Living sustainably

Energy efficiency

Reference manual

  1. Introduction: setting the scene
  2. Selecting the best motor and equipment
  3. Commissioning
  4. Motor and system maintenance and operation
  5. Motor repair and replacement
  6. Utility management
  7. Maintenance management systems: plant inventory and records

Introduction: setting the scene

In Australia, more than 1.7 million three-phase electric motors run in industrial and commercial facilities, accounting for around 28 per cent of the country's electricity use. Every organisation runs at least one motor - if not hundreds or thousands - to drive pumps, fans, air compressors, conveyors, refrigeration equipment and other processes requiring motive force. The energy consumed costs Australian industry close to $3 billion a year and produces 37 million tonnes of carbon dioxide through burning fossil fuels.

There is real potential for your organisation to improve the reliability and efficiency of motors, reduce costs and achieve significant and cost-effective savings through implementing best practice selection and management of motor driven equipment. The potential savings are enormous when you consider that, for a typical organisation, running costs can be up to 100 times the purchase price of a motor over its service life, and around 60 per cent of your organisation's total energy costs.

Running costs

You can reduce the amount of energy a motor requires by an estimated 10 to 25 per cent through better selection and motor management practices - significantly reducing your organisation's greenhouse gas emissions. For Australian industry, each percentage point improvement in motor system efficiency translates to savings of about 400 000 MWh of electricity and an associated 400 000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions. This is like taking 9 000 cars off the road.

This reference manual details how you can achieve these energy efficiency savings, and improve the reliability of your equipment, through better:

  1. motor selection
  2. motor management and repair practices.

The Motor Solutions Online Reference manual

This manual is part of a suite of online material produced by the Energy Efficiency Best Practice (EEBP) program of the Department of Industry, Tourism and Resources. It explains how your organisation can achieve best practice in motor equipment selection and better motor management practices to overcome the barriers, identified through research by the Australian Greenhouse Office, which often prevent organisations from achieving maximum energy efficiency in motor systems. These barriers include:

  1. lack of understanding of the lifetime cost of a motor
  2. lack of adequate information, knowledge and technical skills
  3. traditional assessment of risk instead of profitability.

This section:

  1. describes the purpose of the Motor Solutions Online Reference manual
  2. highlights the other material available in the suite of Motors Solutions Online products
  3. introduces the concept of achieving best practice in motors.

The remaining six sections of the manual contain practical information to help you achieve best practice in the various stages of a motor's life cycle:

  1. Selecting the best motor and equipment
  2. Commissioning
  3. Motor and system maintenance and operation
  4. Motor repair and replacement
  5. Utility management
  6. Maintenance management systems: plant inventory and records

Achieving best practice

Best practice in motors involves:

  1. Selecting the motor with the lowest life cycle cost.
  2. Setting up and maintaining the motor properly to ensure a long life at peak performance.
  3. Making the correct repair and replacement decisions when a motor fails.
  4. Having good documentation so continuous improvement is possible.
  5. Managing your utilities to ensure the best outcome for your organisation.
  6. Integrating best practice into existing management systems (including quality assurance, environment and health and safety).
  7. Strong senior leadership.
  8. Well-trained and confident staff.

Best practice organisations also pay attention to the potential savings of 30 to 60 per cent that can be gained through a whole-of-systems approach to process optimisation and innovation. The level of savings from systems optimisation depends on the effort and money you invest, and the skills, imagination and motivation of your project team. This web site provides information on some aspects of system optimisation.

Motor Solutions

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