How BBraun Medical Incorporation Ensures Uninterrupted Production by Using ETAP Intelligent Load Shedding

ETAP ILS is a powerful, flexible, and user-friendly Load-Shedding solution. It is essential for BBraun and other systems with multiple operating generations and critical loads that require uninterrupted operation.
by Ms. Eric Ham, Senior Automation and Controls Engineer, ETAP Operation Technology

This case study explores the challenges BBraun Medical, a medical product manufacturing facility, faced due to unplanned outages and the absence of an optimized load-shedding system. It highlights the implementation of ETAP Real-Time Intelligent Load Shedding (ILS) and ETAP's digital twin modeling capabilities to differentiate between subsystems and validate the ILS solution. The ILS solution ensured a rapid response to islanding conditions, maintaining the operation of critical loads while shedding non-critical ones, thereby minimizing production losses during outages. Additionally, the solution provided load optimization, flexible load priority adjustments, and real-time monitoring capabilities. Overall, the ETAP ILS solution enabled BBraun Medical to operate safely during disturbances and reduce the impact of utility disruptions, offering an effective load-shedding strategy.

B. Braun is a German medical and pharmaceutical device company founded in 1839 and still owned by the Braun family. The company has more than 63,000 employees globally and offices and production facilities in more than 60 countries. B. Braun is a provider of infusion therapy and pain management solutions that develops, manufactures, and markets innovative medical products and services to the healthcare industry. B. Braun Medical Inc. has manufacturing facilities for medical products across the United States, including Irvine.

Location: Irvine, California, USA

Year: 2024

Intelligent Load Shedding for critical production processes

Challenges

  • Categorize loads into critical, semi-critical, and non-critical to optimize prioritization of energy delivery.
  • Maintain the critical loads to prevent any physical and financial damage to the electrical network.
  • Evaluate the power quality and prepare safe load-shedding scenarios based on the digital model.
  • Modify the existing Load Shedding scheme, which comprises relays and timers, to mitigate unsafe operating conditions and prevent costly outages.

Which solutions did they choose?

Selected applications

They selected ETAP Intelligent Load Shedding to analyze, model, and operate electrical power sources, with a focus on energy quality and load-shedding algorithms. ETAP ILS continuously updates load-shedding tables and executes decisions in real-time, responding to disturbances in under 20 milliseconds.

ETAP ensures compliance with all needed electrical standards for designing and calculating in critical facilities.

Why do they use ETAP?

Main Customer Benefits

  • Easy digital modeling of the actual grid system, with transformers, busbars, cables, and loads, with real-time visibility of the electrical network, machines status, and circuit breakers status, too.
  • Easy automatic managing and optimizing load shedding and islanding using safe priorities-based scenarios.
  • No critical process interruption is affected by an electrical grid disturbance, and no time is lost for system validation by energy regulators. It minimizes production downtime and eliminates the lengthy revalidation processes typically required after shutdowns.
  • Reduced electrical equipment damage by reducing unnecessary disconnections and restarts.
  • Ability to predict and detect system malfunctions using an accurate digital model and validation tools for upgrades and expansion to the electrical system. ETAP ILS continuously predicts and calculates optimal load-shedding scenarios before disturbances occur.

What do they think about ETAP?

Opinions

The ETAP ILS Solution for BBraun eliminates the impact of utility disturbances. While there is a disturbance, ETAP ILS allows BBraun to operate safely in an islanded scenario. The solution helps BBraun minimize the loss of critical processes during an outage.
Ms. Eric Ham, Senior Automation and Controls Engineer, ETAP Operation Technology

ETAP provided load optimization and prioritized low loads in the system. In the event of a load shed, the load shed will be reduced by approximately the required amount, with a deviation of no more than 3%.Ms. Eric Ham, Senior Automation and Controls Engineer, ETAP Operation Technology



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