Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) has awarded a SR120 million contract to ABB - a leading Swiss-based power and automation technology group - to install three power substations at Princess Nourah Bint Abdulrahman University, the Kingdom's first university for women based in Riyadh. The $5 billion university project aims to enroll as many as 40,000 students. The campus will have several energy-saving and environmentally-friendly features, such as 40,000 square meters of solar paneling that is expected to provide about 18 percent of the power required for air-conditioning. ABB will design, supply and install one 380/132 kilovolts (kV) substation and two 132/13.8 kV substations. The project is scheduled for completion by 2011, and includes delivery of products such as gas-insulated switchgear, transformers, medium-voltage switchgear and auxiliary systems. Based on gas-insulated switchgear (GIS) technology ABB will deliver three 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 Riyadh, said a press statement issued by ABB Saudi Arabia. “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. Substations are key installations in the power grid that transforms voltage levels and distributes 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 across a range of voltage levels up to 800 kV.
