EU efficiency motor rules to boost swappage scheme

London — ABB’s drives and motors swappage scheme, has taken on new importance with the introduction of the EU MEPS legislation for minimum efficiency levels of low voltage motors, according to the company.

The scheme allows companies to trade in their old drives and motors from any manufacturer for new ABB ones, It offers at least 17.5% discount off published list prices for new drives from 0.12 kW to 400 kW and new motors from 0.75 kW to 710 kW when old equivalent products are traded in.

The scheme was originally launched to coincide with the introduction of the government’s CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme. It was designed to give organisations an additional incentive to meet their carbon dioxide reduction commitment and reduce their energy consumption.

Organisations that take advantage of the swappage scheme will now also benefit from improved energy efficiency and reduced maintenance downtime, helping to lower costs after the new equipment is installed, said says Steve Ruddell, head of global marketing – motors and generators.

ABB is offering free energy appraisals of motor-driven applications across a building, plant or process that can reveal significant ways to reduce energy costs. These consist of an engineer assessing the installation; identifying areas that will yield the greatest return through upgrade; and determining the potential savings that can be achieved after new equipment is installed.

“The reliability of well-maintained drives gradually declines once they get to between 15 and 20 years of age,” says Ruddell. “To avoid costly downtime towards the end of the product’s life, our energy appraisal identifies the older drives, gives advice on the installation issues and recommends a drive replacement programme. As drive losses are typically reduced by more than 10% with a modern drive, the replacement and retrofit installation often pays for itself with the increased energy savings.”

The energy appraisal scheme addresses the need to reduce energy costs and the replacement drives market that continues to grow. It is expected that 40% of all new drive purchases will be replacing existing drives.

Also available is an assessment of a plant’s installed motors, called MotorAdvantage, aimed at companies operating a continuous process. The scheme involves a qualified engineer coming to site and identifying up to five critical motor applications that are running either continuously or for more than 4,000 hours per annum.

From this, ABB can assess the end-users current policy in the event of a motor failure and the financial impact on the company; identify improvements to be made with regards to policy and stockholding; and determine the energy use of the current installation. The findings are analysed and potential savings identified using dedicated software.

MotorAdvantage encourages the process industry to uncover the true cost of running electric motors. There is a widening gap between the value of new industrial low voltage motor sales in the UK – estimated at £70 million – and the motor repair industry which is conservatively valued at twice that amount.

“MotorAdvantage aims to elevate motors from being a hidden asset, with an out of sight out of mind maintenance approach, to an asset that can earn you real financial rewards immediately. We want to re-educate the market about the enormous savings that they could be making from this asset” said Ruddell.