ABB, the leading power and automation technology group, has won a $450 million contract from Qatar General Electricity and Water Corp. - Kahramaa - to support the country's rapid growth by expanding the power transmission system.

The contract scope includes three substations and a telecommunication package for Qatar's Phase VII grid expansion project, a countrywide effort to increase power in areas of high growth, where electricity demand is greatest. The order will be booked in the fourth quarter of 2006.

"ABB's advanced substation technology is underpinning a huge expansion of Qatar's power transmission capacity, ensuring the region has a reliable supply of electricity," said Bernhard Jucker, head of ABB's Power Products division. "ABB's fast delivery and safe, reliable products and systems are helping develop one of the fastest growing power markets in the world."

ABB is scheduled to energize the substations in the first half of 2008. It's the latest in a series of recent ABB orders in the region, and the biggest transmission and distribution substations order ABB has ever received.

For this project, ABB will engineer, procure, construct and commission three substations, and supply 37 bays of 400 kV gas-insulated switchgear (GIS); 66 bays 220 kV GIS; 36 bays 132 kV GIS; and 41 bays 66 kV GIS. ABB will also supply 25 transformers, rated from 40 MVA to 800 MVA.