ABB has won an order to supply products for the highest voltage alternating current (AC) power line ever built in China. ABB will supply the Xi’an XD Transformer Co., one of China’s largest power engineering contractors, with eleven 1,100-kilovolt (kV) bushings; key components of transformers and circuit breakers that increase the stability of high-voltage power transmission systems. The products will be installed on China’s first 1,000-kV AC power line, a pilot project in a larger program to deliver electricity generated in the north and southwest of China to power-hungry regions in the east.

“Industry is increasingly reliant on power generated in remote areas so there is a rising demand for efficient long-distance transmission systems,” said Bernhard Jucker, head of ABB’s Power Products division. “ABB has the expertise to deliver reliable power supplies with low environmental impact.”

Electricity consumption in China has been increasing at a rate of 15 percent a year since 2004 and, according to China State Grid Corp, the country’s largest power utility, an additional 500 GW of installed generating capacity will be needed by 2020. This rise in demand, which will be met by tapping hydropower resources in the southwest and fossil reserves in the northwest, exerts tremendous pressure on utilities to expand capacity and improve the reliability of supplies.

The 654-km power line, connecting Jindongnan in Shanxi province and Jingmen in Hubei province, is scheduled to start operations in 2008. The order is worth about $2.6 million to ABB.

Over the past 40 years, more than 1000 ABB transformer and reactor bushing units have been delivered for 765-kV grid systems across the world, including projects in North and South America, Central Europe, Africa and Asia. This represents around an 80 percent market share.