Primary aluminium plant in operation exactly on schedule, only 28 months after the $140-million contract between Qatalum and ABB was signed
Baden, Switzerland, February 11, 2010 – ABB, the leading power and automation technology group, announced that it has successfully commissioned ten complete rectifier units at Qatalum’s primary aluminium plant. Handover of the plant to the customer took place on December 15th, 2009.
Qatalum is one of the world’s largest aluminium plant ever built in one phase. The plant is expected to have an annual output of 585’000 tonnes of primary aluminium.
ABB acted as EPC contractor for the rectifier stations and was responsible for engineering, civil design, material delivery, training, documentation, installation and commissioning. The scope of supply included ten high voltage rectifier units (each 1650V, 85kA) including control and protection systems, two DC collector busbar systems (each 340kA) including ABB’s fiber optic current sensor (FOCS), ten regulating and rectifier transformers including reactive power and harmonic filtering systems, two SCADA systems (supervisory control and data acquisition), as well as redundant auxiliary systems (transformers, low voltage distribution, motor control centers, battery systems, uninterruptible power supply, fire alarm and extinction systems, air-conditioning). ABB also delivered and installed 47 kilometers of high voltage cables (220kV) to connect the rectifier stations to the dedicated 1250 MW power plant.
Qatar Aluminium Ltd, a joint venture between Qatar Petroleum and the Norwegian Hydro Aluminium AS, is located in Qatar, 40 kilometers southwest of the capital Doha, in the industrial city Mesaieed.
ABB (www.abb.com) is a leader in power and automation technologies that enable utility and industry customers to improve their performance while lowering environmental impact. The ABB Group of companies operates in around 100 countries and employs more than 120,000 people.