Motor Efficiency

The Silent Catalyst of India's Green Industrial Revolution

- by Mayur Karmarkar

With India's industrial sector consuming nearly half of the nation's electricity and motors accounting for close to 70 per cent of this demand, this article by Mayur Karmarkar argues that motor efficiency is one of India's most underleveraged yet high-impact pathways to industrial decarbonization. In advanced economies such as the EU, USA, China, and Japan where IE3 has long served as the baseline, the article emphasizes the pressing need for India to swiftly elevate its Minimum Energy Performance Standards (MEPS) in order to maintain its global competitiveness, curb emissions, and reinforce the resilience of its manufacturing sector. The article also emphasizes the critical role of copper in enabling this efficiency shift, improving reliability, reducing heat losses, and supporting India's circular economy and Atmanirbhar Bharat goals.

India's industrial sector consumes 42 per cent of the nation's electricity—about 1,622 TWh—and nearly 70 per cent of its powers electric motors. These machines silently drive production across sectors, yet their efficiency remains largely ignored. With industry contributing around 30 per cent of India's greenhouse gas emissions, improving motor efficiency represents one of the fastest and most cost-effective routes to decarbonization as India targets Net Zero by 2070.

While rising share of renewable energy in India's energy mix is already reducing emissions, but as per the Central Electricity Authority (CEA), the share of power generation through fossil fuels remains high at 78 per cent. This presents a significant opportunity to reduce fossil fuel-based power consumption by implementing energy-efficiency measures on the demand side.