18.03.14
ABB consortium awarded £145m rail network upgrade contract
Network Rail has awarded ABB and its consortium partner UK Power Networks (UKPN) Services a £145m contract to upgrade one of Britain’s oldest and busiest railways, providing better connections between major towns and cities across southern England and Wales.
The consortium will be responsible for the turnkey delivery of more than 30 new traction substations. The contract, which has been split evenly between the partners, represents the first sizable new electrification project to be undertaken by Network Rail in over 30 years and forms a key part of the Great Western Electrification Programme (GWEP).
The expansion and upgrade will result in more reliable services for passengers and reduce noise emissions affecting communities located close to railway lines. It will also result in increased train frequency and help boost passenger capacity, to support economic growth across the region.
Claudio Facchin, head of ABB’s Power Systems division, said: “These substations will provide additional supply of quality power and facilitate the expansion and upgrade of this important rail network that will benefit passengers and the community at large.”
The GWEP substations will be based on ABB’s unique modular Structure Mounted Outdoor Switchgear (SMOS) Light concept, which is designed to help railway infrastructure owners reduce the time required for construction, testing and commissioning by as much as 30%. The turnkey substation solution also incorporates ABB’s advanced protection and control concept, which was developed to suit Network Rail’s own Rationalised Autotransformer Scheme (RATS). This highly sophisticated method of deploying the global IEC 61850 open communications standard helps achieve a cost-efficient substation solution.
The first substation is expected to be commissioned in 2015 and the project should be completed by2017, added ABB.
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