ABB has supported Sasol to minimise process downtime for routine maintenance with a range of medium-voltage solutions. Sasol has implemented an innovative and flexible ABB solution utilising the power of UniGear Digital switchgear, Relion protection relays and sensor technology installed in a lightweight E-House, mounted on a mobile truck trailer.
At Sasol’s Secunda petrochemical plant, locally mined coal is converted into synthetic fuels. On this site, ageing substations needed to be refurbished and Sasol was looking for a solution to minimise capital losses due to the production downtime required for the switchgear replacement.
Bruno Melles, managing director of ABB’s Medium Voltage Products business, said: “ABB has a strong focus on supporting customers to improve their productivity through maximised uptime. The effective cooperation between Sasol and ABB led to the successful completion of this project and we look forward to building on this in the future.
“The unique flexibility of our Relion protection and control relays installed in our innovative Unigear Digital Switchgear formed the core of this modular E-House, which provides stable power supply in a range of challenging conditions. We were able to deliver a robust, yet flexible, solution for Sasol that safely reroutes power while the maintenance activities are performed.”
To meet the requirements set, ABB offered a mobile E-House based on the UniGear Digital solution. The backbone of this solution is the UniGear ZS1 switchgear equipped with IEC 61850-embedded Relion 615 series protection relays and ABB’s advanced sensor technology.
The switchgear was placed in a prefabricated metal enclosure, an E-House, which was then installed on a truck trailer. Installing the solution on the trailer means that it can be relocated to wherever it is needed, swiftly and efficiently. This mobile E-House provided the flexible power supply solution required by Sasol.
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