ABB wins in Saudi Arabia

ABB, the leading power and automation technology group, has won orders worth more than $250 million from the Saudi Electricity Company (SEC), Saudi Arabia’s national power transmission and distribution operator, to construct new substations and reinforce existing ones, to help address the growing demand for electricity. The orders were booked in the fourth quarter of 2011.One of the new gas-insulated switchgear (GIS) substations will be located south-west of Al-Hassa in the eastern region. It will facilitate the transmission of an additional 2,000 megawatt (MW) of electricity from a new gas-fired power plant being built by an independent power producer adjacent to SEC’s existing Qurayyah power station. Six other new distribution substations and the three to be upgraded will be located in the capital Riyadh and other cities in the central region.“The substations will enhance transmission and distribution capacity to help meet the growing need for electricity,” said Peter Leupp, head of ABB’s Power Systems division. “They will also help enhance reliability and improve the efficiency of the regional grid.”ABB will design, supply, install and commission the new substations including the supply of key equipment such as GIS, transformers, shunt reactors and capacitor banks. ABB will also deliver a range of solutions including SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) as well as automation, control, protection and communication equipment compliant with the global IEC 61850 standard. This will enable remote monitoring and control of power assets located at multiple sites from SEC’s power control center.ABB is the world’s leading supplier of turnkey air-insulated, gas-insulated and hybrid substations with voltage levels up to 1,100 kilovolts (kV). These substations facilitate the efficient and reliable transmission and distribution of electricity with minimum environmental impact, serving utility, industry and commercial customers as well as sectors like railways, urban transportation and renewables. ABB is a leader in power and automation technologies that enable utility and industry customers to improve their performance while lowering environmental impact.