Kemira Kemi chemical plant modernizes its incoming substation with smart automation and power integration in accordance with IEC 61850.
An impressive chemical facility and its growing industry park
Kemira is located in southern Helsingborg, near Öresund. It is an impressive facility. Someone has figured out that the factory surface area is equal to the principality of Monaco.
Aside of Kemira Kemi AB on site there is also IPOS- Industry Park of Sweden, owned by Kemira until 2003. Since 2006, where different companies started to establish here, it has been converted to an industry park, with the ambition to attract more businesses to the area.
“But soon we ran into difficulties with taking on more business,” says Mats Åberg who is involved in projects and construction at Kemira Kemi. “It was getting crowded in the switchgear and the possibility to add more output cables to support new businesses with electric power was limited. Electric power came from Öresundskraft AB’s switchgear by 50 kV cables.”
“The old system was installed in the late 60’s,” says Arne Jönsson, electrical manager at Kemira Kemi. “A system like this has an estimated service life span of 30-40 years, and this business is dependent upon power around the clock, every day of the year.”
“Operational changes to incoming power were made with help of long checklists on site of the swithgears. This resulted in cumbersome and time consuming operation and meant that there were few people who could handle the installations.”
The fact that capacity was nearing the limit was another reason to seriously examine the facility and what needed to be done with the electrical system. “This resulted in a plant analysis conducted by ABB,” says Arne Jönsson. “It pointed to the risks of service disruptions to the former system.”