ABSTRACT
The Portland cement industry with annual production of over 4 billion ton globally is not only a resource-intensive manufacturing activity but also a high consumer of energy, both thermal and electrical. Because of these intrinsic features of the industry and its persistent demand growth, there are serious concerns of sustainability. The need for electrical energy is ubiquitous in a cement plant as motors and drives are used extensively in every part of the process. It is essential for transporting materials, for rotating kilns, and more importantly for grinding raw materials, solid fuels, and as-produced clinker to make the finished cement. Typically, in a single-kiln plant, about 700–900 electric motors are used, varying in rating from a few kW to MW range. Some sections in a plant will have only low-voltage supply, and others both low and medium voltage. There are multiple sources of power supply including captive generation and waste heat recovery systems. As a result, the entire system of supply and distribution of electricity has always been a focus area for design, layout execution, and operation. Safety, standardization, reliability, and energy conservation, both in the system design and equipment installation, are of paramount importance for the electrical systems in a plant. Further, from the environmental perspective, there is a strongly perceived need for moving towards the use of renewables. Finally, the electrical systems are perceived as the kernel for control and automation in the integrated process. In order to achieve the desired levels of efficiency, productivity, and quality from the sustainability angle, various tools and techniques of artificial intelligence are being progressively introduced into the electrical systems. This chapter deals with all the above aspects and tries to cull out the status and trends of development in this area.
