ABB reported Oct. 29 that it will supply electrical and process power management systems for a 2019-20 expansion project at JG Summit Petrochemical Corp.'s manufacturing complex in Batangas City. Located 120 kilometers south of Manila, the facility includes the Philippines’ first and only naphtha cracker plant, and also the nation's largest polyolefins manufacturing facility with current capacities of 320 ktpa of polyethylene and 190 ktpa of polypropylene. The project will increase cracker production of ethylene by 50% to 480,000 tpa and propylene by 26% to 240,000 tpa. The new bimodal polyethylene plant will reach a capacity of 250,000 tpa and the capacity of the existing polypropylene plant will be upgraded to 300,000 tpa from current 190,000 tpa.
ABB will design, engineer, manufacture, and supply a complete plant electrification system for the proposed expansion. The scope of supply includes 69-kV, high-voltage, air-insulated switchgear; UniGear medium-voltage switchgear; MNS low-voltage switchgear, power and distribution transformers; as well as a capacitor bank, soft starter, IS-limiters and a process power management system. This software-based solution will integrate seamlessly with ABB Ability 800xA process and electrical control systems to ensure a reliable and stable electricity supply. The expansion requires a sophisticated electrical network solution due to the inter-meshing of power systems from the existing plant and the new extension, and this creates a higher risk for high short-circuit currents. As a result, ABB IS-limiters, an advanced fault current limiter solution, will be used to provide effective protection, and limit fault currents during the first rise in less than a quarter cycle.
