ABB, the leading power and automation technology group, has won an order to design and deliver 420 kilovolt (kV) high voltage gas insulated switchgear (GIS) that will facilitate the supply of power to a new desalination facility inYanbu Industrial City, and support the grid integration of a new 2.5 gigawatts (GW) power generation plant. These new facilities are being developed by the Saline Water Conversion Corporation (SWCC), the country's government agency responsible for desalinating seawater and the second largest electric power producer in the country. The order was received from the Al Fanar Group, a leading engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) company. The plant will have a capacity to produce 550,000 cubic meters of desalinated water per day. Saudi Arabia is the world's largest producer of desalinated water and SWCC operates 27 desalination stations producing more than three million cubic meters a day of potable water. “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,” said Giandomenico Rivetti, head of ABB's High Voltage products business, a part of the company's Power Products division. – SG
