Hitachi ABB Power Grids India wins Rs.120-crore order from Indian Railways
- July 10, 2020
In an order worth Rs.120 crore, Hitachi ABB Power Grids India will be delivering its transformers to the Chittaranjan Locomotive Works (CLW), an outfit of the Indian Railways, for the production of 400 passenger and freight locomotive engines.
India is aiming at 100 per cent railway electrification in order to meet the country’s sustainable development goals. While it has commissioned about 37,237 route km of rail lines on electric traction – 58 per cent of total Indian Railways’ broad gauge network, it plans to electrify the remaining broad gauge routes by 2023.
For this project, Hitachi ABB Power Grids India is delivering transformers split between the 6,531 kilo-volt-ampere (kVA) for CLW’s goods locomotive engines and the 7,775 kVA for passenger. These transformers feed power to essential train functions (e.g. traction, lighting, heating and ventilation, brakes, signaling and communication). They are a critical link in the traction chain, driving train performance and operator services.
Hitachi ABB Power Grids was formed on July 1, 2020.
“The order from CLW is a prestigious one for Hitachi ABB Power Grids. It strengthens a two decades-long partnership with the customer and enables us to contribute further to India’s mission to advance the economy in a responsible manner,” said N. Venu, Managing Director, Hitachi ABB Power Grids India.
“Railways are the backbone of environmentally-sustainable transport and our pioneering technology will help successfully balance energy expansion with the reduction of emissions,” he added.
Traction transformers reduce the voltage to a suitable level before feeding it to the railway catenary conductors used by locomotives.
Hitachi ABB Power Grids India is supplying transformers, which are known for their endurance. They can withstand the harshest of climate conditions and yet maximize safety as well as energy and eco-efficiency, a company release said.
For railways, electric energy is supplied as high voltage to the catenary feeder substations. The transformers reduce the voltage to a suitable level before feeding it to the railway catenary conductors used by locomotives. Different railway electrification systems demand different kinds of transformers.
It may be mentioned that on July 1, 2020, Hitachi and ABB formed Hitachi ABB Power Grids as the new joint venture with a business volume of about $10 billion. In India, Hitachi ABB Power Grids is listed on the stock exchanges as “ABB Power Products and Systems India Ltd”.
Featured photograph shows inside view of the traction transformer factory of ABB Power Products & Systems India Ltd, located at Maneja, Gujarat.
