White paper: Variable Speed drives in Ex environments
VFD vs. Non-Contact Drive: The Safety and Cost Case Nobody Talks About
Your Ex zone VFD installation may be costing 3–5× more than it needs to and carrying ignition risks that grow silently with every year of service.
In hazardous areas, the choice of variable speed drive technology is not just a procurement decision, it is a safety-critical engineering decision with long-term financial consequences. Yet for most projects, the full cost of VFD compliance in Ex Zone 1 and Zone 2 is never calculated until it is too late to choose differently.
This white paper changes that. It gives engineers, project managers, and procurement professionals the technical and economic data they need to make an informed decision, before FEED is locked in.
What you will learn
This 40-page technical white paper provides a rigorous, referenced comparison of two VSD technologies for Ex Zone 1 and Zone 2 applications:
• Why a standard VFD installation in an Ex zone requires shielded cabling at EUR 50–1,100/m, a dedicated climate-controlled VFD room, harmonic filters, EMC filters, special inverter-duty motors — and why all of this is mandatory, not optional.
• How electrolytic capacitors, IGBTs, and control electronics create ignition risks that increase with every year of service — and what that means for your asset integrity programme over a 20–30 year plant life.
• Why medium-voltage Ex VFD installations commonly reach EUR 530,000–1,420,000 in total installed cost per drive — and what the alternative looks like at EUR 153,000–349,000.
• How the Non-Contact Drive (NCD) eliminates the majority of Ex ignition risk vectors at the design level: no power electronics in the hazardous zone, no special cabling, no VFD room, no harmonic filters.
• Total installed cost comparisons across LV (37–375 kW) and MV (132–375 kW) power ranges, with line-by-line cost breakdowns for both technologies.
• Practical guidance on when each technology is the right choice — including the power ranges and application types where VFDs remain the appropriate solution.
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