According to an annual estimate of savings report by ABB, the company's installed drives saved about 310 million megawatt-hours (MWh) of electric power in 2011 — equivalent to 260 million tons of CO² emissions — a 19% percent increase compared to 2010. Companies install electric drives to control the amount of energy consumed by electric motors. Electric motors use roughly 25% of electricity consumed worldwide in industries such as those that pump water, run fans and air conditioning, use conveyor belts, elevators, etc."The future potential for energy and cost savings is enormous, since only about 10 percent of industrial motors are combined, currently, with electric drives," said Ulrich Spiesshofer, member of the Group Executive committee and head of ABB's Discrete Automation and Motion division. "Using energy more efficiently will remain, for a significant time, the biggest opportunity available to cut energy consumption, as well as costs and emissions."View ABB's inforgraphic that demonstrate how an electric drive regulates the performance of an electric motor: www.abb.com/product/ap/db0003db004052/ced766241e316af5c12578b00051d2d9.aspx*NOTE: ABB's annual savings estimate is based on a comparison of the average electricity consumption in applications with and without drives.
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