Alstom Grid secures £18m order

STAFFORD based Alstom Grid has secured an £18m contract from National Grid for the design and supply of two major electricity booster units.

Alstom Grid, part of the Alstom group, will manufacture and commission the two Quadrature Booster units, which control the flow of real power on electricity transmission networks.

The contract will help to sustain 300 jobs at the Stafford Road factory over the next three years.

Alstom is a world leading engineering group for power generation, rail transport infrastructure and electricity transmission technologies. It employs more than 6,500 people across the UK – 5,000 of which are based in the Midlands at sites Rugby, Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Derby and Stafford.

The first Quadrature Booster will be designed and manufactured in 2012, while the second will be made in 2013 for installation at Penwortham Substation, near Preston. It will allow National Grid to control the increased power flows generated by wind farms into the network.

Mark Wilson, head of sales and tendering at Alstom Grid’s Transformer factory, said: “This latest contract award by National Grid confirms the industry’s confidence in our technical competence of the design and manufacture of transformers.

“Both boosters will be an enhanced version of our existing proven design which are the largest Quadrature Boosters ever made in the UK.”

Alstom Grid is the newest sector of Alstom and works in conjunction with utility companies and power suppliers. It ranks among the top three organisations in the electrical transmission sector with a sales turnover of approximately £2.94bn (€3.5bn) in 2009.