ABB has won an order worth around $17 million from SP Energy Networks to upgrade its 275-kV Kilmarnock South substation in East Ayrshire, Scotland. The upgrade at Kilmarnock combined with additional network enhancements will help increase capacity in southwest Scotland allowing new renewable energy connections. Windfarms with a capacity of around 480 megawatts have already been consented with plans for another 1011 megawatts. The order was booked in the first quarter of 2016.
ABB will design, supply, install and commission 13 bays of gas insulated switchgear (GIS) that will replace an existing air-insulated switchgear (AIS) installation which cannot be extended to allow for additional capacity. Once the new substation has been energized and circuits transferred, the redundant elements of the AIS substation will be dismantled. The overall SPEN project is expected to be completed in 2019 with ABB’s scope planned for completion in 2017.
The solution will be based on ABB’s modular ELK series GIS that offers enhanced flexibility for optimizing substation layouts. The switchgear has a compact architecture and fewer components, requiring less space and simplifying operations. Its modular design also allows for future upgrades. The Kilmarnock project builds on ABB’s successful delivery of projects at other SPEN substations across the country.
“We are pleased to work with SP Energy Networks once again and support their efforts in strengthening the power infrastructure in Scotland and bring more power to consumers,” said Oleg Aleinikov, Managing Director of the Grid Integration business unit, a part of the company’s Power Grids division. “The focus on service, upgrades and lifetime support is a key element of ABB’s Next Level Strategy.”
