Efficient Plant May 2022 - 4

column | editorial
A Look at
Manufacturing's
Backbone
Gary L. Parr
Editorial Director
P
EOPLE CHARGED WITH
maintaining motors are keenly
aware of the role they play in the
industrial environment. That role is so
critical that motors could arguably be
described as the backbone of manufacturing.
They are such a part of plant life
that it's possible to lose track of their
importance, until one fails.
An updated study (Sept. 2021), conducted
for the U.S. Department of Energy
by Prakash Rao, Paul Sheaffer, Yuting
Chen, et al., at Lawrence Berkeley National
Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, provides us
with some perspective on the importance
of motors. The report, U.S. Industrial
and Commercial Motor System Market
Assessment Report, is in three volumes.
The revised report is Volume 1: Characteristics
of the Installed Base. Volumes two
and three are apparently yet to come. Volume
two addresses the motor and drive
supply chain and volume three looks
at energy-savings opportunities in the
installed motor base. For maintenance
strategy development the upcoming volumes
likely will provide valuable insight.
Understanding how prevalent motors
Industrial and commercial three-phase
motor systems, greater than or equal to 1 hp,
consume ~1,079 terawatt-hours (TWh)/year,
about 29% of the total electric-grid load.
4 | EFFICIENTPLANTMAG.COM
are in the industrial setting is informative,
in the least. Here are some findings:
Industrial and commercial threephase
motor systems, greater than or
equal to 1 hp, consume ~1,079 terawatt-hours
(TWh)/year, about 29% of
the total electric-grid load.
Industrial motors consume 546,963
gigawatt-hours (GWh), about 69% of
all electricity consumption and 13% of
overall energy consumption in the
industrial/commercial sector.
Twenty-nine percent of all industrial-sector
motor-system electricity consumption
involves some form of materials
processing. That is followed by 21% for
pumps and 21% for fans and blowers.
Seventy-five percent of industrial
motor-system electricity consumption is
attributed to 1-to-500-hp motor systems.
Forty-nine percent of industrial
facilities consider energy efficiency in the
procurement of motor-system components
and 58% consider energy efficiency
in the design of new motor systems.
There are some interesting findings in
the maintenance portion of the report:
Only 13% of facilities had an inventory
of their motors, spare and connected.
It is estimated that industrial facilities
experience more than 6 million hours
annually of unplanned motor-system
downtime, due to failure.
In the industrial sector, 54% of all
facilities have a repair/replace policy, with
the leading criteria guiding the policy
being lowest first cost, which is used by
36% of facilities. Only 8% use a lowest
lifetime-running cost approach. In the
2002 report, 62% used capital cost as the
primary replacement criterium.
For repairs, 12% of industrial facilities
always use an EASA Accredited or Green
Motor Practices Group Motor Service
Center, 3% mostly do, 4% sometimes do,
10% never do, and 60% did not know.
The 252-page report is worth downloading.
It provides a thorough perspective
of how motors are employed in the
industrial and commercial sectors. When
it comes to energy and maintenance, I
couldn't help but ask, why aren't more
people doing the things that improve
motor performance and reliability? I was
particularly bothered that 70% don't use
credentialed repair services or don't know
the qualifications of those who work on
their motors. Download the report at
https://doi.org/10.2172/1760267. EP
-gparr@efficientplantmag.com
MAY 2022
https://www.doi.org/10.2172/1760267 http://www.EFFICIENTPLANTMAG.COM
Efficient Plant May 2022

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