ABB, the Switzerland-based leading power and automation technology group, announced Thursday that it has won a contract worth 220 million US dollars for phase one of the massive Gulf Grid project, linking the electricity networks of six Gulf states.

The Gulf Grid is the biggest power transmission project to be announced anywhere in the world in 2005, ABB said in a statement.

"This order confirms both our market leadership and the quality of our technologies. We are proud to be contributing our cutting-edge substation technology to this project, boosting transmission capacity and improving the reliability of power grids in the Gulf," said Peter Smits, head of ABB's Power Technologies division.

It is ABB's largest single order so far in 2005, and one of the largest substation orders ever won by the company.

The Gulf Grid project will be carried out in three phases, and phase one will link Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait, according to ABB.

ABB, based in Zurich, operates in around 100 countries and employs about 103,000 people.

Source: Xinhua