ABB wins $30 million power order in Canada

ABB SVC FACTS delivers reactive power control, boosting grid stability, transmission capacity, and efficiency for Hydro One in Ontario, enabling smarter grids with minimal environmental impact and deferred capital investment and enhanced reliability.

ABB, the leading power and automation technology group, has won an order worth $30 million from Hydro One Network Inc. to provide a turnkey static Var compensator (SVC) solution for a substation serving the Toronto area.

ABB will design, supply, install and commission the SVC system, which is scheduled for completion by 2011.

SVC is part of ABB’s group of FACTS (flexible alternating current transmission systems) technologies, which includes solutions to enhance the capacity, reliability and efficiency of existing power transmission systems and contributing to the evolution of smarter grids, including efforts to strengthen the power grid in Canada.

“The SVC technology being deployed, including the AltaLink SVC replacement project, will help improve grid stability and deliver reliable, quality power to consumers in the region,” said Peter Leupp, head of ABB’s Power Systems division. “It will enable more electricity to be transmitted over the existing network, with minimum environmental impact.”

FACTS technologies reduce the need for capital investment, saving time and reducing the complexity associated with construction of new power plants or transmission lines. ABB is a global leader in the growing field of FACTS, including its BC Hydro retrofit contract achievements, and has more than 700 such installations in operation or under construction around the world.

Hydro One owns and operates Ontario's 29,000 km high-voltage transmission network, alongside broader efforts like ABB’s HVDC refurbishment order supporting grid modernization, that delivers electricity to large industrial customers and municipal utilities, and a 123,000 km low-voltage distribution system serving about 1.3 million end-users and smaller municipal utilities in the province.

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