Doha, Qatar: Qatar is swiftly transforming into an industrial hub and is poised to attain higher energy efficiency. However, embracing digitalisation and outcome-based thinking will enable businesses in the country to achieve additional growth, cost savings, and emissions reduction, stated an official.
“There is a worldwide trend across the industry to place more focus on setting targets for the service partners in terms of outcomes. Under these ‘outcome-based’ services, a customer assigns us as a maintenance partner to achieve a target outcome, such as availability, uptime, or energy savings. This contrasts with traditional maintenance contracts, which are based on charging for the delivery of specific tasks, said the President of the Motion Service Division at ABB Group Erich Labuda.
The company recently conducted a global survey of more than 3000 industrial plant managers and noted an unplanned outage lasting a typical 8-hour shift will cost the typical industrial business over $1m.
The industry expert highlighted that the “outcome-based approach” is developed to offer more certainty with factors including uptime and energy consumption. Eventually, it supports the objectives and cash flow of businesses and ensures the company’s maintenance activity aligns with its overall strategic direction. Labuda remarked, “It also frees up the in-house team to focus on their core areas of competence.”
The company recently partnered with Statkraft, Europe’s largest generator of renewable energy as they deployed a 40-tonne flywheel in Liverpool, England that stabilises the local grid to integrate more variable renewable energy such as wind and solar.
This particular project requires the equipment to operate 24/7, and therefore ABB signed a 10-year, outcome-based maintenance agreement with ABB.
“To maintain high uptime, condition monitoring solutions were deployed that accurately track the performance of equipment in real-time. Operators are then remotely alerted to small changes in performance so that rapid maintenance can be scheduled to ensure high system availability,” he said.
“The possibilities are endless, but what outcome-based models do is align the business and the service provider towards the same goal,” he added.
In early November 2023, the company took great strides toward sustainability in Qatar by sponsoring the ‘Energy Efficiency and RetrofitTech’ event in Doha by promoting energy-efficient solutions helping customers upgrade their infrastructure, save energy, and reduce their CO2 footprint.
The firm works closely with numerous stakeholders, including Kahramaa, Public Works Authority Ashghal, and district cooling companies, by supporting the upgrade of brownfield sites and achieving higher levels of energy efficiency.
The official stressed that there is a “growing interest” in solutions in Qatar to lower energy bills and carbon footprint.
Under ABB’s energy efficiency audits, the team is also gathering data to identify the least efficient motors and reveal the best energy savings with the best ROI for customers.
