ABB, the power and automation technology group, has won orders worth $24 million to build a new substation to receive and transform power from a 700 megawatt (MW) wind farm and integrate it into the country’s transmission grid. The orders were received in the fourth quarter of 2010 from Transelectrica, the national transmission utility and a consortium of four European companies.

The 400 kilovolt (kV) air-insulated switchgear (AIS) based substation will be located in the Tulcea region on the banks of the river Danube. As part of the turnkey contract, ABB is responsible for design, engineering, supply and commissioning.

Key equipment to be supplied with this order include power transformers, a range of switchgear, instrument transformers, control and protection devices and an IEC 61850 substation automation system to facilitate communication between the numerous devices within the substation and beyond.

“This is another example of how ABB technology helps to integrate clean renewable energy into our power networks,” said Oleg Aleinikov, head of ABB's substations business, part of the company’s Power Systems division. “The substation will also boost power availability and strengthen grid reliability.”

The consortium financing the project is led by Verbund, of Austria, the parent company of Alpha Wind and CAS Regenerabile, two of the consortium partners. Other partners include Beta Wind of Romania and Land Power Inergia of Italy.