Digitalization in Electric Motor-Driven Systems: Skills for Reducing Energy Use of Electric Motor-Driven Systems

Digitalization brings “smart” applications to all kinds of industrial energy systems, of which electric motor-driven systems take the largest part of the industrial electricity use. Electric motor-driven systems (EMDS) are currently responsible for some 53% of global electricity consumption (IEA 2017), and approximately 70% of the industrial electricity use. Data analytic skills are quite different from the skills required to design and optimize electric motor-driven systems. In the transition of a motor system into a “smart” system, the manufacturers of the main components have a strong position. With the integration of a smart motor-driven system, the motor-driven system’s provider uses its own dedicated platform. For the end user, this means a vendor lock-in is created. The integration itself and especially this specific issue requires new skills such as IT architecture skills and knowledge of middleware and standards. For the needed capacity building by suppliers, service industry and end users needed to achieve the envisaged digitization of motor-driven systems, training and education can already be found in the market, but these initiatives are not transparent, bundled nor fully effective. Research is defined and executed to assess the skills needed and routes for capacity building for the digitization of motor systems in the industry. The research starting point is an ecosystem analysis performed toward digital sensor systems for electric motor systems with a deep dive into the skills needed. Analysis routes are defined for developing the skills needed among professionals. In parallel, so-called multidimensional use cases are developed to inspire the market to accelerate the adoption of skills and underlaying digitalized systems. Our research is based on interaction with Dutch knowledge institutes, industrial end users, service industry, and sensor manufacturers. Research is being performed for the Dutch Topsector Energy, program digitalization. In this paper, we describe the major societal, political, labor market, economic, and environmental trends that provide the context for the digitalization possibilities and barriers of electric motor-driven systems. We describe in some detail the skills set per type of organization (technology provider, end user, and maintenance provider). We describe some specific challenges with respect to the complete technology innovation system of digitalization of EMDS. With respect to the digital skilling agenda, we focus on learning activities in networks and on a mix of learning activities to match individual learning needs.