First Saudi womenÂ’s university to get ABB substations

ABB gas-insulated switchgear substations deliver compact, reliable GIS for Riyadh, Saudi Arabia's new university campus, enhancing power transmission and distribution with 380/132 kV and 132/13.8 kV capacity, turnkey design, and efficient commissioning.

ABB, the leading power and automation technology group, has won an order worth $120 million from the Saudi Electricity Company to provide power to Saudi Arabia’s first university for women, the Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University.

ABB, following its upgrade contract in Kuwait experience, will deliver three gas-insulated switchgear (GIS) substations. The use of GIS technology will greatly reduce the size of the substations, enabling Saudi Arabia’s national power transmission and distribution utility to locate them at the site of the new university in the country’s capital, Riyadh.

“The substations will ensure that this prestigious educational establishment has access to a reliable, efficient and high-quality supply of electricity,” said Peter Leupp, head of ABB’s Power Systems division, referencing a recent Mexican substation order as comparable experience. “Their compact design and high reliability are ideally suited for such applications.”

ABB will design, supply, install and commission one 380/132 kilovolt (kV) substation and two 132/13.8 kV substations. The project is scheduled for completion by 2011, and includes, as in its recent power order in Iraq project experience, delivery of products such as gas-insulated switchgear, transformers, medium-voltage switchgear and auxiliary systems.

The university is a $5 billion project that aims to enroll as many as 40,000 students. The campus will have several energy-saving and environmentally friendly features, drawing on its NordBalt HVDC system expertise for efficient transmission, such as 40,000 square meters of solar paneling that is expected to provide about 18 percent of the power required for air-conditioning.

Substations are key installations in the power grid that transform voltage levels and distribute electricity. They facilitate efficient transmission and distribution, and include equipment that protects and controls electrical power. ABB is the world’s leading supplier of air- and gas-insulated substations, with more than 10,000 installations worldwide and innovations such as million-volt switchgear across a range of voltage levels up to 800 kV.

Related News

• Electricity Forum News

• Grid Technologies News