Motor Driven Systems Conference will show how to save energy
Last year saw the inaugural Motor Driven Systems (MDS) Conference take place — an industry-led attempt to widen the debate on how to achieve energy savings by taking a systems engineering approach to electric motors, writes Richard Burke, who considers the continuing relevance of energy conservation in the lead up to the 2012 MDS Conference
The adage that ‘success is a journey not a destination’ can be reflected by the continuing quest to find ever greater energy efficiencies.
Last year a group of five trade associations joined forces to inaugurate a conference dealing with motor-driven systems, which, together with pumps, fans and compressors, are responsible for 43 to 46% of the world’s electricity consumption, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).
The event returns this year with the Motor Driven Systems (MDS) Conference being held on 8 November 2012 at St. John’s Hotel, Solihull. It is again being presented under the aegis of FETA, BPMA, BCAS, BEAMA and GAMBICA — respectively the trade association bodies for fans, pumps, compressed air, motors, drives and controls.
The conference will examine not only current and forthcoming legislation on the subject but also focus on product and system technologies that lead to significant financial savings.
Mike Duggan, technical manager of FETA, believes the conference will help end users on both a general awareness level and a more practical and financial plane. He says, ‘This second MDS Conference is very timely in view of the policy emphasis in the UK and across Europe on the need to conserve energy via promoting energy-efficient products. The sessions on case studies and financial implications will be a great help to delegates. It is good that the fan and motor industries are taking a lead in this matter.’
A feature of the conference will be the presentation of case studies and papers by some of industry’s leading players including WEG, ebm-papst, ABB, Vacon Drives, Mattei Compressors, Schneider Electric, JTL Systems, Xylem and IMS Research.
Of course, manufacturers already work hand-in-hand with end-user companies in improving energy efficiencies.
ABB, for example, recently enabled Manchester Airport to save 4 GWh a year, in addition to cutting CO2 production by 2200 t a year by upgrading its air-handling units (AHUs) with low-voltage drives and high-efficiency motors.
The project involved replacing drives and motors in 95 AHUs throughout the airport’s Terminals 1, 2 and 3. Each AHU has a supply drive and motor and extract drive and motor, with motors ranging from between 3 and 90 kW.
The AHUs serving Terminal 1’s check-in hall were around 50 years old, and, as was normal practice at the time of original installation, they were oversized. By installing ABB’s IE2 high-efficiency motors and resizing them to a more suitable frame size, energy savings of 5% could be realised.
ABB also installed standard drives for HVAC on the two AHUs. Half-hourly energy meters were installed in order to monitor performance. By reducing the setpoint frequency from 50 to 40 Hz over a month period it was shown that savings of 50% could be made — with no noticeable change in the airflows provided by the AHUs.
The drives maintain the desired air flow by measuring the airflow in the supply air duct. A pressure-difference sensor is connected directly to the supply fan’s analogue input. The lower the airflow measured the faster the fan motor has to be rotated to reach the airflow set point.
Manchester Airport has a target to reduce its CO2 emissions by 27 000 t a year, so this single application with a saving of 2200 tons of CO2 a year accounts for almost 10% of that target.
The MDS Conference will be providing end users with a number of similar energy-saving products, systems and applications.
Richard Burke is with the organisers of the Motor Driven Systems Conference, which is organised by Touchwave Media. To book conference places contact Andrew Castle on 07785 290034 or log onto the link below.
