Measurable energy savings of installing variable frequency drives for cooling towers' fans, compared to dual speed motors

In recent years the building management system (BMS) controllers have been used to control the operation of heating, ventilation, and air conditioning system in addition to lighting and some electrical equipment in order to save energy. In the water cooled system, the BMS controls the operation process of the cooling towers (CTs) fans of dual speed motors to maintain a constant leaving water temperature for different cooling loads and different ambient wet bulb temperature (WBT). This paper presents the effect of installing variable frequency drives (VFDs) for CTs fans in Kuwait during summer season on energy savings compared to dual speed control. The results have shown that with VFD mode, the reduction in water consumption was over 13% compared to the commonly used dual speed mode. More importantly, the combined power for the chillers and the CTs fans for the same amount of cooling produced were reduced by 5.8% in the VFD mode.