The project, which is considered to be one of the first brownfield investments of its kind anywhere in the world, took over one million work hours to complete and didn’t incur a single lost time injury (LTI).

The completion of the project has secured a continued supply of power to potlines one, two and three and will accommodate Alba’s recent increase (and planned future growth) in metal production, says Amin Sultan, Alba’s power station director.

The new rectiformers, custom-built for Alba by Alstom, pack 30% more power than previous equipment. Some of the units can cross-connect to provide additional back-up power to potlines one to three.

Alstom Grid won the contract in mid-2008. The project involved the replacement of 10 rectifiers that are responsible for providing the power supply to the potlines. It took nearly five years for the company to manufacture and install 10 units – five for each pot line. The project objectives were accomplished without major interruptions to production from the two pot lines.