Fueled by these trends, the railway market has enjoyed a steady growth and ABB has played a major role over the years in supporting this market with innovative technologies towards sustainable mobility.
Rail solutions manager for ABB in Australia, Leon Benn shares his views on ABB's growing focus on sustainable transport and infrastructure, as outlined recently at the ABB Group's Next Level strategy event in London, and its potential impact on the Australian marketplace.
What are the major challenges that the Australian railway industry will face in the next decade?
Growing cities with ever increasing loads on providing housing, employment and road use as well as the need to development regional centres requires new thinking around modes of transportation. Balancing the need to provide efficient and affordable modes of transport versus the cost of implementing such major projects, while navigating the political climate, presents major challenges for all involved.
Where do you see future priorities?
Several light rail projects are in planning which may bring economic revitalisation and expansion to the particular areas. Additionally, on the East Coast directly connecting major centres are expected to yield significant benefit to the rail freight.
What can the rail industry do to further reduce its carbon footprint?
Less than 10 percent of the Australian railway lines have been electrified - the rest runs on fossil fuel. More electrification and better usage of electricity (smaller peaks) would contribute to a smaller carbon footprint.
Technologies that offer significant contribution to the rail sector?
Energy Management and Asset Health technologies have the potential to bring significant benefits to the Rail industry. Capturing normally wasted energy from trains breaking, can be productively applied back into the rail system or applied to CAPEX savings (less substations) and increased revenue (resell to grid). This can be achieved by installing ABB's wayside substation Energy Recuperation System which recovers vehicle energy generated during braking that is otherwise lost, and returns it to the local AC network, with potential to optimise energy usage by up to 20 percent.
What constitutes ABB's leadership?
ABB is a global leader in power and automation technologies. In particular, the ABB portfolio consists of several innovative technologies that directly support sustainability in railways.
More importantly, based right here in Australia, ABB has a massive local footprint in terms of factories, global product management, and highly skilled engineering resources located across the country. For our customers, this means dealing with locally based people who can support and respond immediately.
ABB is providing solutions for all stages of sustainable mobility deployment - railways, metro rail, flexible charging infrastructure for electric buses and vehicles which continues to strengthen its position as an integral player in building a sustainable mobility landscape.
