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dEon MCCBs feature on-board timing innovative GE device already has ABS Real Hazards, Real Costs have an arc-? ash event, the equipment functionality which is used to measure and DNV-GL class approvals. The num- According to an Electric Power Re- gets damaged, and the revenue stream the breaker’s fault reaction time. This ber of GE GuardEon breakers needed search Institute (EPRI) study in the U.S., stops for some period of time,” said So- enables testing to be done on the unit aboard any particular ship would, says a single arc-? ash incident can cost op- wards. “The second part of that is the re- without having to remove it. GE calls Sowards, depend on the size of a ves- erators up to $15 million once healthcare placement of the equipment itself. And this “predictive maintenance.” sel. He explained, “Every AC low volt- costs, workers compensation, replacing that could be the breaker itself or more

According to GE, in marine applica- age circuit breaker on the ship, whether equipment, increased insurance premi- likely, downstream equipment like a mo- tions, for example, an arc-? ash event it is a previous vintage of our breaker or um and lost production time are factored. tor, etc. Summing up, we’re providing a that takes place in the middle of the someone else’s, then this would be a re- And that’s just on shore. fairly inexpensive solution to the poten- ocean can result in severe ship ? res. An placement in that application. The load Imagine the costs associated with your tial downstream catastrophe.” arc ? ash produces temperatures as high determines the number of breakers that $120 million, 18,000 TEU ship rolling In the real world, there are plenty of as 35,000 degrees. Isolated at sea, there you use. In order to get the reliability around in rough seas without power. other circuit breakers in the market to- is no ? re department nearby to help con- and predictability that we’ve discussed, With predictive maintenance, the abil- day and what people are doing is, rather tain and reduce the damage caused by these work together as a network. GE ity to anticipate and schedule shutdowns than predicting the arc ? ash event, they an arc-? ash event. If it is not mitigated has a team that can go out and determine can mean avoiding untimely, costly out- are controlling the event to minimize the quickly and effectively, or prevented all what the needs are – performing a risk ages and downtime. damage. And whereas in a shoreside in- together, the results can be catastrophic. assessment.” “Whether you are running a hospital, dustrial situation this is a little easier, on

Norm Sowards is the General Manager a steel mill, a ship or whatever, if you board the vessel there are typically four of the Power Components Business Unit (BU) for GE’s Industrial Solutions busi- ness, which is leading the future of elec- tri? cation with advanced technologies that protect and control the distribution of electricity throughout a facility’s – or a marine vessel’s – infrastructure.

In his role, Sowards drives key prod- uct line initiatives such as product line pro? tability, strategic investment deci- sions and product line vitality. The crux of Sowards’ push to more fully penetrate the commercial marine space is the ef- fort to reduce unplanned downtime with predictive maintenance.

Sowards describes GuardEon as a high performance circuit breaker focused on industrial type applications. It meets global applications and standards. It has predictive maintenance features in the

We take pride in the relations product including the ability to under- we build with our customers, and we take pride in the stand internal contact-ware, and the abil- products we deliver. This gives ity to understand the operating time in an us the con?dence to state that event log. It takes all of that information we are always to be trusted. and is able to coordinate it and provide it

ALWAYS TO BE TRUSTED www.jetsgroup.com in a usable way to the operator.”

But, of all the things that GE could be focusing on in this space – and there are many – the ‘arc ? ash’ is arguably a curi- ous problem to be solving. Not so, says

Sowards.

Jets Vacuum AS, Myravegen 1, N-6060 Hareid, Norway – Tel.: +47 70 03 91 00 – E-mail: [email protected] “It’s less about breakers tripping than it is about the predictive maintenance that we talked about. Whether its marine customers or oil & gas customers or data center customers, what they care about is being able to predict if a breaker is go-

Backed up by over 50 years ing to trip in the future and take action of craftmanship and in advance of that. So it wasn’t a cus- experience, Helkama cables tomer that came to us, but instead it’s a are tested in the harshest problem that keeps coming up in heavy conditions and designed to process industries. This is the solution to meet standards. We enable that problem.” the perfect connection for both

Slated for rollout by midyear 2016 and suitable for retro? t on existing vessels, marine and offshore use. the GuardEon MCCB is already being

Connect with us: testing in at least 100 industrial venues –

MARINE AND OFFSHORE CABLES • INDUSTRIAL CABLES • OPTICAL FIBRE CABLES • FLEXIBLE CABLES www.helkamabica.com although not yet at sea. Nevertheless, the www.marinelink.com 71

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