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start up to avoid high starting current taken by the motor.Let's find out how the soft starter works.
The motor operating at low power factor (0.5 lagging) at the light load condition reduces the efficiency as the supply current is relatively high causing significant I2R resistive losses (copper losses). In order to attain good efficiency from the motor, the power factor has to be improved. The only way to improve the power factor of the motor at light load is to reduce the supply voltage given to the motor. This can be achieved with the applicable voltage controller. A type of voltage controller working on electronic circuits employed to control the supply voltage of the motor is called a soft starter. The soft starter, which is an electronic voltage controller, is also known as an energy manager. It can match the supply voltage to the startup and load conditions. Such a controller aims to maintain the operating power factor as high as possible to minimize supply current and power losses. An important thing to note is that this type of voltage controller does not control the speed of the motor; that can be controlled by frequency of the supply. However this speed control is only possible in induction motor whereas the synchronous motor is a constant speed motor that runs at its synchronous speed.
A soft starter may be further adapted to become a voltage controller or a voltage regulator over the load range of the motor operation, and hence it is called an energy manager. It supplies voltage according to the load of a motor. In this type of efficient energy manager application, the controller monitors the motor power factor which is a means of motor loading and according to the power factor of the motor, the soft starter supplies voltage to the motor. On light load and the full voltage, the power factor is low so the controller reduces the motor voltage, which reduces current while improving the power factor and efficiency.