Abstract: Compressor is the core process equipment of the refining and chemical enterprises, long-distance natural gas pipeline compressor stations, gas injection stations of gas storage, etc. However, the starting of large compressor motor has a significant impact on the power grid and affects the safe and stable operation of other online electrical equipment. The commonly-used VVVF starting mode for the large motor has some disadvantages such as high investment cost, large area of substation, a large number of electrical components, and thus low reliability. In order to reasonably design the starting mode for a large compressor motor, the aspects that need to be focused on, such as the optimal design of power supply and distribution scheme, the selection of autotransformer parameters, and the selection of parameters for calculating the starting voltage dip, are reviewed based on the polyolefin project of a refining and chemical enterprise in North China. Meanwhile, a comparison is made with that in the VVVF starting mode. The results show that autotransformer stating mode for large compressor motor can solve the shortcomings of the commonly-used VVVF starting mode. Autotransformer starting mode can provide reference for the reasonable design of motor starting scheme of large compressor motor.