Michelin saves energy with ABB motors

ERJ staff report (DS)

Paris -- Michelin is reducing energy consumption at its plant in Valladolid in northern Spain by almost 400,000 kWh a year by installing over 400 high efficiency motors supplied by ABB. The return on investment for each of the 436 motors is estimated at just 1.4 years.

ABB recently conducted an energy efficiency audits at the factory which showed that the 436 low voltage motors in the factory were running at an average efficiency of just 76.9 percentleading to the waste of unnecessarily large amounts of electrical energy. Some of the motors were up to 20 years old. ABB showed that new high-efficiency motors could operate at 84.2 percent efficiency.

Each of the motors operates for 5,880 hours a year at 90 percent load and 100 percent of the time. The annual power consumption of each low efficiency motor was 10,322 kilowatt-hours (kWh), compared to 9,428 kWh for an ABB high efficiency motor.

The resultant energy saving is 895 kWh per motor. This adds up to 390,220 kWh for the entire installed base of 436 motors that ABB is currently replacing. With savings of this magnitude, the payback time for each motor is calculated by ABB at just 1.4 years.

Many of the motors are used to drive conveying systems within the factory.

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Press release from ABB