ABB Animates 2007 PCIC Show in Calgary, Canada

The 54^th annual Petroleum and Chemical Industry Technical Conference (PCIC) was held in Calgary, Canada from September 17^th to September 20th, 2007, and ABB was a part of it! The mission of PCIC is to provide an international forum for the exchange of electrical applications technology related to the petroleum and chemical industry. The PCIC annual conference is rotated across North American locations of industry strength to attract national and international participation. User, manufacturer, consultant, and contractor participation is encouraged to strengthen the conference technical base.

Artist of the World gave an opportunity for everyone to chat and enjoy the gallery. Success of the PCIC is built upon high quality papers, individual recognition, valued standards activities, mentoring, tutorials, networking, and conference sites that appeal to all. ABB was able to interface with multiple customers and vendors at this event through:

• Sponsorship of a customer event at Artists of the World
• Presentation of paper Number PCIC-2007-17: “REDUCTION OF ARC-FLASH HAZARDS IN LOW VOLTAGE MOTOR CONTROL ASSEMBLIES
• Presentation of the paper Number PCIC-2007-33: “RATED STARTING PERFORMANCE OF SOLID POLE SYNCHRONOUS MOTORS FROM REDUCED VOLTAGE FACTORY TESTS”
• Sponsorship of a hospitality suite at the PCIC conference featuring “Casino Night”

ABB’s MV Motors and Drives division hosted over 125 guests in a relaxing environment at “Artists of the world” in downtown Calgary on Sunday, September 16, 2007.

Three floors of fine art, memorabilia and rare custom and vintage motorcycles housed in a renovated 20,000 square foot heritage building provided a great background for meeting customers and networking with industry professionals.

ABB presented a paper on Tuesday, September 18th by John Jennings from USCON- introducing the concept of reducing the Arc-Flash hazard in low voltage motor control assemblies. This paper reviewed the construction requirements and feature set which is particularly important on use and maintenance of equipment in facilities.

Arc-flash test procedures and results were discussed. Testing includes the requirements to prevent an arc-flash hazard when using low voltage motor control assemblies. The test results demonstrated the strengths of the new enhanced safety benefits and a marked reduction in Arc Flash levels. This results in improvements for low voltage motor control assemblies’ startup, operation, and maintenance procedures, including reduction in Personnel Protective Equipment (PPE). Future applications include developing improved low voltage motor control assembly diagnostic features for externally monitoring and analyzing motor current and voltage dynamics, plus providing a test position for safe access to allow for adjustment of the overload and breaker settings

The second paper presented on Wednesday, September 19th by Waqas Arshad, Christer Danielsson, Heinz Lendenmann, Holger Persson, Johan Hagg, John Dulas. This paper discussed the starting performance of 5-60 MW solid-pole salient synchronous motors having 4 or 6 poles is discussed. The rated performance derived by voltage-scaling from reduced-voltage factory tests, is compared against onsite measurements and rated-voltage factory tests.

Issues addressed by the paper are the need for: accurate but practical measurement methods, individual focus upon the average and the pulsating torques, stringent test floors procedures (when collecting reduced voltage tests data), reliable voltage scaling factors, correct interpretation of relevant Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers guidelines, and finally, the role of the load (inertia) in defining the starting performance of synchronous motors.
Shown is that even the best of existing voltage scaling methods do not allow a true estimation of onsite measurements due to the absence of the load (inertia) during reduced voltage factory tests. The electrical measurement method is found to be the most practical and accurate method for the measurement of pulsating torques. A need for clearer IEEE scaling recommendations that also consider the load in addition to voltage effects is corroborated.

ABB colleagues from four (4) separate divisions - USCON, MV Distribution Automation and Protection, MV Motors and Drives and the following 3 groups: Power Systems, FES and Low Voltage Products, sponsored a customer hospitality suite each evening of the conference. The hospitality suite included a casino theme with ABB money that could be used to “purchase” ABB customer products such as tote bags, pens, and jackets. The tote bags were a favorite among the customers that won prizes.

The Petroleum and Chemical Industry Committee (PCIC) of the Industry Applications Society of IEEE 55th annual conference will be held in Cincinnati, Ohio. The 2008 conference is scheduled for September 22 - 24, 2008. The Conference Tutorials will be held on September 25. Under the sponsorship of the Industry Applications Society, the PCIC Conference has become the premier annual application meeting for practicing electrical engineers.

Great Job to all ABB participants that made the 2007 PCIC an outstanding forum to show customers the strength and value of working with our company!