Comprehensive Assessment of U.S. Industrial Electric Motor Systems Market Opportunities Released
January 13, 1999
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First-of-a-Kind in Two Decades The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) Office of Industrial Technologies (OIT) has released a comprehensive assessment of opportunities to increase electric motor system efficiency and reduce energy costs in U.S. industry. Industrial motor-driven systems account for 23 percent of the Nation's electricity use and two-thirds of U.S. industry's electricity consumption. This assessment, the culmination of three years of research, is the first study in 20 years that characterizes the population of motor systems in the manufacturing sector nationwide, using direct observations of a representative sample of facilities. The assessment profiles the current stock of motor-driven equipment in industrial facilities, characterizes efficiency opportunities in motor systems, and describes current motor system purchase and maintenance practices. "Energy-efficient motor system technology helps manufacturers cost-effectively capture important productivity and enhanced environmental quality goals," says Dan Reicher, Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy at DOE. Potential industrial motor system energy savings using mature, proven, cost-effective technologies could range from 11% to 18% of current annual usage or 75 to 122 billion kWh per year?equal to $3.6 billion to $5.8 billion in savings. Of course, this full potential cannot be captured all at once. That would require expenditures of $11-17 billion, roughly 10 percent of total new capital expenditures by all manufacturers in 1994. While the opportunities for energy savings and other benefits associated with investments in improved motor systems are enormous, so too are the demands on capital and management resources in industrial organizations. Moreover, the assessment identified many barriers that have prevented industrial facilities managers from capturing more than a small percentage of the potential benefits of motor system efficiency. The report provides a detailed portrait of the end-use markets for manufacturers, distributors, engineers, and other suppliers of motor systems. In turn, plant managers can use the information in this study to identify motor system energy savings opportunities in their facilities and to benchmark current motor system purchase and management procedures against concepts of best practice. The principal research activity of the report involved on-site studies of 265 industrial facilities, conducted by XENERGY, Inc., on behalf of OIT's Motor Challenge program. Over 55 percent of the sites were within the "Industries of the Future." The Industries of the Future strategy, under the leadership of OIT, creates partnerships between industry, government, and supporting laboratories and institutions to accelerate technology research, development, and deployment. It is being implemented in nine energy- and waste-intensive industries: agriculture, aluminum, chemicals, forest products, glass, metal casting, mining, petroleum, and steel. The assessment also collected information on the prevalence of actions identified by industry experts as "good practice" in facilities, since achievement of significant increases in motor system efficiency depend to a large extent on the adoption of good design, purchase, and management practices. For a copy of the U.S. Industrial Electric Motor Systems Market Opportunities Assessment, call Motor Challenge at (800) 862-2086. Motor Challenge is a partnership program with U.S. industry, administered by DOE OIT, to promote energy efficiency in industrial motor systems.
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