Exclusive interview - Johan de Villers, ABB

Johan de Villiers is confident ABB can strengthen weak parts of existing networks.

As the Middle East races to keep up with power and water demands, Johan de Villiers, head of ABB’s Power Systems Division in the Gulf, is confident that the power and automation technology provider is perfectly placed for the region’s ambitions.

The next ten years in the Gulf will be critical. Increasing demand for power and water from expanding industry and population growth is already beginning to strain the region’s current infrastructure, and as countries look to sustainable methods of power generation to complement existing fuels, companies like ABB are looking forward to the challenge.

“We have had a very strong presence in the Gulf for a long time,” says Johan de Villiers, general manager and head of ABB’s Power Systems Division in the Gulf region.

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“With five divisions globally, we’ve got units focused on substations, underground cable connections to renewable sources, network management solutions, typical SCADA systems and systems for power networks.”

It’s a diverse range of services that sees ABB currently involved in a mixture of building up new infrastructure and refurbishing existing networks – the company recently energised one of three new 400kV substations in Kuwait, is building the country’s largest water pumping station, is soon to be refurbishing an existing power plant, having also
supplied the world’s highest substation to the Burj Khalifa’s 155th floor.

“In the UAE we’ve got a 400kV substation under construction in Fujairah, and several other 132kV substations strengthening the distribution network,” says de Villiers.

“We’ve also got several substation projects under way in Qatar - both with Kahramaa and private developers - two of which will be fully underground,” de Villiers adds.

A steady flow of substation opportunities throughout the region, and also opportunities in the water generation and wastewater sectors is encouraging de Villiers, whose power division is the largest of ABB’s operations in the Gulf.

Providing everything required for a power plant – whether conventionally fuelled or renewable – the division offers complete service solutions for the water industry too, including pumping stations, water generation plants, water distribution and also the wastewater cycle.

“Infrastructure development has been a recent theme in the Gulf,” de Villiers says, “and it’s clearly still a big topic here. We see a lot of opportunities in developing water generation, and also in water transmission and strategic water storage projects – there are water storage projects in every country at the moment.”