Wed, 12/03/2014 - 00:00

ZURICH, Switzerland (3 December 2014)—ABB has won orders worth $55 million from public utilities, Bihar Grid Corporation Limited (BGCL) and West Bengal State Electricity Transmission Company Limited (WBSETCL), to build new transmission and distribution substations that will boost power supplies in the region. The two east Indian states of Bihar and West Bengal regularly face significant power shortfalls, and demand is rising, fueled by mining, agriculture and increasing urbanization. Both states have ambitious plans to significantly enhance their power-generation capacity, which in turn needs complementary transmission infrastructure. As part of a turnkey contract in Bihar, ABB will design, supply, install and commission 220/132/33 kV (kilovolt) gas-insulated switchgear (GIS) substations across four locations. These substations will deploy ABB’s compact high-voltage GIS technology, which can reduce the substation footprint by up to 70 percent compared with conventional air-insulated switchgear (AIS) substations. Other equipment includes medium-voltage switchgear, state-of-the-art IEC 61850-compliant protection and substation automation systems, as well as fiber-optic telecommunications systems. In West Bengal, ABB will design, supply, install and commission a 220/132/33 kV AIS substation to help meet the growing demand for electricity in the Sadaipur region. Other ABB product supplies include IEC 61850-compliant substation automation, power-line communication carriers (PLCC) and fiber-optic telecommunications systems. “ABB continues to make a significant contribution to the development of India’s power infrastructure as it has done for decades,” said Claudio Facchin, head of ABB’s Power Systems division. “Our state-of-the-art technologies and unparalled global experience will help facilitate the reliable and efficient transmission of power to support economic and social development in the region.” ABB is a supplier of air-insulated, gas-insulated and hybrid substations with voltage levels up to 1,100 kV. These substations facilitate the efficient and reliable transmission and distribution of electricity with minimum environmental impact.