“The challenge for an industrial operator is knowing where to start in a fleet of hundreds of electrical motors,” said Adrian Guggisberg, division president of ABB Motion Services. “ABB developed the new Digital Powertrain Energy Appraisal service to provide clarity by analyzing motor data and identifying where businesses should focus investment to maximize energy efficiency gains that reduce operating costs and CO2 emissions.”

One operator reaping the benefits is Waggeryd Cell, a pulp mill in southern Sweden with industry-leading energy efficiency. In an effort to further improve the efficiency of its energy-intensive process, Waggeryd is building its ABB Ability^TM Condition Monitoring system. This draws data from digitally connected motors in refiners, process pumps, fans, and conveyor belts. Under the new Digital Powertrain Energy Appraisal service, ABB’s experts used data from the same sources to identify the 10 motors with the most potential for improving energy efficiency. Waggeryd has now prioritized replacement of six of these motors to reduce energy consumption as well as greenhouse gas emissions.

Traditionally, an energy efficiency appraisal requires time-consuming manual collection and evaluation of data and covers only the largest motor-driven systems on a site as these are typically seen as having the most potential for saving energy. However, this could overlook significant energy-saving opportunities for electric powertrains that are smaller, less accessible, or where energy-saving potential is not obvious.

The new digital appraisal service uses a plug and play approach to simplify energy efficiency assessments by pulling operational data remotely from across an entire fleet of digitally connected motors. This provides much deeper insight into the business case and carbon footprint benefits of upgrading to high-efficiency motor-driven systems, while being much safer and faster. For more information, visit https://global.abb/group/en.