Energy nerds may be calculating emissions every time they turn on their cars, but they may not realize that some motors are burning far more energy, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Industrial motor systems burn far more energy and emit much more CO2 than the average person realizes, several GE executives told Breaking Energy in a recent phone conversation (in total these systems account for roughly 25-30% of the United States’ total energy consumption.) They said that if industrial facility operators in the US adopted high-efficiency motors like the ones GE sells, those industries could save $3-5 billion annually in electric bills and could reduce CO2 emissions by 15-26 million metric tons per year, about the same as taking 3-5 million passenger vehicles off the road.
“We talk a lot about cars,” said Tim Marker, product manager for GE Energy’s high-efficiency motors line. Many focus on buying higher efficiency, hybrid or even plug-in electric vehicles. But cars, he said, burn relatively little fuel per year as compared with their initial upfront cost. Industrial motors, on the other hand, cost only a fraction of their annual operating cost.
For example, a typical 100 horsepower engine might cost $5,000, but will draw about $47,950 worth of electricity bills per year. A $40,000 car will only cost several thousands dollars per year to fuel. So, the savings potential in industrial motors is very significant, Marker said. The savings are also significant in terms of carbon emissions, the GE executives said: while a typical car emits about 5.5 metric tons of CO2 per year, a typical industrial motor emits about 14.7 metric tons of CO2.
Continuous Improvement For Continuous Motors
The most heavy users of industrial motors are oil and gas, power generation, mining and metal, and waste water management companies because they run their engines continuously, said Justin Forbes, marketing manager for GE Energy’s Industrial Services group. As regulations for new motors tightened, these industries were the first to look to GE for higher efficiency models.
In 2007, Congress passed the Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA), which directed the Department of Energy to research ways for industries to reduce their energy use. On December 19, 2010, a new law was passed that changed the efficiency requirements for general and definite purpose polyphase 1-500 horsepower industrial motors.
That law, Forbes said, has dramatically changed the demand for GE’s premium high efficiency motors. In fact, it had pushed the US into the lead consumer of GE’s high efficiency engines, with Canada and Mexico trailing behind, according to Marker. European countries lag far behind with regulations that match the 2010 US EISA laws expected to be passed there only by 2015.
Countries with expensive electricity have more incentive to pass regulations on industrial motors, Forbes explained.
“In general, we’re in favor of legislation. Legislation that encourages users to upgrade to or purchase premium efficient motors,” Marker said. This is partly because of “the fact that that’s the product we sell, but also we’d like to see energy usage reduced and CO2 emissions reduced as well.”
Photo Caption: The X$D Ultra 841 IEC motor, which is one of the most efficient motors that GE offers its industrial customers. According to GE, replacing one 75 kW 1800 RPM Pre-EPAct motor with GE’s X$D Ultra 841 IEC for one year would save enough energy to power two US households for the same period. In addition, if a US Industrial user replaced one 75 kW 1800 RPM Pre-EPAct motor with an X$D Ultra 841 IEC, greenhouse gas emissions could be reduced by as much as 15 metric tons per year.
