Systems and methods for testing a motor drive are disclosed. The techniques enhance motor drive testing by not using a dyne-unit, thereby reducing the initial installation costs, maintenance costs, and size of the setup. The setup may include a rectifier and an inverter configured to operate in an active-reactive power control mode during testing under a simulated load by generating the corresponding active (P) and reactive (Q) power (e.g., torque and flux, respectively). The active-reactive power control mode may receive a desired P and Q and determine one or more gate drive signals to provide to switches in the rectifier and/or the inverter based on the desired P and Q, where the gate drive signals are configured to operate the rectifier and/or the inverter under a simulated load. The gate drive signals may be transmitted to the rectifier and/or the inverter accordingly.