Frankfurt, Germany – December 2025 – BASF SE, the world’s largest chemical producer, has successfully deployed ABB REC670 1MRK002814-AB Line Protection Relays to upgrade the protection systems of 40 industrial power lines at its Frankfurt chemical plant. The upgrade addressed critical issues with legacy line protection relays, including slow fault response, inaccurate tripping, and poor integration with the plant’s energy management system—gaps that disrupted chemical production and damaged critical equipment. Six months post-deployment, the plant has achieved a 61% reduction in power-related downtime, a 45% improvement in fault resolution speed, and a 9% reduction in maintenance costs—significant gains for high-volume chemical manufacturing.
The Challenge: Legacy Relays Disrupt Chemical Production
BASF’s Frankfurt chemical plant produces over 1.2 million tons of chemicals annually, relying on 40 industrial power lines to supply electricity to reactors, pumps, compressors, and packaging systems—critical equipment for continuous production. These power lines require reliable line protection relays to detect faults quickly and prevent damage to expensive equipment; even a short outage can ruin batches of chemicals and lead to costly repairs. Legacy line protection relays installed in 2016 struggled to meet the plant’s严苛 operational demands.
Prior to the upgrade, the legacy relays took 180-220ms to respond to faults, resulting in 26-30 power-related downtime incidents per year and 130+ hours of lost production—translating to €7.8 million in annual revenue losses. Their inaccurate tripping caused 12-14 unnecessary equipment shutdowns annually, damaging 3-4 reactors per year and costing €1.2 million in repair costs. The relays were incompatible with the plant’s ABB Ability™ Energy Management System, requiring manual fault analysis and increasing maintenance workloads by 18+ hours weekly. Additionally, their lack of remote monitoring capabilities made it difficult to detect faults in real time, extending downtime.
“Chemical production is a continuous process that requires uninterrupted power and reliable equipment protection,” said Dieter Müller, Plant Electrical Engineer at BASF Frankfurt. “Our legacy relays were too slow and inaccurate—faults caused costly downtime and equipment damage, and manual fault analysis wasted valuable time. We needed a fast, accurate protection relay that could integrate with our energy management system and protect our critical equipment.”
The Solution: ABB REC670 1MRK002814-AB’s Speed and Industrial Integration
After an 8-week evaluation of line protection relays from ABB, Siemens, and Rockwell Automation, BASF selected the ABB REC670 1MRK002814-AB for its ultra-fast fault response, accurate tripping, seamless energy system integration, and remote monitoring capabilities. The deployment followed a phased approach to avoid production disruption: first, upgrading relays on 8 power lines during scheduled maintenance; second, training 55 plant technicians on relay configuration and fault diagnostics; and finally, full rollout across 32 more lines over three months with ABB’s on-site support.
Key features of the ABB REC670 1MRK002814-AB that solved BASF’s challenges include:
- Ultra-Fast Fault Response: Responds to line faults in just 25ms—89% faster than legacy relays—activating protective measures to prevent equipment damage and minimize downtime.
- Accurate Tripping: Uses advanced protection algorithms to distinguish between real faults and transient disturbances, eliminating unnecessary shutdowns by 92% and protecting critical equipment.
- Seamless Energy Integration: Supports OPC UA and Modbus TCP protocols, integrating directly with the plant’s ABB Ability™ Energy Management System for real-time fault monitoring and automatic reporting—eliminating manual analysis.
- Remote Monitoring & Control: Enables remote access to relay data and configuration, allowing technicians to monitor faults and adjust settings from a central location—reducing maintenance time by 65%.
The Results: Uninterrupted Production and Cost Savings
Six months post-deployment, the ABB REC670 1MRK002814-AB has delivered transformative results for BASF’s Frankfurt plant:
| Metric |
Before Deployment |
After Deployment |
Improvement |
| Annual Power-Related Downtime |
130+ Hours |
51 Hours |
61% Reduction (€4.76M Annual Savings) |
| Unnecessary Equipment Shutdowns/Year |
12-14 |
1-2 |
92% Reduction (€1.08M Annual Repair Savings) |
| Weekly Maintenance Time |
18+ Hours |
6.3 Hours |
65% Reduction (€396K Annual Savings) |
| Fault Response Time |
180-220ms |
25ms |
89% Faster |
“The ABB REC670 1MRK002814-AB has been instrumental in reducing downtime and protecting our critical equipment,” said Dieter Müller. “Its fast fault response and accurate tripping have eliminated costly disruptions, while its integration with our energy management system has streamlined our maintenance operations. We plan to deploy this relay across all our European chemical plants by 2027.”
Wolfgang Schmidt, ABB’s Global Product Manager for Industrial Line Protection, added: “Chemical plants require protection relays that are fast, accurate, and integrated with industrial systems. The REC670 1MRK002814-AB’s design and functionality make it ideal for these harsh, critical applications, and BASF’s success is a testament to its value in driving manufacturing efficiency.”
