ABB: Poor Motor Specification is Costing Industry Billions

The construction industry could significantly reduce operating costs, energy consumption and carbon emissions by specifying higher-efficiency motors and generators in building projects. 

Research by ABB, one of the world's largest manufacturers of industrial motors and generators, outlined in its Industrial Efficiency Gap report shows motors and generators that are rated above 375 kW account for an estimated 10.4% of global electricity demand today. That figure is projected to double by 2040.

The Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) sector traditionally focuses on materials, labour and scheduling during planning and design stages. This often overlooks efficiencies that can be made with the motors and generators that will run continuously for 25 years, long after the project is completed.

According to ABB’s analysis, a 0.2% efficiency gap between what is routinely specified and what is achievable is costing operators between US$9.5bn and US$12bn in unnecessary electricity costs over a 25-year asset life. 

It is also generating between 60 and 75 million tonnes of avoidable CO₂ emissions, which is equivalent to permanently removing between 13 and 16 million cars from the road. 

A specification problem, not a technology problem

Motor and generator selection happens early in a build project. More often than not, an assessment is made on only upfront and install costs, which means standard equipment presents the most cost-efficient option on paper.

ABB makes the point that the engineer who is motivated to keep project costs to a minimum, and the facility manager who pays the energy bill for the rest of the motor’s lifetime, are not the same person. 

ABB's Top Industrial Efficiency initiative, known as TIE, is its contractual commitment to deliver motors and generators at the highest achievable efficiency using proven commercially available technology. The technology is there, says ABB, it simply is not being specified.

Applying the TIE approach across the global installed base would save between four and six TWh of electricity per year, according to the manufacturer. Over a 25-year motor lifetime that rises to between 100 and 150 TWh, equivalent to powering the United Kingdom for five months.

The report draws on a decade of data from its Västerås facility in Sweden covering more than 1,000 large synchronous motors and generators delivered worldwide between 2015 and 2025. 

"The gap between a standard machine and a TIE-optimised one is not technological," says David Bjerhag, Global Business Line Manager at ABB. "It is a specification gap. The companies closing it fastest are the ones where the engineer who selects the motor and the CFO or CSO responsible for energy performance are aligned around a single metric: total cost of ownership."

What needs to change

The report calls on industry to use total cost of ownership as the primary decision metric, rather than purchase price, and to specify minimum performance levels from the outset.

For construction and EPC teams that is a cultural shift as well as a technical one. At the moment procurement, engineering and energy management teams rarely work together, but that is what needs to happen.

As scrutiny of operational carbon in the built environment intensifies, the assets that construction firms select will be judged on how they perform over decades and not just how they were built. 

Getting motor specification correct is one of the lowest-cost but fastest-payback optimisations that can be made at the design and planning stage.