On a recent conference call, CEE’s Motors and Motor Systems Committee considered comments from a variety of stakeholders on its Guidance Specification for Large (250-500) hp, Low-Voltage, General-Purpose Motors.
Based on the committee’s consensus response to the comments, the draft will be revised. It is anticipated that the final draft will be submitted to the Board of Directors in June as a revision to CEE’s Premium-Efficiency Motors Initiative.
Among the stakeholders providing comments were four motor manufacturers, three CEE members, the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA), the Electrical Apparatus Service Association (EASA) and three other interested parties.
The Premium-Efficiency Motors Initiative currently addresses 1-200 hp, low-voltage, general-purpose motors, and aligns with the NEMA Premium® efficiency levels for this range of equipment. The Guidance Specification outlines an approach for including larger NEMA Premium motors (250-500 hp) in the initiative.
The Guidance Specification recommends a custom (case-by-case) approach to addressing motors in the 250-500 hp range rather than the prescriptive (specification-oriented) approach recommended for 1-200 hp equipment.
Recognizing that many CEE member programs already follow a customer approach for these motors, the Guidance Specification has been designed to:
1) recommend a custom approach
2) highlight the potential value of NEMA Premium® motors
3) provide a framework for helping program administrators integrate consideration of NEMA Premium® motors in their custom programs.
”NEMA Premium motors may or may not be the best option for a given application,” said CEE Industrial Program Manager Ilene Mason, who is coordinating this project.
“We are recommending that programs ensure that the opportunity not be overlooked, i.e., that NEMA Premium motors be considered as part of the standard engineering analysis for custom projects that include motors.”
The technical guidance portion of the Guidance Specification outlines issues to consider during this analysis. “The Guidance Specification alerts program administrators to relevant issues that they might want to evaluate and consider. It is not intended as a checklist of items to include in custom project analyses,” explained Mason.
“Development of performance and/or eligibility requirements should be left to the discretion of the program administrators.
“Educating in-house project development and evaluation teams as well as outside contractors will be an important aspect of implementation. The scope of this change would not be impacted by proposed motor standards legislation.”
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