Electric motor systems account for about 60 percent of global industrial electricity consumption. Electric motors drive both, core industrial processes, like presses or rolls, and auxiliary systems like compressed air generation, ventilation or water pumping. They are utilized throughout all industrial branches, though their main applications vary. Studies show a high potential for energy efficiency improvement in motor systems, in developing as well as in developed countries. The International Energy Agency (IEA) endorses that a theoretical saving of 20% to 30% of electricity consumed by all Electric Motor Driven Systems (EMDS) could be achieved if those systems were optimized, which would reduce total global electricity demand by about 10%.
However, taking a more pragmatic view, the IEA suggests an ambitious but achievable target for the global work plan: improving the efficiency of electric motor driven systems by 10% to 15%.
In the continuous stress of a production environment, there is often little opportunity to pause and reconsider the way in which electric motors are purchased, maintained, and replaced. As long as nobody is given the responsibility for company-wide electric motor asset management, employees in the production environment will continue to act on an adhoc basis, maintaining, repairing, and replacing motors in the same way they have in the past, without insight into the Total Cost of Ownership.
Under this light, the Industrial Energy Efficiency Project has supported a technical training on the optimization of motor systems (MSO) to achieve higher systems energy efficiency with the aim of qualifying MSO Experts. The training was conducted by UNIDO international experts and was attended by 40 engineers representing 16 organizations. The training objective was to provide in-depth technical information on troubleshooting and
making improvements to industrial motor systems. The training also introduced basic principles for energy efficient design of motor systems, how to successfully sell motor systems improvement projects to management and how to select a motor system optimization service provider. National experts were trained through classroom, on-the-job and coaching by international MSO experts.
The training has focused on the importance of a systems approach for improving energy efficiency. In a component approach, the engineer employs a particular design condition to specify a component.
In a systems approach, the engineer evaluates the entire system to determine how end-use requirements can be provided most effectively and efficiently. Cost-effective operation and maintenance of a motor and drive system requires attention not just to individual pieces of equipment but to the system as a whole. A systems approach analyzes both the supply and demand sides of the system and how they interact, essentially shifting the
focus from individual components to total system performance. Operators can sometimes be so focused on the immediate demands of their equipment that they overlook the ways in which the system’s parameters are affecting that equipment.