ABB wins $13 million power order in Ghana

Wednesday, Apr 07, 2010

ABB, the leading power and automation technology group, has won an order worth over $13 million from the Volta River Authority in Ghana to supply equipment to improve the management and control of the country’s national power transmission network.

Working with Ghana's electrical transmission provider, Ghana Grid Company, ABB will supply, deliver, install and commission a new SCADA/EMS (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition/Energy Management System) and communications system, which includes advanced functions for network analysis and optimization, automatic generation control, energy interchange scheduling and transaction monitoring.

The project is a key component of the 330 kilovolt Coastal Transmission Backbone initiative, a program financed by the World Bank to improve the reliability of power supplies by encouraging efficient power trading between the coastal countries of West Africa.

The communications equipment includes remote terminal units for around 50 substations, fiber optic terminal equipment and the power line carrier communication system to connect the control center and the substations. Ancillary equipment such as uninterrupted power supply units, video surveillance systems and other telecom components will also be supplied. Comprehensive training will be given to employees. The project is expected to be completed in 19 months.

Jens Birgersson, head of ABB's Network Management business, said: “This solution will enable efficient management and control of the power network, helping to minimize transmission losses and support stable operation of the national grid.”

ABB is the world’s leading supplier of high-end network control systems for power generation, transmission, distribution and central market management. More than 400 ABB SCADA-based systems have been installed to provide monitoring and control, resource optimization, fault diagnosis, outage management and energy trading capabilities for networks around the world. The systems are key technologies for the development of smart grids.

ABB (www.abb.com) is a leader in power and automation technologies that enable utility and industry customers to improve performance while lowering environmental impact. The ABB Group of companies operates in around 100 countries and employs about 117,000 people.

 

Source: ABB