Mauro Scappini, Global Service Manager – Critical Power, discusses how the team ensures mission-critical systems stay protected and operational.
Q: What industries are growing in the need for critical power?
A: Critical power protection is essential across the most demanding sectors. Data centers need continuous uptime as they scale to meet AI and cloud computing demands. Hospitals need uninteruped power systems to ensure patient care around the clock.
Transportation infrastructure such as rail, metro systems, and airports all require reliability. Commercial infrastructure, from financial institutions to critical government facilities, also cannot afford a moment of downtime. Anywhere downtime translates to financial loss, safety risk, or operational disruption, customers rely on expert service teams for maintence and uptime.
Q: What do customers look for in a critical power service team?
A: Customers look for a partner that supports their system across its entire lifecycle - from initial startup and commissioning through ongoing operation and end-of-life care. Key requirements include having clear service commitments, defined response times, and 24/7 availability whenever needed.
The best teams go beyond reactive problem-solving. They proactively monitor and maintain systems using predictive insights and on-site expertise to prevent issues before they disrupt operations. They also manage essential mainteneance needs like spare parts, consumables, and battery replacements, helping customers avoid disruption and keep everything running reliably.
Beyond maintenance, strong partners strengthen your performance over time. They provide expert guidance and digital visibility tools that help you understand your power infrastructure deeply, enabling you to make data-driven decisions with confidence.
Q: How does the Critical Power Service team prevent issues before they impact customer operations?
A: Prevention starts with deep domain expertise. Customers need a pro-active approach that prevents issues before they impact business operations, backed by high availability through 400+ internal professionals plus authorized partners ensuring 24×7 readiness globally.
A diverse team is essential: field engineers, technical support specialists, project experts, trainers, and commissioning specialists. Each brings strong technical expertise alongside a genuine, understanding of what's truly matters to our customers. Together, they deliver collaborative problem-solving focused on meeting uptime and reliability goals.
Q: How do you ensure that customers always have access to the right expertise at the right time?
A: Customers benefit from multi-layered support. Our customers can rely on 24×7 service support in every country where we operate, delivered by local ABB teams. Regional support centers provide escalation for complex issues without delays. This reliability is built on continuous training. Our Critical Power Academy trains over 1,200 participants annually across more than 130 critical skills using blended learning: safety courses, e-learning modules, virtual and in-person instruction, and extensive hands-on training. Our team members hold certifications across our entire product portfolio, with continuous recertification requirements as technology evolves. This investment in keeping our people current directly translates to better customer outcomes and sustained reliability.
Q: How is global customer support delivered consistently across regions?
A: We ensure consistency across all regions. Standardized processes for installed base management, service delivery, and customer support - ensure the same quality whether a customer operates in Europe, Asia, or the Americas. Customers have centralized access to technical support and expert resources, backed by globally developed training and documentation. For multinational enterprises, our support structure handles multiple sites and countries simultaneously, meeting the needs of multinational enterprises with world-class service regardless of location.
Q: Why is proper commissioning critical for system reliability?
A: Commissioning is where your protection becomes a proven reality. Every system undergoes rigorous load bank testing to stress systems under realistic conditions, verify battery capacity and health, simulate failure scenarios, perform physical inspections and environmental checks, and ensure safety compliance. Systems are configured to meet each customer's specific infrastructure requirements. Commissioning completion marks the official start of the warranty period and prevents future failures by validating that the customer's investment in protection is sound.
Q: Can you share a tangible outcome achieved through your services?
A: We believe in solving problems at the root. That approach played out recently at a large data center where we discovered temperature and humidity had drifted outside safe limits, gradually stressing critical power components. We worked with the customer to understand the full picture, traced the issue back to the cooling system setup, and helped adjust environmental controls. Once conditions stabilized, the infrastructure ran reliably again. It's a small example, but it shows the difference between fixing symptoms and engaging as true partners to solve problems at the root.
About the author
Mauro Scappini is Global Service Manager – Critical Power at ABB Electrification. He has been part of the power protection business since 2006, beginning in R&D before moving into a range of service leadership roles. Since 2018, he has led ABB’s global Critical Power service organization, helping shape service strategies that support reliability and uptime for customers worldwide.
