ABB Emax 2 low-voltage circuit breaker

The Emax 2 is a low-voltage circuit breaker with integrated energy management functions. Replacing existing traditional breakers with the Emax 2 breaker has the potential to achieve annual savings of 5.8 million megawatt-hours (MWh).

Breakers such as the Emax 2 are used where protection and control of large amounts of energy are used in a low-voltage environment like industrial and commercial buildings, data centres or ships. Replacing an existing breaker with the Emax 2 is technically simple. The breaker contains a protection trip relay with an integrated power controller that measures and evaluates energy consumption, then manages the loads to maintain or reduce the peak power usage as determined by the user. This will also help prevent blackouts since the root cause is often peak demand exceeding supply.

To manage energy, the electricity supply to non-essential equipment is switched off and back on again as soon as acceptable power levels are reached. Intelligent decision-making is achieved by a built-in controller and software that uses complex algorithms to decide when it is appropriate to switch the power while maintaining the overall functionality or productivity of the connected equipment.

The breaker also has a communication module that allows it to share vital consumption and system reliability data directly with smart grid and other protocols.