ABB Poland at the forefront of the country’s industry
Every year, one country is spotlighted at the world's biggest trade fair for industrial technology, the HANNOVER MESSE. This week Poland is being featured as the show’s official Partner Country. Polish industry is achieving impressive innovation and growth, presenting a range of opportunities for businesses and investors all around the world. ABB Poland has been at the forefront helping to drive this achievement. From the beginning of its operations 25 years ago, ABB Poland has strengthened ABB’s European and global footprint, moving to the next level of quality and technology both within and beyond the country’s borders.
The list of ground breaking projects driven by ABB Poland is impressive. Improving energy security together with increasing total installed power and modernizing the rail sector throughout the country were made possible by ABB Poland. Highlights include:
- Developing the Polish section of the Yamal-Europe natural gas pipeline, which spans 4,000 km, connecting the rich natural gas deposits on Russia’s Yamal Peninsula with Western Europe.
- Delivering the high-voltage direct current (HVDC) link for the LitPol Link connecting the power grids of Lithuania and Poland. The link enables power trading between the two countries, and strengthens and secures the power supply in the region by opening up new cross-border energy sources.
- The central section of Warsaw’s Metro 2 line, one of the largest projects in the Polish capital, is powered by seven underground substations supplied by ABB. The line also features an Energy Storage System (ESS) from ABB to recuperate and reuse braking energy from metro cars, further enhancing energy efficiency.
Operating 11 factories and 25 branch offices ABB Poland is a leading company in the local power and automation sector. It has also becomes a significant hub in ABB’s global supply chain, exporting cutting edge technologies and specialized business services worldwide. These tasks are being facilitated by increasingly growing competencies on the local level and continually developed production and research facilities.
ABB production facilities around the country contribute to a balanced business model and sustainable growth, with ABB spending over $25 million annually on investments in the country. One of ABB’s largest and most modern production centers in Europe is located in the center of Poland, in Aleksandrow Lodzki. This greenfield, world-class production and design center manufactures state-of-the art energy efficient products for the utilities, industry and transport & infrastructure sectors, such as high efficiency low voltage electric motors, medium voltage drives, as well as sophisticated traction systems and converters for clean rail transport and wind power applications.
The center in Lodz includes a feeder factory manufacturing a range of components to serve its transformer units in Europe; a power transformers factory, mainly for Central and Eastern Europe; a distribution transformers factory for the European market; and a facility that delivers prefabricated insulation kits and elements to its power transformer factories in Europe, helping them to reduce cycle times and lower costs.
Additionally, the facility in Przasnysz is one of the main ABB Medium Voltage factories located in Europe, manufacturing medium and high voltage apparatus used in many new industry segments such as renewable energy and data centers.
The Wroclaw facility exports low voltage switchgears throughout Europe. It also delivers complete automation solutions and creates software for power utilities.
The research and development teams in all of the country’s factories continually improve products and adapt offerings to specific customer requirements. In this way ABB in Poland for instance, developed a breakthrough solution for reducing noise level in transformers, which is a fundamental issue in terms of sustainability.
Researchers and engineers consistently search for and implement innovative products, systems and services to provide utility and industry customers with high efficiency, energy-saving products and systems, helping to improve efficiency, save energy and lower environmental impact.
Products made by ABB Poland are exported to dozens of countries around the world, often becoming part of crucial investments for local communities. For example, traction solutions from Aleksandrow Lodzki ensure comfort for passengers of rail connections in Turkey, France, Brazil, Canada, Australia and Malaysia; transformers from Lodz are providing reliable power supplies in Africa; fuses manufactured in Przasnysz are helping to expand electricity networks in Vietnam.
ABB Poland makes a significant contribution as the center of expertise for digitization within ABB. At the Corporate Research Center (CRC) in Krakow, researchers from eight countries conduct interdisciplinary work in 26 labs, implementing concepts to promote industrial digitization and enable value creation. Working with scientists from other ABB research centers, they brought the company’s low-voltage motor remote monitoring smart sensor to the state of market readiness. DriveMonitor for medium voltage drives and ENVILINE™ ERS, a wayside energy recuperation system, were also co-developed by CRC in Krakow.
ABB in Poland has developed a proven record in the IT market. IS teams in Krakow – developers, analysts, project managers, databank designers and web developers – are globally recognized as a R&D software center within ABB, offering best in class solutions for the electricity market and process automation industries worldwide. Software Development Center (PLSDC), another key unit in Krakow, offers software systems that support all focus industries in process and power automation areas like power generation, transmission and distribution, marine and ports, discrete manufacturing, food and beverage. The vast majority of nuclear power plants in US are using the software that is being developed by PLSDC.
Researchers and engineers through ABB Poland have made key contributions to the newly launched ABB Ability ™, the company’s industry leading portfolio of digital solutions which is being showcased at the Hannover Messe. For example, ABB Remote Diagnostic Service for Marine is an analytical and predictive approach to vessel maintenance. The RDS concept was designed at the CRC in Krakow and further development is also supported by Software Development Center.
The significance of Poland on the global map of ABB continues to grow. The Former ISDC unit (Information Systems Delivery Center) has merged to become a part of the new Global Business Services (GBS) in Krakow that is responsible for group wide ABB-internal transactional tasks including Finance, HR, IT and Supply Chain Management. When fully operational the GBS will employ a multi-lingual, culturally diverse workforce of about 2,000 people. This state-of-the-art facility, along with five others across the world, will help achieve key ambitions of ABB’s Next Level strategy to make the company faster, more efficient, and to move closer to customers, playing an important role in supporting company’s digital transformation.
This is another stage in the development of ABB in Poland, now employing 4,600 people. The company has ambitious plans in terms of manufacturing, R&D and software development, continuing its long-term tradition of engineering expertise, thus actively participating in both the Energy and Fourth Industrial Revolutions.
