The Problem

An aggregates business, based in Stoke, who supply a wide range of materials to both commercial and private customers decided to sign up for the Climate Change Agreement (CCA) as part of an energy efficiency initiative.

One of their production processes relied on an old wound rotor motor to drive a fan and was started using a resistance starter to limit the current. The company realised that running a motor in this way was inefficient and wasting electricity and putting their CCA Milestone target at risk. In fact energy consumption for this fan was a very large proportion of the total electricity bill.

The motor was also becoming unreliable, disrupting production processes each time it broke down, resulting in loss of production for several days.

Sentridge’s Solution

Sentridge fitted a logger on to the motor to record energy use and the results showed that the average power consumption was 200KW. A new ABB 250KW Inverter Drive and Motor was fitted and the damper fully opened.

The results were a saving of around £27,000 and the running KWs dropped from 200KWs to 100KWs.

The Full Story

An aggregates business, based in Stoke, who  supply a wide range of materials to both commercial and private customers decided to sign up for the Climate Change Agreement (CCA) as part of an energy efficiency initiative.

CCA’S  are voluntary agreements made by UK industry and the Environment Agency to reduce energy use and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. In return, operators receive a discount on the Climate Change Levy (CCL), a tax added to electricity and fuel bills. The Environment Agency administers the CCA scheme on behalf of the whole of the UK.

One of their production processes relied on an old wound rotor motor to drive a fan and was started using a resistance starter to limit the current. The company realised that running a motor in this way was inefficient and wasting electricity and putting their CCA Milestone target at risk. In fact energy consumption for this fan was a very large proportion of the total electricity bill.

There was also a damper on the side of the fan housing which was fully closed during starting to reduce the starting current. After the motor was up to speed the damper was set to the half open position to achieve the desired air flow needed for the process.

Alongside the concerns about energy use, the old motor was breaking down frequently and proving costly to repair. Each time the motor broke down it resulted in downtime, often halting production for several days.

Sentridge fitted a logger on to the motor to record energy use and the results showed that the average power consumption was 200KW. Using current electricity costs and taking into account the number of hours the motor was running for, we calculated the motor was costing the business £53,800 per annum to run.

The information was entered into the ABB Energy Appraisal Generator which predicted savings in the region of 50% based on the damper being half closed.

We fitted a new ABB 250KW Inverter Drive and Motor was fitted and the damper fully opened.
The results were a saving of around £27,000 and the running KWs dropped from 200KWs to 100KWs. The payback on the drive investment was within 18 months

The CCA milestones were achieved up to 2020 and the customer saw an instant drop in his electricity bill from that day onwards.

For help and advice on reaching your CCA Milestone targets, please contact us.