2012-04-25 - ABB Marine and Cranes are reporting a significant increase in interest for arc flash mitigation technologies from marine and offshore oil and gas operators.
“An arc-flash incident is typically caused by faulty equipment, incorrect operation or foreign objects. The risk to personnel is significant. Add to this the repair costs and operational downtime, it becomes easy to justify what is often a comparatively small investment” says Dean Jennings, Account Manager at ABB Marine and Crane Service UK. One method of mitigating the risk is to install a system which continuously monitors key areas of the switchboard and rapidly interrupts the fault current before the arc causes damage to equipment or, even worse, to people. This is typically done using a combination of optical light sensing and fast current measurement. Jennings continues "ABB leading class technology uses fibre optic light sensing and high speed fast switching techniques to trip the incoming breaker in less than 2.5mS and thereby removing the incidental energy in as short a time as possible. This really can mean the difference between life and death." “With this simple but effective technology we can offer operators the opportunity to drastically reduce the risk of injury to personnel and damage to equipment through arc flash incidents. Essentially we are looking to keep people safe and to keep them operating.”