The new Jubail 380kV substation project

closed

Hyundai E&C builds Saudi Arabia’s single biggest substationThe new Jubail 380kV substation project aims to convert voltage in order to supply power to a newly developing residential complex in Jubail. It is the single largest substation in Saudi Arabia. Hyundai E&C received a turnkey contract from the Saudi Electricity Company(SEC) in July 2014 to build a new 380 kV substation and remodel the existing 30 substations in the Jubail Industrial City of the eastern province of the country. The construction project is valued at 286 million dollars and is slated to be completed in March 2021.Hyundai E&C made its first inroads into the Saudi Arabian construction market in 1976 by constructing Jubail Industrial Port. Starting with a substation construction project in Riyadh and a power extension project in Jizan in 1978, Korea’ primary builder became in the limelight in the kingdom’s transmission and substation market. As of October 2019, the builder conducted about 160 construction projects in the country, among which 70 projects are associated with power distribution, transmission and substation construction. They were relatively small in size compared to other plant related projects, which led the builder to directly operating the supply of construction materials, workers and machine equipment for 25 years since 1995. As the foreign workers employed by Hyundai E&C filled a shortage of workforce, not only Korean but also foreign employees could hone professional skills.A strong pride of the construction-site employees stems from the way they directly managed the new Jubail 380kV substation project from A to Z. As SEC made pertinent regulations more stringent in 2015, the builder became directly in charge of commissioning work which had been performed by subcontractors specializing in the field. Moreover, special attention was needed for the construction and commissioning of gas insulated switchgears and transformers, key equipment accounting for approximately 40 percent of the contract amount. To deal with this, the construction site strengthened the commissioning process by hiring new engineers approved by the client and making its all-out efforts to train the existing engineers.The technological capability and construction knowhow of those working at the new Jubail construction site are well known at home and abroad. They were sent to another project site as the Plant Division’s first collaboration model relative to plant and energy as well as an expert team for electric construction work. Both Korean and foreign employees display their abilities in conducting a mega-sized project worth 746 million dollars designed to build an ethane deep recovery facility (EDRF) in Uthmaniyah. Their enthusiasm and effort are well recognized by receiving an award from the project client Saudi Aramco.As of October 2019, the new Jubail 380 kV substation project reached five million man-hours of no accident and gets credit for its construction capability, laying a solid foundation for Hyundai E&C to win quality power projects in Saudi Arabia.

High