Arçelik, one of the world’s leading manufacturers in home appliances industry, is championing new IE4 energy efficient motors to combat increasing energy consumption.
Along with increasing renewable energy generation, improving energy efficiency is vital to balancing increased consumption and reducing the external dependency of energy resources.
At present, electric motors consume 35% of the electricity used in Turkey, as they are used in a wide range of industrial applications within many different sectors. According to an Industry Motor research study published by the Ministry of Science Industry and Technology, there are more than four million AC electric motors over 7.5 kW in Turkey and 80-85% of these motors are classified in the ‘inefficient’ energy class.
Improving energy efficiency in electric motors is of utmost importance to leading white-goods, consumer electronics, industrial motors and compressors manufacturer, Arçelik. The company maintains its leadership in its home market and is the third largest player in the European home appliances industry. Arçelik provides products and services in more than 130 countries. It also operates sales and marketing offices in 31 countries, 11 brands and 18 manufacturing facilities in 7 countries, with a total workforce of 30,000 employees worldwide.
Arçelik passionately nurtures its global growth with greener production, better utilization of natural resources and sustainable business processes. This philosophy has helped Arçelik to become a multiple international award-winner for innovation, technology, resource efficiency, design and production. Arçelik pioneers the design and manufacture of green products, which are the best in their class in terms of energy efficiency, water efficiency and noise reduction.
Hakan Gedik, team leader of Arçelik’s Industrial Motor (WAT&TEE) R&D department, wants to turn the current inefficiency figures on their head. On Wednesday 16th November, he addressed an audience of academic researchers, motor users and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) at the CWIEME Istanbul exhibition for coil winding, insulation and electrical manufacturing in a seminar entitled Energy Efficiency in Induction Motors, Synchronous Reluctance Motors and Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motors. This was the second time Gedik had spoken at the event, having also presented at last year’s inaugural exhibition.
“The cost of replacement of these inefficient motors with IE3 efficient ones is approximately $4.3 billion,” said Gedik, who studied Electrical Engineering at Istanbul Technical University. “However, they will generate annual savings of $2.5 billion, meaning the investment of energy-efficient electric motors will be amortized over 1.7 years. Considering the electric motor will work for 10 years, the return time of this investment is very short.”
The replacement of inefficient motors with efficient ones will also have a positive impact on greenhouse gas emissions. “The largest share of greenhouse gas emissions in our country is in the energy sector,” he explained. “About 70% of the electricity used in the industry is consumed by electric motors; improving efficiency will help to reduce CO2 emissions.”
Although IE3 efficiency is acceptable, the industry is constantly striving to increase energy savings even further.
IE4 and beyond…
“When we look at the use of compulsory motor efficiency classes required by regulation for industrial motors, we see that IE3 provides the highest efficiency in its class,” Gedik said. “However, IE3 efficiency was created using similar methods used to create IE1 and IE2; in other words, it has its limitations. When the revised IEC 60034-30-1 EU regulations were announced in March 2014 – calling for greater efficiency – we knew we had to think differently to create IE4.
“While we used asynchronous motors, such as induction motors (IMs), to create IE1, IE2 and IE3, permanent magnet synchronous motors (PMSMs) and synchronous reluctance motors (SynRMs) have been introduced to create the efficiency levels required for IE4,” he explained.
Across the industry, motor producers are finding it much easier to access the desired level of efficiency with PMSM and SynRM. “IMs will remain in use as they still have their advantages,” Gedik concluded. “However, we’ve opened the door to the future of energy efficiency, not just in Turkey but globally. It’s an exciting time to be in the industry.”
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