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Processes driven by electric motors consume vast quantities
of electricity and even small improvements can lead
to dramatic savings. The installed base of ABB drives,
which control the power consumed by electric motors,
saves an equivalent of 180 million tons of CO2
each year .
ABB
has a wide range of energy-efficient products, including
advanced process control systems, automation products
and electrical equipment, but perhaps the most dramatic
savings of all come from our variable-speed drives,
which raise the efficiency of electric motors.
Electric motors are everywhere, and the machines they
run account for more than a quarter of the world’s
electricity consumption. Installing variable-speed
drives can reduce their power consumption dramatically,
typically by around 30 percent, leading to significant
cost savings and reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.
In applications in homes, businesses and factories,
ABB drives are helping our customers to do more using
less.
In Sweden, for example,
the operators of a power and district heating plant
run by Mälarenergi AB decided to install variable-speed
drives to control the performance of the many electric
motors in the plant following an energy audit carried
out by ABB.
ABB installed a total of eight medium-voltage drives,
some of which replaced the existing resistor-based
motor control systems. The improvements eliminated
significant heat losses caused by the resistors and
enabled the plant to produce an additional 35 GWh
of electricity per year, an increase of about 5 percent.
Better control
The vast majority of electric motors in such plants
control pump and fan operations, operating at full
speed, even when they don’t need to. Most are controlled
by throttling – which is like braking a car while
the accelerator is still flat on the floor. It damages
equipment and wastes huge amounts of energy. Resistors
and split-ring motors can also be used to control
process speeds, but this approach also wastes energy.
Variable- speed
drives offer an alternative, energy-efficient means
of motor control. Drives allow motors to draw only
the power they need to perform their tasks, cutting
waste and reducing wear and tear on equipment. They
also save on raw materials by improving the quality
of processes they control.
ACS
1000 drives, motors and pumps at Mälarenergi's
power and district heating plan.
Besides reducing power
consumption, the new installations also lowered Mälarenergi’s
carbon dioxide emissions and improved the reliability
of its district-heating network. The best news for the
plant’s operators was that the payback period of the
investment was just 12 months.
In 2009, The installed base of ABB drives saved an estimated
220 terawatt-hours of electric power, enough to meet
the annual needs of 54 million European households and
reduce global carbon dioxide emissions by some 180 million
tons a year. That’s like taking more than 45 million
European cars off the road for a year.
As society faces the challenge of reducing environmental
impact while meeting rising demand for electricity,
ABB’s drives will be making a positive contribution
for many years to come. |
