Low-voltage components, like circuit breakers and switch disconnectors, are more than just essential safety devices - they are fundamental to the service continuity of a facility. Outages can occur at any time and result in massive financial losses. Uptime is paramount for operations of all sizes; for example, in the automotive industry the average yearly cost of downtime is 1 BUSD, for a datacenter a single event can cost $600,000, and NPT (non-productive time) can cost a drill ship owner $12 million a year.
Redundancy and proper maintenance on the power distribution devices are the best ways to avoid outages from occurring.
Smart protection
ABB, a pioneering technology leader, has developed an affordable plug-and-play solution to provide backup or primary protection to low-voltage circuit breakers or switch-disconnectors. The ABB Ekip UP extends the life of the existing hardware and provides more functionality and even the possibility for redundancy. Downtime is minimal during commissioning (<1 hour) and no impact on the switchboard is necessary. Due to its flexibility, this solution can even be applied to competitor devices.
Smart energy management
ABB’s Ekip UP makes facility management smart, leveraging actionable data and cloud-based solutions. This device measures (among many other variables) the power flowing in the switchgear, the number of operation of its assets, the temperature level inside the compartments and can push this data directly to the cloud-based ABB Ability™ Electrical Distribution Control System (EDCS). Embedded in this solution is power quality metering and a built-in gateway that allows energy management, analytical reporting, custom alerts based on events, and connectivity to the cloud. It is possible to optimize utility tariffs by, for example, shifting loads, shaving peaks, and by using data insights to more accurately allocate costs. We estimate that this can save facility managers up to 30 percent.
Smart maintenance
Let’s change from scheduled to predictive maintenance. The Ekip UP can additionally transfer key electrical and environmental parameters to the cloud; this in combination with the more traditional metering and event data enables predictive maintenance of both existing ABB or GE components (IEC and UL). Facility managers can visualize, even with a mobile device, a reliability curve of their critical assets accessing the Predict tool inside the ABB Ability™ EDCS platform. This allows them to understand the environmental life and when the next maintenance is needed. Condition-based alerts allow users to more effectively schedule maintenance and understand what needs to be done. Through the Predict tool, facility managers can save 10 percent in operational costs.
Visitors to ABB’s stand at Hannover Messe 2019 were able to see an enclosure column equipped with a GE Entelliguard circuit breaker, upgraded with ABB Ekip UP. This digital retrofit provides current, voltage, temperature sensing together with backup protections, cloud connectivity and new predictive maintenance function.
