By Profiley
Egypt has the benefit of abundant wind energy potential. One of the prime areas for turning steady wind into much-needed electricity is the region around Ras Ghareb, the country’s northernmost city on the African side of the Gulf of Suez.
Taking advantage of strong, stable wind conditions, developers commissioned the 262.5 megawatt (MW), 125-turbine Ras Ghareb wind generation plant on the shores of the Gulf about 30km northwest of Ras Ghareb in 2019. The plant generates enough renewable wind energy to power 500,000 Egyptian households.
To ensure peak performance at Egypt’s largest wind power development, Hitachi ABB Power Grids is providing predictive maintenance for a 220/33 kilovolt (kV) grid connection for Orascom Construction, a co-owner of the plant with ENGIE Africa and Toyota Tsusho.
Peak performance is essential because the plant is an important part of Egypt’s ambitious effort to satisfy escalating power demand by increasing investment in the power sector and diversifying its energy mix. This includes adding about 7 gigawatts of clean wind power capacity by 2022.
Hitachi ABB Power Grids provides a set of tailored service agreements to meet specific customer requirements in the wind sector, including spare parts supply, preventative maintenance, 24/7 response and remote support, and training. In return, customers get optimized wind farm performance and can focus on their core activities.
“We are very proud to support our customer in Egypt with our skilled local service team,” said Eng. Mohamed Hosseiny, Country Managing Director, Egypt & North Africa, Hitachi ABB Power Grids. “This project shows our commitment to sustainability solutions and the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, especially SDG 7 of increasing access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all.”
“The committed support from the local team from Hitachi ABB Power Grids during and after the substation project execution in combination with a high technical competence and capacity to squeeze the project timetable in support of the energizing schedule has been of outmost importance and encouraged us to signe a service agreement contract with Hitachi ABB Power Grids for the substation and BoP maintenance and troubleshoting” said Sameh Al Alfy, RGWE 262.5MW Wind Farm O&M Director.
Appropriate maintenance is an essential component of wind plant operations, helping customers reduce the risk of failure, extend asset lifetime and lower operational costs. Predictive maintenance schedules are developed by evaluating information from Hitachi ABB Power Grids’ intelligent switchgear systems, together with existing plant monitoring and control systems.
It begins with a service agreement developed by the local team with the support of our global service solutions experts to establish a full understanding of the installation and customer expectations to ensure timely and reliable service. This includes a detailed onsite audit to help lower life cycle costs and develop the full potential of the assets over their lifetime, reinforced by a service package to protect the investment.
With a combined heritage of nearly 250 years, Hitachi ABB Power Grids has developed and applied leading-edge grid technologies for customers around the world. Our service specialists are partners helping customers lower costs, reduce downtime and increase the efficiency and productivity of their operations with improved reliability and safety.
As a leading supplier of electrical products, systems and services to the wind power sector, Hitachi ABB Power Grids’ portfolio of service packages builds stable, long-term partnerships supported by a global presence across the entire power value chain. Ongoing investment and expansion of this service offering makes Hitachi ABB Power Grids uniquely positioned to improve the performance of wind power plants worldwide.