Intelligent motor control and drives have evolved from providing safe and flexible motor control to acting as smart energy managers. They perform critical protective, diagnostic, and troubleshooting functions to improve productivity and minimize downtime, especially in applications where even short periods of downtime can be costly. The document discusses a survey of electrical power system end users that found most operate systems 11-30 years old. While many exceed equipment suppliers' stated obsolescence dates, practices for justifying upgrades focus on lost production, failure costs, and failure frequency. Condition assessments before upgrades help prevent future downtime.

1. Energy Management and the
Evolution of Intelligent Motor
Control and Drives
Craig Resnick
Research Director
ARC Advisory Group
cresnick@arcweb.com

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© ARC Advisory Group
Energy Management and the Evolution of
Intelligent Motor Control and Drives
• Intelligent motor control & drives once provided a safe,
flexible & centralized means to control & protect motors
• Today, these devices have evolved to ‘smart’ energy
managers that bring advances ranging from complex
drive systems to basic control of fan or pump motors
• In high demand where uptime & equipment reliability
are critical, in applications where even a short period of
downtime can prove extremely costly & damaging
• These devices perform critical protective &
troubleshooting functions & detailed diagnostics to help
improve productivity & minimize downtime

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© ARC Advisory Group
Energy Management and the Evolution of
Intelligent Motor Control and Drives
• This session will address advances in
intelligent motor control and drives technology
• How devices leverage real-time monitoring &
integration into plant-wide networks
• Session is designed for end users, equipment
suppliers, and engineering service firms
• Those interested in Motor Control, Drives and
Energy Management Success Stories, as well as
all types of Electrical Power Systems

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© ARC Advisory Group
Energy Management and the Evolution of
Intelligent Motor Control and Drives
• Users of electrical power systems have
struggled with the issue of determining when
the useful lives of their systems are over
• Since these systems are crucial to the success
of operations from so many aspects, having a
strategy based on best practices is essential
• Modern electrical power systems are comprised
of many components that each have different
life expectancies, ranging from 5-50 years

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© ARC Advisory Group
Energy Management and the Evolution of
Intelligent Motor Control and Drives
• ARC conducted a best practices web survey for
electrical power systems that have extended
their life far beyond the original expectation
• Final results of web survey is based on 131
responses from end users, OEMs, & SIs
• The purpose of the survey is to determine the
current state of the market is & how it relates
to electrical power systems best practices

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Are you an end user of Electrical Systems (ES), OEM, or
Systems Integrator?
 A vast majority of the comments came from end
users, demonstrating that the subject of
Electrical Power Systems Lifecycle Management
is getting quite a bit of attention at the plant
level and visibility with upper management

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What is your industry?
 Industry split between refining, petrochemical,
chemical, and power generation, which will provide a
good representation of a similar scale of businesses and
operations with common issues and challenges
 Other industries represented include cement & glass,
upstream oil & gas, automotive, and aerospace

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What region are you in?
 North America dominated the respondents,
indicating that this is a bigger issue for older,
established plants and not yet on the priority
lists of newer plants in developing countries,
especially in China and Eastern Europe

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© ARC Advisory Group
Approximately, how many industrial plants/facilities does
your company operate that contain electric power systems?
 Interesting that the companies with the most
plants had the most interest in this survey,
but the issues also strongly resonated with
companies with a single plant as well as the
mid-size companies with 11-20 plants

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© ARC Advisory Group
When a new Electrical System/Equipment is installed in a
facility, what to you expect the operable lifecycle of the
system and equipment/components to be?
 Transformers had by far the longest lifecycle
expectation (>40 years), followed by Switchgear
and Motor Control Centers. Uninterruptable
Power Systems and Variable Speed Drives had
the shortest lifecycle expectations (<15 years)

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© ARC Advisory Group
Approximately, what is the average age of
installed Electrical Systems in your Company?
 65 percent of the respondent's installed
systems were between the ages on 11 and 30
years old, demonstrating that this is the time
period where lifecycle management is most
prevalent on the plant’s priority lists

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Do you consider the supplier's published obsolescence date, the date which
repair of components & technical support is no longer offered by the supplier,
to be the date an electrical system or equipment is considered obsolete?
 A mixed opinion regarding published
obsolescence dates, with some companies
feeling that if the secondary market and third
parties can support the product, as well as their
own inventory of parts and components, then
the product is not considered obsolete

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© ARC Advisory Group
Have you utilized electrical equipment or systems beyond
the supplier's stated obsolescence date? If yes, how long?
 Virtually all respondents use their electrical
equipment beyond the stated obsolescence date,
with the majority exceeding that date by
between 1-5, 5-10, and over 10 years, with the
feeling that the obsolescence date is supplier -
biased towards shortening product lifecycle

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© ARC Advisory Group
Do you use a standard lifecycle criteria
when accepting new Electrical Equipment?
 A surprising number of companies had no
standard lifecycle criteria when accepting new
equipment, and many others just relied on the
minimum MTBF/MTTR information provided by
the suppliers as the standard lifecycle criteria

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Indicate the practices you use for justification for
upgrade projects for your Electrical Equipment/Systems
 Practices for
upgrade
justification varied
somewhat evenly
between Lost
Production, Failure
Costs, and Failure
Frequency, with
Improved
Performance and
Obsolescence
slightly behind.
However, Amortized
Costs were virtually
not a significant end
of life factor at all

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Do you have an Electrical System Lifecycle
Management Policy?
 Somewhat surprising how many of the
respondent’s companies had no official
electrical system lifecycle management policy,
relying on the individual opinions of plant
personnel for decision making criteria

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© ARC Advisory Group
Which of the following is most likely to trigger upgrade
planning for your Electrical Equipment/Systems?
 The most common
factor to trigger
upgrade planning is
lost production,
because it gets the
most attention of
the plant personnel
and visibility of
management,
making it easier to
financially justify
getting capital
funds approved

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Do you conduct System/Equipment
condition assessment before the upgrade?
 Conducting a Systems/Equipment condition
assessment before an upgrade is an essential
step, especially to take advantage of the
scheduled downtime by upgrading all that
needs to be done to best prevent potential
future unscheduled downtime incidents

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© ARC Advisory Group
Considering that a typical Electrical System is made up of multiple layers or
subsystems with different life expectancies, would you or have you planned
on wholesale migration to a new Electrical System or would you do in phases
 Strong response that any Electrical Systems
migration would be performed in phases, in a
scalable fashion, designed to minimize any lost
production time, regardless of the number of
layers, subsystems, or different equipment life
cycles of the existing systems

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Survey Conclusions
• The sizeable and rapidly aging installed base must be
upgraded, but management will only approve projects
that have specific beneficial econometrics
• For justification & approval to upgrade electrical power
systems, with scarce CAPEX funds, emphasize the costs
of lost production, the cost of failure, energy savings ROI
• Getting justification based simply on upgrading to the
latest version is not a successful strategy, or even trying
to use argument regarding equipment obsolescence
• Leverage the success stories from Woodard and Curran
& MGM Resorts International to help you with the
justification needed to upgrade MCCs and Drives

21. Thank You
For more information, contact the author at
cresnick@arcweb.com or visit our web pages at
www.arcweb.com