MILAN, Aug 1 (Class Editori) – CESI, the Italian leader for electrical engineering, was selected for Central and South Asia's largest energy project. The company – controlled by Terna and Enel – which develops software and technologies for the mains power grids won an international tender to provide Owner's Engineer services related to construction of two high-voltage direct current (HVDC) converter stations in Tajikistan and Pakistan, as well as an HVDC transmission line connecting them.
This is a crucial part of implementation of the CASA1000 project, which aims at enabling electricity transmission from hydro-generation plants in the Kyrgyz Republic and Tajikistan to end consumers in Pakistan, via Afghanistan. The Italian company will supervise construction of the HVDC power connection, including two HVDC converter stations and the 800 km DC line crossing Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan, with an export capacity of up to 1,300 megawatts of electricity.
CESI will also support the CASA-1000 Secretariat in identifying the most suitable operational strategy for the interconnector. The CASA-1000 Project represents a key cornerstone of Pakistan's strategy to cope with increasing domestic electricity consumption. The project will also allow the Kyrgyz Republic and Tajikistan to better utilize energy.
"The project involves the construction of Asia's largest interconnection power line, which will link the central and southern parts of the continent, bringing the energy produced by the hydroelectric plants in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to Pakistan, passing through Afghanistan", explained Matteo Codazzi, CEO of CESI.
Founded in 1956 in Milan, CESI – the Italian experimental electro-technical center – became a reference point both in the field of testing and certification of electromechanical components and in the analysis and studies for the design and operation of infrastructure systems. Today it operates in more than 40 countries all around the world, with a network of around 1,000 professionals and on the new Silk Roads, from China to Central Asia, from Africa to the Middle East and Europe.
It is the Italian company most committed to experimenting with new technologies and creating the electricity infrastructures that will bring energy from the most developed economies to the developing ones. In China one of the last assignments entrusted to CESI by the State Grid Corporation of China (Sgcc) concerns the Northwest 750kV Power Transmission Extension project, in which CESI has the task of analyzing the transformers' production process and inspecting routine and type tests.
For Shanghai Sieyuan High Voltage Switchgear, CESI carried out all the necessary tests in Milan laboratories to obtain certification according to IEC standards, which guarantees that electrical equipment can be safely installed in the networks all around the world.
The EuroAfrica Interconnector Limited involved the Milan laboratory to carry out the analysis, both from a socio-economic point of view and in terms of integrating renewable sources and the adequacy of the electrical systems of the countries involved in one of the biggest projects. This is the energy connection between Europe and the Mashreq countries (Egypt, Jordan and Syria) with a cable of 1,707 km, a world record for interconnection, laid in the sea 3 thousand meters deep.
The infrastructure will depart from Attica in mainland Greece to reach Egypt via Crete and Cyprus. "Its realization opens up the possibility of integrating the European electricity market with that of the Gulf countries, which have long been pushing in this direction," said Codazzi. And it is in the Gulf countries that CESI became one of the leading renewable energy consultants in Bahrain, the UAE and above all in Saudi Arabia, where it is implementing a super testing laboratory with the Saudi Electricity company, which will manage for the next 30 years.
In Africa, CESI was also selected as a technical consultant by the West Africa Power Pool (Wapp) project funded by the World Bank to improve and facilitate the exchange of electricity between almost twenty countries including Morocco, Benin, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria and Senegal. In Algeria with the Opérateur du Système Electrique utility it works studying the integration of renewable energies; in Ethiopia with another utility, the Ethiopian Electric Power is a consultant for the creation of the Ethiopia-Sudan Eep Setco interconnection (Extra High Voltage Power System).
Another area of activity of the company based in Milan is structural engineering. The experience achieved in this field has been successfully applied to the decommissioning of nuclear power plants: the flagship is the work carried out in the construction of the first shelter that covered the Chernobyl plant.
CESI, which is also owned in small shares by Prysmian, Abb, Toshiba and Sediver, closed 2018 with 124 million euros turnover, up from 121 million in 2017 and an EBITDA of 19.1 million euros, a net profit 7.4 million and net financial debt at 38.5 million.
(Source:Class Editori)
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