ABB to supply Kuwaiti kilovolts

ABB announced today that it has won a $27 million order to install a 275-kilovolt substation in Kuwait.

The contract is with EQUATE Petrochemical Company, a joint venture of the Kuwaiti government and private petroleum companies manufacturing plastics and chemicals. The project will bring electrical power from the Kuwaiti grid to a new ethylene and derivatives petrochemical complex called Olefins II.

A consortium led by ABB and including Japanese cable manufacturer EXSYM will execute the project, worth $62 million in total.

The contract scope is for design, manufacture, erection and commissioning of 275-kilovolt and 33-kilovolt switchgear, power transformer, control, protection and substation automation systems.

The Olefins II complex is in the Shuaiba Industrial Area about 60 kilometres from Kuwait city, and includes an ethylene plant with an output of 600,000 metric tons per annum and an ethane cracker with an output of 850,000 metric tons per annum.

ABB also recently won a contract to refurbish Doha West, one of the largest desalination and steam power plants in Kuwait, providing one quarter of the country’s power and more than 150 million cubic meters of drinking water per year.