How Efficient Is Your Escalator?

Airports are looking for ways to make escalators more energy efficient. Power Efficiency Corporation, which focuses on efficiency technologies for electric motors, recently received initial purchase orders for installations on escalators at two of the nation’s top 25 airports by passenger traffic.

The Company believes transit facilities, such as airports and subway systems, are an attractive market for its motor efficiency controller with E-Save Technology because of the relatively large number of escalators at many facilities, the long duty cycles, and government mandates to become more energy efficient and reduce green house gas emissions.

The company says it installed the E-Save system at the Los Angeles metro over the summer. It’s also deployed the technology in department stores and malls in southern California. The company says the system can improve the efficiency of electric motors by 15-35 percent.

According to a company case study, a 2006 install of Power Efficiency’s motor efficiency controller at the Bellagio Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas lowered the average kW used on the escalators from 7.00 kW to 4.40 kW for a 37 percent power savings and annual cost savings of $2,049.84 based on $0.09/kW.