Meanwhile, the University of Chester offer students from poor backgrounds who attain grades of ABB an "excellence scholarship".
ABB, a Swiss-Swedish engineering giant, has also developed brainy software that tracks grid flows several times a second and feeds the information to control systems that can respond within a minute or so.
But from the point of view of power companies, the ABB breaker and its kin remove one of the biggest obstacles to the wholesale distribution of electricity by direct current.
At least, that was so until a couple of months ago when ABB, a power and automation group based in Switzerland, unveiled a breaker that was both fast and efficient enough to provide a high-voltage DC grid with proper protection.
ABB, a big Swiss engineering group, has been better at slimming radically, but only under the threat of bankruptcy.
The ABB breaker is a hybrid design that combines the speed of a semiconductor device with the efficiency of a mechanical switch.
Like other hybrid breakers under development, the ABB device is capable of opening and closing in a few milliseconds.
ABB had no proper remuneration committee, and Mr Barnevik used executive fiat to push through the payments.
The result is not only to wreak havoc upon companies forced to pay the bill, but in effect to limit the compensation for real victims.In this section Restoring Europe's smile Time is danger Screen it out How to worry wisely No way to right a wrong Reprints Related items ABB in crisis: All over?Oct 24th 2002Two remedies that are being widely discussed for asbestos could be used elsewhere.
Adding Pico turns Comau, Fiat's existing robotic and automation company, into the global leader, ahead of such giants as ABB.
That is why in September he was made chief executive (he was already chairman) of ABB, a stricken engineering group that was once Europe's answer to GE, but has been struggling for months with a severe financial and operational crisis.
