With a commitment to sustainability, Stora Enso wanted to improve energy efficiency at their sawmill in Russia and at the same time obtain remote access to improve visibility of electrical equipment without having to physically visit the plant.
The Setles sawmill produces 165-170, 000 m3 of sawn timber and up to 25,000 tons of pellets per year and is situated deep in the forested Republic of Karelia in Russia. Due to harsh weather conditions and rugged terrain, access to the plant can be difficult for many months of the year. This has made it challenging for maintenance engineers and so the company was keen to ensure they would be able to remotely monitor electrical systems at the plant.
Setles needed an accurate and reliable monitoring system with a simple and intuitive interface, which would be easy to understand and further supplemented by remote support and guidance.
The company invested 459 million rubles (6.22 million USD) to completely reconstruct the plant and install new equipment to improve the logging and timber processing. ABB, global specialists in metering, delivered a key element of the project focused on planning predictive maintenance and measuring circuit breakers by reconstructing a previously existing substation into a modern one with remote monitoring and dispatching systems.
The full program of investment resulted in increased production of 120.3 percent to a capacity of 165-170,000 m3 of sawn timber and an increase in production of 109.6 percent to 25,000 tons of pellets per year, improved production line energy efficiency and reduced maintenance costs.
ABB was selected for its extremely high level of technical support and comprehensive solutions. Technically, ABB provided comprehensive support across all elements of the project including during the installation phase. ABB delivered a complex and energy effective solution for the main switchboard, supported with remote monitoring from ABB AbilityTM Energy and Asset Manager, driving the key benefits of predictive maintenance, remote monitoring and billing.
Stora Enso selected ABB’s new state-of-the-art M4M 20 Ethernet network analyzers due to their intuitive design, easy configuration and Bluetooth and Ekip connectivity, which guarantee all power monitoring needs in the energy distribution system alongside accurate energy efficiency monitoring of all connected energy assets.
M4M Analyzers offers high-accuracy monitoring and are class 0.5S compliant with main metering standards with an intuitive configuration and visualization thanks to easy-to-use HMI.
Equipped with a Bluetooth module for smart commissioning via a mobile app, M4M network analyzers are ideal for remote access. Thanks to ABB Ability™ connectivity capabilities, M4M can leverage the integration in ABB scalable energy and asset management solutions to monitor, optimize and control the complete electrical system. The M4M analyzer is a certified measuring device that has higher accuracy than circuit breakers. They guarantee all power monitoring needs in the energy distribution system: from high-accuracy energy efficiency monitoring of electrical parameters to complete power quality analysis through advanced KPIs.
Mikhail Komarov, business development manager for ABB explained: “Our focus is on delivering benefits to our customers and with this combined solution we helped Stora Enso to improve production line efficiency and reduce maintenance costs with our easy-to-use remote monitoring system. Our M4M, Emax, Tmax and other devices make remote support easier through accurate measurements and ABB AbilityTM connectivity. It’s about putting control back in the hands of users, so that they can make informed decisions about the performance of their equipment, 24/7.”
“Our good relationship with ABB has been a clear benefit, making them easy to work with. They listened to our needs and worked with us to deliver exactly what was required, said Andrei Plohov, Mill Manager at Sawmill. The key features of the M4M 20 Ethernet network analyzers – the ability to measure low currents with high accuracy, the metrological certification and verification, and ABB AbilityTM connectivity which give us predictive maintenance, remote monitoring and billing - really influenced our decision to select ABB, but the fact they could offer all the equipment we needed at the right price was a key factor too.”
For more information on ABB’s M4M range, click here.
