Connect.

Collaborate.
Outperform.
Highlights from ABB Customer World 2017
March 13-16 in Houston
A Special Report by the Editors of Control
Caption

NEXT PAGE u
 TABLE OF CONTENTS
Embrace the fourth industrial revolution 3

Select I/O streamlines project execution 5

ABB Ability gives users tools to write digital future 6

How BASF advocates for cybersecurity 8

Choose the robot service offerings you need 10

Compliance just a gateway app for the FDA-regulated 11

Take operational excellence to the next level 14

Microsoft and ABB partnership creates cloud synergy 16

Turn CAD files into product in fewer steps 18

Alcoa Canada eliminates the middleman 20

A digital foundation for the chemical, oil and gas industry 22

Condition monitoring takes flight with wireless sensors 24

Regs, renewables and consumers reshaping electrical landscape 25

Operational excellence depends on digital discontent 27

Diverse industries feel the impact of technology 29

Bright oil and gas future will rely on innovation, efficiency 32

Utility CEO clears leadership path for women 34

Living on the edge: Consumers driving power grid dynamics 36

t PREVIOUS PAGE 2 NEXT PAGE u

 EMBRACE THE FOURTH
INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
ABB CEO Ulrich Spiesshofer describes the unbeatable
combination of technology with people
Paul Studebaker

W
hen ABB was founded more than 100 years we will not rest our efforts to bring you new technology
ago, people would have said its impossible to serve you, when you need it, wherever you are.
for an airplane to fly around the world with- Over the past seven years, ABB has invested $10 billion
out using a single drop of fuel. Last year, it was done in R&D, organic growth and acquisitions in the U.S. We
by Solar Impulse 2, an inspiration for efforts to run the now employ 20,000 people and operate 60 manufactur-
world without consuming the planet. ing sites in the U.S., Spiesshofer added. Here, ABB is
In 2005, who could imagine there would be 7 billion number one for power grids and motion, and were the
devices in industry connected to the industrial internet? first global company to produce robots in the U.S.
And more than 25 billion by 2020. Today, a sensor on a
motor can monitor its health and performance, prevent- Energy revolution touches everyone
ing downtime and lost production, enabling better up- The fourth Industrial Revolution affects everyone,
time, higher speed and better output; increasing motor inside and outside industry. So does the revolution in
life by 40% and reducing energy consumption by 10%. energy. Renewables are kicking into the grid, hand-in-
Do that across 300 million motors, and the energy sav- hand with oil and gas, Spiesshofer said. On the sup-
ings equal the total output of 100 of the worlds largest ply side, utilities must cope with more feed-in points,
power plants. longer distances, volatility and unpredictability. On the
In 2016, Google artificial intelligence (AI) beat South
Korean champion Lee Se-dol in four out of five matches for
the worlds championship in Go. The same AI is expand-
ing the roles of robots by giving them the ability to learn.
These are technologies ABB stands for and applies
in utilities, industry, transportation and infrastructure,
said ABB CEO Ulrich Spiesshofer in his keynote speech
at ABB Customer World, this week in Houston. ABB is
transforming, and is now globally number one or num-
ber two in its four areas: number one in process control,
motion control, power transmission and distribution,
and number two in electrification and robotics, Spiess-
hofer said. We want to be your partner of choice, and

Digitalization can bring a quantum leap in utilization,

where a few percent can make you a hero. If you stand
still and say, This is not for me, your competitiveness
will be significantly deteriorated. CEO Ulrich
Spiesshofer deliver the opening keynote address at ABB
Customer World 2017.

Connect. Collaborate. Outperform. Highlights from ABB Customer World 2017

demand side, electric vehicle charging is growing, and
data center power consumption is rising, he said. Elec-
trons must arrive safely, reliably and predictably at the
point of consumption.
The grid used to be simple, flowing predictably in one
direction. Now a house might be an energy producer in
the morning, a consumer in the evening, and overnight
with an electric vehicle, a storage device, all depending
on the time of day.
Power must travel long distances. The 40-year-old,
800-mile-long Pacific Intertie is being upgraded to 4 GW
capacity, and is one of 220 such systems around the world.
ABB is involved in half of them, using its high-voltage di-
rect current (HVDC) technology for efficiency.
On the local level, after a Con Ed substation in Lower
Manhattan was damaged by Hurricane Sandy, ABB up-
graded it and eliminated 80% of its cabling by replac-
ing copper networks with fiberoptics. Its footprint is now
30% smaller, and it has remote monitoring capabilities
to streamline maintenance and improve reliability.
This industrial revolution is special
The first three industrial revolutionssteam, the assem-
bly line, and automationreplaced muscle power with
machines. The fourth replaces brain power with AI and
computer processing capability, Spiesshofer said. It ex-
tends outside the factory floor to every enterprise, so it
has a much larger size and scope.
Factories are familiar with automation, offices not
so much, Spiesshofer said. Job changes used to occur
between generationsa parent might be a farmer, their
child a factory worker. Now workers often must change
careers within a generation, he said. We must seize
this opportunity, but we must also take people with us
despite the unprecedented speed of change.
We need to avoid creating anxiety about work. His-
torically, jobs may change, but the amount of work goes
up. New jobs appear for solution developers, application
engineers, software specialists, etc. We must invest in
education, to be sure people prosper.
ABB supports this transition with knowledge centers
such as its Collaborative Control Center for Oil & Gas
in Houston, and its System 800xA, which combines dis-
Connect. Collaborate. Outperform. Highlights from ABB Customer World 2017
tributed process control, electrical control and safety sys-
tems with collaboration.
In discrete industries, robotization is an opportu-
nity to drive prosperity. Combining robots and people
safeguards competitiveness by increasing productivity,
Spiesshofer said. ABB has started up the first global ro-
bot manufacturing plant in the U.S., in Auburn Hills,
Mich. Engineers are working with U.S. customers to
do they want, he said. Demand is so high, we have al-
ready announced an expansion of the plant.
The future is up to you
Digitalization is providing opportunities for all kinds of
industries. Telecom, media and finance are well along,
but factories, plants and utilities lag. Industry still has
great potential for improvement, which is an opportu-
nity for you and for us, Spiesshofer said. Plants need to
seize this opportunity to drive maintenance, operations
and control to new levels.
ABB has been a hidden digital champion, connect-
ing 70 million smart devices in 70,000 control systems,
but not known for it, Spiesshofer said. Now were add-
ing an overarching digital architecture to combine them
with human expertise: ABB Ability.
Under this banner, AI, control and connectivity will
drive digital differentiation, Spiesshofer said. ABB Abil-
ity combines the digital Lego boxthe cloud, networks
and deviceswith domain expertise and process know-
how to enable you to serve your customers better.
ABB Ability helps us assess, to know more about pro-
cesses and situations, to predict what will happen, to
make manufacturers able to produce more by avoiding
downtime, improving processes, and running them in a
smarter way to achieve OEE better than anyone in the
world, Spiesshofer said. ABB Ability is ABB offering to
work with you and bring it together. We are listening to
you, so we can create the value that you want.
Digitization can bring you a quantum leap in utili-
zation, where a few percent can make you a hero. If you
stand still and say, This is not for me, your competitive-
ness will be significantly deteriorated.
Its a tremendous opportunity for prosperity, wealth and
employment. Lets write the future together, ABB and you.
 SELECT I/O STREAMLINES
PROJECT EXECUTION
Single-channel input/output system severs hardware
and software design dependencies
Keith Larson

A
BB took a significant step forward to further ect, then select the type of I/O much later. Because the
streamline the execution of its customers au- base hardware for every type of signal is the same, auto-
tomation projects with the release of Select I/O mation system designers need only know an approximate
at ABB Customer World this week in Houston. Select I/O count at the design-freeze milestone of an automation
I/O is a redundant, Ethernet-based single channel input/ project. Designers can then order standardnot custom
output (I/O) system that supports ABBs next generation I/O module bases and enclosures, knowing that they have
project execution model. Called Intelligent Projects, full flexibility to alter the mix of I/O types at any point in
the new methodology streamlines execution while de- the project. Further, since control system hardware com-
creasing complexity, project delays and cost overruns. ponents are now standard issue, the factory acceptance test
The cornerstones of ABBs Intelligent Projects execu- (FAT) of control system hardware is a thing of the past.
tion model are efficient cloud engineering, digital marshal- Second, because each channel can take on any signal
ling, standardization and automated data management, type and be digitally marshalled to any controller, the
said ABBs Dan Overly, head of product management - oil, need for physical marshallingand all those cabinets
gas and chemicals. With the release of Select I/O, all of
the data points that make up a project, whether hardwired
to the control system or part of an integrated electrical sub-
station, are now able to be digitally marshalled into the Sys-
tem 800xA architecture. This makes it possible to execute
projects more efficiently by decoupling tasks and becom-
ing more resilient to late changes and delivering projects
faster and more cost effectively.
Available for process automation and safety applica-
tions, this extension to the System 800xA family of Flex-
ible I/O Solutions allows for each I/O channel to be
individually characterized using a plug-in signal condi-
tioning module (SCM). This approach streamlines proj-
ect execution in a number of ways.
First, Select I/O allows users to install standardized cab-
inets with the bases for field wiring early during a proj-

Select I/O makes it possible to execute projects more

efficiently by decoupling tasks and becoming more
resilient to late changes and delivering projects faster
and more cost effectively. ABBs Dan Overly on how
single-channel I/O allows the companys customers to
reduce project cost and schedule risks.

Connect. Collaborate. Outperform. Highlights from ABB Customer World 2017

and terminations, toodisappears completely. In addi-
tion to lowering costs and speeding execution, this has
the added benefit of significantly reducing overall sys-
tem footprint, which can be critically important in an
application such as an off-shore oil rig where floor-space
and even allowable weight are at a premium. Instrument
installation techs save time, too, because they can simply
land their wire pairs on the most convenient pair of I/O
terminations and move on to the next.
The Select I/O solutions network is connected via
an Ethernet Fieldbus Communication Interface (FCI)
with embedded redundant switches. In addition to being
field ready with temperature ratings of -40 to 70 degrees
C, each channel is galvanically isolated, current limited
and has a unique field disconnect mode for added pro-
tection and flexibility.
ABB ABILITY GIVES USERS TOOLS
TO WRITE DIGITAL FUTURE
Expertise, digitally deployed, will unlock efficiency
and productivity in each users applications and facilities
Jim Montague
W
hats better than vast, deep and longtime
experience? Almost nothingexcept if that
experience is organized, digitalized and
contextualized, so users can make better, faster deci-
sions that improve performance, optimize applications,
reduce downtime and increase profits.
This is the reasoning behind ABBs launch this week
of its ABB Ability platform, solutions, products and ser-
vices. In short, ABB Ability encompasses the secure,
digital deployment of the companys decades of proven
know-how in automation, electrification and many other
technical disciplines to unlock efficiency and productiv-
ity in each users applications and facilities, according to
Guido Jouret, chief digital officer (CDO) at ABB.
ABB Ability was developed in conjunction with Mi-
crosoft, which provides common technologies for en-
abling device, edge and cloud application delivery. The
Connect. Collaborate. Outperform. Highlights from ABB Customer World 2017
With this extension of the ABB Ability System 800xA
offering our customers get many new cost saving oppor-
tunities for their automation projects, said Ilpo Ruoho-
nen, managing director of ABBs Control Technologies
business unit. The flexibility that Select I/O brings with
it will certainly change the way of executing projects.
In the end, single-channel, configurable I/O does
much to sever the serial design dependencies that
plague the execution of automation projects. Hardware
and software aspects of automation system design can
proceed in parallel, compressing schedules and reduc-
ing risk. The Select I/O offering complements a range
of ABB software tools and new execution workflows to
ensure that these streamlined, parallel engineering pro-
cesses meet up in a fully tested, fully functional automa-
tion solution.
platform provides solutions in ABBs three primary ap-
plication areas: utilities, industry, transportation and in-
frastructure. It also delivers secure, digital solutions on
premises with fog computing from devices to the edge,
in the cloud that goes up from the edge, and now in a
projected intercloud strategy. Indeed, its among vari-
ous cloud platforms where meaningful integration can
be performed most easily, Jouret said.
Were at the beginning of a new age, Jouret con-
tinued. Theres risk, of course, but theres also great
opportunity for capturing performance and value.
ABB has delivered that value by connecting sensors
to devices, and creating insight with analysis and as-
sessment. These assessments are increasing, but this is
where our competitors stop. ABB, however, makes the
extra effort to harvest data, take control, and enable us-
ers to do more.
Were at the beginning of a new age. Theres risk, of
course, but theres also great opportunity for capturing
performance and value with ABB Ability, Guido Jouret,
chief digital officer at ABB.

For example, ABBs System 800xA distributed control

system has long been able to sense, analyze and allow us-
ers to take actions to drive efficiency. But Jouret reported
that ABB Ability System 800xA and its new Select I/O pro-
grammable input/output solutions will enable users to do
even more.
ABB Ability 800xA will do everything it already does,
but now were adding self-learning so it can perform
even better, added Jouret. Were looking at integrating
supply chains, and integrating with upstream and down-
stream users.

Know-how fuels digital in industry

What qualifies ABB to play and lead in the emerging
digital revolution? Jouret answered his own question by
reporting that, ABB has a $400-billion installed base
and 150 years of domain expertise, so we have the con-
text to know, for example, Tuesday is the day when a
particular operator shuts down motors for maintenance,
explained Jouret.
This is why the IT side typically struggles in indus-
try because they dont have this kind of experience. We
have this expertise in mechanical and other systems be-
cause weve been in these industries for decades, and
have institutional knowledge from our users, and that
knowledge is increasingly codified.
Jouret report that ABB Ability is presently deployed in
more than 180 applications, either existing ones that have
been extended or new ones that are being built. Some of
these applications and the results they are delivering:
Utilities have reduced installations times by 40%,
maintenance costs by 50% and outage times by 50%.
These applications include asset performance manage-
ment, distributed energy resource management, main-
tenance workflow management, energy market trading
systems, automated digital substations, standard IP com-
munications and microgrids.
Industry has improved productivity by 200%, reduced
energy by 30% and increased product life by 30%. These
applications include connected robots, manufacturing
executions systems, energy assessments, cybersecurity as-
sessments, digital simulation for robot deployment, power
quality monitoring and demand-response, distributed
control systems, remote monitoring and optimization.
The transportation and infrastructure sector improved
proactive detection of faults by 90%, reduced maintenance
costs by 20% and reduced energy cost by 5%. These appli-
cations include remote monitoring for ship electrical sys-
tems, building automation, vehicle-to-grid demand/supply
coordination, navigation optimization for fleets, EV charg-
ing with cloud management, flash-charging for electric
buses, and energy management for mega-datacenters.
Were coordinating demand and supply of power,
such as saving ship fuel by 5% by analyzing local
weather, added Jouret. The cloud can also help man-
age power for datacenters, which can use up to 1 giga-
watt of power. All together, ABB Ability has thousands
of customers, such as PG&E, Dong Energy, American
Electric Power, Shell, BMW, Cargill, BASF, Vale, Tata
Steel, Microsoft, Royal Caribbean, Volvo and others.
This is because ABB enables their uptime, speed, yield,
reliability and safety. And its also why were excited to help
them use ABB Ability to write and create new futures.

Connect. Collaborate. Outperform. Highlights from ABB Customer World 2017

 HOW BASF ADVOCATES
FOR CYBERSECURITY
While the need for continuously monitored and updated
cybersecurity is increasingly urgent, convincing some
organizations to pay for it can still be difficult
Jim Montague

T
o help other end users show their managers, ac- one of our sites, but we havent seen a lot of value in them
countants and corporate leaders about the value of yet. Our BASF4.0 team was established looking at these
cybersecurity, Keith Dicharry, director of process new smart devices, and theyre looking at applications that
control and automation for BASF in North America, pre- will bring value moving forward. We will need to address
sented Making the Case for Cybersecurity Investment the challenges and obstacles to implement, but there is
this week at ABB Customer World 2017 in Houston. value in the technology.
Our worldwide automation strategy at BASF begins
with a pyramid of doing the basics before adding new Data context needed
functions and new technologies, began Dicharry. The Dicharry added that BASF and other process industry
fundamental tasks at the base of that pyramid include players are suffering from an everything, everywhere
safety and security. The first devices that did machine-
to-machine communications were pneumatics, and the
strategies used by todays controls arent a lot different.
The change now is that digital devices can be hacked
into, and there are people trying to get in.
Unfortunately, instead of dealing with cyber probes, in-
trusions and attacks in a logical way, Dicharry reported
that many process industry users are suffering from shiny
things disorder (STD). This is the desire to get smart
phones, tablet PCs and other new technologies into the
hands of staffers, and attract new employees, without first
considering whether those new technologies will justify
investment in them and if they can be applied securely.
A lot of STD things are making their way to smart de-
vices at BASF, so we try to slow them down some, and
first find out if theyre really going to add value, explained
Dicharry. Theres an attitude of if you build it they will
come, but I think thats the reverse of what should be hap-
pening. Wed started implementing mobility devices at

If we do a good business case and risk assessment for

cybersecurity, were usually able to get funding, Keith
Dicharry, director of process control and automation for
BASF in North America.

Connect. Collaborate. Outperform. Highlights from ABB Customer World 2017

syndrome, which seeks to make all data available at all
levels, and do it everywhere, all of the time. Weve been
collecting data for years, and we have huge volumes of it.
Its great to get it to the right hands, but I dont think my
COO is going to want all of it, or would even know what
to do with all of it, said Dicharry. Each user needs data
that relates their role. We also struggle with contextual-
izing data, vetting information, and getting it in front of
the right person at the right level for the best decisions.
Because of industrys misplaced focus on STDs and ev-
erything/everywhere, Dicharry worries that some users
may be making the foundations of their own automation
pyramids less solid. If we look at our distributed control
system now, its apparent that were not fully utilizing what
we already have, explained Dicharry. Yet we want more
data, and we want to pay less for it. Weve got plenty of
data already, but it isnt in contextits not valid for the
guys in the trenches or for upper management.
Seek smart security
Dicharry reported that its important to beware of the
two words its secure because most static security mea-
sures will only be effective for a short time. If theyre
not set up correctly, smart devices are very accessible,
vulnerable and hackable, he said. Most vulnerability
testing firms are very successful at breaking into process
industry companies and applications, which are also af-
fected by human factors, too. Often as not, these in-
clude physical security breaches as well as purely cyber
intrusions, he said.
From a big picture perspective, cybersecurity at BASF
is handled much like it is at other process industry com-
panies: by IT at Layers 3 and 4 of the Purdue Control
Hierarchy Reference Model, which include manufac-
turing execution systems (MES) and enterprise resource
planning (ERP) systems. Layers 1 and 2 are outside of
ITs scope, and are typically handled by proprietary sys-
tems. Layer 3 is a gray area, so we want some kind of cy-
bersecurity middle ground from there on down. There
are very diverse solutions below Layer 3, but we can use
some IT methods, explained Dicharry.
We wanted a better plan, so we set up our Automa-
Connect. Collaborate. Outperform. Highlights from ABB Customer World 2017
tion Security Team and a Global Technical Engineer-
ing Automation Security (GTEAS) team. We also got
our IT security side involved to see what they could add
to the process side. We found there were a lot of holes
in that approach at first, so we also developed a com-
bined operations technology (OT)/information technol-
ogy (IT) Security Operations Center, which is up and
running and meets monthly.
Weve also been developing a cybersecurity solutions
catalog, so when we find vulnerabilities happening, we
can pull a solution from the catalog that includes input
from other sites, or we can develop a new solution with
help from partners like ABB.
Business case for protection
Dicharry reported that one way he and his BASF col-
leagues get their company to pay closer attention to cy-
bersecurity is by getting them to understand that its very
similar to process safety. If people can understand that
theres a problem, its easier to justify funding for it, he
said. Theres just no magic bullet. We cant show return
on investment on preventing cyber attacks, but if we do a
good business case and risk assessment for cybersecurity,
were usually able to get funding. Weve even been able
to add cybersecurity to BASFs overall automation road-
map, and were benchmarking where BASF is on cyber-
security compared to how other companies are doing.
Once a cybersecurity risk assessment is done, it goes
to the Automation Security Team, and then to senior
management for funding. In our process, we dont try to
use scare tactics. Weve had to deal with some issues but
have been able to keep them from impacting production
thus far.
Dicharry added there were some early disputes
within BASF over cybersecurity policy. For example,
we wanted to allow ABB to have remote access to some
equipment to assist troubleshooting, but ran into a brick
wall with cybersecurity experts. Now, theyre getting
more OK with managed remote access, he said. My
advice is be realistic, not pessimistic. We want to make
chemicals and profits, and we have to use technology
thats secure to do it.
 CHOOSE THE ROBOT SERVICE
OFFERINGS YOU NEED
Five Connected Services from ABB leverage digitalization
Mike Bacidore

S
ervices are more valuable when theyre digitalized
and connected. Thats the philosophy behind the
ABB portfolio of offerings for robotic reliability
and optimization. Connected Services is an improved
way to manage and monitor your ABB robots, said David
Quevedo, technical support manager, discrete automa-
tion and motion division, in ABBs robotics business unit.
We have a 24/7/365 operation, so were always there.
Quevedo explained how market trends have pushed
the evolution of robotic services during his presentation
at ABB Customer World this week in Houston.
We are moving from cost-based to value-based ser-
vice enabled by digitalization, he said. We used to be
cost-focused, time-based and reactive. Weve moved to
value creation, where we want to tell you how every-
things working and be able to predict failures with re-
mote monitoring thats condition-based and predictive.
With new tools and service offerings, ABBs next direc-
tive is to help customers to get to increased productivity, in-
creased mean time between failure (MTBF) and reduced
mean time to repair (MTTR). Digitalization is but a means
to providing its customers with better peace of mind.
Digitalization enhances our capabilities to support
and add value, explained Quevedo. We are moving
into the digitalization market. Were increasing up-
time, reliability and efficiency throughout the lifecycle.
In 2007, we were already a pioneer in robot remote ser-
vices, with optional hardware allowing for reduced time
to fix. Today, we are Connected Services, the HTML5
customer interface and the Internet of Things, Services
and People. Were looking to move into the application-
monitoring service, and we want to move into the cloud
with ABB Ability Cloud Services.
Five service options
ABB Connected Services, formerly known as remote
services, is broken down into five different solutions be-
cause not everyone needs the same things. The services
are offered cafeteria-style with separate costs per solu-
tion. The five solution offerings include condition moni-
toring & diagnostics, backup management, fleet assess-
ment, asset optimization, and remote access.
Condition monitoring & diagnostics features access
to the robot user interface, which includes an alarm and
diagnostics dashboard with statistics. Its free during the
factory warranty period, if the customer connects, and
then $250/robot/year after that.
Even when the robot is working fine, we are doing diag-
nostics, said Quevedo. Connected Services scans the con-
troller and the arm, so we can trend the data. When theres
an alarm, we can tell you whats happened and how to pre-
vent it in the future. Through ABBs MyRobot interface,
alarms and other data can be monitored by the customer.

Were increasing uptime, reliability and efficiency

throughout the lifecycle. ABBs David Quevedo
explained the companys a la carte offerings for robotic
service at ABB Customer World in Houston.

Connect. Collaborate. Outperform. Highlights from ABB Customer World 2017

 Every time we run these scans, we take those measure-
ments, and we trend them, explained Quevedo. The My-
Robot dashboard includes indicator lights based on the
findings of an internal prediction analyzer. When the
indicator changes from green to yellow, we know theres
a problem. Its not a failure, but theres something there
to look at. We can monitor fans, belts, memory and pro-
cessors. We know how theyre supposed to work and can
tell when theyre not. Torque, deceleration and speed are
monitored on all axes, and we use mechanical condition
change to predict failures, said Quevedo.
Backup management is another offering that costs
$150/robot/year. We have a way to automatically sched-
ule backups, Quevedo explained. Even if the machine
is running, were connected to your network. A cus-
tomer can see all of the backups from the MyRobot web-
site. It can be restored on the server or from the cloud.
There is not a single day we dont get a call from a cus-
tomer who needs to restore from a backup, he said.
Fleet assessment is a means to lifecycle management for
gearboxes and motors. Released last year, its cost is $100/
robot/year. To be able to find out if your system is working
as optimally as it could be and how long it will continue
running, we compare the robots at your site to all of the
robots we have connected, explained Quevedo. We com-
pare how much the robot is working, how much torque.
COMPLIANCE JUST A GATEWAY
APP FOR THE FDA-REGULATED
Food & beverage companies that digitize data stand to gain
much more than easier compliance with FDA regulations
Paul Studebaker
S
team power brought us the first industrial rev-
olution in 1712, the assembly line the second
around 1870, and automation the third with the
PLC in 1969. Today and tomorrow, were experiencing
the fourth industrial revolution, Industrie 4.0, with pro-
liferation of information technology and the ability to
visualize the interactions of people, things and services.
Connect. Collaborate. Outperform. Highlights from ABB Customer World 2017
We look at the deviation of estimated lifetime for compact
gearboxes. This allows us to identify issues with the way the
robot is integrated. Also, if you have key robots, it allows
you to monitor the normal average usage, so it predicts how
long the motor or the gearbox will last if you continue to
run the robot the way youre running it. The algorithm we
have for torque, deceleration and speed is used.
For $250/robot/year, asset optimization can help to
make the most efficient use of your robots. Our team
in India monitors every single event, including alarms,
failures and the way the robot is working, Quevedo said.
You get a report once a quarter.
Finally, remote access is available. Its a way for us to
have full access to the robot even when we are remote,
explained Quevedo. We can connect to the robot re-
motely and help you to do things like load software. The
remote access gateway box includes a physical switch
that the user must switch on to allow access. The ser-
vice costs $600 for units in which the gateway is already
installed and $2,000 if the gateway box is necessary.
When a new robot is sold today, it comes with em-
bedded Connected Services, concluded Quevedo.
The old solution was a 3G box that talked to the Inter-
net. Now, with our embedded solution, all of the soft-
ware for Connected Services comes with the robot. If
you are connected, we can see.
Today, weve connected 6.4 billion things, by 2020
it will be 20 billion. Increased connectivity offers huge
potential for improvements in many areas, said Mat-
thias H. Erhardt, segment manager, Food & Beverage,
ABB, to attendees of his session, Data use and com-
pliance in FDA-regulated food and beverage environ-
ments at ABB Customer World this week in Houston.
As data is passed up, its integrity must be retained,
and you want to take care of all the data, not just the
legal requirement, to gain the advantages. ABBs
Matthias Erhardt discussed the importance of data and
compliance in the context of FDA-regulated food and
beverage environments.
The food and beverage industries as a group are
fairly far behind from a digitalization perspective,
but growth is accelerating, Erhardt said. Today, the
industry is moving from paper-based systems to the
cloud extremely quickly, with the number of applica-
tions expected to triple in five years.
Driven by compliance
The food and beverage industries look simple on the
outside, but a typical facility includes a labyrinth of
machines, process equipment and conveyor belts en-
abling a flow of materials from receiving through the
plant to the stores and consumers, with plenty of op-
portunities to make a mistake. We want to be sure
we dont get sick, Erhardt says. At the same time,
new business models call for flexible marketing and
production, for example, Coke in seasonal bottles for
Christmas and Easter. They have to be done on time,
and it takes a lot to do it.
Data digitalization helps ensure compliance, flex-
ibility and more. Industrie 4.0 is being made possible
by available IT infrastructure including the cloud,
big data, cybersecurity, sensors and software. Auto-
mation is enhanced with software simulation and ro-
botics, so we can now simulate and optimize a pro-
duction cell in a virtual environment, Erhardt said.
The opportunity exists to improve asset utilization,
labor productivity, safety, inventories and quality, as
well as balancing supply with demand, raising energy
efficiency and improving waste management.
Data delivers more
The average product recall costs $10 million, but can
cost much more. In recent years, for example, a spin-
ach recall cost $350 million, and a peanut butter re-
Connect. Collaborate. Outperform. Highlights from ABB Customer World 2017
call $1 billion. Food poisoning causes 5,000 deaths
per year and sends 300,000 people to the hospital ev-
ery year, Erhardt said. And it does lasting damage to
companies, because 83% of consumers remember the
brands involved in recalls, and 55-57% temporarily or
permanently discontinue buying them.
Traceability with digital records can significantly
reduce those losses, yet paper-based recordkeeping
persists because its legal, you can put a signature on
it, and its easy. The same approach can be used to
document batches, standard operating procedures
(SOPs), production orders, shift records, etc. But its
hard to search or analyze, hard to make reports or
provide traceability. And you need enough climate-
controlled storage space for seven years of records (10
years for adverse information).
FDA Title 21 CFR Part 11 has allowed electronic
records since 1997. Its not a rule, but a guideline,
and its todays guiding principle for other standards,
Erhardt said, and its only as good as the quality of
the data.
Quality data, everywhere
Digitalization is a straightforward, though sometimes
complex, process that starts with rationalizing processes
and defining your needs. First, align processes and trans-
late operational objectives into measurable success indi-
cators, Erhardt said. Align operational levels and pro-
cesses, and standardize workflows between work centers.
 Then go digital. A fully digitally-integrated plant
will acquire data starting at raw materials and at every
production step. Data from sources such as materials
warehouses, automated guided vehicles (AGVs) and
silos will be provided to the manufacturing execution
system (MES). Data from plant-area sources such as
bar code scanners, scales, control systems, picking,
packaging lines and palletizing will be collected by
the production system. All data is passed up to the
enterprise system to use for eliminating waste, maxi-
mizing flow, empowering operators, improving ergo-
nomics, speeding changeovers, minimizing inventory
and making sure each step is done right the first time.
Ensure data integrity and security through storage,
routing and processing. Define digital workflows and
processes and role-based access control, and allow for
digital signatures. Assign access to the data for audit
trails, alarm management, historian and reporting
functions, batch control, recipe management, shift
information and maintenance.
Consider the potential for real-time reporting of
electronic batch records, quality reports, overall
equipment effectiveness (OEE) and utilization, en-
ergy management, production benchmarking and
alarms.
As data is passed up from plant-floor systems, its in-
tegrity must be retained, Erhardt said, And you want
to take care of all the data, not just the legal require-
ment, to gain the advantages.
Start at the network
Erhardt recommends food and beverage plants con-
sider starting their digitalization initiative at the net-
work level with a data management system such as
ABB zenon. Start with one machine, and expand
machine-by-machine by bringing each one up to the
network, he said. Then add additional equipment
Connect. Collaborate. Outperform. Highlights from ABB Customer World 2017
and areas.
ABB zenon offers scalability and the necessary ca-
pabilities to ensure data integrity. It has hardware
drivers, fieldbus and other connectivity to bring in di-
verse equipment, and communicates up to SAP, Mi-
crosoft Dynamics, process gateways, SQL, OPC-UA
and more. Security features are integrated, and it can
be used across the plant utilities and building systems
as well as production, packaging and warehouse ap-
plications.
Once you have the data, you can do a lot with it,
Erhardt said. Complete visibility and control gives
you the opportunity to improve the process, empower
intelligent decisions in real time, and optimize pro-
duction efficiency and performance.
Today, regulatory food safety compliance is too of-
ten documented through manual and heterogeneous
processes, Erhardt said. Costly, time-consuming and
error-prone reporting may cause confusion, and ac-
cess to archives and data storage is difficult. As a re-
sult, its often seen as an impediment to profitability.
Its a manual processyou dont know where you are
on productivity, and you dont where you are on qual-
ity, he added.
Instead, we want regulations to support standard-
ized quality measures for production processes, Er-
hardt said. Digitalized processes generate data that
can be used to report KPIs in real time, with ubiq-
uitous access to information. This allows transpar-
ency, which is the base for better business decisions,
lower cost of poor quality [CoPQ] and performance
f lexibility.
ABB provides all the software required to imple-
ment a digitalized production strategy, as well as
the ability to collaborate on it, Erhardt concluded.
Lets make your todays weaknesses your tomorrows
strengths, together.
 TAKE OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE
TO THE NEXT LEVEL
Panelists propose a range of possibilities for improving
productivity and cutting costs in new and existing plants
Paul Studebaker

F
or years, high and rising oil and commodity of looking at things, said Jose Bustamante, executive vice
prices spurred plant construction, expansion president, business development and strategy, Fluor Corp.
and modernization without much regard to cost. We must collaborate more, to discuss the standards, spec-
Then prices fell, bringing many projects to a screeching ifications and practices we have taken for granted. How
halt. The ensuing hiatus has given owner/operators and can we change them to make them more cost-effective?
engineering/procurement/construction (EPC) compa- Clients come to Fluor with their latest designs, and those
nies several years to reconsider their options for how they might save 10-15%. We want to start from scratchsome
go about their businesses. call it zero-basedand ask, what are their goals? Whats
Now, prices have started to rise and there is new inter- the minimum kit? Bustamante said. Then together, Fluor
est in projects to boost capacity and improve productiv- and the client can add HSE, safety systems, redundancy,
ity. But rather than simply return to the boom time etc. where its actually needed, he said. With this ap-
methodologies of the past, companies have the oppor-
tunity to evaluate their methods in light of recent rapid
advances in engineering methods, automation and the
connectivity provided by commercial information tech-
nology and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT).
The Wednesday morning keynote panel discussion at
ABB Customer World this week in Houston, titled Next
level operational excellence, roamed over a wide range
of topics related to improving project costs, uptime, pro-
ductivity and efficiency.

Todays projects can cost less

Today, most companies need higher capital efficiency
to make good use of expenditures and get better returns.
This is true not only in oil and gas, but in the public sec-
tor due to public deficits. Theyre concerned about fund-
ing and deploying their resources in a cost-effective way.
We have to change the way we are looking at and ex-
ecuting projectsnot just squeezing prices, but new ways

Wireless systems and training are required to take

advantage of new ways of doing things. UNACEMs
Ricardo Rizo Patron on the innovative cement-makers
willingness to embrace new technologies.

Connect. Collaborate. Outperform. Highlights from ABB Customer World 2017

proach, we can save 30%with better delivery.
Capital projects need better control of schedule and
risk. When commodity prices rose, there was a strong
incentive to do projects the same way as ever, but re-
search shows global project costs rose and schedules still
ran late, with 64% of projects overrunning on cost and
73% on schedule.
Now oil and commodity process have come down, and
we need a reset, said Peter Terwiesch, president, indus-
trial automation division, ABB. Shaving 5-10% wont do
it when prices are half, so theres been less project activ-
ity. Now we are seeing some new, big projects where weve
been able to apply our latest methods, with examples show-
ing 25% and even more than 50% cost reductions.
Some of that is due to reductions in bulk material and
labor costs, Terwiesch said, But a lot is not, and were
seeking to make those savings structural in our methods.
Project cost reductions are putting pressure on auto-
mation costs, so we are seeing more cloud engineering,
digital marshalling, and automated data management
for pulling together the tags. These can result in 30%
savings in CapEx.
To shorten the project timeline and improve build
quality, Bustamante said, Weve moved more of the
construction work into fabrication shops, where it can be
done under controlled conditions, in parallel with other
activities to shorten the project.
For higher on-site personnel efficiency and safety, Fluor
uses virtual reality and personnel tracking systems. Weve
been using virtual reality for 15 years now, Bustamante
said. Fluors system for tracking badges can monitor 15,000-
20,000 workers. We can know where they are in case of
evacuation. We know where the hazards are, and when
people approach them, he said. We can track individu-
als, such as visitors and new employees who are at most risk
of injury. We can make sure they stay where they belong.
Smoother operations
Whether under construction or running for decades,
plant owner/operators and engineers are eyeing the op-
erational benefits of connectivity and the IIoT.
Our Peru plant has 220 MW, 20 MW and 25 MW
hydroelectric plants, and seven natural gas-fueled en-
Connect. Collaborate. Outperform. Highlights from ABB Customer World 2017
gine generators providing 42 MW. We have our own
engineering department, so we are both supervisor and
owner for engineering, construction and startup, said
Ricardo Rizo Patron, chairman, UNACEM Corp., a
Peru-based global supplier of concrete and ready-mix
with operations in Peru, Ecuador and the U.S.
UNACEM is centralizing production management
for all its plants, with control loop optimization, expert
systems and energy efficiency management done over
the cloud, so it can manage its energy and peaking re-
quirements.
In OpEx, we see advances in safety, productivity
and efficiency, Terwiesch said. People can stay out of
harms way through remote operation, which can also
enable continuous operation to optimize the use of
plants and equipment.
UNACEM is testing robots in trials for packaging ce-
ment in sacks, which is how its commonly delivered in
Peru and Ecuador. Were testing drones for surveying our
quarries and inventories, and we want to use autonomous
vehicles in the quarries to prevent accidents, Patron said.
The company sees potential applications in logistics (so
it can know where its trucks are), in online transactions
(so customers can order on the web), and in distribution,
where artificial intelligence could guide its trucks more
efficiently through the heavy traffic in Lima.
For power generation, we are looking at more renew-
ablessolar, biomassand at optimizing distribution
on both the supply and demand sides, Patron added.
We want energy storage to store hydroelectric power
from afternoon rains for use at other times.
For engineering, we need ways to manage drawings for
electrical, mechanical and civil engineering so they are co-
ordinated and dont fight with each other. This is very im-
portant for both greenfield and brownfield applications.
Declining downtime
Research has shown that unplanned downtime costs $20
billion per year in the oil and gas industry, and 80% of
that is avoidable. We can help keep operators alert 24/7
with ergonomic control rooms, digitalize the plant floor
for new levels of productivity and add sensors to motors,
pumps and compressors to assess health, predict main-
tenance and extend service intervals. And we can avoid
power interruptions, Terwiesch said. Together these
are worth 30% in operational savings. We see a wealth
of opportunities opening up.
As a foundation of data analysis for condition mon-
itoring, Weve been capturing information from
maintenance, operations and asset management for
40-50 years, said Bustamante. Fluor has informa-
tion on how to prevent failures, and we can design in
MICROSOFT AND ABB
PARTNERSHIP CREATES
CLOUD SYNERGY
Much of the digital future hinges on these corporate giants
directions
Mike Bacidore
T
he Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and dig-
italization are driving innovation. As industry
segments increasingly go digital, connecting
them and their data via the cloud has quickly become a
priority with benefits.
Disruptive changes are more likely to affect industries
that have yet to be digitalized. Using lessons from seg-
ments ahead of the digital-implementation S-curve, Avi-
jit Sinha, Microsofts director of business development
for intelligent cloud and IoT, and Guido Jouret, chief
digital officer for ABB, sat together for a lunchtime panel
discussion, moderated by ABB president of the Ameri-
cas region, Greg Scheu, at ABB Customer World this
week in Houston. They discussed how the two compa-
nies partnership in developing the ABB Ability platform
has benefited end users, as well as what the digital future
has in store.
When we look at the Industrial Internet of Things,
it ties back to the mission of our company, which is to
empower every person, said Sinha. We strive toward
a higher cause. We look at hard-to-do science problems,
Connect. Collaborate. Outperform. Highlights from ABB Customer World 2017
the measurements from the beginning.
On the capital side, we do close to 1,000 projects an-
nually, and have a lot of information on how to design
and build for cost and reliability. And we have a system
to leverage this.
UNACEM has installed wireless sensors for motor
monitoring and predictive maintenance, Patron said.
Wireless systems and training are required to take ad-
vantage of new ways of doing things.
and this space, he said, casting about the room, is go-
ing to have a big impact on society. The people in this
room are using the technology that feeds into thatma-
chine learning, cloud learning. Were excited about part-
nering with ABB on the Ability platform.
2% of a trillion
ABBs Jouret sees tremendous upside in the amount of
value that can be created, based on the 15 primary in-
dustries that ABB covers. These industries can create
a trillion dollars of value, he explained. And because
many of ABBs customers are still on the knee of the im-
plementation S-curve, Jouret believes his company can
capture 2% of that value, which translates to $20 billion
in revenue. The only uncertainty is how quickly things
will happen.
Adoption of new technology tends to be on the slow
side, but the IIoT could be an exception, explained Sinha.
In substance, we view the speed as being different, he
said. Theres an appetite for risk, but, in the Industrial
IoT, the risk of failure and error can be manifold.
The things you protectidentity, devices, applications,
dataarent any different in the cloud. Its the scale,
speed and sophistication of the attacks that change,
that require a different set of rules. Together with
ABBs Guido Jouret, Microsofts Avijit Sinha discussed
the companys investment in its Azure platform and
how its partnership with ABB will advance the two
companies mutual customers interests.
Technologies in the consumer spacedrones, virtual
reality, augmented reality, for exampleare crossing over
into industrial applications much faster than they were
before. These technologies havent really taken off in the
consumer area, added Jouret, who cited augmented-real-
ity glasses being applied in industrial applications.
One big difference between the consumer space and
industrial, however, is security. Consumers see security
as black and white, all or nothing. But industry takes a
more nuanced view, according to Jouret. On the indus-
trial side, well see more cloud-connectivity, but not ev-
erything will go to the cloud, he explained. And there
wont be a single worldwide system or standard. Custom-
ers will have local systems that connect to the cloud, and
theyll leverage connections between clouds, too.
Intelligent thinking
While artificial intelligence (AI) and its related body of
knowledge has been around for decades, the confluence
of three factors is allowing for AI to be applied in an eco-
nomical manner to real-world problems, including cy-
bersecurity. You see the number of devices taking off
billions and billions of devices, Sinha said. You need
a system thats capable of ingesting all of these signals.
Security has been based on signatures and on protect-
ing against viruses. Looking forward, you need a more
dynamic systemone that looks at the threat landscape
and uses AI capabilities.
As we embark on our journey to get software to the
cloud, the security principles of protecting, detecting
and reacting dont change, said Sinha. The things you
protectidentity, devices, applications, dataarent any
different. Its the scale, speed and sophistication of the
attacks that change, that require a different set of rules.
Connect. Collaborate. Outperform. Highlights from ABB Customer World 2017
At Microsoft, we have an Intelligent Security Graph in
the cloud that constantly monitors 38 regions of data
centers. We spend about a billion dollars a year keeping
that up to date.
Microsoft takes data security and privacy very seri-
ously. We always believe the customer owns the data
and decides who they share it with, said Sinha. We
will secure the data for them. We will always be in com-
pliance in terms of our capabilities. Our cloud has the
highest number of certifications in the world. We are
very transparent about what we do with data.
New frontiers
In response to a texted question from the audience,
Sinha and Jouret also touched on what it takes to get an
established company to new markets. When he worked
at Nokia, Jouret was part of a group that consisted of
both company veterans and new recruits. We took half
from outside and half from inside the company, he ex-
plained. Thats how you get to new markets.
Starting something is easy, Jouret added. The prob-
lem is the medium term, three to four years out: thats
when the doubt sets in. If youre an established company
and you disappoint established customers, thats a deli-
cate balance. Azure is a great example of something very
new that came from an established company.
Culture eats strategy, Sinha reminded. Without cul-
ture, a transformation wont happen, he said. At Micro-
soft, weve changed the sizes of teams and gutted entire
buildings. Once you get that going, the strategy kicks
in because of the cultural movement. The core identity
that weve never lost sight of is empowering people and
organizations to achieve more. Weve embraced diver-
sity. We dont just get rid of the old. We maintain both
and let people decide.
Azure has become a huge part of Microsoft, which ex-
pects to generate $20 billion in cloud revenue by 2018.
Were transforming as a company and intend to be the
best cloud company, assured Sinha. Azure is powering
all of it, as Microsoft continues to invest in manpower
and data centers.
We want to leverage all of the Microsoft innova-
tions that we can, said Jouret. Providers like Micro-
TURN CAD FILES INTO
PRODUCT IN FEWER STEPS
It may look like welding, but additive manufacturing
reduces manufacturing sequence steps and compresses
manufacturing lead times
Mike Bacidore
A
dditive manufacturing is a relatively new way
to make components lighter, stronger and
sometimes less expensively. It also provides the
capability to reduce component stock holdings and over-
heads, as well as the ability to produce unfinished com-
ponents that are closer to their desired shape (near net
shape), thus reducing subsequent machining using tra-
ditional methods. And with ABBs simulation and off-
line programming software, RobotStudio, the number
of manufacturing sequence steps can be reduced, com-
pressing manufacturing lead times.
The American Society for Testing and Materials
(ASTM) F42 group formulated a set of standards (Stan-
dard Terminology for Additive Manufacturing Tech-
nologies, 2012) that classify the range of additive-man-
Connect. Collaborate. Outperform. Highlights from ABB Customer World 2017
soft are coming with tools, not just the cloud as a re-
pository. Were leveraging the platform as a service.
For an increasing number of systems, theyll be avail-
able on premise and with a cloud connection, built
on Azure.
Piloting new applications based on Azure is an essen-
tial part of ABBs growth. But piloting requires customer
participation. It does us no good to sit in a lab and think
deep thoughts, admitted Jouret. The customer thats
willing to pilot something is a gift. Its the chance to
shape the future and be at the leading edge. Plus, youll
be able to take advantage of those capabilities before
your competitors.
ufacturing processes. 3D printinga synonym for all
additive manufacturing processescan be broken down
into seven categories, which include material extrusion,
powder bed fusion, material jetting, binder jetting, vat
photopolymerisation, sheet lamination and direct en-
ergy deposition. The processes vary in their methods of
layer manufacturing, and individual processes differ de-
pending on the material and machine technology used.
While similar in appearance to welding, one of the
processesdirect energy deposition (DED)is actually
additive manufacturing. The word welding as defined
by the American Welding Society conveys the joining
of two or more pieces of metal, explained Mark Ox-
lade, ABBs market development managerjoining &
cutting, who presented the latest information on DED
With plasma, you can do 12 wires at the same
time, which isnt typical. ABBs Mark Oxlade on the
advantages of additive manufacturing using direct
energy deposition with arc plasma.
and similar additive processes at ABB Customer World
this week in Houston. Welding is joining two parts to-
gether through fusion. DED is an additive-manufactur-
ing process in which focused thermal energy is used to
fuse materials by melting as they are being deposited.
Energy sources for DED machines include lasers, elec-
tron beams and arc plasma.
Direct energy deposition also differs from cladding,
which is applying a uniform buildup of material on a
surface. Although DED systems can be used to apply a
surface cladding, such use does not fit the current defi-
nition of additive manufacturing, explained Oxlade.
Additive manufacturing is when a computer-aided de-
sign (CAD) file of the build features is converted into
section cuts, representing each layer of material to be
deposited. The DED machine then builds up material,
layer by layer, so material is only applied where required
to produce a part, add a feature or make a repair. Addi-
tive manufacturing is a new way of making things, so we
have to design in a new way.
It all adds up
The reasons for choosing an additive-manufacturing so-
lution are many, but reducing the numbers of steps to
near net shape is among the most important, Oxlade
said. If you can reduce the number of steps, then ad-
ditive manufacturing is a good way to go. said Oxlade,
who shared some examples from maritime, airline, med-
ical and automotive industries.
Everyone has spare parts, explained Oxlade. They
cost money. Every time an aircraft carrier goes to sea, it
carries 7,000 tons of consumables and spares. But what if
you can print your own replacement parts while at sea?
A 1% reduction in spares is the equivalent of two fully
loaded planes. Meanwhile, the FDA has approved 3D
printing of metal implants such as a custom chest plate
for a cancer patient. And in automotive components,
Connect. Collaborate. Outperform. Highlights from ABB Customer World 2017
theres 3D printing of metal car cylinder heads.
Project completion can be turbocharged with ABBs
RobotStudio, Oxlade continued. Machining PowerPac
is an add-on that makes it possible to create complex
paths in just seconds. You start with a CAD file, then
slice the 3D model and export G-code, which is im-
ported into a CAM converter to create RAPID language.
Then you can start printing with the robot. RobotStu-
dio is the real controller, not a simulation, said Oxlade.
For good CAD, we have path-following characteris-
tics, explained Oxlade. It looks at things like friction
and gravity. Our standard robots can be made 10 times
more accurate by tuning. We know how to make a robot
motion very accurate.
Make mine plasma
Arc plasma is Oxlades preferred energy source for
DED. Plasma is a little more stable process, said Ox-
lade, which means higher quality assurance for additive
manufacturing with robotic motion control.
While ABB focuses on the software side, with Robot-
icStudio, its partners are making the welding heads. In
a traditional electron-beam process, up to two wires can
be in use simultaneously. With plasma, you can do 12
wires at the same time, which isnt typical, explained
Oxlade. Plasma gives you a very clean weld. Spatter
goes away. Also, most welding processes hate oil. With
plasma, it burns off the oil before you get to it.
 ALCOA CANADA ELIMINATES
THE MIDDLEMAN
A lump-sum, turnkey partnering approach for an aluminum
smelter power expansion project saved an estimated 6%
Paul Studebaker

F
aced with high project costs, some end user compa- Phase by phase
nies are taking the engineering/procurement con- Like most projects, this one proceeded in three stages.
tractor (EPC) out of the equation and engaging di- Phase 1 was the definition stage, before funding or ap-
rectly with their software, equipment and service suppliers. proval, where ABB and Alcoa openly discussed needs
When the Alcoa plant in Baie-Comeau, Quebec, and what Alcoa was trying to achieve. The big change
needed to add a rectifier system to increase potline cur- here was that there was no EPC between Alcoa and
rent and provide additional redundancy, it asked ABB ABB, said Gilles Schami, Eng., operations manager,
to take full lump-sum, turnkey (LSTK) system respon- aluminum electrification, ABB.
sibility for conceptual design, scope definition, costing, ABB was part of the very first stage, said Pa-
detailed system design, equipment engineering, proj- trice Dub, Eng., project director, Alcoa Canada Co.
ect management, procurement, civil works, installation Theres a risk in not getting competitive bids, but we
and commissioning. Alcoa provided project monitoring, knew we would be getting the right technical package.
technical review, subcontractor approval and compli- We have plants around the world and we know the price
ance with internal processes. of a transformer. Instead of competitive bids, we used
The project was presented in the session, Lump-sum, our experience to evaluate costs.
turnkey project partnering approach to reduce over-
all project cost at ABB Customer World this week in
Houston.
Alcoa Baie-Comeaus TR49 project to add a 50 kA,
1120 VDC transformer began in April 2015 and was
completed in August 2016. Equipment and ABB services
were part of a LSTK project, with installation and civil
work on a cost plus basis. Alcoa and ABB worked di-
rectly together, with ABB assuming most of the respon-
sibilities traditionally expected of the EPC.
Along with saving money, eliminating the EPC en-
sured that resources stayed focused on project deliver-
ables, not on preparing RFQs, evaluating bids or sitting
in meetings.
But it was not all wine and roses.

Project delivery was not perfect, but we delivered because

we worked jointly as a team. We estimate we saved $1-2
million. Alcoas Patrice Dub on the companys recent
lump-sum, turnkey (LSTK) project with ABB.

Connect. Collaborate. Outperform. Highlights from ABB Customer World 2017

 In phase 1, All the different experts pulled together,
and all the different aspects were considered, said
Schami. At this point, we were not selecting a trans-
former, just defining the needs. They looked at the
engineering to tie into the existing plant, the civil en-
gineering, mechanical engineering and electrical engi-
neering. They evaluated the harmonics and the impact
on power quality.
Phase 2 covered negotiations between Alcoa and ABB,
adjustments to the solution, and final approval. Here we
saw discussion within Alcoa, and iterative processes to
get agreement, Schami said. Discussions defined the
solution, scope, who would do what, and assumptions
such as currency exchange rates. We hedged on cur-
rencies, with most of the risk taken on by ABB, he said.
The second stage also included provision of drawings,
schedules and other deliverables, the same as would typ-
ically be done by an EPC. Alcoa paid ABB at this point
for the deliverables, but the payment was part of the
agreed-upon total cost, not a separate charge as it would
typically be with an EPC.
It was a very transparent process, said Dub, and
Alcoa engineers were much involved. We were buy-
ing performance, but we still reviewed all the specs
and drawings, playing some of the role of the EPC. We
would have had to do this even with an EPC, but we
were pretty lean, with only five people on the Alcoa
team, so this was a noticeable amount of work.
Phase 3 was project execution. All aspects were the
same as any turnkey project, all the way to final accep-
tance, said Schami. For civil and other contracted work,
ABB would recommend contractors, and Alcoa would
make the selection, he said. Then we managed the
contractors.
Since the project specifications were performance-
based, Alcoa didnt have to worry as much as they oth-
erwise would have about meeting individual speci-
fications. We guaranteed performance, not just the
specifications, said Schami.
The transformer was part of a larger project that had
high visibility at Alcoa. ABB was responsible for the
transformer, but Alcoa was responsible for the overall
project. ABB covered their scope, but we needed to
Connect. Collaborate. Outperform. Highlights from ABB Customer World 2017
get certain information from them to know we were on
track, said Dub. At first, this led to some culture clash
and friction. We had to align and develop that, he said.
Alcoas involvement during execution was mainly su-
pervisory. It kept full control of the process, schedule
and budget, with weekly progress reports from ABB.
We had access to all the field acceptance tests (FAT) as
they were done, wherever they took place, said Dub.
We had one site manager because the work was being
done on our site, and one EHS manager to satisfy regu-
latory requirements.
At the end, the availability of 50 kA was measured at
the bus bars, and the measured power quality met speci-
fications.
Not for every project
A partnering approach is not for all projects: under-
stand the factors that need to be considered before
pursuing such an approach, Dub recommended.
There is less perceived control without the EPC. You
have to learn about that and accept it. You have to
know your partner.
There will be issues and when they arise, a collabor-
ative, open-minded team environment with both sides
sharing risk and working together is needed for success.
Even though its lump-sum and turnkey, we had to be
able to see enough to manage it, Dub said. Some-
times we were too close, with weekly schedule monitor-
ing, but these projects had very high visibility within Al-
coa due to the level of spending.
Both teams focus on project deliveryon results
and level of involvement is mutually higher given the ac-
countability of both parties. The beauty of it is, theyre
as stuck as we are for on-time delivery, said Dub.
The project was delivered within schedule, within
the cost estimate, and within the quality standard, with
no EHS incident. Project delivery was not perfect, but
we delivered because we worked jointly as a team, said
Dub. On a $25 million project, you could expect to
save a minimum of $1 million. We estimate we saved
$1-2 million.
Were engaged with ABB now in a second project on
the site, and its smooth sailing.
 A DIGITAL FOUNDATION FOR
THE CHEMICAL, OIL AND GAS
INDUSTRY
Digital architecture builds on a foundation that is pillared
and secure
By Jim Montague

W
hats so great about transforming perfectly How the digital house is built
good, real-world, analog process values for Of course, Microsofts definition of architecture started
pressure, temperature and flow into digi- with information technology, but the digital revolution
talized ones and zeros? Much easier data accessibility, is now bringing in more demands for efficiency from
flexibility, analysis and communications for more opti- the operational technology side, said Kodeih. And, be-
mal and profitable operations, thats what. cause Microsofts mission is to help every individual do
Operational expenditures (OpEx) in the worldwide more, were developing strategies and digital architec-
chemical industries is about $1.6 trillion per year, and tures for oil and gas, chemicals and other industries.
OpEx in the oil and gas industries is about $600 billion Kodeih added that digital transformation in the pro-
per year, so making any little improvement in them is an cess industries rests on three pillars: personal comput-
opportunity worth billions of dollars, said Rami-Johan ing, handheld devices and new interfaces; intelligent
Jokela, head of digitalization, ABB. cloud platforms; and reinventing productivity and busi-
At the same time, research by McKinsey finds that ness processes to give everyone access to the data they
69% of oil, gas, chemical and other process industry need to optimize their operations.
projects have been running about 20% over budget in ABB has been driving toward digitalization for 20
recent years; 79% of these projects have been missing years in oil, gas and chemical applications, but these en-
their schedules, often by months; and 30% of their con-
trol loops are broken, added Havard Devold, group
vice president and digital lead for oil, gas and chemi-
cals, ABB.
These were some of the challenges explored by a
three-person panel of experts from Microsoft and ABB,
who also described how their partnership is benefiting
process control users in the chemical, oil and gas indus-
tries at ABB Customer World in Houston. The panel in-
cluded Jokela, Devold and Dania Kodeih, enterprise and
solutions architect for oil and gas, Microsoft.

Cybersecurity is on everyones mind because more

connections means more opening for possible threats.
Microsofts Dania Kodeih explained at ABB Customer
World in Houston how the partnership between her
company and ABB will create a stronger defense against
hackers.

Connect. Collaborate. Outperform. Highlights from ABB Customer World 2017

ergy industries are now being transformed and diversi-
fied by shale oil and gas and renewable and alternative
energy sources, even as they join with Industrial Inter-
net of Things (IIoT) and Industry 4.0 technologies, said
ABBs Devold. These are all new opportunities, and we
need them. This is especially true because low oil and
gas prices mean we have to become more efficient and
develop smarter approaches and solutions. Even if prices
were high, if we can save on maintenance and increase
productivity, why shouldnt we?
Kodeih explained that many industrial digitalization
efforts will rely on intelligent cloud computing plat-
forms. These arent random collections of software ob-
jects, but are instead organized environments with dif-
ferent components and functions like managing data
and analytics, machine learning and artificial intelli-
gence (AI) that can provide answers to difficult prob-
lems, said Kodeih. Were taking a lot of information
that was originally from human interactions and add-
ing it to intelligent systems, extracting content and then
working with ABB to bring that intelligence to the edge
and the field. This has been done by technical special-
ties in many other fields, and now its coming to oil, gas
and chemicals.
Powerful partnership
ABBs Jokela reported that the two companies have sev-
eral major tasks theyre carrying out to make their part-
nership useful to end users. ABB comes from the indus-
trial systems side, and so digitalization meant we needed
partners and platform tools, he said. ABB runs below
the cloud, so we partnered with Microsoft, which runs
above the cloud, so we wouldnt have to worry about
maintenance.
Devold said, With so many projects running over
budget and late, we have proof that our traditional ex-
ecution model is often broken. We now have plants with
hundreds of thousands of data points. Digitalization
technology is the only way to handle this.
Beyond aiding process applications directly, Micro-
softs Kodeih reported, Digitalization can help with
personal safety by improving training with immersive,
in-environment simulations; help technicians follow
Connect. Collaborate. Outperform. Highlights from ABB Customer World 2017
and track procedures and check off completed tasks;
measure vital signs and fatigue with wearable devices;
and help monitor, track and provide alerts about invis-
ible hazards like natural gas leaks.
Security for digitalization
Of course, whenever digitalization or cloud computing
is mentioned, the next question is about cybersecurity.
Fortunately, ABB and Microsoft reported this base is
covered, as well.
Cybersecurity is on everyones mind because more
connections means more opening for possible threats.
Microsoft begins by assuming that systems are compro-
mised, looking for breaches and taking a holistic view of
security, said Kodeih. We look at every device and pro-
cess, and we establish security with trust, compliance,
reliability and response. Were also bringing machine-
learning techniques to cybersecurity because theres
more and more telemetry to gather.
And ABB follows up with endpoint cybersecurity at
the lower levels, added Jokela.
Microsoft probably gets the most hacking at-
tempts of anyone, and so weve learned that you have
to expect, prevent and address them as they happen,
added Kodeih. Systems must be layered, so if theres
a breach, it can be minimized. Its said that the cloud
services arent secure, but they really make cybersecu-
rity tasks more transparent, and so they can respond
more effectively.
The panelists agreed that digitalization of process ap-
plications and ABB and Microsofts partnership are re-
ally all about simplifying tasks that would otherwise be
a lot more complex. Digitalization is going to be in-
creasingly easy despite all the different elements users
are handling, added Jokela. Platforms will give way to
cloud computing as a service. This is all about creating
value, and thats what weve been doing all along.
For some added digitalization know-how, the panel
also recommended ABBs recent whitepaper, Next
level oil, gas and chemical: harnessing the power of
digitalization to thrive in the new normal of low oil
prices, which is available on the front page at www.
abb.com/oil-and-gas.
 CONDITION MONITORING TAKES
FLIGHT WITH WIRELESS SENSORS
Two sensors without wires keep tabs on the health
of rotating equipment
Jim Montague

A
large part of success in politics and other en- Sense locally, send wirelessly
deavors is simply showing up, but sensors that To make the leap to wireless condition monitoring, Pare-
could improve condition monitoring in process schi explained the initial impulse is to spread sensors
applications often cant show up because wiring is too everywhere and try to use them for predictive mainte-
costly or its physically impossible to locate them where nance. Sensors have been monitoring the big assets for
theyre needed. To solve this problem by getting sensors a long time, and many companies do it, he said. Its
where they need to go and bringing back information for trickier to monitor smaller pumps and equipment, so the
better condition monitoring, ABB has developed com- chemical industries have been looking at what condition
pact, rugged sensors that can be deployed on motors, monitoring technologies they can borrow from other in-
pumps, fans and other equipment, can measure vibra- dustries, and wireless sensors were suggested for rotating
tion and other variables and can send details back to a machine analytics and distributed sensing.
central location for analysis and improved decisions. ABBs two wireless sensing solutions include its WiMon
The oil and gas world is changing a lot due to the ex- wireless monitora bearing-mounted, screw-on, battery-
treme effects of low prices, and so its hard for many users powered vibration sensorand its upcoming Smart Sen-
to stay profitable, said Diego Pareschi, global product man- sor for low-voltage electric motors on compressors, pumps
ager for rotating machines, oil, gas and chemicals, Process and fans. WiMon has been available for several years,
Automation Division, ABB, in a presentation this week to
attendees of ABB Customer World in Houston. So, weve
been talking about using wireless sensors for condition mon-
itoring and gaining more visibility into oil, gas and chemical
(OGC) processes, especially rotating equipment, as theyre
the most common cause of downtime in OGC plants.
Pareschi reported that the most important assets in
OGC plants are pumps, compressors and other equip-
ment. These devices are their heartbeat, he added.
So, we looked at present maintenance practices and
found they mostly use break-and-fix processes. But then
we look at our smart phones and smart wristwatches and
look at our rusty plants and processes and ask, Why
cant they use these consumer technologies, too?

We look at our smart phones and smart wristwatches

and look at our rusty plants and processes and ask,
Why cant they use these consumer technologies, too?
Diego Pareschi, global product manager at ABB, shared
advancements in wireless sensors at ABB Customer
World this week in Houston.

Connect. Collaborate. Outperform. Highlights from ABB Customer World 2017

uses WirelessHART protocol for communications and or-
ganizes its network as a mesh grid. It performs 1-second
measurements and can take measurements continuously
or at up to 8-hour intervals. WiMons range is 40-50 me-
ters, unless its elevated, in which case its range can be up
to several hundred meters.
Rotating equipment typically fails every three years,
but these failures are at random, and so monitoring bear-
ings for vibrations can be very helpful, said Pareschi.
Moving data on up
Pareschi explained that once WiMon and other ABB
sensors gather values and signals from rotating equip-
ment and field processesand assess equipment status
with ABB Fingerprint auditsthey relay it to a locally
oriented cloud infrastructure. Here, its elaborated on
to provide more advanced services to the site, and opti-
mize short- and medium-term operations and field ser-
vices. Much of this information also can be delivered to
intranets and the Internet via ABBs ServicePort fleet-
monitoring dashboard, which can take in data from the
REGS, RENEWABLES AND
CONSUMERS RESHAPING
ELECTRICAL LANDSCAPE
The future of electrical power lies in the hands
and demands of its consumers
Mike Bacidore
T
he public gets what the public wants. Consumer
demand is a consistent driver of production and
supply, and that is a powerful incentive in the
energy industry.
Under the Trump administration, theres a stated de-
sire for more infrastructure investment. Were support-
ive of that, said Maureen Borkowski, chairman and
president of Ameren Transmission, an energy carrier
in the midwestern United States. One of the concerns
Connect. Collaborate. Outperform. Highlights from ABB Customer World 2017
DCS; from wireless sources through Ethernet; or from
sensors through OPC and Modbus networking.
ServicePort can connect multiple sites, aggregate in-
put from many machines and then divide that data by
function, such as process application, mechanical, elec-
trical or control, said Pareschi. The data can then be
analyzed and turned into reports with details on bearing
wear occurring at the bottom. This can really make for-
merly dumb sensors smart. No raw data is transferred,
just key performance indicators (KPIs).
ABB also offers a remote cloud service, in which data
from different sites is also aggregated in remote service
centers and used by subject-matter experts to provide
other advanced services, consultancy and collaboration
with third-party service providers such as OEMs. This
enables us to benchmark, compare performance at dif-
ferent sites and see which is doing better, added Pares-
chi. Also, if a customer has a problem with a pump in
the fleet, it can also get help from an ABB service en-
gineer more easily. Were also proposing a subscription
service that we periodically review.
from the administration has been about EPA overreach.
Its my belief that with or without a clean power plan,
youre still going to see cleaner energy portfolios because
its what our customers want. Youll see more coal-plant
retirements and more renewable energy. The trend is go-
ing to continue because customers want it and investors
are interested in that. That impetus is going to continue
with or without changes by the Trump administration.
Borkowski and Claudio Facchin, president, power
We focus on safety, reliability, environmental impact
and sustainability of the energy we provide. Amerens
Maureen Borkowski traded thoughts on the future of
energy with ABBs Claudio Facchin at ABB Customer
World this week in Houston.

grids division, ABB, shared their thoughts on the fu-

ture of energy during a keynote panel discussion at this
weeks ABB Customer World in Houston.
Everyone wants a balance, said Borkowski. None
of us wants everything to be profit-driven. We focus on
safety, reliability, environmental impact and sustainabil-
ity of the energy we provide. How do you deliver a clean
portfolio at a price customers can afford?
The whole renewables aspectthe impact, the trends
and the speed with which it has come inis a key el-
ement, explained Facchin. Renewables add volatility
and complexity to managing the grid, he said. It goes
all the way up to the backbone of the transmission sys-
tem. Electricity is an increasingly key form of energy,
and estimates predict a 70% increase in usage between
now and 2040.
Continental grid theory
The transmission grid is one of the key enablers of mak-
ing this transformation happen. Whether it will be one
global connected grid or separate continental grids, we
have the technology to transport energy long distances,
said Facchin. A lot of things are driven by innovation.
Utilities are still seen as a very conservative industry. But
I see a lot of utilities pushing technology through to take
the grid to the next level. Many utilities adopted digi-
tal technology 10-15 years ago. And when you look at
high-voltage, direct-current (HVDC) technology, the
challenge is how to manage, control and monitor power
flow. Weve been a leader in implementing HDVC tech-
nology, and were taking it to the next level.
ABB is building a 12-gigawatt HVDC link in China,
which wants to bring solar and wind energy from the ru-
ral northwest to the urban centers in the east, said Fac-
chin. Now, theyre looking at linking Russia, China, Ja-
pan and Korea to share power. In Europe, there are a lot
of projects going on to link the countries, such as substa-
tion links between Norway and Germany.
In the United States, theres an opportunity to lever-
age the HVDC link to share electricity, but U.S. reg-
ulatory bodies work differently than they do on other
continents. In the United States, most policy is done at
the state level, explained Borkowski. To have all of the
states benefit from an HVDC link is a challenge. All of
the siting and routing is done at the state level. Thats an
interesting difference. You have policy impediments in
the United States.
About five years ago, Ameren developed a strategic
initiative to make an investment in its transmission sys-
tem. Weve invested about $3 billion$800 million last
year aloneto enhance the reliability of the system and
the ability to bring on renewable energy sources, said
Borkowski. Technology, along with changes in policy,
makes an impact on the marketplace. Customer expec-
tations have an even bigger impact. We at Ameren are
putting information at our customers fingertips.
Data, anyone?
Ameren also sees growing teams of data scientists cre-
ating applications that deliver value from all the data
thats being collected. As we collect more information,
we can slice and dice that and discover what kinds of

Connect. Collaborate. Outperform. Highlights from ABB Customer World 2017

data platforms and mobile communications we need to
create, Borkowski said.
Theres no point in collecting that data and not us-
ing it properly, added Facchin. For example, the grid
needs to be adjusted and optimized to accommodate re-
newables in a safe and reliable manner. Its more about
demand response and power qualitymanaging volt-
age, frequency and power factor. Energy storage is a key
consideration for the grid of the future, and its relevance
will continue to increase. The growth curve on energy
storage will be very similar to what we have seen recently
with photovoltaic solar.
Borkowski sees the technology transformation as evo-
lutionary, but with some disruptive aspects. Were get-
ting smarter in an incremental sense, she explained.
Theres this huge group of folks who will be retiring.
Weve been bringing in young talent. We need to build
the talent pipeline in elementary and middle school.
OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE
DEPENDS ON DIGITAL
DISCONTENT
To discover opportunities for improvement, be dissatisfied
with the status quo
Paul Studebaker
F
rom equipment productivity, reliability and energy
efficiency to project engineering, sourcing and dis-
tribution, operational excellence offers myriad op-
portunities for improvements. Attendees of the panel dis-
cussion, Next level operational excellence: Benefits of
digitalization at ABB Customer World this week in Hous-
ton learned that these opportunities come in many forms,
but only by opening your mind to the possibilities.
For us, digital is leveraging data and technology
to develop new business models, said Narinder Pal
Connect. Collaborate. Outperform. Highlights from ABB Customer World 2017
STEM programs get kids excited, but we need to focus
on having them view themselves as STEM-capable. We
have to inspire these kids. Millennials and the gener-
ation behind them want to transform the world. What
better way to do that than by being an engineer?
Facchin sees different futures emerging on different
continents, especially when it comes to engineering skill
sets of younger generations. In Asia, there has been a fo-
cus in the electrical engineering space, he said. China
and India have a huge number of electrical engineers
coming out of those universities at a very high level. In
the United States, we see more of a gap.
Part of the solution to making STEM careersand
the power industrymore appealing to millennials is a
more explicit linkage between engineering and renew-
able energy, Facchin believes. Because millennials tend
to identify with environmental responsibility, it provides
an avenue that might attract them to STEM pursuits.
Singh, vice president of engineering at OLAM Inter-
national, a seed-to-shell agribusiness operating 200 fa-
cilities in more than 70 countries with 16,000 employ-
ees. Digital has a role to play from farming through
processing and distribution, through the entire chain.
With every click we are generating data and the poten-
tial for bottom-line improvements.
We can improve our machine efficiency (OEE), ma-
terial efficiency (less waste), manpower efficiency (re-
duce labor and do more with the people we have), and
How to use digitalization to improve operations was
the topic of a panel discussion by (left to right) Greg
Scheu, Americas region president, ABB; Sandy Vasser,
leader (retired), ExxonMobil; Narinder Pal Singh, vice
president, engineering, OLAM International; and Sami
Atiya, president, Robotics and Motion, ABB.
energy efficiency (when and where we do what) by col-
lecting data and pulling it together.
Do things differently
Doing things differently is essential for us, said
Sandy Vasser, leader (retired), ExxonMobil. Our proj-
ects became extremely costly do deliver. We already
needed to lower the costs and shorten schedules, then
the price of oil dropped.
After the project is completed, We have to maintain
them for 30 to 40 years, Vasser said. We need to operate
at minimum cost, and maximize uptime and throughput.
People and facilities are at different points on the digi-
talization adoption curve. Some customers are at about
2.2how can we get them to Industrie 4.0? said Sami
Atiya, president, Robotics and Motion, ABB. Others are
pushing the envelope on digital, with advanced robot-
ics, but when youre making a car a minute, you cant
let the plant shut down. At night, when the workers are
gone, you can shut it down. So we monitor through the
day, anticipate maintenance requirements, and perform
them when the plant is off.
Get up the curve
Manufacturing executives see digital as critical, but
only 10% rate themselves highly on their capability,
said Greg Scheu, Americas Region president, ABB, and
panel moderator. How can we improve this?
At ExxonMobil, We had to overcome the burden,
bias and baggage of doing things the same way theyve
always been done, said Vasser. They tried incremental
improvements, but still had the same problems. No mat-
ter which contractors or what project, the result was the
same, he said. The common denominator was us.
So we had to almost forget how weve been doing
things for decades. Instead, we identified all the things
Connect. Collaborate. Outperform. Highlights from ABB Customer World 2017
we needed to doto shorten schedules, lower costs. We
found the core issue was that we were doing things the
same way we always had, even though todays problems
and technologies are different. People realized this and
saw the need to change.
At OLAM International, the emerging availability of
new devices signals possible opportunities. We have
shortlisted the areas of digital inventory management,
smart plants and energy efficiency, and we are trying a lot
of pilots, said Singh. One example is remote monitoring.
Tomato processing plants run 80 days a year. During that
time, they will process 500 semi truckloads a day of toma-
toes. By using sensors and remote monitoring 24/7, weve
reduced downtime by 30%, he said. Thats something
we cant do ourselveswere partnering with ABB.
Take people with you
In 2030, 70% of the workforce will be millennials.
How do you work with themhow do you collabo-
rate? asked Scheu.
Digitalization has led to a generational challenge, where
one generation is distinctly different from the next in its
abilities and inclinations, but applications bridge the gap.
There are multiple ways to enter the digital worldit de-
pends on where you are, said Atiya. In production plan-
ning, we see virtualization bringing tools that help experi-
enced engineers design more efficient cells and facilities.
In operations, sensors can be used to monitor machines for
improved reliability. We give a customer three wireless mo-
tor sensors to try out, and they ask for more.
OLAM includes people in its adoption process. We
bring digitalization on in three steps, said Singh. First,
we are always asking what digital information can do for
 us, how it can affect our business, and what its disrup-
tions could do to affect our business.
Second, when we have something, we bring our
managers in and bring them up to speed. Third, we part-
ner to implement.
Be wary of disruption
Uber and Airbnb didnt check in with the taxi and hotel
businesses before they disrupted them, said Scheu. What
do you do to deal with similar potentials in your industry?
Singh sees similarities in food and beverage. Where
food safety and sustainability used to be competitive ad-
vantages, they are now base requirements, he said. The
supply chain is flattening, with more companies sourcing
directly from the farm and shipping direct to consumers. If
you want to stay in the game, you need technology.
At ExxonMobil, its about the supply of technology.
There are many opportunities in the supply chain. Every
participant needs to work to make transformational change,
as success depends on the weakest link, said Vasser.
DIVERSE INDUSTRIES FEEL
THE IMPACT OF TECHNOLOGY
Panel of CTOs discusses how they steer automation
and innovation initiatives, and keep from driving their
organizations right off the road
Mike Bacidore
T
echnology is an instrument of change. It can be
disruptive, enabling, subtle or timely, but recent
technological leaps have affected not just re-
search and development (R&D), but the way companies
think about R&D in industries as diverse as power, min-
ing, automation and oil & gas.
In a roundtable discussion at ABB Customer World
in Houston this week, several technology officers shared
their fears and their triumphs in the face of the continu-
ing waves of technology advances.
In the utility sector, were facing some huge changes
Connect. Collaborate. Outperform. Highlights from ABB Customer World 2017
For example, ordering based on internal standards
and specifications results in massive inquiry packages
with inconsistencies and errors that vendors must work
to understand, Vasser said. Then there are debates
about specification deviations, custom designs, approv-
als and manufacturing. Then a factory acceptance test
[FAT] before we arrive, then its done all over again. The
cycle takes six to 18 months.
Most of that could be eliminated if we would just buy
a standard product. If we dont customize it, we dont
have to FAT it. Instead, key suppliers make standard so-
lutions and maintain the specifications. We order it, we
buy it, we use it.
(Round of applause)
True transformational change will only come
through partnerships with different perspectives and ar-
eas of expertise, Vasser said. We need to work with sup-
pliers to come up with the best solutions.
Its been a journey, one step at a time. Instead of how
you do it, examine what you are trying to do.
with how were producing and using energy as a so-
ciety, said Terry Oliver, chief technology innova-
tion officer at Bonneville Power Administation (BPA).
Electricity used to flow one way in the system. Now
customers have photovoltaic systems, and were seeing
two-way flows on systems that were designed for one-
way flows. To monitor the quality of these new power
flows, BPA is using a technology developed in the 19th
century to look at the grid 60 times a seconda signifi-
cant adjustment to a technology that was used once ev-
ery two seconds when first introduced.
When we develop something today, it comes out of
the factory with a digital twin. BPs Ahmed Hashmi
explained how technology has changed the oil and gas
business at ABB Customer World this week in Houston.

Luiz Mello is technology innovation director at Vale,

a $26 billion global mining company. Vale is a large pro-
ducer in iron ore and nickel, with the bulk of its mining
operations in South America and the largest segment
of its product destination being Southeast Asia. I was
brought to Vale to bring a new perspective to structure
its corporate R&D function, explained Mello. De-
spite being a global company in more than 30 countries,
theres a lot of focus on Brazil, where the educational
level is similar to the United States in 1910. We try to
foster connections with academia. We created ambitious
programs in Brazil and Mozambique, as we need to hire
people in these areas.
Vales primary investment focus has been on creating
an autonomous mine. Mining has a geographical con-
straint, by nature of where the ore body sits, which is
usually in remote countries where the education level
is not very high. Getting a job at the mine requires a
skillset that the people there do not have, so they must
be trained.
Although Ahmed Hashmis job title at BP is head of
upstream technology, he thinks of himself as a busi-
ness leader responsible for driving change. Ive been
with BP 30 years on, he said. Oil prices dropped in
half in 2014, and we are still not making money at to-
days prices, but things have improved a lot. Theres
a desire within the industry to reset itself, whether
youre talking about extraction, refining, logistics or
labor costs. Everything in oil & gas is being reset, he
emphasized.
People talk a lot about change through digitali-
zation, added Hashmi. Digitalization is not some-
thing new. But software development is still too slow.
If we can automate software development, then wed
have something. Still, digitalization has compressed
development time. When gas was recently discovered
in Egypts Nile Delta, it took only two years for BP to
be up and running. It used to take seven to 10 years
for that, said Hashmi.
The time from concept to introducing a product is
getting shorter: fail fast and fail cheap, agreed Bazmi
Husain, CTO, ABB. In the 36 years Ive had with the
company, I cant recall another time when business im-
pact, energy efficiency and technology have changed
more quickly than today. Last year, there was more re-
newable energy coming on line than there was conven-
tional energy coming on line. The ecosystem of how we
do things is changing.
All that stays the same
In the electric power industry, the change in consumer
behavior is causing utility executives to shake with fear,
said BPAs Oliver. If you dont need capital infrastruc-
ture and your loads are changing, you have to change
your business model, he explained. Our tradition has
been to think of least cost as the way of keeping things
going. But now we need to look at what were doing in
terms of a value proposition.
A lot of improvements in products used to be in hard-
ware, explained ABBs Husain. Going forward the dif-
ferentiator is going to be more in the software aspects,
he said. Your motor will be more reliable because youre

Connect. Collaborate. Outperform. Highlights from ABB Customer World 2017

measuring its operating conditions, and youll be able to
predict whether it can take a higher load or be able to
predict failure before it even shows physical signs. The
connectivity and digitalization are already there, and the
sensing will continue to advance.
The differentiation between hardware and soft-
ware will become more outcome-based, predicted BPs
Hashmi. Its not hardware versus software. Its based
more on the outcome. In the past, the biggest problem
with changing software was there were new forms that
you couldnt connect to the logic. Now you dont have
to program all the way down to your data structure. You
have cloud platforms and new data structures.
What shall we build today?
Vales recently completed Brazilian mine was a huge
capital project, costing $14.5 billion, and digitalization
played a huge role. All of the processing units were built
and then brought to the site afterward, said Mello. Its
a huge LEGO project, and you need to make sure ev-
erything will fit. Visualization was critical on that, and
it brought up some faults in the design, which were fixed
before construction. Drones with sensors can collect
data on the facades, and we combined that with geologi-
cal data for a much better plan.
The oil and gas industry has seen multiple waves of
technology, and the digital twin has risen to the sur-
face. Automation isnt necessarily nirvana, warned
BPs Hashmi. Insight matters more than automation,
and that leads to better decisions sooner. Artificial intel-
ligence and machine learning have been around for a
long time. We have a lot of stuff that has been created in
a different era. But, when we develop something today,
it comes out of the factory with a digital twin. Before you
do anything to an asset, you do it to the digital form.
How to get it done
Digitalizations benefits are documented, but the chal-
lenge often is in navigating the culture change. For BPA,
it was all in the framework. We asked, What do we
want to be when we grow up? said Oliver. We asked
managers and middle executives, and then we found out
what was in the way. That helped us to focus our re-
Connect. Collaborate. Outperform. Highlights from ABB Customer World 2017
search investment on stuff that matters to BPA. You can
get carried away with engineering curiosity.
Theres often a disconnect between corporate and op-
erations, explained Vales Mello. Diminishing that dis-
connect was critical for us, he said. In the first year of
an innovation initiative, Vale employees generated 7,000
new ideas. And some of them had patent possibilities,
said Mello. A slightly overzealous management team
was so pleased that it pressed harder the following year
and received 22,000 new ideas. That was just not man-
ageable, explained Mello.
More things can go wrong than can go right, BPs
Hashmi. If I dont understand the business ahead of
technology, then Im not doing my job. There are things
we think we should be doing that will change the busi-
ness in the future, but the business isnt asking for them
now. You have to balance the times. Not everything can
be long-term. You have to bring results every day, and
then you earn the right to do the long-term stuff.
For Vale, training and educating future employees is
half of the battle, but replacing certain tasks with auto-
mation is equally effective. We do not believe people
in Brazil and Mozambique are getting the proper train-
ing, said Mello. But were also aiming to get a com-
plete fleet of autonomous trucks. Were partnering with
nearby schools to get the people trained. While there is
a perspective of jobs lost from a given community, start-
ups may emerge and provide software solutions that live
together with diminished job opportunities in the mines
themselves.
Mechanized automation has been impacting the la-
bor force since the first industrial revolution, added
Hashmi. As you work on lower-level stuff that doesnt
require a basic understanding of the mechanism in
place, your job will get automated out at some point, he
said. Thats true of anything in the world. If you look at
unemployment today, its almost zero if you have a high
level of education. It behooves us to invest in that.
Husain agreed. The jobs that robots take today are
dirty, dull and dangerous, he said. The cage around
the robot is not to keep the robot in. Its to keep the peo-
ple out. We might have to get used to going to school
several times in our lifetime.
 BRIGHT OIL AND GAS FUTURE
WILL RELY ON INNOVATION,
EFFICIENCY
Panelists from ConocoPhillips, Chevron and Rice University
chart past and present forces enabling their industrys future.
Jim Montague

A
bad headache with no remedy is worse than drilling with hydraulic fracturing.
a super-bad headache with medicine close at This combination lets us access oil and gas we
hand. could never reach before, added Leveille. As for data
For instance, booms and busts have buffeted the analytics, where it used to take us 20 days to drill a
North American and worldwide oil and gas indus- well, we can now do it in just 13 days. In addition,
try throughout its history. However, despite recent data analytics can be used anywhere, which makes it
price-drops and other challenges, ConocoPhilips most powerful when combined with unconventional
and Chevron reported in a panel discussion at ABB oil production. This is why we expect to achieve even
Customer World 2017 that recent technical inno- more in the future.
vations and accessible raw material resources have Leveille, Trond Unneland, senior upstream advisor,
them feeling optimistic about their industrys perfor- Chevron, and Chuck McConnell, executive direc-
mance going forward. tor, Energy Environment Initiative, Rice University,
The two big technical revolutions disrupting oil teamed up for the panel, Designing business trans-
and gas, and causing players to rethink their business formation and the future of energy production, at
strategies, are unconventional reservoir development ABB Customer World this week in Houston.
of oil and natural gas from shale, and large-scale per-
formance improvements aided by data analytics,
said Greg Leveille, CTO, ConocoPhilips. The U.S.
was the worlds largest oil producer for much of the
20th century, began a 35-year decline starting in the
mid-1970s, and regained the title due to unconven-
tional oil.
Leveille reported that the U.S. has daily production
of 25 million barrels of oil equivalents, compared to
Russias 20 million barrels and Saudi Arabias 15 mil-
lion barrels. However, the U.S. would only produce 12
million barrels of oil equivalents per day without un-
conventional production, which combines horizontal

Greg Leveille, CTO, ConocoPhilips (left) and Trond

Unneland, senior upstream advisor, Chevron (right),
discussed present trends and the innovation-aided future
of the oil and gas industry during their panel discussion
at ABB Customer World 2017 in Houston.

Connect. Collaborate. Outperform. Highlights from ABB Customer World 2017

Innovatecautiously
Despite the positive influences of fracking and data
analytics, Unneland cautioned that a steady stream of
innovations is no guarantee that end users will em-
ploy them.
Energy companies produce and consume lots of
high-tech solutions and must constantly improve, but
theyre also slow to test and adopt them compared
to mainstream consumers or the companies weve
worked with in Silicon Valley, said Unneland. Con-
sumers and IT-based firms know the early bird gets
the worm, but oil and gas players would rather be the
second mouse that gets the cheese. This is because its
more costly to be the first to adopt new oil and gas in-
novations, so they stick with whats tested and reliable.
Even when innovations are adopted, theres usually a
step back period before benefits begin to arrive.
Unneland added the game-changing innovations in
oil and gas in the past few decades include deepwater/
subsea applications, real-time reservoir management,
4D seismic technology, horizontal drilling and frac-
turing, and data analytics. He added that emerging
technologies in oil and gas include mobile comput-
ing, data science, cloud computing, cognitive com-
puting and the Industrial Internet of Things.
Our multi-department energy initiative focuses on
three things: accessibility to secure energy sources,
affordability of those sources, and environmental re-
sponsibility, added McConnell. Then we look at
what talents the industry needs, so they can develop
dynamic workforces.
Implementconsistently
Leveille added that more powerful, capable and por-
table computing resources are greatly aiding Con-
ocoPhilips projects. These tools perform high-end
machine learning, visualization, site simulation and
Connect. Collaborate. Outperform. Highlights from ABB Customer World 2017
other functions.
Five or 10 years ago, our major facility and well
projects were mostly custom-designed, one-offs that
a team would assemble and execute, he explained.
Now, were developing capital expenditure projects
with similar designs that are more repetitively ex-
ecuted, including well pads, oil sands processes and
other rapid, low-cost experiments. This consistency
gives us more leverage, and its very liberating. Were
going to do many more wells and other projects like
this in the next 15 years.
Unneland added, Upstream processes can now put
sensors everywhere like downstream applications al-
ready do, and thats enabling a lot of improvements
for us. However, where we used to hire data scientists
to work with our geoligists, what we need now are hy-
brid, petro-techs that know both earth science and
computers. Were doing some of this training at our
Center for Interactive Field Technology at the Univer-
sity of Southern California.
Leveille added that ConocoPhilips is also provid-
ing more training in collaboration. Our applications
need to know more about how different measure-
ments are interacting, and so were coordinating our
facilities and operations engineering people to do it,
he added. This is letting us look more closely at data
for individual rigs, and even take a computer game ap-
proach, so operators can begin to compete with each
other on improving performance. This whole thing
becomes self-perpetuating, and its enabled by this at-
mosphere of innovation.
Unneland added that even little data innovations
can be a big help. We recently had an issue about
how to dispose of water from unconventional oil sites,
he added. So someone developed a smartphone app
that shows site position, amount of water to be dis-
posed and other details, and its been a big help.
 UTILITY CEO CLEARS
LEADERSHIP PATH FOR WOMEN
CPS Energy CEO advises fellow women in industry
to say yes first, and ask questions later
Jim Montague

P
aula Gold-Williams, CEO of CPS Energy Co. wind and solar. It serves eight counties, and its present pro-
in San Antonio, Texas, started as an accountant file includes 41% natural gas, 27% coal, 13% nuclear, 12%
when she joined the utility power industry about wind and landfill gas, and 2% solar. The utility has $2.6 bil-
30 years ago. Over the years, she served in almost every lion in revenue and $11 billion in assets.
supervisory, managing and leadership role on her way to A lot of energy companies in Texas must pick a lane
the C-suite. generation, transmission or customer-facingif theyre
Back then accounting was as fraternal as it could be, not municipally owned, explained Gold-Williams. In
said Gold-Williams, who is also African American. Ive our case, because weve been owned by the city of San
told my daughters how it was, and theyre just aghast. The Antonio since 1942, and must answer to the city council
industry has changed a lot since then, but not enough. and mayor, we have a fully integrated and diverse energy
Gold-Williams kicked off the Women in Industry: portfolio, including gas, coal, an investment in nuclear,
Empowering Women to Leadership program this week 1,000 megawatts (MW) of wind, and 500 MW of solar,
at ABB Customer World with the keynote address, Past, including a 5-MV photovoltaic facility. In the next 20
present and future. The program was sponsored by ABB years, we are expecting that mix to change.
and energy conference organizer EUCI.
Gold-Williams acknowledged that gradual evolution
has enabled more opportunities for women in energy
and other industries, but she stressed that women must
also be willing to make a habit of seizing them. Thanks
to ABB and EUCI for launching this awesome partner-
ship, which looks like it will get bigger each year, she
said. This event is a good chance to network, but we
must also know how to make changes every day, and the
way to do it is by not boxing ourselves in.

Powerful profile
CPS Energy Co. is a 157-year-old, municipally owned util-
ity in San Antonio, Tex., which started out producing nat-
ural gas, and then added electricity production originally
based on coal, nuclear, and more recently on hydropower,

The fewer answers they have for you, the more it allows
you to design your own success. Paula Gold-Williams,
president and CEO, CPS Energy, advises women in
industry to say yes to opportunity, even when the path
ahead is less than clear.

Connect. Collaborate. Outperform. Highlights from ABB Customer World 2017

 Gold-Williams added that CPS Energy is also seeing
a technological shift towards everything from smarter
components to smart phones. Utilities have been slow
to adopt many of these more intelligent devices and soft-
ware, but I believe well speed up soon, she said.
Best career practices
Based on her decades of experience, Gold-Williams pri-
mary advice to younger colleagues, women and students
is to say yes to almost every opportunity, and then to ask
more questions. You also have to expect that you may
not always get a lot of answers, she explained. And the
fewer answers they have for you, the more it allows you
to design your own success.
Gold-Williams has read Sheryl Sandbergs book Lean
In, and knows professional women who think they must
always know whats going on and what is the plan. But
theres a limit to that, she added. You also have to allow
yourself to be less than a perfect fit, and let yourself be
free to be creative. Thinking that all the details have to
be perfect matters less as you move up in leadership. At
those levels, there are fewer details, and its more about
using an organizations power, moving from point A to
point B, and solving problems and issues.
After forming a womens network support group at CPS
Energy, Gold-Williams added that she and her colleagues
invited their senior leaders to sit in. You have to network
because thats how you find the ways to power, she ex-
plained. You can do that investigation yourself, find the
right executives, attach yourself, and learn from them.
Service sparks leadership
To handle these technical transitions and keep providing
power to San Antonios residents, Gold-Williams reported
that CPS Energy focuses on addressing issues and inter-
acting with the citys resident and communities more than
everand this inevitably leads to improved leadership.
Im an accountant, but I love engineers because they
solve problems. said Gold Williams. I believe the CEO
of an organization is on the bottom of an inverted pyra-
mid, and supports the other leaders, executives, manag-
ers, employees, customers and communities above. We
dont want them to have to worry.
Connect. Collaborate. Outperform. Highlights from ABB Customer World 2017
Gold-Williams added that CPS Energy recently up-
dated its website with more customer-focused services.
We know were behind on technology, and were try-
ing to catch up, but in many ways, were even further
behind in the way we think, she explained. For exam-
ple, we previously supplied power just up to the meter,
and didnt worry about what happened in the homes.
Now that meters are smarter, were beginning to gather
volume data, and learning to add value both in front
and behind the meter. All kinds of new technologies
are being added in homes, and we need to be on that
solution set.
Gold-Williams added that solar is enabling customers
to send power back to the grid, but this is often causing
more electrical frequency and power-quality issue that
CPS Energy must address with help from newer optimi-
zation technologies. She reported that the utility is already
68% done with its present grid-modernization project that
includes smarter street lights and other components.
We want to be a partner, not just a provider, added
Gold-Williams. But to make it happen, we must have
good people who can add value. This means the lead-
ers must know the focus and anchor of each individual.
She reported these attributes were especially helpful
when CPS Energy helped its customers and communities
recover from storms and tornadoes in February that turned
one of its transmission towers into a horseshoe, destroyed
100 homes, and cut power to 85,000 residents. We coop-
erated with local government, connected with customer
on social media, stayed on the phones 24/7, and thanked
everyone when it was over, said Gold-Williams. I know
that I run an analytical engineering firm, but sometimes
we have to manage emergency recoveries, too.
As a result, I dont really focus on the fact that Im a
woman or an African-American. All of thats true, but so
what? Thats why I talk more about being an accountant
and solving problems. You have to be careful not to cre-
ate doubt when there is none. Ive learned that I dont
have to be extra gregarious or worry that Im acting like
a man. You just have to be yourself, say yes, and jump in
and solve problems. You also cant be afraid to fail, be-
cause youll learn a lot more from failures than you ever
will from success.
 LIVING ON THE EDGE: CONSUMERS
DRIVING POWER GRID DYNAMICS
Edge-of-grid technologies present problems, solutions
and almost certainly, surprises.
Paul Studebaker

I
nnovation at the edge of the grid is changing the rela- solar generators. In North Carolina, more generators want
tionship between utilities and their customers. Renew- to connect more renewables in remote locations. They
ables and electric vehicles (EV) are only the beginning. dont realize the affect on the grid. Thats a farm field,
Solar always rises faster than we anticipate. And the theres not a big wire there, Caldwell said. But our cus-
energy storage price curve is amazingsoon it will be tomers are at the edge of the grid and we have to meet
commonplace, said Rob Caldwell, president, Renew- them there. We have more clean energy, more distributed
ables and Distributed Energy Technology, Duke En- energy, and we need to give customers what they want,
ergy. More new homes will be net-zero homes because which is convenience, choice, control and cost. We need
the cost is becoming much lower, so it will be built in to manage the grid to deliver that, with power quality.
at the front end. Technology is going to do more than
we realize, and faster, but this will not happen for every- Demand forecast: Flat, with ripples
body. There will remain a mismatch of customers. Overall, we still see flat growth in demand, despite
Caldwell joined Tom Rowland-Rees, lead analyst, En- electric vehicles, said Rowland-Rees. Everywhere, we
ergy Smart Technologies, Bloomberg and Tarak Mehta, see digital infrastructure and smart grid technology go-
president, Electrification Products Division, ABB in a
panel discussion moderated by Greg Scheu, Americas
Region president, ABB, at ABB Customer World this
week in Houston.
When we first started looking at this space in 2004,
there was 20 GW of wind and solar combined in our
portfolio. That rose to 147 GW in 2015, representing an
investment of $349 billion, said Tom Rowland-Rees,
lead analyst, Energy Smart Technologies, Bloomberg.
Renewables are growing at a phenomenal rate, and
theyre moving away from utility-scale generation with
the rise of distributed solar. We expected rooftop solar
to grow depending on the region. And that growth is al-
ways exceeding our forecasts.
Duke Energys territory in the southeast U.S. now has
3,000 MW of solar power and 13,000 customers who are

Technology is going to do more than we realize, and

faster, but this will not happen for everybody. There
will remain a mismatch of customers. Rob Caldwell,
president, Renewables and Distributed Energy
Technology, Duke Energy.

Connect. Collaborate. Outperform. Highlights from ABB Customer World 2017

ing in, as well as higher efficiency and things like Nest
thermostats that reduce demand. Electric vehicles are
just offsetting falling demand.
EV charging brings a different form of power demand
in terms of when, where and how much. Its a big load for
a short time, said Mehta. ABB has quite a few solutions
for those problems, but the issue is the speed of change.
For example, this month were see three times as many bus
charger orders as we did three months ago in December.
Rowland-Rees predicts that EV costs will be competitive
by 2025, and customer uptake is going to happen fast.
In San Diego, EV density is already affecting power
delivery and reliability at the edge. Those kinds of prob-
lems will spread across the country. We cant tell cus-
tomers they cant have what they want, Caldwell said.
We have to take them with us, to explain the cost and
how to share and recover it.
Customers take power reliability for granted, but main-
taining it with a stressed grid is a challenge. We have to
figure out how to do it, said Caldwell. The engineering
solutions are there, but we have to focus on bringing our
customers needs to the attention of the regulators. We
have to go and educate policy-makers and regulators.
Technology calls for new regulations
Technology just keeps getting cheaper and cheaper,
presenting new opportunities, said Rowland-Rees.
While technology is enabling an ever-increasing variety
of grid situations, its also ready to provide solutions, if we
let it. Hybrid farms with wind and solar, battery storage
how will these work together? asked Mehta. A house may
have rooftop solar, a home automation system controlling
consumption, and a battery in the basement. Who controls
it, the owner or the grid? How will they communicate? It
must be done in a way that makes sense.
Storage promises to be part of the solution. That will
change the balance, Mehta said. Without it, renew-
ables can become a big problem.
The panel agreed that regulations are key. Our grid
is optimized for the needs of the past 50 years, and our
regulators think that way, said Rowland-Rees. Custom-
ers see something new and shiny, and they want it. The
regulators have to keep up, or well have consequences
Connect. Collaborate. Outperform. Highlights from ABB Customer World 2017
like poor customers subsidizing wealthy customers, or
electric companies going bust.
Standards have to work together, so components can
plug and play on the system. Today, the grid has a myr-
iad of different technologies by different vendors. It all
has to work, and plug and play nice together, to keep
power quality where it needs to be, said Caldwell. Its
going to take investment, and time.
Disruptions ahead?
Five years ago, we didnt foresee oil prices falling, or the dis-
covery of enough U.S. shale gas reserves to last 300 years,
said Scheu. Whats the next five years going to bring?
At Bloomberg, We always get carried away by new
technology, then we look at what could disrupt it, said
Rowland-Rees. For example, Lithium-ion batteries can
explode, and it only takes one. How might safety con-
cerns shake that market?
For as long as I remember, building energy manage-
ment has always been the next big thing. Now were start-
ing to see some movement. In Austin, all new homes
must have energy-saving thermostats, and 25% of homes
have signed up for demand response.
At ABB, We look for disruptive change at tipping
points, said Mehta. For example, when capital and op-
erating expenses converge, facilities are idled. Are there
a lot of assets not generating value? Bringing them on
can change the world.
Caldwell said, at Duke Energy, To avoid disruption,
we need to be data-driven, but we also need to share in-
formation with strategic partners to get away from not-
invented-here syndrome. Utilities are geographically
different, but we have a lot in common with other indus-
tries. It takes a village.
Especially in Europe, utilities often invest in down-
stream energy companies with interesting capabilities,
a sort of venture capitalism, said Mehta. They get to
learn about the technologies, the companies and their
business model. When the future is not clear, you want
to learn as much as possible.
The picture at the edge of the grid is fuzzy. Its going
to be an interesting year in this spacewe see the tech-
nology need, what will be the business results?