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Gary Rackliffe, VP of smart grids, North America, at ABB,
explains to Smart Grid Today in an exclusive interview, that ABB’s smart grids
is focused on four areas of development: distributed grid management, utility
analytics, transmission grid management, and distributed energy resources. Rackliffe also explains how the recent
acquisitions made by ABB integrate into these four areas.
Distribution grid management
Acquisition-focused ABB bought Tropos Networks, last
year. This acquisition gave the firm its
own communications platform to reach the devices in the field such as load tap
changers; line voltage regulators and capacitor banks for volt-VAR
optimization; reclosers; DA switches; and various sensor technology for fault
detection, isolation and restoration (FDIR), Rackliffe said. “But with the acquisition of Tropos, we now
have our own wide-area wireless broadband communications that will support
distribution grid management. ABB has an
additional advantage from its 2010 $1 billion purchase of the enterprise
software and solutions firm Ventyx. We
can offer our distribution management system and SCADA from Ventyx,
communications from Tropos, and DA equipment and sensors from our Power Products
division.” In the last two years, ABB also
invested $10 million on a “smart grid center of excellence,” a testing lab and
demo center in North Carolina, where utilities can verify operations of smart
grid equipment before field deployment.
Utility analytics
ABB is chasing the “emerging markets” of utility analytics
and asset management in North America, said Gary Rackliffe. “We have a contract with AEP to implement an
‘asset health center’ solution for its entire transmission asset fleet, so we
are not just talking about this, we are actually moving forward in implementing
the solution. We are combining our asset
knowledge, our service base, our experience, performance models and algorithms,
and our business intelligence software for the analytics and situational
awareness that bridges OT (operation technology) and IT at AEP,” Rackliffe
said. ABB is also reaching “beyond
transmission equipment,” when implementing the asset health center Rackliffe
said. “At AEP, our primary focus is on high-voltage breakers, power
transformers, and substation battery health.
But our medium voltage businesses are also implementing asset health
management solutions by expanding the sensor base, service experience base, and
the performance models and algorithms to cover distribution equipment –
particularly switchgear and outdoor breakers.”
The acquisition of Ventyx helps drive development of this market with
enterprise business intelligence and asset management software.
Transmission grid
management
ABB views “technology that enables you to better control,
manage and operate the transmission grid as part of our smart grid portfolio.”
The firm is seeing sustained growth in FACTS (flexible AC transmission
solutions) and more applications of its HVDC technology. In recent months, the firm developed the
world’s first circuit breaker for HVDC and built a new $100 million factory for
high voltage transmission cables. In the transmission space, “as it pertains to smart grid,
ABB is working on the integration of renewables, which tend not to be located
near load centers,” Rackliffe said. That means high voltage direct current
(HVDC) technology is needed and used.
Offshore wind with longer cables is an example of renewable energy that
require HVDC technology.
Distributed energy
resources
ABB is integrating software to manage distributed energy
resources (DER) and to see how aggregated DERs impact distribution operations
and how they can be monetized at the generation portfolio level and/or the
energy market level. DERs include demand
response, distributed generation, electric vehicle charging, energy storage,
and microgrid technologies. ABB bought
Epyon to provide DC fast charging station infrastructure and Powercorp to
provide microgrid solutions with integrated energy storage. ABB in the last two years also expanded its energy storage
portfolio to offer battery community energy storage (CES) for the distribution
grid. “An example is a CES project we
have with Duke Energy using re-purposed batteries from Chevy Volts,” Rackliffe
said. The unit can deliver 25kWs of
power and 50kWHs of energy. There is
high growth potential with energy storage, he added, but we need to get some
cost reduction out of the batteries.
“The car manufacturers are helping us with their focus on driving down
the cost of lithium-ion batteries,” Rackliffe added. In September, ABB introduced a solar-plant controller and
grid interface that allows control of voltage, frequency, real power, reactive
power, power factor and ramp-up generation rate. The company also announced its plans to
acquire PowerOne, which offers PV solar inverter systems.
Other major ABB
investments
ABB also recently bought Tennessee-based low-voltage
equipment manufacturer Thomas & Betts ($3.9 billion) and Arkansas-based
industrial motors and generators maker Baldor Electric ($4.1 billion), making
the US ABB’s largest market for the first time in the firm’s 130-year history. The North American market is very appealing,
simply due to the sheer size and potential of the market, Rackliffe stated.
