ABB has won six of 14 contracts for the first phase of the GCC grid interconnection project. The company’s contracts were worth $470 million.

Other contracts went to the Italian/French group of Pereli and Nexans; Areva T&D of France; Saudi Arabia’s National Contracting Company and Middle East Engineering & Development Company (Meedco), the Saudi affiliate of Hyundai Engineering and Construction; and SNC Lavalin.
ABB will build six substations at Al Zour in Kuwait, Al Jasr in Bahrain, Al Fadhili and Ghunan in Saudi Arabia, Salwa on the Qatari/Sauidi border and Doha South in Qatar.
The Perelli and Nexans group was awarded a $400 million contract for the installation of a 40-km long, 400-kV submarine cable between Ras al Qurrayah (Saudi Arabia) and Al Jasr (Bahrain).
Areva T&D won two contracts worth $233.5 million to build what will be the Middle East’s first HVDC converter station as well as the entire GCC grid automation system.
National Contracting Company and Meedco each won two of the four lots on the overhead line package. These contracts were worth $250 million. SNC Lavalin won the contract for the supervision work.
The first phase of the GCC project, to be commissioned in 2008, will interconnect the power transmission grids of Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. When all three phases are completed, it will interconnect the grids of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, the UAE, Kuwait and Oman.
Current capacity in GCC countries is an estimated 45 000 MW. To meet an expected demand of an additional 20,000 MW in GCC countries by 2010, governments are calling on the private sector and possibly foreign investors to pour new funds into the industry. Saudi Arabia is by far the largest investor in the power sector. It will invest nearly $15.5 billion in more than 20 new upcoming generation and transmission projects in the next 10 years and has recently invested almost $16 billion in more than 30 ongoing projects.
The largest project under bidding is the independent water and power producer (IWPP) project in Jubail for Marafiq, which will add another 2,400 MW of electricity to the existing plant.
A number of other IWPP projects are still under study including the 3,600 MW expansion to Qurayyah II, the 2,400 MW expansion to Rabigh II, the Yanbu II 2,400 MW project and the Ras Al Zour 2,500 MW. Moreover, the Saudi Electricity Company is considering the development of additional capacity with the expansion of its PP9, PP10, Sulbukh and Muzahimiyah plants.
In the UAE, Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa) is looking at expanding its main facility at the Jebel Ali M Station phase 1.