Swedish Mining Company to Employ ABB's Energy Management System

ABB recently won an order to deliver an energy management system to Swedish mining company LKAB that will optimize energy use at its Kiruna and Malmberget underground iron ore mines, and its newest Svappavaara open pit mine.

All three mine operations, located in Northern Sweden, extract and process the iron ore on site; the processed ore is then used in a variety of steel products. ABB’s award-winning cpmPlus Energy Manager will improve the energy efficiency of the mines, reduce their carbon footprint and lower their overall energy costs .Mining is an extremely energy intensive industry; in many cases, 15 percent of a mine's total production costs are related to energy.

“We selected ABB as the supplier of the energy management system, as they have the knowledge and software needed to help us to identify and quantify the energy consumption within our company. LKAB consumes huge amounts of energy and we need to get a clearer picture of what is spent, and where, in order to be able to identify where to focus on savings”, says Lars Erkki, General Manager of Energy Products at LKAB.

Energy Manager helps customers in all industries monitor, manage and optimize their energy usage for maximum efficiency and cost savings.It provides reliable data on energy consumption and costs, to pinpoint potential process improvement targets as well identify the process area with the highest levels of energy efficiency. This data is then used as the basis of future energy saving measures. Energy efficient operations also benefit the environment by reducing carbon emissions.

"ABB was the first system supplier to begin the development of energy management optimization solutions for the process industry back in the 1990’s. In Finland, ABB's energy management system helps manage approximately one-fourth of all power consumption in the entire country. The system promotes energy efficiency with a hands-on approach and helps fight climate change," says Kimmo Mäkinen Head of ABB's Energy Management unit in Finland.

Energy Manager is completely scalable; this modular solution can start with basic energy monitoring and reporting at a single facility, and later expand to include multiple sites, or be implemented throughout the entire company to optimize energy use and manage energy supply costs. LKAB has the option of expanding the system in the future to include the ports of Narvik and Luleå, which serve as the major export hubs for the company.

LKAB is a world leading producer of processed iron ore products for steelmaking, and a growing supplier of mineral products for other industrial sectors.