In ABB’s new report: The Industrial Efficiency Gap
ABB’s new report, The Industrial Efficiency Gap, reveals how high-efficiency industrial motors and generators can enable one of the largest untapped opportunities to save energy, cut costs, and reduce emissions in global industry
It is estimated that motors rated above 375kW account for 10.4% of global electricity demand today, which is projected to double by 2040. Examining a decade of data from ABB’s Västerås manufacturing facility in Sweden, of over 1,000 large synchronous motors and generators delivered globally between 2015 and 2025, the report finds that a gap in efficiency 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.
Applicable across the global installed base of similar equipment, this 0.2% gap is costing operators between $9.5 to $12 billion in unnecessary electricity costs and generating 60 to 70 million tonnes of avoidable CO2 over a 25-year asset life, despite a typical payback period of a few months to three years.
Industrial energy efficiency is becoming increasingly important as the global energy transition accelerates, with rising demand from AI and data centres adding pressure to electricity systems. Maximising the use of each unit of electricity, while reinforcing security of supply, is essential to addressing these challenges.
David Bjerhag, global business line manager, High Speed Synchronous, ABB, said, "Industry has spent decades optimising 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. The gap between a standard machine and a TIE-optimised 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 provide large synchronous motors and generators with the highest possible energy efficiency, without compromising reliability or compliance with specifications. Open to OEMs, EPCs, and end users, it can unlock solutions optimised for lifecycle performance rather than upfront cost.
The report underlines adoption trends by country and industry segment, showing how uptake varies across regions and applications. On average, the TIE option delivers 98.7-98.8% efficiency compared with a standard 98.5%, a 0.2% improvement that serves as a baseline, with gains of 1 to 1.5% achievable in some applications, particularly induction-based systems.
Applying the TIE 0.2% efficiency improvement across the global installed base of industrial motors and generators would save 4 to 6 TWh per year. Over a 25-year motor lifetime, that rises to 100 to 150 TWh of electricity saved, equivalent to powering the UK for five months, with associated CO2 reductions of 60 to 75 million tonnes.
To turn potential into impact, the report sets actions to accelerate adoption. It calls on industry to move beyond upfront cost and embed energy efficiency into procurement decisions, including specifying minimum performance levels and requesting optimised designs. It also emphasises the importance of using total cost of ownership as the primary decision metric to align incentives across engineering, procurement and energy management teams. Stronger collaboration among manufacturers, OEMs, and EPCs will be critical to ensuring that high-efficiency systems are specified early and delivered at scale.
The full report is available here.
