Gulf Construction Online - Ducab cables play key role in its solar plant

Manufacturers & Procurement

Ducab’s ground-mounted solar project uses 5,400 solar mono-crystalline modules.

Ducab cables play key role in its solar plant

01 August 2020

Ducab Group, a global leader in the development, design, manufacture, marketing and distribution of copper and aluminium wire and cable products, has given a vote of confidence in its products by utilising them in its own solar photvoltaic (PV) plant located at its Jebel Ali head office site.

By setting up its own solar plant, the group, which is one of the UAE’s largest manufacturing businesses, says it has taken a significant step towards increasing its sustainability. The solar plant was developed in partnership with Etihad Energy Service Company (Etihad Esco), in alignment with the UAE’s ambitions to harness the potential of solar power.

The plant consists of 2,052 kWp (kilowatt peak) ground-mounted PV panels and 45.6 kWp rooftop solar PV units. Its annual production is 3.5 Gwh, which could power 500 homes or sufficient to run the Ducab PVC plant on site, while the carbon dioxide (CO2) savings of 660 tonnes is equivalent to the quantity of carbon dioxide processed by 40,000 trees over 10 years, says Ducab.

Over 150 km of Ducab’s specialist SolarBICC range of cables, manufactured to last the 25 years design life, have been supplied for the solar plant. These include the single-core 6-sq-mm TiCu/XLPO/XLPO solar PV cables which connect solar panels and other electrical components of a photovoltaic system.

Specially produced using high-quality Tinned Class 5 annealed flexible copper conductor with XLPO insulation and black outer sheath material, Ducab SolarBICC (H1Z2Z2-K type cables for PV systems) are UL certified and TUV Rheinland approved cables which are compliant with BS EN 50618 and TUV 2 PFG 1169/08 global standards. These cables are tested to stringent -40 deg C to +120 deg C operating standards.

In addition, a number of copper cables have been an integral part of this power plant construction including the single-core 16/25/150-sq-mm Cu/PVC earthing cable, two-core 4-sq-mm Cu/XLPE/PVC low-voltage auxiliary cable, four-core 1/1.5/2.5-sq-mm Cu/XLPE/PVC control cable, and the four-core 35-sq-mm Cu/XLPE/PVC and the four-core 50/300 sq-mm Cu/XLPE/PVC/SWA/PVC low-voltage power cable.

“Ducab continues to develop and promote its own UL-certified Ducab SolarBICC cable line that is designed specifically for the growing solar energy sector and its plant is live with its own Ducab solar cables and other standard power cables. More than 100 km of Ducab SolarBICC were used in this project,” a spokesman for Ducab tells Gulf Construction.

Ducab’s ground-mounted solar project uses 5,400 solar mono-crystalline modules with a capacity of 380 Wp while the rooftop solar project on its new head office uses 120 modules of similar capacity. There are 30 string inverters for the ground-mounted PV plant and one string inverter for the rooftop PV plant. The PV panels are from Jinko Solar, while the inverters and data loggers are from Huawei.

The PV plant is connected to the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa) grid by complying to all the regulations, under the Shams Dubai initiative.

Ducab Group serves customers worldwide in the fields of energy, general construction, oil and gas, renewables, industrial, defence, rail transport, marine, mining, and other specialty industry verticals.

The company, which was founded in 1979 and is jointly owned by the Investment Corporation of Dubai and ADQ (Senaat, General Holding Corporation, Abu Dhabi), comprises three divisions: Ducab High Voltage (DHV); Ducab Cables and Wires (DCB), and Ducab Metals Business (DMB), which comprises Ducab Aluminium Company (DAC) and Ducab Copper Rod Plant. Each of these divisions produce cable, wire, and metal products that are used across the world, including in the UAE.

There are currently six Ducab manufacturing facilities across four sites in the UAE, which produce all of the company’s cables, wires, and metal products. In total, Ducab has a manufacturing capability of over 115,000 metal tonnes of high-, medium- and low-voltage cables and upgraded production capacity to 180,000 tonnes of copper rod and wire per annum.

Currently, Ducab produces an extensive range of cables and accessories, including a wide range of speciality cables like SolarBICC for the solar power sector; NuBICC cables, specially developed for 60 years operations in the nuclear sector; PetroBICC cables for the oil, gas, and petrochemicals industry; FlamBICC fire performance cables; RailBICC for the rail and mobility industry; MarineBICC for marine and offshore industry applications; cables for wind energy; RuBICC rubber cables for flexible applications, and high, medium, and low-voltage cables.

High-voltage cables systems in particular are in demand as a result of continued urbanisation initiatives, which require extended energy grids. Ducab HV is the first dedicated high-voltage (60kV – 150kV) and extra-high-voltage (220kV – 500kV) power cable manufacturing facility in the Middle East, with the capacity of producing 6,000 tonnes of high-voltage power cables per year.