Sparks Electrical News July 2022

CONTRACTORS’ CORNER

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Efficiency in electric motors drives savings, sustainability

I n the absence of legislation to drive energy effi ciency in South Africa, it is vital that local industries recognise the commercial benefit of converting to high efficiency motors, says Zest WEG sales manager for electric motors Francois Labuschagne. In pursuit of global targets to reduce the pace of climate change, many countries have legally enforced the use of certain efficiency classes of motor, but not South Africa. Labuschagne points out that as much as 40% of the power consumed on the national grid is to drive electric motors. This means that any improvement in motor efficiency would significantly reduce the total electricity load,

es, though, is that many companies incentivised their procurement departments to save money on upfront capital purchases – rather than on the broader cost to company. “Where purchasers do not understand where their motors’ real costs are incurred – that is, in their energy consumption – they will continue to pursue a false economy by choosing products with the lowest capital cost,” he says. “The small amount saved upfront is very quickly lost through higher running costs.” He points out that, as a global electric motor manufacturer, WEG has been making efficiency

and help reduce carbon emissions from coal-fired power generation. “However, even without being forced by law, mo tor users have a strong commercial incentive to install high efficiency motors,” he argues. “This is because a motor’s purchase price typically makes up only about 2% of its lifecycle cost over 10 years. With another 3% of this cost consumed by main tenance, a full 95% of the cost of running a motor is the energy it consumes.” It is clear, then, that reducing the energy con sumption is the best way of saving costs when it comes to operating motors. One of the challeng

A WEG IE4 super premium efficiency motor.

The WEG IE5 electronically commutated motors are well suited for fan applications.

A WEG IE5 electronically commutated motor.

An overview of global electric energy consumption.

innovations to its motors for decades – posi tioning it well to meet current and future market trends. In South Africa, Zest WEG has gone as far as to offer its IE4 super premium efficiency motors from 37 kW upwards at the same price as the IE3 premium efficiency units. “We have recently taken another important step in our efficiency and sustainability journey, offering the market our new IE5 motor – and tak ing our offerings into the ultra-premium energy efficiency class,” he says. “These motors are well suited for fan applications, and have great po tential in the agricultural sector in environments such as chicken farms.” Using smaller fans in these situations can give users the opportunity to install multiple units where they used to have only one large fan. As temperature conditions change throughout the day, one or more of the fans can be switched off completely, further reducing energy consumption. “We are very excited about this electronically commutated motor, which omes with an integrat ed variable speed drive (VSD) and can be locally or remotely controlled,” says Labuschagne.

Enquiries: www.zestweg.com

SPARKS ELECTRICAL NEWS

JULY 2022