ABB Finland leads in Sustainability and AI Innovation with the ABB Ability™ Energy Management System

^{Figure 2. Manufacturing operations at various ABB Finland Sites.}

ABB Finland’s ISO 50001 journey began in 2017 when they achieved a national Finnish energy efficiency certification known as EES+, and in 2022, ABB Finland started making plans to take things to the next level with the ISO 50001 certification to show our leadership on a global scale. ISO 50001 is a key enabler for proving and communicating real progress toward ABB’s Sustainability targets. An ISO 50001-certified energy management system not only helps ABB to reduce energy consumption but also helps to communicate the progress we have made to our customers who want assurance that our products are being made sustainably (i.e., energy data is a required input for Life-Cycle Assessments and Environmental Product Declarations).

The project began with a pre-study to interview all 14 local company divisions represented in Finland to ensure their individual needs were taken into account. Then, they performed a gap analysis to compare what they had already achieved with EES+ and what they would need to achieve for ISO 50001. They concluded that in order to obtain certification, they needed to improve documentation and processes, administer energy efficiency training for the local teams, and update their energy management system.

Not only did ABB Finland want to achieve the ISO 50001 certification, but they ideally wanted to do it using ABB products and solutions to demonstrate how ABB enables decarbonization and digitalization. However, this decision was not so simple. The fact that ABB Finland is home to 14 different ABB divisions adds significant complexity to the project since each division has its own requirements – they all had to agree on a solution! Luckily, the ABB Ability EMS was up to the task.

^{Figure 3. Dashboards from the ABB Ability Energy Management System}

In fact, it is because of this complexity and broad scope of needs that the ABB Ability EMS was chosen. Each division has their own KPIs and energy consumption units they want to track with the highest level of granularity, and the sites also have a plethora of energy sources and other data points that need to be tracked such as power grid supply, solar power, district heating, oil, heat pumps, water, and weather data. "This is quite an important role of the ABB Ability EMS system," says Jussi Aarnivuo, Country HSE Manager for ABB Finland, "These KPIs are giving us additional value by showing what we are doing, what we should improve on, and where we should focus." The EMS reports facilitate benchmarking across the divisions, thus driving accountability for the biggest consumers in the organization.

In addition to the new ABB Ability EMS upgrade, ABB Finland is required to train on-site personnel about energy efficiency to satisfy ISO 50001 requirements – so far, over 4,000 employees and subcontractors have been trained on how they can take action to save energy at work and at home.

ABB Finland officially earned their ISO 50001 certificate in October 2023. Never ones to rest on their laurels, the team is continuing to make real progress and explore how the ABB Ability EMS can take their operations to the next level with AI/ML-enabled energy consumption forecasting.

ABB Ability EMS can predict the energy consumption of an entire plant and its process areas, allowing our industrial customers to save money by more efficiently managing their energy procurement and planning. EMS has performed this forecasting for our customers for many years by using production plans to anticipate energy spend, but as of 2024, ABB released a new AI/ML functionality that can calculate energy consumption based on historical energy data and/or other process parameters (e.g., temperature, product grade, etc.). The AI/ML model makes it easy to identify all the hidden patterns between process parameters and energy consumption. This is especially useful in situations when a production plan is not available and/or if the production plans are not detailed enough to easily map how energy consumption correlates to all the possible process variables.

Preliminary testing with historical data showed potential for over 95% forecasting accuracy, so ABB Finland agreed to pilot the new AI/ML methods as part of their environmental reporting. In November 2024, EMS Forecasting with AI/ML was implemented to predict their energy spend for the remainder of the year. The Finnish team is optimistic about the savings potential of EMS and is exploring how they can further leverage the energy savings benefits of forecasting & planning with ABB Ability EMS.