In today’s industrial landscape, energy efficiency is becoming an essential method to address rising energy costs, societal pressure, customer expectations, and stricter regulations. As the world shifts towards more sustainable practices, adopting energy efficient solutions and renewable energy is critical to meeting the 1.5°c global warming target set during The Paris Agreement in 2015. Upgrading industrial motors to the highest levels of energy efficiency plays a vital role in this transition.
Credit: ABB
From pumping clean water to driving machinery, industrial motors are vital for operations, with over 300 million in use globally. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), they account for around 45 percent of the world’s total electricity consumption.
Enhancing the efficiency of these motors is a practical solution to cut energy consumption. The IEA highlights that upgrading all motors and drives to high-efficiency models could slash global electricity use by at least 10 percent, emphasizing the significant impact of prioritizing energy efficient technologies in industrial operations.
The importance of energy audits
While businesses seek to boost energy efficiency, many struggle to know where to start. A recent ABB survey shows that 97 percent of industry leaders want to invest in efficiency, but only 41 percent know how. Key challenges include unclear actions, missing resources, misaligned incentives, and resistance to change.
Energy audits provide businesses with a comprehensive analysis of their motor fleet, pinpointing areas with the highest potential for energy savings across a plant. Maintenance teams can target motors with the greatest savings potential, reducing costs and emissions. They can also compare operational data with theoretical performance, demonstrating the benefits of resizing or modernizing equipment.
Data collection, either manually, on-site, or digitally via remote updates, enables experts to analyze motor system performance. By comparing current operations to potential upgrades, businesses can calculate energy savings and the anticipated return on investment (ROI). Meanwhile, digital solutions and artificial intelligence (AI) unlock new opportunities in automation and self-optimization, enhancing energy efficiency and operational effectiveness.
Based on audit findings, businesses can also develop plans to implement efficiency with minimal disruption to operations. By acting on audit outcomes, companies can enhance their energy efficiency, unlock cost savings, reduce their environmental footprint, and establish themselves as industry leaders in sustainability.
Case study: ABB and CERN collaboration
Energy audits have enabled facilities like CERN, the European Laboratory for Particle Physics, to identify energy saving opportunities across its entire motor fleets. In 2022 and 2023, ABB and CERN experts analyzed data from motors used in cooling and ventilation, using digitally connected motors, CERN’s supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system, designed to collect, analyze, and visualize data, and direct instrumentation to pinpoint motors with the best business case for energy efficiency upgrades.
These audits led to a roadmap for reducing energy consumption through data-driven efficiency measures. They identified potential annual savings of up to 31 gigawatt-hours (GWh), enough to power over 18,000 European households and avoid four kilotons of CO2 emissions, equivalent to planting over 420,000 trees.
Effective strategies from energy audits
Like those observed at CERN, audits can help businesses make better decisions. Adding a variable speed drive (VSD) is a common way to improve motor energy efficiency. VSDs let operators adjust motor speed or torque to match task demands, cutting energy use and costs. Reducing a motor’s speed by 20 percent can halve its energy consumption.
Upgrading to energy efficient motors is another effective strategy. Many current motors use IE1 or IE2 technology, but modern motors can achieve IE5 efficiency, reducing energy losses by 40 percent. This results in lower energy consumption and CO₂ emissions. Progress continues as ABB has just launched a synchronous reluctance (SynRM) technology motor which anticipates IE6-level hyper-efficiency.
ABB has also launched an energy savings calculator, allowing businesses to access data insights on their motor-driven systems’ energy performance. This tool provides estimates of potential energy and cost savings from upgrading their current systems to the latest motor and drive technology for optimal efficiency gains.
Energy audits often reveal that many motors are oversized because designers include large safety margins for infrequent contingencies. Resizing these motors enhances energy efficiency without sacrificing performance or reliability, and it is often possible to arrange for the motor to be overrun to handle periods of peak demand. Crucially, businesses must evaluate the entire system, not just the motor. For heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, for example, this means also assessing fans, condensers, and cooling towers.
Electric motors are in general very reliable and will perform well for over 15 years. That does result in inertia from some operators who are reluctant to replace their inefficient motors when they are a long way from their end of life. However, the data provided by an audit can present a powerful case to show that upgrading now will offer a fast ROI.
The bigger picture
In 2023, ABB found that energy audits on over 2,000 industrial motors across various sectors revealed significant savings. Upgrading to efficient technology could save businesses up to 31 percent per motor, especially those operating without a VSD. Implementing these upgrades could achieve an ROI in as little as three months, depending on local energy costs.
These audits also revealed 2.1 terawatt-hours (TWh) of savings over 20 years for 2,000 motors, enough to power 1.25 million homes for a year. Extrapolating this to 300 million industrial motors worldwide highlights the staggering impact of upgrading inefficient motors on a global scale.
The solution is clear. The industry must prioritize energy efficiency to cut costs and emissions. Energy audits can help streamline this by identifying top efficiency opportunities and offering a practical approach to meeting global net zero targets.
For further information on ABB’s energy efficiency solutions, see here.