ABB to provide gas insulated switchgear for desalination plant in Saudi Arabia

ABB has won a power products contract from Riyadh-based engineering, procurement and construction company Al Fanar Group, to design and deliver 420kV high-voltage gas insulated switchgear (GIS) for a new desalination plant in Saudi Arabia.

The financial terms of the contract were not disclosed.

The GIS will facilitate power supply to the desalination plant, located in the Yanbu Industrial City, an important port on the Red Sea in the Al Madinah province of western Saudi Arabia.

It will also support the grid integration of a new 2.5GW power generation plant.

Saudi Arabia-based Saline Water Conversion Corporation (SWCC), a government agency responsible for desalination of seawater, is developing the desalination facility and power generation plant.

ABB Power Products division High Voltage products business head Giandomenico Rivetti said, "These new plants where ABB’s highly reliable GIS equipment is being installed, will help address the country’s increasing need for potable water and also support the growing demand for electricity."

The desalination facility will have a capacity to produce 550,000m³ of desalinated water per day and address the increasing water demand in the country.

The plant is scheduled to be commissioned in June 2014.

SWCC operates 27 desalination facilities in the country and produces over three million cubic meters a day of drinkable water.

ABB has announced to invest $40m for the construction of a new high-voltage GIS manufacturing plant and set up a transformer service workshop in Saudi Arabia to provide better services to the local customers.

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Image: ABB to supply gas insulated switchgear for a desalination plant in Saudi Arabia. Photo: courtesy of ABB.