ABB Reduces Operational Costs of Italian Water Company with Energy Management Solution by 30 percent

Part of the ABB Ability digital offering, the Electrical Distribution Control System connects power installations to the cloud, giving customers real-time information and historical trends to improve their complete electrical system’s performance.

ABB digital devices, equipment and solutions and digital-enabling services enable a quantum leap in industrial digitalization. ABB Ability Electrical Distribution Control System will use the Microsoft Azure cloud platform for data collection, processing and storage.

“We have given our circuit breakers eyes and ears, in terms of sensing, and connected them to the Microsoft Azure cloud; using our algorithms, we can support our customers’ decision making, enabling them to monitor and manage operations via an intuitive online interface,” said Tarak Mehta, president of ABB’s Electrification Products division. “This project is an excellent example of the value ABB Ability can drive for our customers. In line with ABB’s Next Level Strategy, using the industrial internet of things, we can digitize our customers’ facilities to reduce their total operating costs and reduce their energy consumption.”

CBV expects to reduce plant operating costs by up to 30 percent and maintenance time by up to 40 percent when ABB Ability Electrical Distribution Control System is fully implemented at other locations. CBV water pumping stations ensure supply from reservoirs for farms during dry periods. ABB’s solution was retrofitted to enable facility managers to collect data on plant performance and monitor energy efficiency and costs online.

Riccardo Tosi, operations director at CBV, said: “ABB Ability Electrical Distribution Control System enabled us to connect our existing hardware to the cloud to allow us to manage our plant more effectively. The availability of this data made us eligible for energy efficiency certificates worth €24,000, without the time and expense of independent external auditing. We will deploy this solution across dozens more water distribution facilities and estimate we can reduce operational costs by around 30%.”

ABB has also connected CBV’s small-scale hydroelectric power generator facility to the cloud. With remote access to all the data, it is now simpler for CBV to accurately measure how much energy it is supplying to utilities and ensure the right power quality. The technology can provide remote monitoring for multi-site operations. Users can also set and receive alerts whenever abnormal conditions occur in order to achieve higher efficiency and productivity.

The ABB Ability Electrical Distribution Control System directly connects to the electrical system through a simple and integrated architecture, leveraging Emax 2 circuit breakers in-built intelligence and connectivity. Users can access the system data from anywhere, anytime, via a smart phone, tablet, or PC.