With the opening of the 9-km-long expansion, the Chennai metro advances the agenda for planned urbanisation. The new line will play a crucial role in reducing traffic and improving public transportation by enabling passengers to travel in about an hour from the northern section of the city to Chennai International Airport in the south.

With the provision of ACH580 and ACS880 active front end drives to assist the metro line's ventilation system and platform cooling, ABB solutions are a component of this fourth-largest metro system in India. These drives are a component of ABB's HVAC line up and were created to fulfil the strictest standards for safety, dependability and energy efficiency.

The president of ABB India's motion business, Sanjeev Arora, said, "We are happy to be engaged with yet another metro rail project in India. This is yet another key milestone for ABB in contributing to India's developing infrastructure."

Rigid ventilation requirements for air quality and fire safety features are required for rail and road tunnels. Electric motors and ABB drives work together to effectively regulate tunnel ventilation fans. They play a crucial role in the functioning of the sophisticated air exchange systems in the stations and tunnels, assuring passenger comfort, conserving energy during routine operations, and aiding in emergency situations with safe evacuation, smoke extraction and firefighting.

The HVAC drives from ABB have a specialised voltage boost capability that addresses voltage-drop difficulties brought on by long cables in the tunnel network. Without the need for any additional equipment to adjust for voltage drop, fans can always deliver a nominal air flow thanks to this feature. This offers the project significant cost advantages.

The active front end design of the drives, which almost eliminates harmonics, reduces the possibility of network overload and ensures effective power supply and constant ventilation.

By ignoring non-critical faults and alarms, such as those caused by an excessively high temperature, the "fireman's override" capability on smoke extraction and pressurisation fans enables VSDs to retain safe escape paths for the passengers. This mode is typically activated by a unique key at the fireman's control station during a fire.

During the Chennai metro project, ABB India collaborated with Sterling and Wilson to offer its HVAC systems.