Mike Terzo to Chair NFPA Electrification Task Force

Mike Terzo will chair a new “Electrification in Fluid Power” task force formed by the National Fluid Power Association (NFPA).

The task force will be launched at the upcoming September 1, 2022, NFPA Quarterly Conference, a session co-sponsored with the Association of Equipment Manufacturers and themed around “Increasing Efficiency and Reducing Emissions with Electric-Powered Hydraulics on Mobile Machines.”

The task force will meet as needed to discuss and complete its work, with the goal of presenting its final report at the March 2023 IFPE trade show in Las Vegas. NFPA President and CEO, Eric Lanke, will serve as task force facilitator.

Electrification is a buzzword throughout most industries now and is a common topic being discussed at conferences, events and board rooms. While many businesses and industries have already embraced electrification, others are still working to understand the impacts, opportunities and decision points to make.

To add further confusion, electrification means many different things and is a broad term encompassing all types of ideas, products, movements, efforts and industries. This confusion hinders the ability of an industry or company to digest and fully understand what is going on and how to react within the context of their business strategy.

The objectives of the task force include the following:

• Explore myths, trends and buzzwords that have arisen in the space and that have caused confusion.
• Define electrification within the fluid power industry.
• Outline the electrification architectures (e.g., hybrid, bev, zev, hev, phev) that are commonly applied in the mobile and industrial markets served by fluid power.
• Define and compare important metrics related to the use of electro-mechanical, electro-hydraulic and electro-pneumatic solutions in these architectures in order to provide guidance on potential applications and technology break points.
• Describe potential changes in market size among mobile and industrial markets served by fluid power as a result of the likely pace of electrified system adoption.
• Describe the product categories within fluid power that are most likely to be affected by those market changes.
• Explore strategies for effectively marketing fluid power solutions in this evolving space.

The primary deliverable will be a report that documents the findings and recommendations of the task force. The report will be shared widely among NFPA members and other channel stakeholders and will be used to help inform the next NFPA technology roadmapping process, scheduled to begin in 2023.