AMO is leading a new Motor System Market Assessment (MSMA) to better understand opportunities for energy efficiency improvement in motors and motor-driven systems, which are essential to a wide array of industrial applications. Machine driven processes such as pumps, fans, compressed air, and materials handling and processing accounted for 68% of electricity use (2,840 TBtu direct use [1]) by U.S. manufacturing in 2010. The new assessment will document the efficiency opportunities for motors and motor driven systems and propel market uptake of best practices and technologies designed to address these opportunities.

Building on Past Success

The new study will update the comprehensive United States Industrial Electric Motor Systems Market Opportunities Assessment published by AMO (then called the Office of Industrial Technologies) in 1998 and republished with minor corrections in 2002. Information from the original assessment has been cited in hundreds of publications on energy efficiency opportunities in the industrial sector and has guided motor systems policy decisions for over a decade. With innovations in variable frequency drives and standards for premium efficiency motors, markets have changed since 1998, so a new assessment is needed to better understand additional efficiency opportunities.

Assessing Future Potential

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) is conducting the analysis for the new assessment under direction from AMO and in collaboration with industry and other stakeholders for both technical assistance and insight on strategy, content, and outcomes of the assessment. Together, the research team will:

  • Develop a detailed profile of the stock of the motors and motor driven systems in commercial and industrial facilities of the United States
  • Profile commercial and industrial motor and motor driven system purchase, operational, and maintenance practices
  • Analyze opportunities by market segment for improved energy efficiency and cost savings from efficient motors, control technologies, system optimization, and new and future advanced designs
  • Evaluate the global supply chains (e.g., sources, availability, and the United States’ role in the supply of technologies and materials) that support the manufacture of motor and drive technologies.

A team led by The Cadmus Group, Inc. will be conducting field assessments as part of this study.  The Cadmus team also includes staff from Cascade Energy.  The goal of field assessments is to develop a quantitative and qualitative understanding of a site’s motor system energy consumption characteristics and evaluate potential for savings.  They will employ staff interviews, visual observations, and spot measurements.  An assessment tool has been developed to ensure consistent information is collected across assessments.

Upon completion (projected in 2018), the assessment will help U.S. manufacturers better understand the commercial marketplace and become more competitive globally; it will help policymakers better understand the motor system efficiency opportunities in the industrial and commercial building sectors; and it will inform future DOE research funding decisions.

Check back for updates or for more information about this research, contact Paul Sheaffer, LBNL.

1 Manufacturing Energy and Carbon Footprint, All Manufacturing (February 2014)