ALSTOM, the leader of a consortium with Japanese firm ITOCHU, has won a Euro 21.9 million contract with Romanian transmission system operator Transelectrica to create a national fiber-optic telecommunications network for its electrical power transmission grid.

The telecommunications power transmission project is part of a project to refurbish and upgrade the country's entire electricity transmission dispatching system. The telecommunications project will allow the utility to transmit and receive vital information between substations, five regional electricity control centers and the national control center in Bucharest. Transelectrica's headquarters and all its transmission subsidiaries also will be connected to the system. The network will be fully meshed, allowing direct communications between all parts of the system.

ALSTOM will deliver and install all the necessary equipment for accessing the telecommunications network using the latest Dense Wave Digital Multiplexing and Synchronous Digital Hierarchy technologies, which allow an increased amount of information to be transmitted.

In addition, the utility will use the high-capacity private digital telephone network for all its telecommunication needs. The new system will include 48 high-capacity telephone exchanges, facilities for videoconferencing and an automatic system for detecting and pinpointing faults in the fiber-optic network.

ALSTOM, through its T&D sector, also will provide a nonswitched voice and data telecommunications system for operational purposes, fully separated from public operators, allowing Transelectrica to meet the requirements for proper management of the Romanian electricity power system.

The funds for this specific project are part of a credit endorsed by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) in December 2000. The contract is scheduled for completion in two years.
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