Motor–generator

A motor–generator (an M–G set) is a device for converting electrical power to another form. Motor–generator sets are used to convert frequency, voltage, or phase of power. They may also be used to isolate electrical loads from the electrical power supply line. Large motor–generators were widely used to convert industrial amounts of power while smaller motor–generators (such as the one shown in the picture) were used to convert battery power to higher DC voltages. A motor–generator (an M–G set) is a device for converting electrical power to another form. Motor–generator sets are used to convert frequency, voltage, or phase of power. They may also be used to isolate electrical loads from the electrical power supply line. Large motor–generators were widely used to convert industrial amounts of power while smaller motor–generators (such as the one shown in the picture) were used to convert battery power to higher DC voltages. While a motor–generator set may consist of distinct motor and generator machines coupled together, a single unit dynamotor (for dynamo–motor) has the motor coils and the generator coils wound around a single rotor; both the motor and generator therefore share the same outer field coils or magnets. Typically the motor coils are driven from a commutator on one end of the shaft, while the generator coils provide output to another commutator on the other end of the shaft. The entire rotor and shaft assembly is smaller, lighter, and cheaper than a pair of machines, and does not require exposed drive shafts. Low-powered consumer devices such as vacuum tube vehicle radio receivers did not use expensive, noisy and bulky motor–generators. Instead, they used an inverter circuit consisting of a vibrator (a self-exciting relay) and a transformer to produce the higher voltages required for the vacuum tubes from the vehicle's 6 or 12 V battery. In the context of electric power generation and large fixed electrical power systems, a motor–generator consists of an electric motor mechanically coupled to an electric generator (or alternator). The motor runs on the electrical input current while the generator creates the electrical output current, with power flowing between the two machines as a mechanical torque; this provides electrical isolation and some buffering of the power between the two electrical systems. One use is to eliminate spikes and variations in 'dirty power' (power conditioning) or to provide phase matching between different electrical systems. Another use is to buffer extreme loads on the power system. For example, tokamak fusion devices impose very large peak loads, but relatively low average loads, on the electrical grid. The DIII-D tokamak at General Atomics, the Princeton Large Torus (PLT) at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, and the Nimrod synchrotron at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory each used large flywheels on multiple motor–generator rigs to level the load imposed on the electrical system: the motor side slowly accelerated a large flywheel to store energy, which was consumed rapidly during a fusion experiment as the generator side acted as a brake on the flywheel. Similarly, the next generation U.S. Navy aircraft carrier Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) will use a flywheel motor–generator rig to supply power instantaneously for aircraft launches at greater than the ship's installed generator capacity.