24.02.2026
On February 18, Energy Club hosted an online meeting titled “Technologies and Solutions for Community Energy Security.” Beyond backup power, one of the most critical issues for Ukrainian municipalities and businesses is reducing overall energy consumption and protecting grids from overloads. Stanislav Maliborskyi, Product Manager for the “Industrial Automation” direction at Vector VS, explained how optimizing electric motor operations helps save up to 50% of electricity and resolves compatibility issues between powerful pumps and generators.
Electric motors are the largest consumers of electricity in any residential or commercial development. They ensure the operation of critical systems: water supply and sewerage pumps, heating circulation pumps, ventilation, elevators, and fire extinguishing systems.
As Stanislav Maliborskyi noted, the main problem with old systems is the direct starting of such motors. At the moment of start-up, inrush currents occur that exceed nominal values by 5–8 times. This causes:
— Critical overloads. Transformers, already operating at their limits, can fail due to sharp voltage spikes.
— Water hammer. The abrupt start of pumps causes mechanical damage to pipelines.
— Problems with generators. Attempting to start a powerful pump directly from a generator almost always ends in failure. The generator is unable to withstand an 8-fold overload, so its automation simply blocks operation or stalls the engine. To avoid this during DOL starting, one has to purchase generators with a huge, economically unjustified power reserve.
To solve these problems, Vector VS offers equipment from the British manufacturer Motortronics — one of the founders of soft start technology.
Using soft starters allows for reducing inrush currents to 2x the nominal value. This enables:
— Starting domestic circulation pumps from standard inverters or portable power stations (e.g., EcoFlow).
— Modernizing old municipal pumping stations (with a capacity of 18–22 kW and more). Thanks to a soft start, municipalities can purchase significantly cheaper, lower-power generators for such stations.
A distinctive feature of the equipment is the patented ARS technology, which analyzes the operation of an underloaded motor and optimizes its magnetic field. For example, during testing of a 23 kW motor, ARS technology allowed for an additional saving of 1.7 kWh of electricity solely by reducing heat losses.
According to the expert, the most effective tool for motor control is frequency converters (also British-made), which eliminate starting overloads entirely. The company offers solutions for both domestic (single-phase) consumers and powerful pumping stations (up to 250 kW).
Innovative features of frequency converters:
— Interference filtering. The devices are equipped with built-in highest-category (C1) EMC filters. They completely neutralize harmonic distortions, so a frequency converter can work in the same grid with complex household electronics or chargers without any conflicts.
— Special pump algorithms. The equipment has built-in functions for pump self-cleaning (relevant when working with raw water) and anti-freeze protection (the device periodically rotates the pump in the pipe during blackouts so that the water does not freeze).
— Full localization. Interfaces, LCD displays, and software are fully translated into Ukrainian for ease of configuration.
Real economics of implementation: Stanislav Maliborskyi cited an example of a large-scale project to modernize the water supply system in one of the cities in the Dnipropetrovsk region. Frequency converters with feedback were installed at the pumping station (the system itself understood how much water needed to be supplied to the grid at a specific point in time and adjusted the speed). Before modernization, the motor consistently consumed 624 kWh. After installing automation and optimizing operations, consumption was reduced nearly 5-fold. Savings amounted to about 295 MWh, demonstrating the colossal potential of such technologies for the public sector. In smaller domestic systems, the installation of frequency converters consistently ensures energy savings at a level of 40–50%.
