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ABB report shows how a 0.2 percent motor efficiency gain could unlock billions for industry
ABB's new report, The Industrial Efficiency Gap, shows how high-efficiency industrial motors and generators can unlock one of the largest untapped opportunities to save energy, cut costs and reduce emissions in global industry.
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ZURICH, May 28, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- ABB's new report, The Industrial Efficiency Gap, shows how high-efficiency industrial motors and generators can unlock one of the largest untapped opportunities to save energy, cut costs and reduce emissions in global industry. Motors rated above 375 kW account for an estimated 10.4 percent of global electricity demand today, a figure projected to double by 2040. Examining a decade of data from ABB's Västerås manufacturing facility in Sweden, of more than 1,000 large synchronous motors and generators delivered worldwide between 2015 and 2025, the report finds that a significant efficiency gap persists between what is routinely specified and what is achievable through ABB's Top Industrial Efficiency (TIE) approach, which focuses on specifying the highest efficiency motor or generator using proven commercially available technology. Applied across the global installed base of similar equipment, this 0.2 percent gap is costing operators between $9.5 to $12 billion in unnecessary electricity costs and generating 60 to 75 million tons of avoidable CO₂ over a 25-year asset life - despite a typical payback period of a few months to up to three years. Industrial energy efficiency is gaining importance as the global energy transition accelerates, with rising demand from AI and data centers adding pressure to electricity systems. Maximizing the use of each unit of electricity, while strengthening security of supply, is central to addressing these challenges. "Industry has spent decades optimizing what happens inside a plant. Yet large motors and generators have rarely been part of that conversation, even though they run continuously for 25 years and sometimes even more, converting more energy to motion than almost anything else on site," said David Bjerhag, Global Business Line Manager, High Speed Synchronous, ABB. "The gap between a standard machine and a TIE-optimized one is not technological. It is a specification gap. The companies closing it fastest are the ones where the engineer who selects the motor and the CFO or CSO responsible for energy performance are aligned around a single metric: total cost of ownership." The TIE initiative is ABB's contractual commitment to deliver large synchronous motors and generators with the highest possible energy efficiency, without compromising reliabil...