Driving e-mobility forward ABB Group

driviNg e-moBility forward

The ABB Group is a Swedish-Swiss multinational corporation headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland. The company is a global technology leader in electrification products, robotics, industrial automation and power grids. It is serving customers in utilities, manufacturing industries and transport infrastructure globally. Today ABB is writing the future of digitalisation and driving forward the revolutions in energy and digitalisation. Philip Yorke reports.

ABB is one of the largest engineering companies in the world with extensive operations in more than 100 countries and a workforce of over 135,000 people worldwide. The company is traded on stock exchanges in Switzerland and the US and is also recognised as one of the most admired companies in the world.

ABB’s history goes back to the late 19th century when the Swedish General Electrical Company (ASEA) was founded in 1883 by Ludvig Fredholm in Vasteras, Sweden as a manufacturer of electrical lighting and generators. The ABB conglomerate resulted from the merger in 1988 of the Swedish corporation ASEA and the Swiss company, Brown, Boverie and Cie, which was a leading engineering group producing AC and DC motors, generators, steam turbines and transformers.

Pioneering e-vehicle mobility

Today ABB is paving the way to sustainable mobility worldwide through its innovative e-vehicle technology, where fast-charging for e-vehicles is becoming an integral part of the new transport ecosystem. For this year’s annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, ABB became part of a long-term partnership to provide e-infrastructure for public and private transportation.

Davos residents and the Economic Forum guests can experience the pioneering Tosa bus for themselves. This award-winning bus was developed by ABB in Switzerland, is already in use in Geneva and will soon be operational in the French City of Nantes.

It can re-charge its battery in just 20 seconds while passengers embark and disembark. The idea is to run the pilot system under extreme weather conditions in Davos in order to gain valuable insights from the project into operational efficiency under such harsh conditions. “The shift to electric vehicles is no longer a question of if, but rather of when, and how quickly,” said ABB CEO Ulrich Spiesshofer. “EVs are becoming increasingly attractive to motorists. As well as being ecologically responsible, they’re becoming less expensive to buy and maintain.”

Sun-to-socket solar solutions

In a different product sector, ABB’s new string inverter significantly reduces Opex and Capex costs for solar installations. The company’s range of cloud-connected three-phase string inverter solutions for costefficient, decentralised photovoltaic systems are now available.

As the solar market shifts towards new, more cost-effective platforms ABB is capable of offering extreme, high-power string inverters that maximise return on investment (ROI) and are designed to reduce Capex and Opex costs for both installers and developers. Suitable for both large-scale commercial and industrial ground-mounted and rooftop applications, the PVS 100/120 offers a six-in-one, sun-to-socket solution that is proven to deliver scalability, flexibility, productive plant management and ease of installation.

ABB’s Global Product Manager for String Utility, Marco Trova, said: “Our new PVS 100/120 string inverter range offers the ability to interact with the solar plant system like no other, through high-power consolidation of physical parts and products along with digitalisation.” The product’s smart product design features include secure access via a cover key, PV quick connectors and configuration via Wi-Fi to eliminate the risk of water ingress and further reduce the installation time for cabling, fuse and SPD checks.

Boosting clean-energy supply

In January this year ABB won a $40 million contract to strengthen and upgrade Indonesia’s power grid. This significant power plant upgrade

and expansion boosts clean energy supply to the greater Jakarta area. In order to improve the efficiency of the existing plant and provide clean energy to the greater Jakarta area, the existing 1150 MW gas-fuelled generator will be converted to a 1800 MW combined-cycle power plant.

Indonesia is the world’s fourth most populous country and one of the fastest growing economies in Asia. This has spurred the demand for electricity and, according to PLN, demand is projected to grow at around 8.5 per cent per annum until 2015. In response, the government has outlined a plan to add 35,000 MW of power generation capacity to the grid. Indonesia plans to have 99.7 per cent of all households in the country connected to the nation’s electricity grid by 2025. The Muara Tawar upgrade and conversion to a combined cycle power plant will contribute significantly towards achieving these goals.

Ground-breaking driverless buses

Another major ABB project involves the energising of Singapore’s autonomous electric bus project, which further underscores its leading role in sustainable global transport solutions. Together with Volvo Buses, ABB will provide its state-of-the-art Heavy Vehicle Chargers (HVC) 300P for the forthcoming project to deliver two autonomous driving electric buses for the island beginning early in 2019.

With this new project ABB is taking another step towards globally sustainable mobility, just days after announcing its title sponsorship of the world’s first fully electric, international FIA motorsport series. n

For further details of ABB’s latest innovative products and services visit: www.abb.com