As National Business Development Manager for Strategic Solutions at the leading electrical solutions provider IPD, Kurt Martin is very familiar with how much difference the right motor starting solution can make when it comes to energy efficiency.
According to the International Energy Agency’s World Energy Outlook, the water sector globally makes up four per cent of the world’s electricity consumption, roughly equivalent to the share of energy used by Australia as a whole. The water and waste sector in Australia consumed 18.9 petajoules of energy in the 2021-22 fiscal year.
According to an expert from electrical engineering company ABB, the motors that run a water facility’s pumps are responsible for more than 90 per cent of its electricity use. Because these motors and drives are such important components of the water treatment and distribution process, utilities can save thousands of dollars each month by making them more efficient.
“The water corporations I work with are looking at energy efficiencies across their total assets because, across their sites, motors are one of their biggest electricity users,” Martin said. “It is a big cost to the business.”
And energy efficiency gains matter for more than just financial reasons. For the companies Martin works with, more efficient motor starting solutions have the benefit of helping to meet regulatory requirements as well as environmental goals.
“Reducing carbon emissions is definitely part of the thought process,” he said.
Martin identifies a host of services IPD offers as driving these efficiencies, including market-leading efficient motors and starting solutions, energy-appraisal reporting tools and harmonics mitigation solutions.
Stop slipping
Although Martin’s experience is in the water sector, IPD supplies electrical solutions across many industries, from manufacturing to mining, food and beverage to oil and gas.
The challenges these customers experience around motor control are familiar ones to Martin, and, in response, IPD is able to deliver energy efficient and sustainable solutions.
“Where you use motors in your production, we can save you money by providing a better solution to how your operations run,” he said.
“And when it comes to electric motors, we’ve got the perfectly matched world-class drives that control those motors, saving energy and providing more sustainable solutions at the end of the day.”
IPD’s range of ABB motors include synchronous reluctance motors rated IE5, representing the highest level of energy efficiency.
“The synchronous reluctance motor is a different design to an inductive motor, and it delivers huge energy efficiencies, particularly for larger installs,” Martin said.
“The design of the motors doesn’t allow for any slippage, greatly reducing the energy losses.”
Looking for savings
By supplying a broad range of products, IPD’s able to offer the company’s energy appraisal tool, which gives detailed insight into the performance of a customer’s motor-driven applications.
“The tool allows you to put the existing application in, then pick a more efficient motor or, if there’s a soft starter or no drive, a more efficient drive,” Martin said.
“Then once you put in the installation costs, it gives you a predicted return on investment for the upgrade by quantifying electricity usage, calculating potential savings, determining applications that require further analysis, and identifying how modernisation can deliver short-term gains.”
A review like this can provide a powerful argument for water providers who want to show the value of investing in upgraded equipment. Martin usually advises starting with a council or water corporation’s pump station, because that’s often consuming the most electricity at a site.
“A lot of the regional councils that I deal with have maintenance issues with sites that they’re continually having to go to and fix. They want to upgrade the sites, but it can be difficult to get the funding for that,” he explained.
“I say, ‘we don’t have to look at every single asset, but let’s look at your worst-performing assets. We’ll do a review, and that will give you an understanding of what the return on investment is’.”
If a customer has a motor starting application that is currently running direct-on-line or DOL, which can be upgraded to incorporate a soft starter or variable speed drive to control the operation of the motor, the upgrade will usually deliver a return on investment after approximately eight to eighteen months.
“A lot of the time, that’s a no-brainer,” Martin said.
Working in harmony
Another way IPD delivers efficiency gains is addressing issues with harmonics, which can result in reduced power quality, additional equipment heating and torque pulsations in motors.
“Harmonics have been a big focus of my strategy for the last three years,” Martin said.
“A lot of electrical devices create harmonics, but drives are one of the big ones. Those harmonics get pushed out on the power side, and that causes issues with anything else connected to that power, such as instrumentation.”
In one case, Martin worked with a regional council that was adding a new pump station to a network whose mains power included hospitals along with residential and commercial sites.
“They didn’t want to risk harmonics being pushed into the hospitals,” he said.
“You can solve the problem with a drive and a separate active harmonic filter, but we have a unique solution that has it all built in, which means the drive doesn’t actually create any harmonics.”
Harmonics can also interfere with resident’s home electronics, such as television sets, leading to complaints to the council, as well as negative attention from other authorities.
“The electricity distribution network operator is very strict in regard to harmonics, and that’s as per IEEE 519 standards, which clearly state what harmonics levels you can and can’t push out,” Martin said.
“Smart meters are able to monitor those harmonics, and operators could be looking at fines in the future if their levels are too high.”
Find out how IPD’s Energy Appraisal can identify solutions to improve your business’s energy efficiency and sustainability.
