2010-02-24 - The Hon. Peter Collier, State Energy Minister, officially opens ABB’s new distribution transformer manufacturing facility in Western Australia.
ABB, the leading power and automation technology group, inaugurated a new production facility in Malaga, north-east of Perth, Western Australia to enhance its transformer manufacturing network. The facility produces distribution transformers up to 10MVA and 33kV, serving the power and distribution needs of utility and industry customers in the region.
ABB’s Malaga site was officially inaugurated on Feb. 11, 2010 by the Hon. Peter Collier, West Australian Minister for Energy and John Gaskell, county manager of ABB in Australia. The new purpose-built manufacturing facility replaces two sites, one of which had been in operation since the late 1950’s and will enable all ABB’s divisions to be represented in one location. The 9100 square meter facility is designed to optimise production efficiency, quality and ensures safety is built into the manufacturing process.
“I’m delighted to be here to launch this new facility for ABB,” said Peter Collier, minister for energy. “Having a local manufacturing capability in ABB, has clearly been important to Western Power who has maintained an alliance partnership with ABB since 1996. I say without any hesitation that together with its customers, ABB’s distribution transformer centre makes a significant contribution not only to the electricity security of the state, but to the overall prosperity of Western Australia.”
John Gaskell, manager for ABB in Australia added: “Our investment in this state-of-the-art facility not only reaffirms our commitment to our local utility and industry customers, but also to manufacturing in Australia. It ensures we have a real presence in WA, in terms of power technology production capacity, project management and engineering capabilities to satisfy customers’ specific design requirements.
“By consolidating our divisions into one multi-faceted facility we are able to better support customers, and the regions’ growing resources sector. ABB will continue to pay close attention to the Australian market, by actively helping customers and partners to improve energy efficiency and industrial productivity via the adoption of power and automation technology. Enabling the efficient use of electricity is not only of economic benefit to our customers, but also to the environment and we see the investment in Malaga as a major part of that commitment.”
ABB has achieved substantial energy savings through the incorporation of superior industrial oven technology and vacuum processing into the operation. This has reduced the energy consumption of this part of the transformer manufacturing process by an estimated 45 percent.
Air quality improvements have also been achieved with the installation of evaporative air conditioning and by maintaining positive indoor air-pressure to manage and contain dust particles. The introduction of new conveyor lines and material handling equipment has lessened the reliance on overhead cranes, significantly reducing risk and providing a safer work environment. The Malaga factory is ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 accredited.
Among those present at the opening ceremony were Doug Aberle, CEO and Managing Director of local utility Western Power and members of ABB Australia’s senior management. Invited guests and employees had the opportunity to familiarise themselves with the new facilities, through the course of the day.
L -Right Doug Aberle - CEO of Western Power, Graham Jones - head of transformers in ABB Australia, Hon. Peter Collier - WA Minister for Energy, John Gaskell CEO of ABB in Australia, Bradley Havlin - operations manager Malaga, Slavko Planinic - CFO of ABB in Australia, D. West - Office of Energy and Steve Shearing, account manager, ABB Australia.
ABB (www.abb.com) is a leader in power and automation technologies that enable utility and industry customers to improve their performance while lowering environmental impact. The ABB Group of companies operates in around 100 countries and employs about 117,000 people.
For help with any technical terms in this release, please go to: www.abb.com/glossary