Complex wiring made simple

By ABB Communications

A typical switchgear cabinet contains the wiring of numerous components – circuit breaker, isolators, earth switches, terminals, control units, relays, etc – each of which is connected to all the other devices by a multitude of connections, wire lengths and wire routings.

Prior to the ABB innovation, standardizing the wiring topology in this application was nearly impossible due to highly specific end-user and application requirements. As a result, each cabinet had to be individually wired by hand - in a time-consuming and costly process.

X-Plug is now an integral part of ABB’s ZX family of gas-insulated medium voltage switchgear.

With so many devices, functionalities, connections and wires to accommodate, cabinet wiring can quickly come to resemble spaghetti, with the added difficulties that presents as a potential source of errors as well as a barrier to efficient maintenance, modifications and reprogramming.

To standardize and simplify the complexity of switchgear wiring, ABB transfered the entire internal wiring topology from the cabinet to a simple pluggable device. One of the great advantages of X-Plug is that all the wires leading from the components feed into the plug’s terminals. Terminals can be interconnected by horizontal, vertical and diagonal jumpers.This reduces the number of connections, increases cable length uniformity, and enables standardized cable harnesses to be used.

Thanks to X-Plug the previously complex and time-consuming process of reprogramming is transformed into a simple task of changing plugs. This significantly reduces downtime and the risk of wiring errors, especially if the plugs are pre-configured and pre-tested prior to delivery (which is part of the X-Plug concept).

Developed exclusively for ABB, X-Plug is now an integral part of ABB’s ZX family of gas-insulated medium voltage switchgear. X-Plug is IP (intellectual property) protected.