ABB Electrification Services

Understanding circularity

The OECD recently published a shocking statistic – if we wish to maintain the global pace of material resource consumption, we’re going to need 2.3 planets to meet our needs by 2040.

This kind of overconsumption is unsustainable, and is already having a dramatic impact on society.

For businesses looking to do their part in reducing material consumption, improving overall sustainability and reducing costs, a circular approach could be the answer.

Circularity will help you:

Reduce skilled labor costs and minimize downtime by moving from scheduled maintenance to predictive maintenance with help of digital components
Reduce finite material supply risks by increasing recycled content
Minimize costly and inefficient downtime needed to replace equipment through retrofit solutions
Reduce CAPEX expenditure, replacing it with scheduled OPEX investments in scheduled maintenance and upgrades

Download our guide to circularity

The power of predictive maintenance

Did you know that running a piece of equipment to failure can be up to 10 times more expensive than a program of preventive maintenance?

Making the change to a program of predictive maintenance is the first step many organizations take on their journey to circularity.

Switching from reactive maintenance – waiting for assets to fail before repairing or replacing them – to a program of predictive maintenance that considers the age, condition, use and status of each individual asset:

reduces costly downtime
improves productivity by 25%
reduces breakdowns by 70%
lowers maintenance costs by 25%

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Source: Predictive Maintenance, Deloitte

Reduce downtime by predicting potential failures

The total downtime required for the processes involved in predictive maintenance – replacement of parts, upgrades, running repairs – is significantly less than the time it takes to install entirely new systems or troubleshoot unexpected problems.

ABB’s own research shows that the average cost of unplanned downtime for industrial businesses is around $125,000 per hour. And more than two-thirds of the businesses surveyed told us that they experienced unplanned outages at least once a month.

Reducing the amount of unplanned downtime suffered by your business could have significant implications to your bottom line – especially when calculated over the lifetime of your electrical assets.

An ABB Power Care service agreement is one way you can create a program of predictive and preventive maintenance that will help reduce unplanned downtime and unlock business growth.

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Jämtkraft extends the life of its switchgear

Swedish utility company Jämtkraft produces more than 2 terawatt-hours of renewable electricity every year. It aims to increase its production over the coming decades in order to support Sweden’s goal of 100% renewable energy by 2040.

Realizing that it was facing a dwindling supply of spare parts for its aging switchgear, Jämtkraft replaced the original equipment with a modern MNS Digital solution.

This upgrade extends the lifespan of Jämtkraft’s switchgear, and makes predictive maintenance much easier.

“The upgrade provided an immediate noticeable improvement, not least because operation and service have become so much easier to handle,” said Anders Gjerstad, automation engineer at Jämtkraft.

“Production will not suffer from long emergency stops. It is not possible to eliminate operational disturbances completely, but it is clear that downtime has been minimized.”

Repairing and upgrading in place

Upgrading existing electrical assets, rather than replacing the entire infrastructure, not only saves time and money but also the planet, argues Stuart Thompson, President of ABB Electrification Service.

Fifty percent of electrical equipment – metal cabinets, steel plates, busbars, etc. – can be used perpetually without the need for replacement if outdated components are regularly monitored, maintained and upgraded.

And for businesses that upgrade to digital monitoring and control systems, there are further opportunities for circularity, saving natural resources and minimizing downtime.

We want to assist businesses to embrace circularity by empowering them to:

Use less: Reduce material use, regenerate the Earth, and prevent resource loss in delivering social outcomes.
Use longer: Keep materials in use for as long as possible by prioritizing durability and repairability in stocks made to last.
Make clean: Substitute toxic or hazardous materials and processes with regenerative biomass resources.
Use again: Reuse materials to minimize the need for new input and maximize secondary materials re-entering the economy.

Read the article

Digital Service 4.0 enabling remote servicing

There are other, non-material ways that you can drive circularity in your business.

By connecting with ABB technicians remotely using augmented reality (AR), you can receive high-quality support without the need for a technician to travel to your facility.

ABB’s Remote Assistance for Electrical Systems – RAISE – brings the expertise and wisdom of ABB specialists to you through the power of AR.

By connecting through RAISE, ABB experts can share step-by-step instructions, images, videos and other documents directly to your field technician’s device.

Reduces costs related to ABB on-site interventions, as well as CO₂ emissions through a reduction in required air/road travel.
Flexible, easy and fast real-time remote support, connecting your field operator with an ABB expert, thereby reducing time to resolution.
Improves safety, as the field operator is guided at all times by an ABB expert.
Improves first time fix rate thanks to the prior knowledge of conditions on site.

Find out more about RAISE

End-of-life services

Decommissioning: Resale, disposal and recycling

Even with the life-extending benefits of predictive and preventive maintenance, equipment will eventually need to be decommissioned.

A circular approach to the disposal of decommissioned assets allows owners to restore product value through resale, reuse and recycling of components.

Disposal

Depending on your location, there may be strict legislation regarding the disposal of industrial equipment.

As a manufacturer of alkaline manganese, lead acid, nickel cadmium, lithium and nickel-metal hydride industrial batteries, ABB offers a scheme whereby waste batteries can be returned for safe treatment and disposal, and recycling where possible.

ABB personnel are also certified in the safe handling of sulphur hexafluoride or SF6. This gas, used in some legacy low- and medium-voltage equipment, is 23,500 more potent than CO₂ and can escape into the atmosphere if not disposed of correctly.

Find out more about end-of-life services

Reuse or sell

Certain components such as circuit breakers can be reused or kept for spares. As long as assets are still functioning, and meet all the relevant safety standards, they can be used in other facilities or locations.

Even if you no longer have a need for decommissioned components, there may be other organizations who can make use of the asset or use them as spares for their own maintenance programs.

Recycle

According to the 2023 Circularity Gap report, only 7.2% of the virgin material extracted from the earth every year is recycled.

When it comes to copper – one of the most important natural resources to the electrification industry – only 34% of the global consumption comes from recycled or ‘scrap’ copper. The rest has to be produced by just a small handful of economies.

At ABB, we are piloting an approach to manufacturing that prioritizes circularity. Low-voltage breakers, for example, can be designed to allow for up to 80% material recovery, minimizing the disposal of resources.

Find out more about end-of-life services

Make your investments go further

Every business wants an energy supply that is reliable, affordable and clean – the so-called ‘holy trinity’ of energy. But recent global events have combined to mean that meeting these criteria is not as easy as it used to be.

Faced with these uncertainties, it’s no surprise that businesses are rethinking how they invest in their operations.

From CapEx to OpEx

The tumultuous nature of the global economy, the rapid pace of technological innovation and a shifting workforce have all forced businesses to reconsider the traditional CapEx-based approach to growth.

We’ve seen spending trend toward a greater focus on operational expenditure, or OpEx. By allocating budgets to OpEx, businesses can optimize processes in an agile way, allowing them to maximize output and minimize costs – resulting in bottom-line benefits.

Investing in a program of predictive maintenance; repairing, upgrading and retrofitting assets in place instead of wholesale replacement; and recapturing asset value during decommissioning are all examples of a circular approach to OpEx investments replacing CapEx spending.

Read more about how you can make the most out of OpEx in our new whitepaper, available to download today.

Read the paper

How ABB will help you get there

Interested in making the switch to circularity? You can start today.

ABB’s Advisory Services will help you:

navigate every step of the decarbonization process
build a foundation of reliable, safe, efficient electrification
accelerate your progress to net zero
optimize security, safety and operational efficiency.

Our aim is to build lasting, trusted partnerships that go beyond implementation and extend to ongoing improvement and success.

Our unrivaled global network of experts brings the smartest thinking and the latest technology to guarantee the availability, reliability and sustainability of critical assets and meet your evolving needs. 

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Take the next steps toward circularity

Download the ebook

Download our guide, Tackling the Throwaway Culture, for more information on how your organization can take a circular approach.

Download the guide