RIYADH: The Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) has awarded a SR450-million project to ABB for power generation at the first women university in the Kingdom.

The agreement for the implementation of the project was signed recently between SEC President Ali Saleh Al-Barrak and Abdullah Al-Hobayb, chairman of ABB Saudi Arabia, for the project to be implemented to power Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University.

The university is a $5 billion project that 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 deliver three gas-insulated switchgear (GIS) 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 the country’s capital, Riyadh.

“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. “Their compact design and high reliability are ideally suited for such applications.”

ABB will design, supply, install and commission one 380/132 kilovolt (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.

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 120,000 people.