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ABB, IFM Engage Join to Advance Energy Management Future

June 07, 2022 by Stephanie Leonida

ABB Electrification and knowledge transfer company, IFM Engage, team up to build a more effective energy management blueprint for future digitized systems.

ABB recently announced its entry into a collaboration with IFM Engage, a knowledge transfer company within the Institute for Manufacturing (IFM) at the University of Cambridge. The collaboration focuses on developing a strategic roadmap for improving energy management for businesses and organizations across the globe.

 

Image used courtesy of ABB
 

The Energy Crisis

The energy crisis is the result of several factors. The first is the depletion of fossil fuels, and the second is climate change. The war in Ukraine has also contributed to this energy crisis by causing energy shortages in Europe. The war had a significant impact on oil and natural gas prices. The conflict in Ukraine disrupted the flow of natural gas to Europe, which caused a significant spike in gas prices.

The war has also affected the price of commodities for the world. This is because many Ukrainian companies were involved in manufacturing steel, iron ore, and other commodities traded on international markets. With these companies no longer producing these goods for the world market, there was increased demand for these commodities from other countries.

The crisis has led to economic, environmental, and geopolitical consequences. It's also caused an increase in demand for alternative energy sources such as solar power and wind power.

According to The World Bank’s latest Commodity Markets Outlook, energy prices will increase more than 2% in 2022 after jumping more than 80% in 2021. Although prices will initially remain high in 2022, natural gas and oil prices are expected to decline in the second half of the year as supply constraints ease.

 

 

Meeting the Need for Effective Energy Management

For many countries across the globe, the war in Ukraine, along with the climate change crisis, has driven the need for self-sufficiency concerning more sustainable energy production and effective distribution and management. The is also a need to supply energy effectively while keeping prices fair for end consumers.

To help provide a solution to the energy crisis, ABB has teamed up with IFM Engage to develop a roadmap for improving energy management.

 

 

energy management

Image used courtesy of ABB

 

In a recent news release, the President of ABB’s Smart Power Division, Giampiero Frisio, commented, “IfM Engage and ABB developed a roadmap that will improve our technology strategy, R&D projects, customer deliverables and anticipate future trends, which has the potential to shape the energy management systems of the future. The next step is to turn this blueprint into real-world actions.”

The Digital Leader of ABB’s Smart Power Division, Giuseppe Casagrande, added, “By working with experts from the University of Cambridge, we secured our long-term trajectory for the evolution of the ABB Ability Energy Manager. We know we have a coherent and original strategy to support customers in cutting operational costs, reducing emissions, and meeting environmental targets.”

The ABB Ability Energy Manager is a cloud-based or on-premise platform that allows businesses and organizations to monitor and optimize their energy consumption and CO2 footprint.

Earlier this year, ABB announced that its Ability Energy Manager was selected by Park Holiday to be integrated into a newly built switchboard for its Carlton Meres site in Suffolk. The site’s electrical operations team used the technology for real-time power and peak demand monitoring and can review data on cable size to allow for optimization and management of future power demand. The technology could help reduce energy consumption and keep costs low, according to ABB.

ABB is a technology company focusing on robotics, power, and automation. The company’s Electrification business portfolio covers Medium Voltage Products, Low Voltage Products and Systems, Solar Inverters, Electrical Vehicle Charging Infrastructure, and more.

 

Feature image used courtesy of ABB