Get Your Motors and Generators Running Energy Efficiently

Motors or Generators Running with Energy efficiency a must says GE Motors and Generators

Last week, I spoke with a few representatives from GE Motors and Generators Services, one of the groupings under Industrial Solutions within the massive GE Energy business unit of General Electric (NYSE: GE). In the course of the conversation,

I received a brief tutorial on the state of affairs in the Motors and Generatorsmarketplace.

Although easy to overlook, motors add up to a very big deal: according to the Department of Energy, Motors and Generators-driven equipment accounts for an estimated 64% of U.S. industrial electricity demand, because motors are embedded in so many fans, pumps and processes — all of which are ubiquitous in the industrial sector, and particularly in the three largest end-user segments of power generation, oil/gas and mining.

Because Motors and Generators represent such a significant share of the nation’s electricity consumption and such a signficant outlay for U.S. manufacturers, the DOE has made motors a key area of its Industrial Technologies Program to improve the competitiveness of American industry. There’s also a group of interested parties that has formed Motor Decisions Matter, a group that is hosting a website with information on motors to facilitate better decision-making on the subject.

Energy efficiency is arguably the primary factor in the Motors or Generators market,

because expenditures on energy consumption represent the vast majority of a motor’s total life-cycle costs. For instance, a low-voltage motor might cost $4000, whereas its associated annual energy cost might be on the order of $40,o00 if it runs a large percentage of the time (not uncommon in industrial settings).

Thus, each fractional gain of energy efficiency is huge, and paybacks on making an investment in a new motor might be as short as one year. For larger motors, it can be very economic to tear down and rebuild the windings to eke out a little more efficiency from the motor — that’s the Services part of GE Motors or Generators and Services.

As you might expect from such an industrial giant — one that was built upon electric energy – GE offers the full spectrum of electric Motors or Generators from 1 to 100,000 horsepower. Main targets for GE’s research agenda in motors centers on applications for electric vehicles, and also permanent-magnet motors to reduce the need for rare earth metals (as discussed in a prior posting of mine).

Other desired improvements in motor technology center on relability — particularly since industrial users have reduced inventories of spare Motors or Generators as capital budgets have been squeezed. Two particular challenges stand in the way of improved reliability. First, heat: as a rule of thumb, each 10 degree increase in internal temperature reduces motor life by 50%, so considerable attention is being paid to materials and heat dissipation approaches. Second, vibration: bearing failures account for 52% of all motor failures, and vibration is at the source of most of this issue.

I didn’t hear anything from the GE Motors or Generators representatives suggesting that a major revolution is on the way in the motor sector — although GE is more known for continuous incremental improvements than in profound breakthroughs — but it’s clear that motors continue to be a fertile ground for innovation, so many decades after they became commonplace.

It’s yet another a good reminder that all facets of the modern economy, even the most basic ones, are the subject of attention for innovation relevant to the cleantech sector.

Get Your Motors and Generators Running Energy Efficiently

Motors or Generators Running with Energy efficiency a must says GE Motors and Generators

http://pumpandgenerator.com/get-your-motors-and-generators-running-efficiently/

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