Areva lands £100m deal
Stafford electrical equipment giant Areva T&D has won vital orders worth more than £100 million, the Express & Star can reveal today.
The Stafford-based transmission and distribution division of the French-owned firm is set to benefit from two major projects in China and South Korea.
The announcement, made this week, is further good news from the firm based in St Leonard's Avenue and Lichfield Road which already employs around 1,500 people in the town. Areva T&D is one of the few local firms which is actively recruiting new staff during the recession. Areva T&D has been awarded, in partnership with China Electric Power Research Institute (CEPRI), a contract to supply High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) systems for projects interconnecting the Ningdong and Shangdong regions north-west of China, along with one linking the Three Gorges Dam to Shanghai.
Meanwhile, the firm has also won an order from South Korean utilities company KEPCO to supply converter stations for a 400 MW High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) scheme to link South Korea's Jeju Island with the South Korean mainland. The order includes five large converter transformers, all of which will be manufactured in Stafford.
An Areva T&D statement reads: "HVDC technology connects power networks and transmits large amounts of electricity over long distances with minimal losses. With plans to transmit more than 130 GW of electricity over the next five to ten years, China's needs in HVDC are booming. This success will strengthen AREVA's position on the domestic HVDC market and demonstrates the company's ability to meet China's needs."
David Hanson, the unit's commercial director, said: "These projects demonstrate how our experts based here in Stafford are at the forefront of electricity network technologies. We are delighted to have won these contracts, building on our recent successes from around the world."
Today's news comes after AREVA T&D last month announced plans for a £55 million redevelopment of its sites at St Leonard's Avenue and Fairway. The project will see it take on another 100 workers and work on the project could begin before the end of this year if plans submitted to Stafford Borough Council in recent weeks are given planning permission.
The plans would see 330,000 sq ft of new buildings, including offices, laboratories and workshops on the 74-acre site, which dates from 1962 when it was built for GEC.
