Business: Electric Exxon

Plugging in to energy savings

Switch on a home air conditioner, a factory pump or just about any electric device and the motor will burn roughly the same amount of current whether the machine is running fast or slow. This inefficiency and waste of energy by motors could soon be eliminated, according to Exxon Corp. Last week the world's largest oil company announced with much fanfare that it has developed a new electric energy technology that could save the U.S. the equivalent of 1 million bbl. of oil a day by 1990.

Exxon has produced a boxlike "alternating current synthesizer" that can be built into new machines or fitted easily to existing electric motors. It will control the speed of electric motors, which burn up about 60% of all electricity generated in the nation. The device uses microprocessor technology to enable an electrical current to be regulated and changed so that it varies from the fixed norm that is established by utilities; in the U.S. the norm is about 115 volts and 60 cycles. Put simply, this means that the speed of a conventional motor can be automatically varied according to the work it has to do at any moment. When the load is high, the speed—and the amount of electricity consumed—is normal. But when the load is low, the speed—and the amount of energy burned—can be reduced.

Exxon left the biggest surprise for last. The company hopes to have the energy-saving ACS for sale within a year if it can successfully buy Reliance Electric Co., a Cleveland-based maker of electric motors that had sales of $966 million in 1978. The takeover, which appears to be a friendly one, would give the oil company the electrical expertise and production lines that it needs to rush the new device to market. The trustbusters may object, since the oil majors are under attack for spending profits on non-oil diversifications. But the Department of Energy quite possibly will conclude that the Reliance takeover would be a form of energy investment. Says a DOE official of the Exxon proposal: "A barrel of oil saved is just as good as a barrel of oil produced."