The Worlds Most Powerful Electric Motors

I worked for a gas pipeline company that had several compressor stations that were powered by electric motors. These motors started at 2,000 hp and the largest had a nameplate capacity of 15,000 hp. The largest ones were tested for maximum continuous output which varied from about 17,500 hp to 18,000 hp. These motors and the compressor stations were built initially in the early 1950's and were expanded over the years.

I am a mechanic at a company that regularly rebuilds 9,000-15,000 HP 13,800 Volt motors. The bigger they get, the simpler they get. The difference is assembling them with cranes and massive hydrodynamic bearings.

I work as an engineer with large AC motors for one of the companies mentioned in your video and although being somewhat clued in on the subject matter, I was nevertheless very entertained and certainly educated. Very good job on this video. Electric is the way of the future

The US "standard type" battleships of WW1 vintage used turbo-electric propulsion. In this case steam turbines provided the power to spin generators and the electricity was in turn used to drive electric motors which turned the propellers. This was done to compartmentalize the ships and avoid having long drive shafts commonly needed when connecting the turbines to the propellers. The downside being added complexity and weight when compared to direct turbine drive or geared turbines. The "standards" only had to reach around 20 knots.

The most powerful motors I know of that aren't purely used as alternators are in the transport grid industry. We have two hydrogen-cooled 200MVA synchronous condenser at one major transport station, that's about about 268,000HP. They are asynchronous motors used to do variable power factor correction.

One of the really nice things about electric motors is how easy it is to scale them up or down compared to internal combustion engines.

Great video. I used to work in nuclear power, and I thought the 4,000 hp reactor coolant pump motors were huge. Some impressive stuff here!

5:42 😂😂 Kilogram, Horse Power, pound-feet, what a carnival of measurement system

As an apprentice many years ago, I had the privilege of a walk around of the Blooming Mill Motor at British Steel Corporation Ebbw Vale. I could walk through the stator on tip toes with my arms held out straight above my head and still touch it. It was a 220V DC motor. It had to reach maximum torque in 4 or 5 revolutions and stop dead then reverse. It had a 70 ton flywheel on the shaft. Current was converted by 6 Frankenstein size Mercury arc rectifiers which were amazing to see in operation, each being over 6 feet tall. I have literature somewhere, but from memory the motor was rated at 75,000hp. We had our own generating station, to help reduce load on the grid when it was in operation. Consuming MW/week. I've never seen a bigger motor since.

I remember when working in the mining technology industry back in the 2010s, we used ring motors rated at up to something like 25 MW, typically produced by Siemens. These were used in grinding mill applications where dual pinion drive was more expensive or not at all available. The grinding mill itself basically worked as a hollow shaft in the motor assembly, and was around 8-10 meters in diameter. Now i work in the hydropower industry, and over here we have a couple of 160 MW pump turbines, which is pretty insane. Electric motors are awesome.

I know the folks at NASA's NTF well, tested there a number of times but I never realized that it had the biggest motor in the world generating the wind for me. This info was probably in a facility briefing but went over my head at the time. As a side note, though I've recently retired, my team was / is collaborating with NASA to test another type of "motor" for remotely actuated control surfaces... shape memory alloy (SMA) torque tubes of nickel titanium hafnium (NiTiHf). Super small, super high torque. They need to be to fit into these small models and work at such high loads.

Brilliant as usual Mr Shillito. Who doesn't love a big motor, and the sound!

The shirt is the world's most powerful eye magnet. :)

I am SO thrilled to see another Curious Droid video! I've always loved your content and presentation style...I could listen to your videos all day! Fascinating and educational. Well done!

i think you should have talked more on those generators/motors used in water dams to pump water uphill. even though they're not dedicated motors, they're still incredibly powerful and it'd be interesting to see what they look like.

Some advice: don't ever change. Your videos are so epic and absolutely perfect; never change, avoid the temptation to become meta (contests, social over-engagement, etc.). Your channel is absolutely phenomenal.

That shirt is a belter Paul, real power!!

Electric motors have always been a passion. Very well done research here.. That 110 MW motor for NASA is just unbelievable. Draws 1/8th the output of a nuclear generation station to run... Crazy!

I always enjoy my time watching Paul educate us on technology. Thanks Paul.

kinda sad you excluded the pumped hydro pump/generator combos. in my mind they would qualify.