UniGear Digital | ABB Ability Marketplace™ EU

UniGear Digital

The innovative solution for medium-voltage (MV) switchgear

Watch Demo Read Documentation

ABB Ability™ AIS for MV - UniGear

With UniGear Digital, you benefit from the latest digital technologies within ABB’s well-known and established medium-voltage switchgear to gain increased process efficiency and lower cost of operation. The digital solutions bring increased flexibility, reliability and safety, and additionally reduces switchgear weight, footprint and delivery time. The digital solution takes full advantage of well-proven components: current and voltage sensors, protection and control relays with IEC 61850 digital communication to ensure a reliable and efficient electrical network.

Benefits

Reliability and Safety

UniGear Digital provides reliable switchgear solution which minimizes the risk of outages and increases switchgear availability. The sensors are not using any iron core, therefore they are immune against grid disturbances such as the ferroresonance. Thanks to their smaller dimensions the sensors contain less insulation material which reduces the risk of isolation degradation in a switchgear. Moreover, UniGear Digital increases the safety of operating personnel thanks to error free connection between sensor and the protection relay. Digital communication continuously supervises all signals. Error are immediately detected and back-up scenario can be activated. The use of sensors increases the safety for your personnel owing to the maximum level of secondary signals during normal operation amounting to only a few volts.

Minimize Lifetime Costs

UniGear Digital uses energy efficiently, without additional losses during switchgear operation. Thanks to increased reliability the risk of outages is minimized. This solution saves your costs during the whole switchgear lifetime. Sensors, both current and voltage, have negligible energy consumption and therefore less energy is needed to operate the switchgear. E.g. typical substation arrangement with 14 switchgear panels with UniGear Digital saves up to 250 MWh over 30 years of operation compared to conventional switchgear assembly. 250 MWh represent savings of 13 000 EUR.

Customizations and Changes

UniGear Digital is always capable of being adapted to your needs, even at the final stage of switchgear production. Moreover, UniGear Digital is ready to provide you with support anytime the requirements of your network change. Thanks to utilizing digital communication and sensors you are flexible with last minute implementation of changes to the switchgear parameters, such as the rated current or modification to switchgear logic schemes.

Features

Lower Environmental Impact

UniGear Digital represents green solution with high potential savings of energy and reduction of CO2 emissions. E.g. in a substation of 14 feeders, you can save energy equal to 150 tons of CO2 during 30 years of the system´s service. This corresponds to emissions produced by a mid-size European car over a mileage of 1 250 000 km.

Smart Grid Flexibility

UniGear Digital gives you the flexibility of changing the loads, supplied by power by the switchgear, without changing the measuring equipment (current instrument transformer). Current and voltage sensors, successors of conventional instrument transformers, feature linear characteristics i.e. they can operate with a wide range of primary currents. To provide for the adaptation of switchgear according to the changing load currents it is enough to modify the parameters of the protection relay. It saves the costs to spend on the purchase of current transformer, on its installation and those for coming up for switchgear downtime. UniGear Digital is ready for Smart Grid evolution.

Flexibility during Switchgear Operation

You may adapt your switchgear easily to changes implemented in your application. There is no need to replace the switchgear hardware. You only update the parameters or logics of the protection relay. This is achieved thanks to digital communication running between panels instead of using traditional hard wired signals. Changes are handled by modifying the software of the digital relays and using the IEC 61850 communication. Thanks to their linear characteristics the sensors can operate over a wide range of primary currents. If the load current of your application changes the only step the user needs to do is to change the parameters of the a protection relay.