Re Contract

ABB Ltd
19 December 2001


                   ABB WINS US$ 28 MILLION CONTRACT TO BOOST 
                   VENEZUELAN ELECTRICAL TRANSMISSION SYSTEM

               Flexible AC system cuts time and costs for Enelven

Zurich, Switzerland, December 19 - ABB, the global power and automation 
technology group, has won a US$ 28 million order from Enelven, a state-owned 
electric utility in Venezuela, to install systems which will increase the 
capacity of existing overhead transmission lines serving the petroleum and 
petrochemicals center of Maracaibo by 20 percent.

ABB said the use of flexible AC transmission systems (FACTS) - a number of 
technologies which increase capacity and flexibility in AC power transmission - 
would save Enelven from investing in more expensive and time-consuming 
alternatives.

'The Enelven project is an excellent example of how ABB capabilities in the area
of flexible AC transmission systems can quickly solve a difficult problem for a 
utility customer' said Richard Siudek, executive vice president and head of ABB 
Utilities division. 'In this case, Enelven is gaining a very substantial and 
almost immediate increase in available power, at around one fifth of the cost of
adding new transmission capacity.'

The project will make an additional 300 MW or power available to help meet 
growing demand for power in the Maracaibo region, and enables Enelven to defer 
major investment in additional transmission lines or new generating capacity.

Under the terms of the turnkey contract, ABB will design, build, install and 
commission five series compensation stations, one for each of five existing 400 
kV transmission lines. The project is to be completed on an accelerated schedule
over 15 months to provide Enelven with extra transmission capacity as quickly as
possible.

Conventional solutions to Enelven's anticipated shortfall in power would be to 
build additional transmission infrastructure to permit more electricity to be 
imported into Maracaibo, or to build new generation plants to produce power at 
the point of demand. But these solutions would require major investment, have a 
considerable environmental impact and could take several years to receive the 
necessary site permits.

ABB (www.abb.com) is a global leader in power and automation technologies that 
enable utility and industry customers to improve performance while lowering 
their environmental impact. ABB has 160,000 employees in more than 100 
countries.

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