Siemens has announced it has won orders worth 600 million euros ($779 million) to supply equipment for the expansion of a high-voltage grid in Qatar.

The orders were placed by the Doha-based utility Qatar General Water & Electricity Corporation, also known as Kahramaa. Siemens had supplied equipment for a number of years for an earlier stage in the same expansion.

Under the new contract named Phase IX, the company will supply substations and switchgear valued at 510 million euros as well as associated cables valued at 90 million euros to Kahramaa, which is in charge of generating and distributing electrical power in Qatar.

“We’re proud that Kahramaa has again opted for field-proven, first-class equipment from Siemens for the expansion of Qatar’s grid. Expansion of the country’s power supply system is a demanding project, for which practically the whole range of our products and systems will be deployed,” said Dr Udo Niehage, CEO of the power transmission division of Siemens Energy.

One of the challenges involved in this project is maintaining power supply while work is being performed on the existing infrastructure. Several substations also have to be erected in parallel within a short space of time.

The order encompasses the supply of 15 turnkey substations for the 400 kV, 220 kV, 132 kV, 66 kV and 11 kV voltage levels, including transformers and control and protection equipment as well as extension and modification of existing substations.

Connection to GCC grid

The construction of a new 400 kV substation to connect the Qatar network to the GCC grid is included in the work. Siemens will supply gas-insulated switchgear, protection equipment and equipment for online condition monitoring. The substations will be distributed across the whole country, including the cities of Doha, Dukhan and Mesaieed. Furthermore 400 km of 66 and 132kV high-voltage cables are part of the order. Completion is scheduled for mid-2012.

Siemens will execute the order as part of the ongoing Qatar Power Transmission System Expansion Phase IX for which it has over the last five years installed more than 70 switchgear and approximately 1400 km of high-voltage cable. Siemens has completed all projects to date totaling 1.6 billion euros within the defined schedule. In 2006 Siemens had received the most recent major order from Kahramaa worth 700 million euros (Phase VII).

The contract was signed by Qatari Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Energy and Industry Abdullah bin Hamad Al Attiyeh, Dr Niehage, Kahramaa’s acting managing director Issa bin Hilal Al Kuwari and Ajay Kumar Dixit, Siemens Energy executive vice president for South Asia.