Overview

EPAct class, 3 phase electric motors consume upwards of 40% of all the electricity in the US. For many Industrial facilities, 75+% of their electrical usage is from these motors. And yet many facility managers are unaware of this, or the vast energy savings and reliability potential an optimized motor system can afford.
Various program models have been implemented nationwide to increase the market penetration of NEMA Premium electric motors. These usually focus on overcoming “first cost” barriers. However, cost is often not the most important element to the industrial purchaser, and in any event, the energy saving often far outweigh any rebate. It is through education and Motor Management that a facility can realize long term savings and reliability.

As a U.S. Department of Energy Allied Partner, APT has been disseminating materials, resources and education for over 10 years.

Best Practice Motor Management

This 3-4 hour training workshop was designed to address how to evaluate a facility’s motor population, quantify the savings potential, work Life Cycle Costing into the purchasing process and manage this inventory going forward.

The workshop works from a decision tree that teaches attendees:

1. Developing a Company Purchasing Policy based on Life Cycle Costing
2. Repair or Replace
3. Purchasing quality repair when indicated
4. Choosing NEMA Premium vs. standard efficiency motors
5. Retrofit potentials
6. Identifying motor system energy saving opportunities (VFD, power quality, etc.)

This training workshop also introduces attendees to the D.O.E. Motor Master+ software, which is offered free to them. Using Motor Master+, real life examples from attendees are analyzed and used as the basis for demonstrating energy savings potential, planning and purchasing, and motor population maintenance.

The ease of Motor Master+ combined with the simple payback reports help busy facility managers make Best Practice purchasing decisions quickly and accurately, thereby overcoming the “first cost” resistance from purchasing department.

Most attendees embrace this new found knowledge and immediately seek to inventory and analyze their motor populations, and develop purchasing policies to ensure persistence in purchasing NEMA Premium motors.

Summery of Results

APT has trained over 1,500 facility managers, engineers and electricians in Best Practice Motor Management and has installed and implemented over 500 Motor Master software packages at industrial facilities.