Three-phase induction motors accounts with an important share of the electricity consumption in industrialized countries. Therefore, the misapplication of such machines conducts to efficiency reduction and large amounts of energy waste. Motor oversize is one of the most frequently misapplication encountered and difficult to be fixed. The paper presents a road map to evaluate whether a direct line fed three-phase induction motor is oversized, considering not only its steady loading, but also its dynamic behavior. In addition, case studies are presented and some solutions to increase the energy efficiency of the whole motor-load system are proposed. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.