ABB India wins Rs455-crore smelter order from Vedanta Aluminum Ltd

Power and automation technology group ABB will provide automation and power products and systems in an order worth Rs455 crore to Vedanta Aluminum Limited, which is expanding its aluminum smelter plant at Jharsuguda, in Orissa.

With this expansion Vedanta's total aluminum smelting capacity at Jharsuguda will be approximately 1,700,000 tons per annum (tpa), making it one of the largest aluminum plants in the world.

Biplab Majumder, managing director, ABB India, said, ''ABB automation and electrical systems will become the manufacturing backbone of this smelter plant. The combination of standard ABB products and systems and our primary metals and minerals expertise creates an unbeatable offering for customers in terms of productivity, reliability and energy efficiency.''

ABB will design, supply, build and commission 24 sets of high power diode rectifier systems for four aluminum potlines. The expansions to be undertaken by ABB will double the smelter's production capacity of aluminum ingots, rods and rolled products of Vedanta Aluminum factory.

ABB order compasses of supply also includes a new 400/220-kilovolt (kV) switchyard to supply the new smelter plant with reliable power, an ABB MicroSCADA control system for the power distribution network, high-performance process control system with fiber optic current sensors and substation switching bays, power and station transformers.

ABB has participated in the Jharsuguda plant expansion in 2007-08 by supplying rectifier systems for the phase one expansion of the plant.
Earlier this month ABB had won an order of Rs.312 crore for the design, supply, installation, testing and commissioning of electrical products and systems for a new terminal T3 at Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi. ABB's solutions are part of the modernisation project to prepare the airport for the Commonwealth Games in 2010.

Last month ABB won an order worth Rs295 crore to provide power solutions for JSW Energy for its upcoming 4 x 300 MW thermal power plant in Ratnagiri,  Maharashtra. The orders are for a range of power solutions including, electrical balance of plant, 400kV gas insulated switchgear (GIS) substation and generator transformers.