A range criterion of discounted costs is proposed, which takes into account all costs for a speed-controlled asynchronous electric drive, including its price, costs of losses and maintenance, and amortization charges. It is also possible to take into account the cost and energy performance of matching transformers and gearboxes. Costs for reactive power compensation of both the first and second kind (due to the presence of harmonic components at the drive input) are taken into account. The latter requires determining the total harmonic distortion (THD) of the currents consumed by the drive. In the case of autonomous power systems, it is also necessary to determine the drive’s supplying voltage non-linear distortion coefficients. Representing the discounted costs as the sum of initial capital investments and annual costs made possible taking into account the presence of inflationary processes. The control characteristics of the active power consumed by the drive, efficiency, power factor, and phase shift factor are constructed, which are dependencies on the rotation frequency in a certain control range at a specific load. It is proposed to calculate the drive’s discounted costs criterion, depending on the operating mode of the load. According to the mode, the criterion is calculated as an average range in a certain range of speed control or is determined taking into account a given tachogram of speed changes. For the controlled asynchronous drive under consideration, the discounted costs are 4148 c.u. in the first case and 5139.3 c.u. in the second case. If inflationary processes are taken into account, the first case is 4219.4 c.u. and the second case is 5227.7 c.u., respectively.