ABB in India grid win

ABB has landed orders worth $55 million from 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 two east Indian states.

Bihar and West Bengal regularly face significant power shortfalls. Add to this the increasing demand due to the growing mining and agriculture industries, 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 220/132/33kV 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 220/132/33kV 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.”