Certain aspects of the technology have historically held the drives back since they debuted in the late 1960s. Measuring the flow of water, air, refrigerant — whatever is moving through the system that the motors are driving — was for decades an expensive engineering process. Accurately controlling motors to deliver the right amount of juice, at just the right time, faced similar issues.
But recent advances in sensors and machine-learning algorithms have significantly slashed the cost and complexity of using drives, Elliott said. Modern VFDs have also benefited from the increased production of advanced power chips that are used in high-voltage applications such as electric vehicles and solar power inverters.
Another long-standing challenge has been that commercial and industrial building developers often prioritize reducing up-front costs over netting long-term energy savings, and so don’t always build to the highest efficiency levels, said Zack Valdez, senior director of regulatory and industry affairs at the National Electrical Manufacturers Association, whose members include drive and motor makers.
“If the facility that you’re putting it into doesn’t require it, then oftentimes people will overlook [VFDs], because they’re just trying to build to a minimum set of energy requirements,” he said. And if companies don’t install drives from the start, they’re likely less inclined to take time to retrofit an operating system.
The trade association recently launched a pilot program with manufacturers, utilities, and energy-efficiency groups to collect real-world data about how VFDs reduce motors’ electricity use and lower utility bills. The goal is to demonstrate how the technology can benefit not only individual facilities but also the wider grid — giving utilities a concrete reason to provide rebates for industrial customers.
Proponents say they hope the results will help the U.S. Department of Energy shape future efficiency measures and incentives that encourage adoption of the drives, including in federally owned buildings. Despite the Trump administration’s open hostility toward home appliance and equipment mandates, agency staff have apparently been receptive to discussing solutions that could meet the soaring power needs of data centers.
“If you added a drive to all the motors that are out there, you could provide [power for] up to five years of data center growth without having to build any new generation,” said Kirk Anderson, director of government relations and public affairs for ABB. The global manufacturing giant makes VFDs domestically near Milwaukee.
Anderson floated the idea of having tech companies help pay for factory owners to install VFDs to free up room on the grid. After all, hyperscalers are already spending many billions of dollars to revive shuttered nuclear plants, support next-generation geothermal projects, deploy fleets of grid-scale batteries, and supercharge the buildout of gas turbines and power plants.
“Instead of ‘bring your own power,’ it should be ‘offset your own power,’” he said, referring to a growing effort by states to get data centers to secure their own power resources and prevent rising costs for regular customers.
Michael Reckamp, the director of enterprise strategy for Danfoss Drives, North America, another VFD manufacturer, said that despite the traditionally low adoption rates, the technology has gained some momentum in recent years among factories and buildings as rising electricity costs and other grid-wide challenges make it harder to justify wasting energy.
Still, “it hasn’t permeated enough to get everyone utilizing it,” he said. “In the current situation, where we’re having so many issues with grids, brownouts, and now data centers wanting to take the load, I think there should be a renewed focus on putting drives out there to really reduce the stress on the grid and improve energy savings.”
