The trees in the nearby northern forest produce strong paper. Every day, 130 log trucks transport them to the nearby Billerud plant in Karlsborg, a northerly paper mill, where they are transformed into moldable paper (FibreForm), kraft paper, sack paper and bleached pulp in baled form ‒ 350,000 tonnes of it every year.
Located just outside of Kalix, the mill is a private employer in the municipality. In addition to its main production plant, it houses two application laboratories with expertise in pulp optimisation and bag and sack packaging development.
Any unplanned stoppage can have an effect on production, revenue and the safety of employees. Therefore, Billerud tests its switchgear every three years and carries out scheduled maintenance and upgrades every seven weeks at different parts of the production chain.
Every so often, however, a larger upgrade project is required to ensure the long-term reliability of the plant’s switchgear. In the second half of 2022 this involved two ABB service engineers coming in on two occasions to replace incoming circuit breakers in seven selected low voltage switchgear throughout the plant. Ten medium voltage circuit breakers were also replaced.
Patrik Granlund, sales manager at ABB Electrification, said: "Billerud chose a site-built solution, which is the most extensive renovation you can do without replacing the entire switchgear. It is very cost-effective and also a sustainable option that allows switchgear from the 1980s to have a new life and live on.”
Six breakers were replaced with new Emax2 breakers during a stop after the summer of 2022 and the seventh in November of the same year. Replacing the old ALG and ALH variants in the switchgear improved the safety of the equipment and increased the availability of spare parts.
Emax2 is said to protect electrical circuits and reduce energy consumption based on user needs.
“Replacing a breaker in this comprehensive way takes about 7-8 hours, but compared to replacing an entire switchgear, the loss of production and downtime is significantly less,” Granlund explained.
The new breakers are likely to last for several decades.
Henrik Jakobsson, electrical & automation technician at Billerud, said: "The pay-off time for changing the breakers can be anything from 0 to 100 years but knowing that we have done what we could to secure the operation of the electricity and personal safety feels good.”