ABB drive cuts £10,000 off Tata Steel’s energy bill 21 June 2012

The Tata Steel plant at Stocksbridge, which supplies steel for the aerospace, oil and gas industries, is reporting nearly £10,000 a year savings on energy since installing an ABB industrial drive.

The drive was fitted to control an exhaust fan on the scarfer in the finishing process – which uses a propane burner to remove impurities from five-tonne, six-metre lengths of steel ingots and blooms.

Impurities, in the form of waste gases, are then removed by the exhaust fan, formerly run by a 132kW motor at full speed, with its output constricted by a damper, under PLC control.

"Halcyon Drives – an ABB Drives Alliance member – was recommended to us," says Patrick Frain, Tata's electrical section engineer for the billet mill, who saw this set-up as a prime candidate for a variable speed drive control.

Halcyon Drives proposed a 132kW ABB industrial drive set to run at 30% on standby duty and 100% during scarfing. Running at 30% means minimum delay as the motor is ramped up to full speed.

Tata needed the drive panel to be housed outside near the scarfer, as the distance to the existing plant room would mean a prohibitively long cable run. So too protect the drive from the weather, Halcyon constructed a panel to IP55, incorporating internal thermostatically controlled heaters to prevent condensation.

"The project has been a great success and continues to provide significant energy and CO2 savings," comments Frain.

As well as saving around £9,700 per annum in energy costs, the new drive also cuts production of 82,500kg of CO2 and cuts energy use by 165,000kWh.

Payback time should be less than one year.

Brian Tinham

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