SCC offers a vast range of cables.
Saudi Cable lands mega deals
01 August 2005
Saudi Cable Company (SCC) – which has recently clinched several major contracts for the supply of quality cables both in the kingdom and beyond – is all poised to increase its production capacity in a bid to establish itself as a leading cable manufacturer in the region.
Early this year, SCC won a contract worth more than SR200 million ($53.3 million) for the supply of a range of cables from local electricity major - Saudi Electric Company (SEC). In addition, the company has also secured several key contracts amounting to SR87.56 million ($23.34 million) for the supply of cables in the region.
Its turnkey contract with SEC involves the design and engineering of multi-circuit 380 kV overhead transmission lines that will encircle the city of Jeddah and bring electrical power directly from Shuaiba Power Station to Jeddah North station at King Abdul Aziz Airport.
“This project is the first of its kind, not only in Saudi Arabia and the GCC region, but also in all of Asia, and involves design, engineering, manufacture, erection, testing and commissioning of overhead transmission lines,” says the spokesman.
SCC was also involved with the establishment of two parallel 200-km 380 kV overhead transmissions lines from the Shuaiba power plant to the Jeddah South Main Grid Station.
Currently, the company is also expanding the 220-kV underground network for Bahrain’s Ministry of Electricity. Major circuits of this network have already been installed and energised, and the ministry has awarded SCC an additional extension totalling some 260 km of 220 kV underground high-voltage cable including the associated optical fibre network. The project is scheduled for completion in 2007.
“We have already connected Hidd and Alba and are working on all the new extensions of the grid as well as replacing old oil-filled leaking cables with the new maintenance-free XLPE technology,” says the spokesman. The older cables required daily monitoring of the oil pressure system and heat. They also had a high risk of fire or explosion. The new XLPE high-voltage cables are safe, clean and do not leak oil, are environmentally-friendly, and are universally accepted as state-of-the-art technology for underground cables.
Innovative products
Innovation is a key area of focus at SCC and this was amply demonstrated when the company took on the challend of manufacturing watertight pilot cables for SEC.
For quite sometime, SEC had been experiencing water penetration in its pilot cables and had approached companies worldwide for a solution, but to no avail. When approached with the problem, the team at SCC took to the task at hand and got to designing and subsequently delivering an innovative watertight pilot cable for SEC. The cables are being used to replace those that have been damaged by water penetration.
“We are the only manufacturer in the world to produce this type of cable and this is another example of our company satisfying a customer’s needs,” says a company spokesman.
“The fruitful cooperation between SEC and SCC has always been a source of support and encouragement for the domestic industry. SCC has taken steps in order to gear itself to the challenges presented by the markets. We are fully prepared to meet the challenges of the increase in demand in the years to come,” he said.
Recently, the company’s Turkish factory has successfully tested a 400 kV underground cable, which can be used in power stations and connections between substations where gas-insulated busbars or overhead lines are not practical.
“With this development, we have become one of the 10 manufacturers in the world of such a cable. This is a significant achievement for a GCC and Middle East manufacturer and it provides SCC’s customers with a complete product line and total system solutions services,” he says.
Established in 1975, SCC is engaged in the manufacture and supply of electrical and telecommunications cables, copper rod, polyvinyl chloride (PVC) compounds, wooden reels and related products. It claims to be the Middle East’s foremost provider of technologically-advanced energy and telecommunications solutions.
SCC has its principal manufacturing centre located within the Jeddah industrial estate and production facilities in Turkey and Bahrain, which have a combined capacity of 140,000 tonnes of copper and aluminium rods, 85,000 tonnes of insulated power cables and conductors, 6 million km of metallic telephone cable and 20,000 km of optical fibre communications cables. The specialisations cover insulated energy cables of up to 400 kV; cables for fire resistance; low-smoke halogen-free cables; control, pilot, signal, instrument and airfield lighting cables and lead-sheathed cables for the oil and petrochemical industries and metallic telephone cables up to 3,800 pairs and 288 count optical fibre.
Low voltage and bare conductors account for 35 per cent of SCC’s production while medium voltage cables provide for another 35 per cent. Speciality cables make up approximately 5 per cent and metallic and optical fibre telecommunications cables 25 per cent.
Since beginning production, SCC has developed into a “total services solutions provider.”
“This means we are capable of designing the right energy or telecommunications system. We are very familiar with the climate and terrain and know how to find the best solutions for our customers, thereby saving them time and money,” says the spokesman.
“Beyond designing and engineering a system, we manufacture, install, test and commission the system.”
In addition, the company has also invested in high voltage and optical fibre “mobile” site testing equipment. “It takes the facility to the site and makes sure the system is in proper working order before it is turned over to the customer. In many cases, customers do not have the financial resources to complete their project, so we also “financially engineer” their project to provide a complete turnkey solution package,” he elaborates.
Over the years, the company has drawn up an impressive list of clients that include electrical utilities and telecommunications network providers as well as the oil and petrochemical industries in the GCC area and North Africa and their contractors. SCC has forged alliances and is well known by all the major world contractors from the Americas, through Europe across to Japan and Korea. It has installed high-voltage cable systems in the US, Europe, India, Australia and New Zealand.
Some of its other major projects involving underground high voltage cable systems in the kingdom include: Makkah (132 kV), Madinah (132 kV), Jeddah (110 kV), Taif (132 kV), Jizan (132 kV), Abha (132 kV) and Najran (132 kV) (all in the western region). The company was also contracted for nine projects for the expansion of the main 132 kV Riyadh city grid, Central Region, and 69 projects of 115 kV in the Eastern Province, including major high-voltage underground connections for industries in Jubail and Saudi Aramco’s gas producing facilities in Qatif.
Some of the major overseas projects undertaken by the company in the Middle East include: Cairo and the Suez Canal in Egypt; the main 110 kV feeder network for Damascus, a 63-kV network for Algiers, a 90-kV network for Casablanca, Morocco and 132 kV feeder cables for Abu Dhabi.
Elsewhere, SCC’s factory in Turkey, Demirer Kablo, has installed 138 kV cables in Atlanta and in Sacramento, California, US. In Europe, 40 kV cables have been supplied to the London Underground and British Rail tunnel between the UK and France. Currently, Demirer Kablo is working on various 110 kV underground projects in Germany, Austria, Italy and Spain, the spokesman concludes.
