The European Motor Challenge Programme - Evaluation 2003-2009

The Motor Challenge Programme (MCP) was a voluntary commitment scheme launched by the European Commission at the beginning of 2003 to activate European companies to implement energy efficiency measures for motors. The scheme was based on the knowledge of the vast potential for energy efficiency in electrical drives and motors in the producing and processing industries. This report presents the analysis of the scheme by end of 2009. In addition to submitting an official Partnership declaration, companies were asked to draft and hand in Action Plans, which could include measures in six different areas relevant for electrical drives as well as management. The commitment toward MCP required Partners to report on the actual savings and measures implemented on a regular basis. By the end of 2009, the MCP comprised a total of 93 companies, on which this general analysis it based. A few other Partners were excluded from the analysis, because they did not hand in more than a declaration to participate. The 93 MCP Partners come from a surprising wide range of industrial sectors with the focus on production and processing originating from 16 countries in the European Union. Only a handful came from service related sectors. The largest groups of MCP partners came from food production (13 %), metal and steel (12 %) and water supply (9 %). Micro and small sized companies were in the minority, whereas the largest proportion was either medium or large size companies. With industrial companies from the private sector MCP addressed a target group rather difficult to activate and involve into a long-term commitment. Within the course of the project, companies were subject do site shut-downs, buy-outs or mergers. In addition, MCP contacts within the companies changed quite frequently. All this resulted in the fact that the actual implementation status of those activities stated in the Action Plans is unclear for 46 % of the cases analysed. For these, the best possible implementation scenario was assumed. In total, the 93 MCP Partners stated 283 different energy efficiency measures related to areas relevant for electrical drives. The area with the highest number of measures was the genuine MCP core area of "drives", followed by "compressed air" and "fans and ventilation". 48 % of the total estimated savings were implemented in the area of drives. In total all MCP measures resulted in an estimated annual energy saving of 183,300 MWh and savings of 87,250.8 tons of carbon missions per year, which represents an estimated 0.02 % reduction of the total energy consumption in EU 27's industry.