The ABB drives and motors swappage scheme is expected to experience increased demand with the introduction of EU legislation for minimum efficiency levels of low voltage motors.
The scheme, which gives companies the chance to trade in their old drives and motors from any manufacturer for new ones from ABB, offers at least 17.5 per cent discount off published list prices for new drives from 0.12-400kW and new motors from 0.75-710kW when old equivalent products are traded in.
Organisations that take advantage of the swappage scheme will also benefit from improved energy efficiency and reduced maintenance downtime, helping to lower costs after the new equipment is installed.
The scheme was originally launched to coincide with the introduction of the Government's CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme. Steve Ruddell, head of global marketing - motors and generators said: 'The scheme aims to give organisations an additional incentive to meet their carbon dioxide reduction commitment and reduce their energy consumption.'
ABB is also offering a free, no obligation energy appraisal of motor-driven applications across a building, plant or process that can reveal significant ways to reduce energy costs. The energy appraisal consists of an engineer assessing the installation; identifying areas that will yield the greatest return through upgrade; and determining the potential savings that can be achieved after new equipment is installed.
Mr Ruddell continued: 'The reliability of well-maintained drives gradually declines once they get to between 15 and 20 years of age. To avoid costly downtime towards the end of the product's life, our energy appraisal identifies the older drives, gives advice on the installation issues and recommends a drive replacement programme. As drive losses are typically reduced by more than 10 per cent with a modern drive, the replacement and retrofit installation often pays for itself with the increased energy savings.'
The energy appraisal scheme addresses the need to reduce energy costs and the replacement drives market that continues to grow. It is expected that 40 per cent of all new drive purchases will be replacing existing drives.
Also available is an assessment of a plant's installed motors, called MotorAdvantage, aimed at companies operating a continuous process. The scheme involves a qualified engineer coming to site and identifying up to five critical motor applications that are running either continuously or for more than 4,000 hours per annum. From this, ABB says it can assess the end-users current policy in the event of a motor failure and the financial impact on the company; identify improvements to be made with regards to policy and stockholding; and determine the energy use of the current installation. The findings are analysed and potential savings identified using dedicated software.
MotorAdvantage encourages the process industry to uncover the true cost of running electric motors. There is a widening gap between the value of new industrial low voltage motor sales in the UK - estimated at £70 million - and the motor repair industry which is conservatively valued at twice that amount.
For more information on ABB's swappage scheme or MotorAdvantage call 07000 DRIVES (374837) or 07000 MOTORS (668677); or email:
energy@gb.abb.com quoting reference 'Swappage/MotorAdvantage.'
