One of the largest wood processing plants in Siberia and the Russian Far East has installed ABB’s digital power distribution system. Pavlovsky Altailes, a new plant designed to produce more than 250,000 cubic metres of MDF boards annually, is part of Altailes Forest Group, one of Russia’s largest and fastest growing forest industry companies.
The ABB AbilityTM Electrical Distribution Control System (EDCS) was implemented to monitor and manage power measurements for the plant and, enables power consumption monitoring and real-time adjustments during production to respond to operational requirements.
The project also included low voltage equipment for power supply to the plant, including six power cabinets of the main switchgear type for a voltage of 0.4 kV and 0.69 kV.
Digital transformation for Russia
Utility power supplies in parts of Siberia can be unreliable and many industrial facilities require additional generators to provide for their operational requirements. In fibre board manufacturing, an unexpected power cut means lost productivity and a costly, time-consuming restart of the production process.
While construction of the green-field site and commissioning was underway, a team of ABB engineers provided intensive training for the plant’s personnel. The system is now live with an ABB service center providing online support for the digital solution.
Power emergencies eliminated
Vitaly Sysoev, power engineer at the plant, said: “Implementing these new technologies is an important step in our work to eliminate power supply emergencies. Cooperation with ABB has made our company a pioneer in the use of high-tech systems for power consumption monitoring and management, and for power distribution.
“ABB’s solution enables us to monitor our power supply from anywhere with internet access, which is a huge help for our maintenance staff. Software shells, configured by the ABB team for our company, give us a user-friendly way to handle the data received from the automatic switches. And the technical support from their engineers has been excellent.”
Head of ABB’s Electrification business in Russia, Aleksandr Prudnikov, added: “Digitalization is a reality with unlimited potential. ABB’s ready-to-use solution requires no additional capital expenditure, making digitalization convenient for customers. Enterprises need to get their internal processes ready for digital transformation, and ABB offers advanced technologies that can be quickly embedded into any production process, with support from a team of expert professionals.”
