ABB retrofits switchgear at Cemex plant in Poland

ABB has retrofitted the electrical switchgear powering the furnace at the Rudniki plant owned by building materials supplier Cemex.

Cemex’s Rudniki plant in Poland is one of the country’s largest cement suppliers. Production processes center around the plant’s furnace which can take up to 36 hours to light. This means that even short power outages can bring production to a standstill and need to be avoided.

To mitigate this risk, ABB upgraded the Emax2 circuit breakers equipped with Ekip Touch. These protection and measurement trip units provide full protection functions, and their modular design means they are withdrawable and can be easily interchanged.

ABB also upgraded the plant’s control and monitoring system to digital analysers, which function as both multimeters and network analysers to enable highly accurate (to 1%) measurements.

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This data can be uploaded to ABB Ability Energy & Asset Manager, enabling energy usage and additional parameters such as power and load to be monitored via the cloud.

According to ABB, now when Cemex operators test their system, they can pull out and isolate the relevant breaker and work in complete safety without needing to disconnect the furnace from the power supply and shut down production.

Cemex maintenance specialist Paweł Małolepszy explains; “We were looking for reliable and compact technology. The risk of unplanned power outages has been minimised and the use of a pull-out solution has improved our safety. This significantly extends the continuity of operation of the furnace, which is key to our business”.

The upgrade will also boost thermal energy efficiency of the furnace, which will reduce the plant’s clinker use and thereby reduce its CO2 emissions.

Originally published on Power Engineering International.