for operation at low load
percentage and higher condenser tem-
peratures include high ambient wet or
dry-bulb temperature coupled with low
building occupancy or low solar loading
and the general tendency to oversize
building cooling equipment. Reasons
for operation at high load percentage and
lower condenser temperatures include
high load during chiller start-up after an
unoccupied period and operation of one
of a set of multiple chillers to handle the
building part load.
The combination of chiller plant over-
sizing and the variation of the factors driv-
ing the cooling load (some of which can be
highly variable, namely weather) can result
in almost any combination of chiller load
level and condenser temperature.
Estimates suggest that more than 90%
of water-cooled chiller plant installa-
tions include multiple chillers, with
two being the most common number.
1

In multiple chiller plants, operation of
any chiller below 50% load is unusual,
with a large percentage of operating time
occurring around the 75% load point or
higher.
1
For multiple chiller plants, equipping
each compressor with VFD may provide
the greatest energy savings and/or opera-
tional exibility, but it may be more eco-
nomical (or at least less capital intensive)
to apply VFD to the base load chillers or
chillers expected to operate at part-load
(swing chillers). Chillers that operate
the most hours with reduced condenser
water temperatures (i.e., reduced lift) and/
or reduced load will offer the greatest
energy cost savings potential.
Several factors account for the improve-
ment in the IPLV provided by variable
speed drives. Variable speed operation
signicantly reduces, if not eliminates
altogether, the use of hot gas bypass for
continuous operation at low load. In cen-
trifugal chillers, variable speed combined
with prerotation vanes enables operation
This article was published in ASHRAE Journal, June 2010. Copyright 2010 American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning
Engineers, Inc. Reprinted here by permission from ASHRAE at www.tiaxllc.com. This article may not be copied nor distributed in either paper
or digital form by other parties without ASHRAEs permission. For more information about ASHRAE, visit www.ashrae.org.
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60 ASHRAE Jour nal J une 2010
closer to maximum compressor efciency across a wide range
of operating conditions. With screw compressors, it is possible
to eliminate the slide valve, using speed variation to cover the
full operating range at higher efciency.
There are many variables involved in determining seasonal
energy performance. However, based on informal conversa-
tions with industry engineers, the typical energy savings over
a cooling season provided by applying a VFD to a chiller is
approximately 25%.
2
Additional benets include improved
power factor and soft starting of the chiller motor, reducing
both impulse loading on the motor and large in-rush currents.
Energy Saving Potential
Space cooling in U.S. commercial buildings consumed 2.3
quadrillion Btus (quads) of primary electric energy in 2006.
Of this, an estimated 0.3 quads are attributable to centrifugal
and screw chillers in commercial and institutional buildings.
If we assume, for the sake of simplicity, that VFDs are not
widely implemented in large chillers, and that VFDs result in 25%
average energy savings over conventional single-speed chillers,
then VFD offers a technical energy savings potential for large
chillers of approximately 0.1 quads. However, one manufacturer
claims that VFDs are more prevalent now, indicating that 80% of
centrifugal chillers with a VFD option available ship with a VFD.
2

This is a relatively low national energy savings potential
relative to other VFD applications. However, the number of
buildings with central chiller plants is only on the order of
100,000,
4
indicating there is a large amount of energy savings
potential per installation. In large commercial buildings, the
central chiller plant is often one of the main energy end uses,
and therefore 25% savings on the chiller energy can represent
a signicant reduction in the buildings overall operating costs.
The 25% savings should not be assumed for any given ap-
plication. For the reasons mentioned, the actual energy sav-
ings from using VFDs in chillers will vary widely from one
installation to the next. Some applications with signicant
off-design operation may see energy reductions greater than
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100F
90F
80F
70F
60F
50F
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0% 25% 50% 75% 100%
Load
IPLV Weighting: 12% 45% 42% 1%
Water-Cooled
Air-Cooled
Figure 1: Temperature of cooling air or water entering the condenser
versus load and weighting factors for I PLV determination.
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62 ASHRAE Jour nal J une 2010
35%, while applications with multiple
chillers operating near design condi-
tions, may experience energy savings
of less than 15%.
2

Energy savings estimates for a single
installation should rely on location-
specic factors, particularly weather.
Chiller energy savings should only
be modeled with respect to total chiller
plant energy savings, which would also
consider plant ancillary equipment. In
a typical water-cooled chiller plant, the
chiller accounts for approximately 85% of
the system energy.
5
Market Factors
Variable speed drives can offer signi-
cant energy savings when applied to the
right chiller applications. Also, chillers
with VFDs can exhibit improved reliability
and life as a result of an improved power
factor and soft starting of the chiller motor.
However, real energy savings tend to be
application-specic. VFDs can give the
perception of energy savings when the IPLV
formula is applied, particularly in buildings
with multiple chillers, which is generally
the case.
1
High-load operating points are
noticeably more important than the IPLV
metric may indicate.
1
Therefore, a more
involved modeling process is necessary to
determine the cost effectiveness of install-
ing one or more VFDs in a chiller plant.
The cost of VFD technology has dropped
substantially over the past 30 years, and in
many new designs, VFD technology is
included in the base-unit design.
2
Several
geographic regions offer rebates for the
application of VFD technology.
2
References
1. Geister, R. and M. Thompson. 2009. A
closer look at chiller ratings. ASHRAE J ournal
51(12):22 32.
2. Communication with Johnson Controls.
3. Energy Efficiency and Renewable
Energy. 2010. 2009 Buildings Energy Data
Book. U.S. Department of Energy. http://
buildingsdatabook.eere.energy.gov/.
4. EIA. 2003. Commercial Building En-
ergy Consumption Survey, Table B40. Energy
Information Administration, U.S. Department
of Energy. http://tinyurl.com/CBECS2003.
5. Furlong, J. and F. Morrison. Optimiza-
tion of water-cooled chillercooling tower
combinations, CTI J ournal 26(1):12 19.
http://tinyurl.com/CTIFurlong.
6. AHRI Standard 550/590-2003, 2003 Stan-
dard for Performance Rating of Water-Chilling
Packages Using the Vapor Compression Cycle.
7. 2008 ASHRAE HandbookHVAC Systems
and Equipment. Chapter 44, Motors, Motor
Controls, and Variable-Speed Drives.
J ohn Dieckmann is a director, Kurtis
McKenney is an associate principal, and
Matthew Guernsey is a senior technolo-
gist in the Mechanical Systems Group of
TIAX LLC, Cambridge, Mass. J ames
Brodrick, Ph.D., is a project manager with
the Building Technologies Program, U.S.
Department of Energy, Washington, D.C.
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