For many people, the global pandemic that began in 2020 is only a memory. But for businesses that made major cuts to capital expenditure (CapEx) – to minimize costs and preserve liquidity – the effects are still being felt.
In the place of major one-off investments, companies turned to more predictable operational expenditure (OpEx) to help grow their businesses and restore stability.
From reactive to proactive
This pivot from CapEx to OpEx requires a shift away from reactive to proactive asset management, beginning with predictive maintenance of electrical infrastructure.
Today, most organizations still operate time-based maintenance. While this contributes to healthier electrical infrastructure, it often means that effort is expended on maintaining and servicing equipment that might not need it.
At the same time, in an effort to reduce costs, businesses often extend the intervals between maintenance. With this comes an increased risk of failure.
With data-driven, predictive maintenance, we can delay maintenance periods in the same way, but this time with the full knowledge of the condition of the electrical assets. You can achieve the same results – maximizing uptime and longer periods between maintenance – with none of the associated risk that comes from unexpected failures.
To do this, we need to digitalize the equipment. Steel, copper and bolts cannot tell us anything. But if we put a brain in the equipment, we can work with the data.
Reduced maintenance costs at your fingertips – thanks to data
Data-driven decision-making, enabled by real-time insights from switchgear, circuit breakers, transformers, motors and batteries allows businesses to tailor maintenance schedules to actual needs rather than following a generic approach.
According to research by the Deloitte Analytics Institute, predictive maintenance of this type can boost productivity by 25%, reduce breakdowns by 70%, and lower maintenance costs by 25%.
ABB Electrification Services’s platforms assess factors like asset age, usage, environmental conditions, and service history to accurately predict maintenance requirements. ABB Ability™ Energy Manager and Asset Manager can potentially reduce operational costs by 30%, cut energy bills by 20%, and almost eliminate unplanned labor completely.
ABB helped the Spanish Smart City Zaragoza achieve its digital vision by offering advanced energy monitoring through a cloud-based energy management platform, part of the ABB Ability™ portfolio, incorporating multiple technologies.
Part of this support is Ekip UP, an ABB unit that upgrades the electronics of older facilities to make them digital. It is designed as a cost-effective way to retrofit any electrical distribution system and has helped the city take first steps towards ISO standards for energy management.
Reduced downtime by predicting failures before they occur
Using digital technology to access real-time data on the status of electrical infrastructure means failures can be predicted before they occur – avoiding potential losses of hundreds of thousands of dollars per hour.
With ABB’s Power Care service agreements, customers can expect as much as 90% reduction in downtime by addressing skills development, condition assessments, routine maintenance, emergency support, and sustainability services.
HUS's Meilahti Hospital Area in Helsinki, Finland’s largest hospital complex, uses the same amount of electricity a year as a small town, and delivers healthcare to more than half a million patients annually, so there is zero room for power failures.
To ensure it could anticipate interruptions before they happen, and to maintain 24/7 power, the hospital installed ABB Ability™ Energy and Asset Manager. This software connects to upgraded switchgear, circuit breakers and transformers to provide real-time information on the condition of equipment generating early warnings of any potential failures, providing crucial information to avoid unplanned downtime.
Improve operations with support and training
It’s one thing to handle maintenance of electrical systems in-house, but partnering with experts can make all the difference.
ABB Electrification Service experts are on hand for everything from routine checkups to more specialized servicing, maintaining equipment to the highest standards. For example, Subaru of Indiana Automotive (SIA) has relied on ABB‘s innovative solutions and responsive service to keep the power on and minimize costly downtime since 1988.
With an 850-acre facility incorporating approximately 5 million square feet of manufacturing space running 24 hours a day, seven days a week, the business needed assurance that downtime is avoided.
“Ensuring our manufacturing processes and equipment are getting correct, consistent power is our key concern. There are over 6,000 people working here, so any downtime that can be avoided is money ahead for us,” says Justin Whitaker, Building Engineering Group Leader, Subaru of Indiana Automotive.
But if the business prefers a hands-on approach, ABB has that covered, too. Comprehensive training programs equip in-house teams with the skills they need. Supervisors, engineers, operators, and technicians can all gain the knowledge necessary to keep things running efficiently.
Reduced environmental impact
Alongside the economic pressures that the last few years have presented to business, there is the larger, longer-term challenge presented by climate change. Businesses are committing to decarbonization targets, and want to embrace a circular approach to their operations.
As businesses face increasing pressure to manage their environmental impact, making sure electrical systems are efficient and well maintained helps achieve those sustainability objectives. When systems operate reliably, there’s less need for replacements, which in turn reduces the consumption of raw materials.
In addition to offering maintenance services that keep equipment running more efficiently for longer, ABB Electrification Service also helps businesses meet sustainability goals by offering augmented reality (AR) based services such as RAISE and CLOSER.
For self-service troubleshooting, the CLOSER app uses immersive AR to overlay guides on your technician’s view of their equipment. And if the issue cannot be resolved, CLOSER can connect them with an ABB expert via RAISE.
Remote assistance via RAISE takes things further by connecting technicians directly to ABB experts, who use AR to project instructions directly into their field of view. Our experts can share instructions, diagrams, and video guides – providing swift resolutions to more complicated problems.
While these assistance technologies have sped up the delivery of service to all customers, reducing downtime and minimizing costs, they’ve also had a massive impact on carbon footprints.
Support solutions like RAISE and CLOSER have allowed ABB Electrification Service to save more than 332 tons of CO2 emissions per year, thanks to a reduction in site visits.
