Product category:
Industrial Drives/Controls
News Release from: Siemens Automation and Drives | Subject: Motor efficiency classification
Edited by the Engineeringtalk Editorial
Team on 28 July 2000
Classifying motors according to energy
efficiency
From 2000 onwards, electric motors will be classified according to efficiency and will be appropriately marked, so it will be easier for customers in Europe to select energy saving motors
Efficiency classes for various consumer products, for example, refrigerators and freezers, have already been established for some time as selection criteria for users Thanks to the initiative of the European Commission and CEMEP, the European committee of manufacturers for electrical machines and power electronics, from 2000 onwards, electric motors will also be classified according to efficiency and will be appropriately marked
This article was originally published on Engineeringtalk on 6 Mar 2001 at 8.00am (UK)
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This means that it will be easier for customers to select energy saving motors throughout Europe.
With the background of the international conferences on the environment (held in Rio, Kyoto and Buenos Aires) and the limited supply of natural resources, people are becoming increasingly aware that it is important to save energy.
The USA has taken on a leadership role with the EPACT legislation, which came into force at the end of 1997.
This led to an EC project to save energy for electric drives.
This is a voluntary agreement between the EC and dives manufacturers, to classify and designate electric motors within three efficiency classes.
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The core issues of this agreement are: 2- and 4-pole motors, in the output range from 1.1 to 90 kW will be classified according to their efficiency and will be appropriately marked (Standard Efficiency EFF3, Improved Efficiency EFF2 up to High Efficiency EFF1) Manufacturers have committed themselves to drastically reduce the market share of EFF3 motors by at least 50 percent by the end of 2003.
It is no surprise that electric motors are being critically observed, due to the energy consumption investigations that are currently being undertaken around the world.
Electric drives represent approximately 70% of the industrial power demand.
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Electric motors are the central element as electromagnetic/mechanical energy converter.
In order to achieve perceptible efficiency improvements, significantly more and/or improved quality materials must be used.
This automatically results in higher costs, which make motors more expensive and more difficult to market.
This is not the first time that an attempt has been made to introduce energy saving motors to the market.
Siemens started this 20 years ago but the response was only mediocre.
Even today, there are some difficult barriers to be overcome.
The reason for this is that capital investment costs are used as a basis for the purchasing decision and not the ongoing operating costs.
Up until now, energy consumption or environmental perspectives played an insignificant role in the considerations regarding the engineering of drives.
This is compounded by the usual sales channel mentality: 80% of all motors are sold to OEMs and plant builders as standard products.
The energy consumption is essentially not taken into account in the specifications and when comparing quotations from various manufacturers.
Awareness of the problem should be enhanced by sub-dividing motors into efficiency classes and clearly marking them.
The CEMEP/EC agreement represents an important step in this direction.
However, in order to achieve permanent changes, the influence of the motor manufacturers alone is not enough.
Co-ordinated measures must be taken at the various levels (political, associations and committees, manufacturers, engineers etc.).
An important result from the conference on Energy Efficient Motor-Driven Systems -EEMODS-, (held by the EC in September 1999 in London) is that the EC is now attempting to generate agreements with OEMs, especially in the pump and fan industry sector, which is one of the main users and motor importers.
In order to support the introduction of high-efficiency motors into the market, the Eurodeem database was developed by the EC in co-operation with leading motor manufacturers, as an independent software product.
In this case, the focus is on making it easier for purchasers to select motors by making the electric motor market, including all of the well-known motor producers and manufacturers, transparent.
The Eurodeem database can be accessed via the internet: http://iamest.jrc.it/projects/eem/eurodeem.htm .
Siemens AG was one of the first manufacturers to participate in the Eurodeem database.
Furthermore, Siemens has developed its own energy saving program.
This allows complete plants and systems to be engineered using energy saving motors instead of standard motors.
This can be called-up on the Web at: http://www.ad.siemens.de/ener~esparmotoren.html .
Energy-saving motors are almost always the best choice.
The higher capital investment costs of energy saving motors, efficiency classes EFF1 and EFF2, generally amortise themselves within a relatively short operating time of between several months up to a maximum of one or two years.
When related to the complete operating costs during the service life of an electric motor, the capital investment costs represent just a few percent.
On the other hand, the aggregated energy costs frequently exceed 95 percent.
Especially for longer operating times, e.g more than 2000 hours per annum, energy-saving motors always make more economic sense.
The energy-saving potential for drive systems and the general economic significance are considerable.
According to a ZVEI study, in Germany alone, this is 20 TWh per annum.
This corresponds to the power production from eight conventional power stations.
From the ecological standpoint, this represents eleven million tons less of carbon dioxide emissions.
Economically, these savings represent about one billion pounds each year.
However, this assumes that not only are energy-saving motors used, but also that the complete drive system is optimized and, as far as possible, variable speeds are used.
When specifying energy efficient electric motors, it is important to consider the drive system as a whole.
In the future, Siemens energy saving motors will fulfil the highest efficiency, Class EFF1.
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