Switzerland

ABB won orders worth around $30 million from the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) and from the private Matterhorn Gotthard Railway to help boost power and increase capacity. Three new traction substations being supplied by ABB will enable SBB and the Matterhorn Gotthard Railway to increase their capacity to meet rising traffic volume in southwestern and central Switzerland. The work will be completed by 2018. As part of this turnkey contract, ABB will design, supply, install and commission three traction substations.

ABB designed, manufactured, installed and commissioned a 1,200-kV circuit breaker the highest AC voltage level in the world. Once the 1200-kV ultrahigh-voltage switchgear is fully operational, it will have a switching capacity of 10,400 MW - a switch capable of turning ON' or OFF' the electricity generated by 10 large power plants or the combined average annual electrical load of Switzerland and Denmark, within milliseconds.