Motor Costs: partner and plan ahead to save money.

It's critical to maintain your motor system and have a plan for when a motor fails. Since motor systems account for approximately 60% to 70% of the total electricity used in a facility, a properly maintained and operating motor can reduce downtime, increase reliability and boost productivity.

98% of your motor expense goes toward operating it versus only 2% to buy it. That means buying a motor based on cost rather than efficiency will actually cost you more in the long run. That's why Xcel Energy recommends NEMA Premium^® motors for long-term savings.

As a business electricity customer, you can realize rebates for new motors, motors upgrades, variable/adjustable drives and custom projects that offset your critical first cost.

Plan ahead to reduce cost and stress associated with motor replacement.

Unfortunately, even the most reliable motors don't last forever and eventually you'll need to replace your equipment. Having a motor purchase plan in place before it fails will ease the transition to a new system.

Xcel Energy has outlined the basic steps of creating a motor purchase plan and offers links to additional resources. As a sponsor of Motor Decisions Matter campaign (MDM), we offer an array of tools to demonstrate the financial benefits of developing a plan that's right for you. (Learn more at www.motorsmatter.org.) We also offer cash rebates for eligible equipment purchases to Xcel Energy business customers. (Learn more at xcelenergy.com/motorefficiency.)

Plan ahead.

1. Create an inventory list.
   A failure to inventory and plan for failure can cost you a lot. Motor vendors have tools/software to catalog and determine appropriate actions. Xcel Energy has a sponsored MDM motor planning kit, as well as an MDM sponsored calculator to help estimate annual energy cost, capital investment, payback and more.
   • Identify the replacement motor inventory you'll need
   • Address the critical motors first
   • Keep your records and make them available to maintenance professionals
2. Develop a Plan—Choose to repair, replace or rewind.
   • Determine the breakeven point
   • Communicate with management regarding the economics
3. Create the specifications list.
   A list identifies the basic requirements and performance characteristics needed. Be sure to include:
   • NEMA Premium^® Motors
     
   • Same voltage and frequency as the facility where the motor will operate
   • NEMA frame sizes (feet, inches) on new equipment for future replacement
   • Specialty motors like non-NEMA, metric, DC that will work with NEMA motors and drives
   • Speed equal to the motor being replaced
4. Select a quality vendor.
5. Create a schedule for decisions, procurement, repair, prevention and predictive maintenance.

Offset your purchase cost with rebates from Xcel Energy.

Xcel Energy offers prescriptive and custom rebates for installing NEMA Premium motors, "enhanced" NEMA Premium motors and VFDs (variable frequency drive-VFD, adjustable speed drives-ASD). Within each motor grouping are rebate categories for new motor purchases and upgrade motor purchases.

Enhanced NEMA Premium efficiency thresholds are 1% higher than NEMA Premium. Motors must meet or exceed this threshold for the enhanced rebate amount.

Variable Frequency Drives

For more information on getting started, please visit http://www.xcelenergy.com/motorefficiency.