Yokogawa Electric Corporation has announced that its Norwegian subsidiary, Yokogawa TechInvent AS, has received orders to provide 59 high-performance FluidCom chemical injection metering valves for two offshore oil fields that are being developed by Equinor ASA, a Norwegian energy company. One destination is the Johan Sverdrup field in the North Sea, 160 km west of Stavanger, and the other is the Johan Castberg field in the Barents Sea, 240 km northwest of Hammerfest. The orders for the FluidCom valves were placed through the suppliers of the chemical injection packages for these projects.
Shigeyoshi Uehara, head of the IA Products & Service Business Headquarters, comments as follows about these two orders: “We believe that the selection of the FluidCom valve by Equinor, a company that is renowned for its advanced technology and leading role in efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), was based on a very positive evaluation of its features. By enabling the remote control of chemical injection, FluidCom valves reduce the amount of work that must be performed under very demanding conditions on offshore platforms. Optimization of the chemical injection amount also protects the environment. FluidCom valves thus help our customers achieve significant reductions in OPEX and contribute to the achievement of the SDGs. By expanding its lineup of upstream solutions with products such as the FluidCom valve, Yokogawa is providing new value to its customers.”
Chemicals are injected into oil wells and pipelines to prevent scaling and corrosion. Although the opening, closing, and adjustment of injection valves is sometimes automated, this is usually done manually in the upstream sector. Such work is often performed under conditions that can be quite severe, and it can be difficult to avoid injecting excessive amounts of these costly chemicals. For reasons of safety, cost, and productivity, it is important to automate this process.

Yokogawa TechInvent developed and sells the FluidCom chemical injection metering valve. With flow metering and control functionality, a FluidCom valve can stably and automatically inject chemicals into a well or pipeline. The valve has few moving parts, so the risk of failure is low, and a self-cleaning function is provided that eliminates the need for maintenance. Suitable for both oil & gas upstream and midstream operations, the FluidCom valve improves operational efficiency, reduces running costs, and enhances health, safety, and the environment (HSE).

Hydro Aluminium AS is building the most climate-friendly, energy-efficient aluminum smelting plant in the world on Norway's Karmøy peninsula. Siemens is supplying a VB1 high-current switchgear with vacuum switching technology and the high-current supply unit for production. Measuring 34 meters long with 26 switchgear panels, it will be the longest high-current and generator switchgear ever built by Siemens. This type of system protects equipment such as generators and transformers from overvoltage and short-circuits. To ensure the supply of electrical power for the production process, Siemens is also providing six large converter units, including the associated control and protection systems and the requisite cooling systems. The converters convert AC current to DC current for operating the power-intensive smelting furnaces. The scope of supply also includes automation technology with the PCS7 process control system and distributed I/O systems as well as operator control and monitoring systems. The high-current switchgear is to be delivered by the end of 2016, while the high-current supply unit will be handed over by the end of 2017. Siemens was already commissioned last year to supply the main transformers for this project.
High-current and generator switchgear with vacuum switching technology are important for protecting transformers and generators used in generator switchgear applications with high thermal and mechanical loads. Vacuum switching technology and maintenance-free components in generator switchgear guarantee minimum maintenance costs. Unlike gas-insulated circuit-breakers, vacuum circuit-breakers interrupt the arc in a high-vacuum interrupter tube. With its double busbar design, Siemens' VB1 fulfills the special requirements for high plant availability. Thanks to its arc fault consistency, it ensures a high degree of personal safety. It has a short-circuit breaking capacity of up to 50 kiloamperes (kA) at 24 kilovolts (kV) and can handle rated currents of up to 5000 amperes (A) without forced cooling.

In addition to delivering, Siemens is responsible for dimensioning, integrating, installing, and commissioning the plant components.

The new aluminum factory on Karmøy will produce 75,000 tons of aluminum per year and consume about 1 terrawatt hour (TWh) of electricity per year, thus placing high demands on all of the electrical equipment. 1 TWh roughly corresponds to the annual electricity consumption of 50,000 households.

With the Karmøy Technology Pilot, Hydro plans to reduce energy consumption in aluminum production by about 15 percent compared to world average. The project will also reduce CO2 emissions to the world's lowest level. Today the global average is over 14 kWh per kilogram. On Karmøy, Hydro is testing a new technology that should allow them to reduce consumption to 11.5-11.8 kWh per kilogram.

ABB recently announced it has completed its acquisition of GE Industrial Solutions (GEIS), GE’s global electrification solutions business on June 30, 2018. The transaction was announced on September 25, 2017, and is expected to be accretive to operational EPS in the first year.

The $2.6 billion transaction offers substantial value creation potential within ABB, including growth opportunities to be leveraged from coupling ABB’s digital offering, ABB Ability™, with the extensive GEIS installed base. ABB expects to realize approximately $200 million of annual cost synergies in year five, which will be key in bringing GEIS to peer performance.

“We are very pleased to welcome GE Industrial Solutions to ABB,” said ABB CEO Ulrich Spiesshofer. “The combination reinforces ABB’s position as a worldwide leader in electrification and accelerates our growth and competitiveness in key markets, particularly North America. As one of Thomas Edison’s original businesses, GEIS is the cradle of electrification – a legacy that we will preserve and build on, now that GEIS is part of ABB.”

GEIS will be integrated into ABB’s Electrification Products (EP) division, led by EP President Tarak Mehta, as a new business unit called Electrification Products Industrial Solutions (EPIS). Stephanie Mains, who was previously the President and CEO of the GE Industrial Solutions business, will lead the new business unit as Managing Director. As part of the transaction, ABB has established a long-term strategic supply relationship with GE to supply them with products and solutions from across the ABB portfolio. Included in the acquisition is a long-term right to use the GE brand.

“The product portfolios of GE Industrial Solutions and ABB are highly complementary. Together we will have a comprehensive combined portfolio, as well as an expanded global footprint, sales force and distribution network,” said Tarak Mehta. “We are committed to servicing the GEIS installed base and will now be able to provide a more technologically advanced and digitally connected offering to our customers around the world. Together we will strengthen ABB’s #2 position in electrification globally and expand our access to the attractive North American market.”

exida, a global supplier of functional safety products, services and certifications is pleased to announce a business partnership with Precision Engineering Inc. (PEI).

“exida has established an excellent reputation in the industrial environment for providing high quality safety products and services,” says Joe Kenny, PEI President. “PEI views this partnership with exida as an excellent opportunity to grow our business in programming and configuring industrial safety systems. With this partnership, PEI can now offer its clients the complete safety system engineering package.”

“PEI has been in business for the past 20 years and has built a strong reputation for providing quality engineering services to their customers, which complements exida’s service and product offering,” says Steve Gandy, exida vice president of global business development. “exida has been looking to partner with a select group of companies as a means of enhancing both companies’ product and service offerings. We are pleased to partner with PEI and expect to have a very successful partnership.”