Production that incorporates robotics consumes energy and the trend today is to reduce consumed energy not only to lower the cost but also to be a more energy efficient entity. Energy models can be used to predict the energy consumed by robot(s) for optimising the input parameters which determine robot motion and task execution. This paper presents an energy model to predict the energy consumption of 2D-belt robots used for press line tending. Based on the components’ specifications and the trajectory, an estimation of the energy consumption is computed. The capabilities of the proposed energy model to predict the energy consumption during the planning-phase (i.e. before installation), avoiding the need for physical experiments, are demonstrated. This includes predicting potential energy reductions achieved by reducing the weight of the gripper tools. Additionally, it is also shown how to investigate the energy saving achieved by using mechanical brakes when the robot is idle. This effectively illustrates the purpose and usefulness of the proposed energy model.