Q.1  How has the electrical industry evolved in the F&B space in India? What is the wide range of opportunities for the sector across the value chain?

 

The Food & Beverage industry is under constant pressure to adapt and evolve to meet the changing demand from the retailers and consumers. Manufacturers must work at increasing production, variety, quality, and efficiency to meet theever-evolving F&B space in the country especially in the current situation.

Towards this, electrification is fundamental in keeping up with the Food & Beverage industry’s evolving practices. The future of the F&B sector looks promising with the growing demand due to a change in theconsumer's lifestyle and consumption patterns. The sector's growth is dependent on the ability to organize, invest, and innovate to deliver high value products to the consumer.

The changing preferences of the consumers from the urban areas as well as Tier I and II cities have given prominence to the F&B space in India and, in turn, the electrical industry to keep up with the increasing demand. This gives an opportunity to the sector across the value chain right from sourcing to processing to delivering the last mile.

 

What are the various safety solutions that ABB India is offering for the F&B industry in the current times of the pandemic?

 

Safety is of top priority in F&B industry - safety solutions to protect people and assets all along the production chain is an important part of the F&B industry design to keep maximum uptime to produce more with maximum efficiency. ABB as an organization has Safety aspect on top priority so products, we design has to perform with utmost safety in the real production process. ABB provides safety products & solutions across low voltage electrical system, medium voltage distribution systems, building management system to make perfect production processes, safeguarding products, and people integrity as a must. ABB safety solutionslike – Arc fault detection and mitigation solutions, real time temperature monitoring inside the power panels helps customer to operate plants with maximum availability with clear visibility on the health parameters of the panel components across the plant floor to take right decision at right time with predictive approach. ABB offers an extensive service support for safe replacing old ABB and non-ABB switchgears in the existing setup of power panels to create safety environment around the equipments and the people who operate electrical system.

 

Q.3 Explain in detail how ABB has facilitated continuous operation of the electrical systems and machines in the F&B industry.How to take care of electrical system since there are multiple components like harmful microorganisms like bacteria, oil spill, liquids, volatile operational environment, etc involved.

 

With the F&B industry constantly trying to meet consumer and retail demand, there is continuous running of the machines and electrical system. Most of the Food & Beverage manufacturing plants which run 24 hours a day are sensitive to poor power quality events. Modern plants running with high intensity of process automation, digital solutions need high quality of electrical power supply to produce high quality products consistently with better efficiency, however poor power quality has been shown to lead to reduced efficiencies, increased risk of downtime and higher energy and operating costs. Depending on the event and situation, costs relating to product loss, production downtime, or supply chain disruption can be significant. When it comes to continuous operations, the easiest and most effective solution to avoid unplanned shutdowns is the correction of voltage anomalies coming from the grid. What constitutes a power quality problem? There are several phenomena that fall into this category (e.g., load imbalance, voltage transients, harmonics, and reactive power problems) and they can be interrelated. ABB’s power protection portfolio is a unique line up of Power Conditioning solutions with UPS products designed to solve power quality issues for food and beverage applications. Presence of harmful microorganism, dust, water, condensation and accidental spills of machine oils and lubricants can all shorten the life of electrical system. There needs to be effective protection of the electrical system. Corrosion is a major cause of downtime in electrical systems. Harsh chemicals, pressurized washdowns and dissimilar metals in contact with one another accelerate the corrosion process. ABB installation solutions like anticorrosion, antimicrobial flexible conduit systems, fittings, bacterial resistance cable ties etc.  save time and replacement costs. ABB PlantInstallation Product Assessment is a service that helps food and beverage processors find and address existing and potential electrical issues.After assessing the facility’s installation system concerns, ABB provides a customized proposal of solutions that can help the plant.

 

• Increase food, plant, and personnel safety

 

• Cut electrical system changeover/downtime by 40-50%

 

• Increase overall equipment effectiveness (OEE)

 

• Extend electrical system service life by up to 300%

 

• Improve sustainability and revenue

 

 

 

Q.4 What kind of electrical digital solutions are being provided by ABB for F&Bindustry and in what way digital solutions brings value to F&B customers?

 

F&B industry is undergoing critical transformations due to the impact of digitalization on production machines which, since ever, have high levels of automation. At the same time, it is a great advantage to combine the benefits coming from monitoring, controlling and measuring a production line comfortably from remote which helps for continuous improvements of productivity, energy efficiency, safety requirements for both food and employees and the quality of electrical power. ABB’s Smart Power portfolio for food and beverage consists of a comprehensive range of digital solutions, systems and products allowing maximum production, ensuring the greatest utilization of the facility and enhanced product quality to the customer ABB Ability Digital solutionshelps to digitize low voltage, medium voltage systems and components supporting digital production processes, improving safety, assets life and saving costs. With the ability to monitor, control, analyse, optimize, predict, and automate the electrical plant from remote, with just few clicks will ensure production continuity and energy management, digital analysis of assets performance for a continuous optimization of the plant.Thus, these ABB Ability Digital solutions enables predictive capabilities that reduces downtime needed for maintenance and enables users to reduce operational costs.

 

Q.5 What have been some of the latest innovations in this industry that ABB has launched in India, and how are these supporting the sustainable future vision of ABB?

 

ABB India has been committed towards sustainability and eco-efficiency right since the beginning in the F&B industry. As one of the world’s leading engineering companies, we help our customers to use electrical power efficiently, to increase industrial productivity and to lower environmental impact in a sustainable way. The increasing demand from consumers for new innovative products,customer preference is driving shorter product development cycles, faster changeovers, integration across the value chain, and adoption of new technologies faster than ever before. At the same time, stricter regulations are driving new labeling requirements and more robust food safety practices. The scope of “sustainability” is broadening, and F&B players are moving to demonstrate more than simple compliance. Some of the components for sustainable food and beverage operations include flexibility and reliability.A transformative shift has begun, and an estimated 86% of leading F&B companies have set specific targets and ambitious goals to adapt and meet demand. Beyond emissions, efficient consumption of energyis an immediate priority. ABB support towards lowering the operating and maintenance costs in the plantby making switchgears and electrical systems digital to bring real time visibility of entire plant performance, to customers to take right decision at right time.Maximizing the availability and reliability of electrical assets while minimizing risks, increasing personnel safety, reducing operational costs, and improving energy efficiency are the key drivers of the various solutions at ABB. As companies change their business models to match their strong sustainability goals, rethinking their service strategies could help get them there. ABB’s latest innovations are aligned with the vision of a sustainable future and help in upgrading a company’s system and machinery to meet global sustainable standards.

 

 

Q.6 What are the next plans for building an energy efficient infrastructureand meeting global standards for energy efficiency?

 

Food production needs to be almost doubled in next few years to meet the demands of a growing population. One of the hidden issues is food waste. If we were to be able to address the root causes of waste across the value chain from farm to fork by establishing integrated cold chains, storages, smart transportation we would be able to save enough food by efficiently consuming energy. We are moving into an era of enormous growth, with trends such as digitalization, smart connectivity of components and electrical systems, cloud analysis etc.  ABB’s innovation and ideas in ABB Ability digital solutions, energy efficient electrical systems will help businesses realize its full potential in an efficient manner to reach global standards.