Effortless Energy Efficiency

Low and medium voltage variable speed drives from ABB span the fractional-kilowatt to multi-megawatt power level

  • September 19, 2016
  • 2689 views
  • Effortless Energy Efficiency
    Effortless Energy Efficiency

The ACS580 family is designed to control a wide range of variable and basic constant torque applications such as pumps, fans, conveyors and mixers in a broad variety of industries. The common architecture enables simplicity in operation and life cycle management across an entire installation. Independent of electrical plant data, customers can select the best fitting configuration from one product family. The drives have the following capabilities:

  • The new cabinet-built low voltage ACS580 power range is 55 to 500 kilowatts (kW), over a voltage range of 380 to 480 volt (V).
  • For medium voltage applications, power ranges from 200 kilowatts (kW) up to 6300 kW, with voltage 6 to 11 kilovolt (kV).

All ACS580 drives (whether wall-mounted, modules or cabinet-built) are based on the ‘all-compatible’ drives architecture which shares the same control panel, user interfaces, and tools. This “learn it once, use it everywhere” approach makes the drives easy to select, install, operate and maintain, with the most important features being provided built-in as standard.

Built-in features give easy use 

Compared to fixed-speed and mechanical-flow control methods, variable speed drives work by controlling processes more energy-efficiently, based on the actual power requirement. With the help of built-in energy calculators showing energy used and saved in kWh, CO2 reduction in kg and money saved in any currency, the ACS580 drive user can tightly monitor and adapt any process to ensure optimal energy use. Tested motor-drive packages for the ACS580 product family offer verified efficiency with different kinds of motors. By combining the ACS580 with SynRM motors, highest efficiency can be achieved.

The latest ACS580 cabinet-built variants are easy to install, configure and use. The drives of the ACS580 family quickly adapt to any process to achieve efficient control, therefore saving the customer time, money and energy. For simplicity, the control panel’s intuitive settings menu and onscreen assistants include menus which are clearly named by function, thus helping to operate the drive rapidly, easily and effectively.

Furthermore, ABB helps optimize and maintain variable speed drives with two convenient smartphone apps. The Drivebase app provides information for registering the drive and about remedies for potential problems, while simultaneously drawing on ABB’s vast drive knowledge base via the cloud should further assistance be needed. ABB’s Drivetune allows to easily connect to a drive via wireless Bluetooth connection. The installer can more quickly and efficiently commission and tune a drive.

Both apps save time, ease troubleshooting and improve drive performance via convenient technology of the Internet of Things, Services and People (IoTSP).

Graduated in political sciences and international relations in Paris, Anis joined the team in early 2019. Editor for IEN Europe and the new digital magazine AI IEN, he is a new tech enthusiast. Also passionate about sports, music, cultures and languages. 

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