As part of the scanning work for Extended Motor Products opportunities, the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance (NEEA) contracted with Cadeo Group to execute research on Power Drive Systems (PDS). PDS offer significant energy savings potential in commercial and industrial applications. However, while adoption of PDS has increased steadily since the mid-20th century, several barriers remain preventing even more widespread adoption. This report seeks to understand barriers to PDS adoption to better inform how to shift market acceptance of the product.
Findings from the report show that PDS can be more broadly applicable in constant load application and are cost effective, with average savings ranging from 23% (constant load) to 43% (variable load) in a range of systems and application types. Additionally, PDS can have a host of non-energy value that might prove beneficial for the market to accelerate the adoption in non-traditional applications. And, while this study focuses on pumps it is believed that the concepts and projections in this report will apply to fans and compressors.
