The latest survey data shows that globally, 63% of industrial companies have already invested in energy efficiency, with another 29% planning to follow suit within the next 12 months. However, a signal that cannot be ignored is emerging: implementation results remain fragmented and uneven.

This is not only a core finding from a recent ABB survey covering 2,700 senior decision-makers across 15 countries and 15 industries, but also a strategic issue that every industrial decision-maker today must confront. Energy efficiency is no longer just an "environmental bonus" — it has become a core issue directly tied to profitability, risk, and market competitiveness. But the question remains: why is there such a gap between the "willingness to act" and the "results achieved"?

Energy Costs: From Short-Term Shocks to Long-Term Structural Risks

Although global wholesale energy markets have stabilized, energy costs remain a significant portion of industrial operating expenses — accounting for as much as one-quarter. Nearly 60% of companies clearly state that rising energy prices continue to erode profitability.

What is more concerning is that the challenge facing business executives has fundamentally shifted: from responding to price spikes in previous years to managing ongoing price volatility and structural risk exposure. This means that energy efficiency is no longer an emergency measure taken in response to short-term crises, but a strategic cornerstone for business continuity, compliant operations, and long-term value creation.

As Erich Labuda, Global President of the Service Business Unit for ABB's Motion Division, put it: "Energy efficiency has become the cornerstone of business continuity, compliant operations, and long-term value creation — a prerequisite for market access. Today's business leaders all recognize the importance of optimizing energy use, but the real challenge lies in scaling up and sustaining these efforts over the long term."

Implementation Capability: From "Nice-to-Have" to "Competitive Barrier"

The survey reveals a key turning point: the main barriers to advancing energy efficiency have shifted from cost issues to data, skills, and organizational barriers.

Previously, 50% of companies cited cost as the main obstacle, but that proportion has now dropped to 43%. What truly constrains companies is the lack of clear ownership internally, skills gaps, and a shortage of reliable data for decision-making.

The survey shows that responsibilities for energy efficiency within companies are scattered across executive management, operations, sustainability, maintenance, and finance — with no single function clearly accountable. This organizational "driverless" state makes it difficult to form a sustainable implementation loop, even when senior management has strong intentions.

At the same time, global digital readiness has reached 67% — two-thirds of surveyed companies are already using or preparing to deploy digital energy management tools. But digital readiness alone does not automatically deliver results. Although 81% of respondents agree that total cost of ownership (TCO) should guide energy efficiency investment decisions, only 37% consistently apply this approach in practice.

These data points send a clear signal: digital tools are only the starting point. What truly differentiates companies is the ability to make data-driven decisions continuously and to build organizational execution capability.

A Trap to Watch: Renewable Energy Is Not Energy Efficiency

The survey also reveals a noteworthy phenomenon: among companies that have switched to renewable energy (39% of respondents), more than one-third say their focus on energy efficiency has declined.

This is a typical cognitive bias. Renewable energy reduces the carbon intensity of energy but does not reduce total energy consumption. This means that even companies already using "green electricity" still have significant untapped energy efficiency potential. By overlooking this, companies are actually missing important opportunities to enhance operational resilience, control long-term costs, and reduce exposure to price volatility.

In other words, energy efficiency and green power are not substitutes — they are two paths that must be pursued in parallel. Relying on renewable energy alone is far from sufficient.

How to Bridge the Implementation Gap? From Fragmented Initiatives to Systemic Capability

Faced with these challenges, companies need not more intention, but a set of systemic capabilities that can consistently translate intention into results. The survey indicates that the next phase of industrial energy transition will be defined by delivery capability.

Specifically, the path to bridging the implementation gap includes:

Diagnostics as the foundation: Start with core energy-consuming systems such as motors and drives to conduct systematic energy-saving potential assessments.

Software-driven continuous optimization: Use digital tools to transform energy management from static "project-based efforts" into dynamic "continuous optimization processes."

Outcome-based financing and full lifecycle services: Move beyond traditional equipment procurement thinking by using innovative service models and financing solutions to lower the barrier for companies to start energy-saving retrofits.

Clear ownership and cross-departmental coordination mechanisms: Establish clear governance structures for energy efficiency within the company, ensuring accountability is not "everyone's responsibility but no one's job."

As Erich Labuda summarized: "To close the execution gap, ABB combines diagnostics targeting motor and drive system upgrades, software-based optimization tools, outcome-based financing, and full lifecycle services. End-to-end smart energy is another way we help industries move toward a leaner, cleaner era — transforming fragmented initiatives into sustained performance improvements."

Closing Thoughts

For users in process industries such as oil and chemicals, the ability to deliver energy efficiency is becoming a core competitive factor in managing energy price volatility, reducing operating costs, and meeting increasingly stringent carbon compliance requirements. It is no longer a "nice-to-have" option, but a threshold condition that determines the long-term economic viability and sustainable operation of production lines.

Whether facing the explicit cost pressure of carbon allowance trading or the internal requirement to continuously optimize energy consumption per ton of output, the trend points in the same direction: those who can systematically and sustainably improve energy efficiency through mechanical automation components (such as motors, variable frequency drives, and drive systems) will maintain cost advantage and operational resilience under increasingly tight energy efficiency constraints.

This is precisely the problem ABB is best positioned to solve.

ABB is dedicated to enabling a sustainable and efficient future through electrical and automation technologies. By combining engineering experience with digital technologies, ABB helps users in the oil, chemical, and other process industries transform fragmented energy-saving initiatives into sustained performance improvements — achieving lean energy management from single-device optimization to plant-wide energy systems.

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