f73ad10e-032c-4f3f-8b66-e31c8428e73f-Utilities

UTILITIES MIDDLE EAST PROFILES THE TOP COMPANIES DRIVING INNOVATION AND THE MIDDLE EAST FORWARD

GREEN CHAMPIONIRENA DIRECTOR GENERAL ADNAN AMIN ON EMPOWERING RENEWABLES P24

SUN POWER TURNING AN OBVIOUS RESOURCE INTO THE ECONOMICAL CHOICE

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ESSENTIAL INSIGHTS FOR MIDDLE EAST WATER, GAS AND ELECTRICITY PROFESSIONALS August 2012 • Vol 6. Issue 8

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CONTENTS

www.utilities-me.com August 2012 � Utilities Middle East 1

August 2012Vol 6. Issue 08

12

24

The Top 25 suppliers innovating in the Middle East today.

36

Adnan Amin, IRENA DG, explains the sound business case for

renewable energy .

India’s power sector needs to keep up with

incredible demand.

34Construction of the fi rst two Braka reactors is now underway.

10The Fukushima report calls for substantial reform of Japan’s nuclear industry.

2 COMMENTMiddle East solar power could be about to shine.

4 REGIONAL UPDATEThe month’s top industry news.

12 TOP 25The Top 25 suppliers driving innovation in the Middle East.

24 RENEWABLES CHAMPIONIRENA Director General Adnan Amin discusses how to boost renewables adoption.

27 SOLAR INCENTIVES How incentive schemes could be made to work for the UAE solar market.

34 BRAKA UPDATERecent developments at Braka signal the true start of the UAE’s nuclear age.

36 INDIA PROFILEMassive conventional projects are slow-moving but renewable energy shows promise.

40 ICEBERGSThe region’s water shortages could require some very alternative thinking.

45 PROJECTSThe latest projects launched.

48 FIVE MINUTES WITH...A T Kearney’s José Alberich discusses smart grid prospects in the region.

SUBSCRIBESign up to the free Utilities Middle East email newsletter – for more information visit: www.utilities-me.com

“REAL GROWTH IN RENEWABLES IS

GOING TO COME FROM FAST-GROWING,

ENERGY-HUNGRY ECONOMIES”

COMMENT

2 Utilities Middle East � August 2012 www.utilities-me.com

To subscribe please visit www.itp.com/subscriptions

As the Middle East bakes under the summer sun, the arguments of solar advocates are easy to believe. The all-too obvious sunshine, together

with a genuine need to diversify the energy mix, presents solar as an obvious solution.

At the same time, many people working in the utilities sector point out that solar attracts a lot of talk and pronouncements, but little action and development. At the end of the day, there might be ambitious plans but solar still represents only a fraction of the overall energy supply. The days of conventional power, they say, are a long way from over.

And that is even before you get on to the issue of the Middle East’s dust. Never have so many conversations owed so much to so little. The key question - “does solar suffer a termi-nal decline in effi ciency due to the region’s dust?” - returns as a talking point no matter whose opinion you seek.

Ultimately solar’s rise or fall comes down to economics, and to whether the market and

Middle East

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the grid are suitably supported. On the eco-nomics side, prices - at least of PV - are defi -nitely coming down, whilst the massive solar schemes announced by the region’s gov-ernments are a clear indication that there is money to be spent.

However, there are still doubts over the readiness of the market to accept solar into the fold on a large scale. Questions still remain, for example, over how you incentiv-ise solar adoption in a region with such low energy costs, or how you ensure the grid is ready to accept intermittent output from dif-fuse sources.

These issues are by no means insurmounta-ble, and there is certainly a consensus amongst those involved in the industry that the Middle East represents a long-term prospect for solar power. It might need a kick-start, but solar’s day may have dawned.

Adam Lane, EditorEmail: [email protected]

www.Utilities-ME.com spot poll results (July 2012)

Is solar power the answer to the Middle East’s power needs?

Brighterskies aheadCan solar make a breakthrough?

No, the conditions here don’t suit the technology

It can help, but conventional power is still key

It’s our best bet - costs are down and sun is plentiful

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REGIONAL UPDATE

4 Utilities Middle East l August 2012 www.utilities-me.com

Turbines commissioned at Hail-2

TAQA finalises $1.4bn financingLoan deal will help fund 700 MW Morocco power plant expansion plans

Abu Dhabi National Energy Com-pany (TAQA) has reported that its subsidiary Jorf Lasfar Energy Company has reached an agree-ment over USD $1.4 billion in proj-ect financing for the 700 MW expansion of the company’s Jorf Lasfar power project in Morocco. The expansion at the coal-fired plant will see the facility’s gross capacity raised to 2,056 MW, with unit commissioning scheduled for December 2013 and April 2014.

The mandated lead arrangers for the international debt facilities are BNP Paribas, Société Générale and Standard Chartered Bank, rep-resenting around 40% of the total debt. Japanese and Korean credit agencies – Japan Bank for Interna-tional Cooperation, Nippon Export and Investment Insurance and

Plant capacity will be boosted by 280MW.

Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Water and Electricity, Abdullah bin Abdul-rahman Al Hossein, has agreed a number of contracts to imple-ment a range of water and waste-water schemes in locations around the Kingdom. The total value of the deals has been put at US $137.6 mil-lion.

Amongst the contracts announced was a $35 million deal to build infrastructure to carry puri-fied water to the West Al-Qassim region, together with a $53.6 mil-lion agreement to build a pumping station and reservoirs. Elsewhere, a $6.5 million agreement was reached for the installation of water meters in Ha’il city and its suburbs, as well as a reservoir and water dis-tribution station for Asir province.

Saudi invests $137m in water

Pentair wins RAK desal contractPentair X-Flow has agreed a deal with Aquatech Eastern for the provision of the company’s Seaf-lex 55 ultrafiltration (UF) mem-branes and skids for the Fed-eral Electricity & Water Author-ity (FEWA) Seawater Reverse Osmosis plant being built in Ras Al Khaimah. The project, owned by FEWA, is being built at Ghalli-lah and is scheduled for comple-tion in late 2013, with an output of 68,000m3 per day. When com-pleted, the site will have an esti-mated UF permeate capacity of 7,125 m3 per hour on a continuous basis.

The X-Flow UF membranes were chosen to provide optimum pretreatment for the reverse osmosis membranes.

Siemens has reported that it has commissioned the first two of four gas turbines ahead of schedule at the Hail-2 Extension III power project in Saudi Arabia. The com-pany, together with local EPC Alfa-

nar, has supplied Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) with two SGT6-2000E gas turbine units, as part of the 280 MW expansion project at the site.

Speaking on the deal, Sie-mens Saudi Arabia CEO Arja Tal-akar said, “The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has announced major investments in the development of local infrastructure and we are proud to contribute to this rapid development and to the realisation of the Kingdom’s ambitious indus-trialisation plans.”

Siemens has previously sup-plied two gas turbine units to the Hail-2 Extension II in a record 12 months timeframe in 2011. Saudi is currently seeking to rapidly esca-late power production, with the population set to increase to 40 mil-lion within this decade.

TAQA’s Frank Perez said that financing was secured despite ongoing global market instability.

Export-Import Bank of Korea – are providing over 50% of total project debt.

“This announcement marks a significant milestone in TAQA’s development as a major provider of power generation in Morocco and across the MENA region. We are excited to play a crucial role in the national energy strategy of a rapidly growing country like Morocco. Despite the ongoing instability in global financial mar-kets, we have successfully secured sophisticated international financ-ing arrangements from Asian, European and Moroccan lenders across multiple currencies, total-ing USD 1.4 billion equivalent,” said Frank Perez, TAQA execu-tive officer and head of power and water.

REGIONAL UPDATE

www.utilities-me.com August 2012 l Utilities Middle East 5

NWC reveals Jeddah sewer planWork will see city sewage networks rehabilitated in $1.1billion upgradeSaudi Arabia’s National Water Company has announced plans to spend more than US $1.1 billion developing Jeddah’s water and sewage network. Work is set to take place across the older parts of the city and will include the instal-lation of larger diameter lines to increase water intake capacity, as well as the installation of new pumping stations, modern carrier lines and new household connec-tions.

Work on the northern region of the city is scheduled to start in the middle of 2013 and will con-tinue into 2016. The project will involve supplying and install-ing sub networks for sanitation, NWC is planning to connect more areas of the city to the main Jeddah sewage system.

Mass Global selects GE turbines for Kurdistan power contractMass Global Investment Com-pany (Mass Global) has chosen GE steam turbine technology to boost the efficiency and output of the Erbil power site in Kurdistan. GE will provide two GE C-7 steam turbines to raise plant output by 500 MW and increase thermal effi-ciency to over 48%.

“Mass Global continues to be at

Alstom to work on Riyadh PP12Alstom Thermal Power has agreed a deal valued at over US $120 mil-lion with Arabian Bemco Contract-ing Company to provide the steam tail for the Riyadh PP12 gas-fired plant. The project, currently under construction by Saudi Electric-ity Company, is located 100 kilo-metres west of Riyadh and is set to produce 2,175 MW of power when completed.

The contract incorporates the supply of two 342 MW steam tur-bine generator sets, together with eight Heat Recovery Steam Gener-ators. The plant will utilise exhaust gases from its gas turbines to gen-erate steam to power steam tur-bines, increasing fuel efficiency with a combined cycle design.

Alstom has experience install-ing steam tails across the region, including at Dubai’s Condor/Kes-trel 125MW aluminium smelter in Jebel Ali.

ACWA Power International has announced that its subsid-iary ACWA Power Barka has been given the green light to expand capacity at the Barka Independent Water project by 10 million gallons per day.

The company has been granted a “Letter of Award” by Oman Power and Water Procurement Company (OPWP) for the proj-ect, which is located 65 kilometres north of Muscat.

The plans are subject to cus-tomary approval by the Board of Directors and company sharehold-ers, whilst the project is set to be funded by a syndicated loan from local and regional financial insti-tutions. Work on the expansion, adjacent to the existing plant, will begin before the close of the third quarter of 2012, with the company targeting a fourth quarter 2013 completion.

Barka IWP set for expansion

the forefront of meeting the power requirements of the Kurdistan Iraq region. Converting our Erbil facility to combined-cycle service supports the Kurdistan Regional Government’s policy to increase the thermal efficiency of its power generation facilities. This new agreement builds on our growing relationship with GE, a global tech-nology leader, whose proven and reliable advanced energy technol-ogy has been employed in our gas power facilities since 2006,” said Mass Global chairman Ahmad Ismail.

The increased output is enough to serve an additional 100,000 households, and will also mark the first combined-cycle power project in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. The new steam turbines will be installed alongside eight GE Frame 9E gas turbines currently in operation at the site.

and will require digging around 252km of tunnels. The company is also installing a pumping station and carrier line to the wastewater treatment plant, which is aiming to come online by the end of 2015. A three-way sewage treatment plant is also planned for the far-north of the city, with a capacity of one mil-lion cubic metres per day.

Areas of Jeddah – in the south of the city – are currently not cov-ered by existing sewage services, and NWC is aiming to bring these regions to the network with new main and sub-line sewage links, together with a three-way treat-ment plant and individual house-hold sewage connections.

GE will increase plant output by 500MW.

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REGIONAL UPDATE


Iraq launches Missan plantKorea’s STX completes 200MW project to boost grid

The new Missan plant will contribute 200MW to the struggling Iraqi grid and will also boost employment opportunities in the local province.

New Middle east projects total $32.7bNA report by Ventures Middle East has valued new invest-ment in the Middle East’s power and water sector at US $32.7 billion, with 97 projects set to begin con-struction in 2012. Strong demand for electricity and rapidly rising water con-sumption has spurred on investment in the region, with the UAE alone initiat-ing projects valued at $1.5bn this year.

Megger acquires sebaKMtMegger has announced the acquisition of SebaKMT, the pipe leakage detection and cable testing specialist, to boost its worldwide testing portfolio. Megger has said that the deal will enhance its current offerings, whilst Se-baKMT will benefit from the firm’s technical and financial resources.

gaza faciNg potable water crisisThe Gaza office of the Organisation of Islamic Co-operation (OIC) has warned of a severe potable water shortage in the Gaza Strip. The OIC says that the terri-tory is dependent on pol-luted underground water sources, with 95% of total water not fit for drinking, and 80% containing salt lev-els in excess of international safety limits.The report, which also called for donors to supply the ter-ritory with desalination facil-ities and sanitation systems, warned that fuel shortages at the solitary power station in the Gaza Strip were likely to cause power outages.

News iN brief

Iraqi Electricity Minister Kareem Aftan Al-Jumaili has officially launched a new US $220 million power station in Missan, aimed at bolstering power production in the country. The new facility, which has a capacity of 200MW, has been constructed by South Korea’s STX Corporation who will now also be responsible for maintaining the plant for the next two years. As

DEWA says that the new substation in Jebel Ali Free Zone will enhance grid reliability.

tion to the main 132/11kV substation in north Jebel Ali Free Zone, and the main 400/132kV substation located in the south Jebel Ali Free Zone,

DEWA launches $39.2m substationDubai Electricity and Water Author-ity (DEWA) has announced that it has commissioned a new prin-ciple substation in Jebel Ali Free Zone. The new 132/11kV station, with a transmission capacity of 150 MVA, has cost US $29.5 million, and has also necessitated laying 132kV underground cabling valued at a fur-ther $9.7 million.

“This AED 144 million project will enhance DEWA’s network capacity to transmit power to the south Jebel Ali Free Zone, with 4.75 kilometres of underground cables offering a volt-age of 132kV. It connects the new sta-

well as meeting energy demands, the site is expected to provide a boost to employment opportunities within the local province.

The additional capacity will immediately make a modest con-tribution to alleviating the intense energy shortages Iraq is currently enduring – with the country cur-rently only producing around 7,000 MW of electricity, whilst demand is

over 15,000 MW. The country cur-rently is only able to ensure elec-tricity supplies for 8 hours each day, with frequent power outages, which has forced Iraq to look to expensive energy import deals to cope with peak summer demand.

Under the deal, Iraq will pay 50% of the project costs after one year of operation and then pay the remain-der after two years.

guaranteeing constant and reli-able services to all consumers at all times,” said HE Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD and CEO of DEWA.

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REGIONAL UPDATE


Kuwait loan for Al-Samra plantKuwait Fund will help finance procurement of new 140 MW steam turbine

Jordan’s Al-Samra Power Gen-eration Company has entered into a US $134 million loan agree-ment with the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development (KFAED) to help finance the third expansion stage of the Al-Samra power site. A related Guarantee Agreement was finalised between Jordan and Kuwait at the same time.

The expansion project is planned to include the procure-ment and installation of a 140 MW steam turbine unit to work on heat recovery from the two simple cycle gas turbines at the plant. Jordan is currently ramp- The loan agreement will help finance a 140MW turbine to work on heat recovery at the plant.

ing up its electricity capacity to meet rising demand, with rising fuel prices forcing the Kingdom to rely heavily on electricity imports. The country is also engaged on the preliminary stages of a nuclear programme which has been delayed after security concerns raised by the conflict in Syria.

Jordan’s Minister of Finance, Suleiman Al-Hafez, has said that the loan maturity is 24 years - with a grace period of four years - and will be repaid over 40 installments. It is the 26th loan provided by the KFAED to Jordan, with the total loaned now standing at $554 mil-lion.

Bahrain electricity use surges higher

Siemens has appointed Kay Zwing-enberger as its new UAE CEO for operations in the UAE.

Zwingenberger first joined Sie-mens in 1992, initially working for the company throughout Europe. His previous positions include spearheading the development of the Siemens Healthcare sector in Ukraine and heading up the Health-care sector for Siemens in Russia.

In the UAE, home to Siemens’ Middle East headquarters since 1999, Zwingenberger will continue to build on the company’s global strategy of innovation, knowledge transfer and investment in emerg-ing markets.

Commenting on the appoint-ment, Erich Kaeser, CEO of Sie-mens Middle East, said: “Kay Zwingenberger brings with him two decades of experience of work-ing with Siemens and has a proven track record of growing the com-pany’s business. We look forward to continuing the 40-year success

Bahrain’s Energy Minister Dr Abdul Hussain bin Ali Mirza has said that electricity consumption in the Kingdom is forecast to increase 12% on 2011 figures. Speaking with Bahrain’s Al Ayam, the Minis-ter has said that the country is cur-rently producing electricity at a sur-plus, but did not reject the possibil-ity of power cuts over the summer months. He has stated that the Elec-tricity and Water Authority (EWA) is aiming to shorten the duration of any power outages. The Minister also emphasised the need for power conservation and energy efficiency.

story of Siemens in the UAE as a trusted long-term partner and employer, and a responsible corpo-rate citizen.”

“The UAE is a thriving, rapidly-developing nation and Siemens is committed to strengthening fur-

Zwingenberger first joined Siemens in 1992 and was previously CEO for Central Asia.

Siemens appoints Zwingenberger as new UAE CEO

ther its engagement in realising the country’s ongoing economic diver-sification, creating job opportuni-ties for young Emiratis, and sup-porting the transfer of know-how and technology,” Zwingenberger said.

12%Increase in Bahrain’s 2012 energy consumption over previous year

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Monday 10th September, 2012 GRAND HYATT, DOHA

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InternatIonal Update

Fukushima “profoundly manmade”Report on disaster calls for fundamental reform of Japan’s nuclear industry

Serious failings have been found in the operation and regulation of Japan’s nuclear industry.

Kiyoshi Kurokawa presents the final report to Japan’s parliament speaker Takahiro Yokomichi.

less effective response – with the panel even noting that sections of the ‘severe accident instruc-tion manual’ were missing cru-cial diagrams related to such inci-dents. The report says that once

the station was in total blackout, these deficiencies meant that it was impossible to alter the course of events. The government, reg-ulators, TEPCO’s management and the Prime Minister’s office are

also held to have been ill-prepared to effectively coordinate an emer-gency response to a disaster of such scale.

Evacuation arrangements are also criticised, with only 20% of the residents of Fukushima found to have been aware of the acci-dent at the time when the evacu-ation was ordered from the 3km zone. The authors suggest that the negative attitudes of regula-tors towards revising emergency plans led to confusion over what was expected of residents – indeed, some residents were actually evac-uated to areas of high-dosage radi-ation because radiation monitoring information wasn’t provided.

Chairman of the commission Kiyoshi Kurokawa, in his open-ing remarks on the report, says “Although triggered by cataclys-mic events, the subsequent acci-dent at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant cannot be regarded as a natural disaster. It was a profoundly manmade disas-ter – that could and should have been foreseen and prevented.”

The UAE’s Federal Authority for Nuclear Regulation (FANR), earlier this year, released its own review of the disaster during its review of the licencing pro-cess for the country’s first reac-tors. It concluded that a number of design enhancements were neces-sary, based around the ‘extremely unlikely’ possibility of severe flood-ing that could present a challenge to plant safety.

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The Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation Com-mission, made up of members of the National Diet of Japan, in July released its final report on the Fukushima nuclear disaster. The report – the product of six months of investigation – has said in stark terms that the incident was a ‘man-made disaster’, caused by organisa-tional and regulatory systems that failed to promote ‘the most basic safety requirements’. Members of the Commission have called for fundamental reforms to the struc-ture of the electric power indus-try, the operational processes of the nuclear industry, and the reg-ulatory agencies involved in the sector.

The report states that the direct causes of the accident were all foreseeable ahead of the tsunami and earthquake that struck the Fukushima plant in 2011. Despite this, the plant was not capable of withstanding either event, even though the operator TEPCO and the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) were aware of the need for structural reinforce-ments to meet new guidelines. The report’s authors say that the neces-sary enhancements to the site had not been undertaken at the time of the accident due to ‘tacit consent’ by NISA for a significant delay in reinforcing the site. In addition, NISA was aware that measures had not been undertaken to reduce or remove the risk of reactor core damage if a tsunami damaged the seawater pumps.

The Commission also found that “organisational problems” within TEPCO led to many issues with the accident response initiated after the incident. Deficiencies in training and equipment inspection related to severe accidents led to a

80%Percentage of residents unaware of accident when evacuation of 3km zone was ordered

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INTERNATIONAL UPDATE


India boosts hydroChamera III set to produce 233.6MW Alstom has reported that it has successfully completed the Cha-mera III hydropower plant, located in the Chamba district of India’s Himachal Pradesh, on the river Ravi. The project has been com-pleted three weeks ahead of sched-ule, with full load on the three 77 MW units producing a total 233.6 MW output. The units have now been handed over to the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) who has declared the start of commercial operations.

“Hydroelectric power is essen-tial to achieve the ambitious goal of the Indian government to expand the “Twelfth Plan” to 90000 MW. Alstom worked very closely with the customer and we are pleased to announce the successful com-pletion of the Chamera III project, which has further enhanced our reputation in India and the Middle East,” said Alstom Hydro India’s MD Alain Spohr.

The Chamera III project is the fi rst turnkey-basis scheme under-taken by Alstom, with Indian unit

Each turbine unit has a 77MW capacity.

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www.haefely.com [email protected]

Vadodara designing, manufactur-ing and supplying turbines, gen-erator, control and protection sys-tems and the main inlet valve. The scheme is aiming to improve both the electricity supply to the local area – providing additional grid sta-bility – and regional water supply.

Alstom has previously set a new benchmark for the spinning of turbines within the Indian hydro sector – recording a rated speed of 333 rotations per minute in a record time of less than 10 hours – on three Francis vertical turbines.

(AFD) will provide a soft loan of $83.6 million, in addition to a grant for capacity building and a pro-gramme on energy efi fi ciency co-fi nanced with the Asian Develop-ment Bank. France pledged to pro-vide Pakistan with $368 million in funds for the country’s develop-ment in 2009. With this latest proj-ect announcement, it has now invested funds of $261.7 million in the country’s power and water sectors, amounting to 73% of that pledge.

AFD is already supporting the development of renewable energy in Pakistan, with the 22 MW Mal-akand District project.

$83.6m deal for Pakistan siteFrance has signed a US $83.6 mil-lion deal with Pakistan to fund the 48 MW Jaggran II hydro-power project, located north-east of Muzaffarabad. According to the Associated Press of Pakistan, the plant is set to be sited down-stream of the existing Jaggran I hydro-plant, a 30.4 MW plant that has been operational since 2000. The project is planned to be com-missioned in 2015, and is aimed at alleviating energy shortages in the region, with 1.2 million people cur-rently living in the Muzaffarabad area.

Under the agreement, the French Development Agency

www.utilities-me.comwww.utilities-me.com

A s the Middle East forges ahead with ambi-tious plans for its power and water indus-tries, there is a continuous need to ensure that the technology being used is as effi cient, reliable and future-proof as possible. Devel-

opment in the utilities sector is being driven by a real, critical demand for energy and water, so only the most cutting-edge technology will suffi ce.

Here we profi le companies that are consistently pushing at the boundaries of technological development to ensure that the plants being built and operated now are as effi cient - and profi table - as possible. Whether it is in the creation of a new energy-saving membrane, an ultra-secure wireless network or a renewables solution specially designed for the region, these fi rms are driving innovation and the Middle East for-ward.

INNOVATIVE SUPPLIERS

UTILITIES MIDDLE EAST PROFILES THE TOP COMPANIES DRIVING INNOVATION AND THE MIDDLE EAST FORWARD



www.utilities-me.com August2012 � Utilities Middle East 13

With an annual R&D spend of over US $1.3 bil-lion, ABB clearly places a good deal of impor-tance on developing technology. The company has research centres around the globe, focused on keeping development close to the local market and the customer to make sure it meets an area’s specifi c requirements.

The company has recently strengthened its solar technology portfolio with investments in Novatec Solar and GreenVolts, and now offers the only complete and fully integrated concen-trating PV system. The fi rm says that these plants can deliver between 30 and 40 percent more energy than traditional silicon or thin-fi lm PV technologies in high Direct Normal Irradi-ance areas.

The fi rm is now ready to further invest in local R&D and manufacturing to localise its solar foot-print in the region. It has over 40 years experience working in the Middle East, and believes that this gives it a wide experience of the local environ-ment, and of the networks, which makes it well-placed as an industry partner for the successful integration of solar power.

AES has been designing and installing membrane treatment systems since 1985, and has taken up an important role in developing reverse osmosis through such things as improved pre-treatment meth-ods and innovative, cost-effective designs. At 11,000 square metres, the company’s Riyadh manufacturing and support facil-ity is one of the largest in the Middle East, and allows AES to operate throughout the region.

“The scarcity of water has pushed the envelope for water engineering to the limits, and in countries as dry as Saudi Arabia, this poses the ultimate challenge for engineers to keep coming up with inno-vative and effective solutions,” says Asad

Iqbal Khan, business development man-ager.

Such innovation saw the fi rm recently work with one client to successfully boost the yield from a very challenging well water source. Faced with very hard water, containing silica, iron and sus-pended solids, the fi rm employed tech-niques including media fi ltration, low-pres-sure RO and high rejection membranes to increase the yield to 7,200 m3/day, from a total inlet of 7,950 m3/day.

The fi rm now has expansion and invest-ment plans in several countries, and is cur-rently taking steps to invest in research and development to further advance its water and wastewater expertise.

ABBPOWER PRODUCTS AND SYSTEMS

AES ARABIAWATER AND WASTEWATER TREATMENT, DESALINATION



Aggreko has been active in the Middle East for over 20 years, and claims the world’s largest fl eet of generators, backed by a workforce of over 4,500 around the world. The company has offi ces in Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, providing temporary power solutions to utilities, oil & gas and construction customers.

The fi rm’s ‘Orange Excellence’ programme, launched two years ago, has been aimed at promot-ing best practices throughout its

business – emphasising safety and operational effi ciency. The fi rm is also focused on ensuring that its business embraces environmental sustainability.

“On any project we deliver, no matter where in the world, we make a signifi cant effort to scale up or scale down in order to be as effi cient as possible. We rec-ognise, evaluate and responsi-bly manage our environmental risks,” says managing director Phil Burns.

AGGREKORENTAL POWER

Alstom appears to be an ever-pres-ent in the region’s power sector, with its recent projects spanning everything from hydropower in Turkey to Kuwait smart grid oper-ations. The company also recently reported that it had completed work on Saudi’s 1.2 GW Shoaiba III power project 107 days ahead of schedule – a project built around Alstom’s STF40 steam turbines and GIGATOP 2-pole turbogene-rators.

The fi rm says it is able to achieve the highest effi ciencies

With a client list that includes Saudi Electric Company, Aramco and the UAE’s Federal Electric-ity and Water Authority (FEWA), Aquatech’s expertise is clearly well respected in the Middle East. In areas including the recycle and reuse of wastewater, and thermal and membrane desalination, the company has a wide range of expe-rience to draw upon.

The fi rm is currently engaged with a $82 million FEWA proj-ect to build a 15 million gallon per day seawater RO based desali-nation facility. Located in Ras Al Khaimah, the project has been recognised as one of the most energy effi cient desalination facil-ities in the region, and utilises dis-solved air fl otation, ultrafi ltration and post treatment packages.

In Kuwait, the fi rm is working with EQUATE Petrochemical Com-pany as part of an environmental ini-tiative to reduce the water consump-tion and carbon emissions associ-ated with purifying water.

ALSTOMPOWER GENERATION

AQUATECHWATER TREATMENT

of emission removal of pollutants in the exhaust gas of power plants, adapting to various fuels and min-imising consumption of reagents and power.

A recent contract win to supply the steam tail for Saudi Electric Company’s Riyadh PP12 gas-fi red plant will see it utilise two 342 MW steam-turbine generator sets, and eight Heat Recovery Steam Gen-erators, offered in an innovative integrated package to boost elec-tricity output at the site by an addi-tional 4 MW.

$82MValue of FEWA project to build a 15 million gallon

per day seawater RO based desalination facility

PO Box: 68919 Al Ain, UAE Tel: +971-37847752 Fax: +971-37847742 E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.egpi.ae

SECURING WATER AND GAS TRANSPORT

POLYETHYLENE PIPES



Established in 1873, Atlas Copco has grown into a global business with 37,500 employees working to provide products including compressors, air treatment systems and expanders. With 11% of the company’s total business coming from the Middle East and Africa region in 2011, the fi rm’s innovation has played an important part in the region’s utilities, industry and construction sectors.

The company recently launched its new ZS oil-free screw blower in the region, an advance the company says has signifi cant advantages for the Middle East’s water and wastewater industries. Unlike conventional lobe blowers that rely on splash lubrication, the company’s ZS screw blow-ers requires far less energy to run, and is signifi cantly less likely to require maintenance or suffer from mechanical failure. With lower operational costs and a smaller carbon footprint, Atlas Copco says that the region’s water treatment plans have already started to switch to the technology.

Bentley’s software solutions for infrastructure have helped support project developments around the globe. Having spent over $1 billion in research, development and acquisitions since 2003, Bentley products such as Water-GEMS and SewerGEMS have been employed by utilities across the Middle East region.

Sharjah Electricity and Water Authority (SEWA) recently used the fi rm’s WaterGEMS platform to plan and manage Sharjah’s water networks. The software was used for critical analysis to determine the impact of ser-vice outages and critical segments and pressure zones. As a result of this research, network improvements meant that SEWA was able to redistrib-ute water to areas where water fl ow was insuffi cient to help meet demand. In addition, water leakage was reduced from 18.7% to 8.9% across the network.

ATLAS COPCOCOMPRESSORS, EXPANDERS AND AIR TREATMENT SYSTEMS

BENTLEYINFRASTRUCTURE SOFTWARE SOLUTIONS

With utilities operators becoming increasingly aware of the existence of cyber threats to automation systems, Cassidain CyberSecurity’s recent launch of its Security Operation Centre has been timely. Utilising indus-trial fi rewalls, whitelisting and deep packet inspection of data, the fi rm has created an integrated system to protect the information systems of critical national infrastructure.

“We have analysed the threats energy systems are facing, then we have looked at what the defences for this are, and we have integrated these into our Security Operations Centre – one system integrating all the means for security that is easy to deploy in the fi eld and is closest to the automation system,” says Guy Meguer, Middle East general man-ager.

CASSIDIAN CYBERSECURITYINFORMATION PROTECTION

Unbenannt-2 1 23.04.2008 9:42:26 Uhr


A leader in purifi cation and separation tech-nology, Dow has been pushing advances in ion exchange and membrane technologies to enable more energy-effi cient, more sustain-able water processes. The company’s portfo-lio of products includes RO and ultrafi ltration membranes, which have been used across the region in desalination, water treatment and reclamation applications.

“In the last decade, Dow has reduced water purifi cation energy requirements by 50%, and we made a public commitment for another 35% reduction by 2015, which we seek to accom-plish through R&D investment on lowering the cost of water purifi ed both from the capital expenditure and operational expenditure per-spective,” says Dr Ilham Kadri, commercial director of the fi rm’s Water and Process Solu-tions division MEA.

Driven by a rising interest in smart solutions, metering specialist Diehl sees a great deal of opportunity in the Middle East region. The company believes local authorities, such as DEWA and ADWEA, together with ambitious plans from Saudi and Qatar, will drive the fi rm’s smart meter business.

The company has a focus on automatic meter reading solutions – such as a recent project in Dammam – that uses a radio network for meter readings which doesn’t require manual intervention. Moreover, the fi rm believes that the massive energy and water consumption in the region creates a real need for the energy-effi ciency benefi ts of full smart metering solutions.

DOW WATER & PROCESS SOLUTIONSWATER TREATMENT

Ducab was the very fi rst Emirati company to attain the ISO 14001 environmental certifi ca-tion and was also the fi rst manufacturing fi rm to be awarded the Emirates Quality Mark by the Emirates Authority for Standardisation and Metrology in the UAE.

Product innovations include the launch of single and multi-core fi re resistant cables, low smoke and fume cables, and instrumentation and pilot cables.

The fi rm now produces power cables and accessories to customers in 40 countries, with three manufacturing factories that have a capacity of over 110,000 metal tonnes of high, medium and low voltage cables and wires per annum.

DUCABCABLING


DIEHL METERINGSMART METERING

“We are building a robust infrastructure in the region to design innovations which are responding to local needs” Dr Ilham Kadri, Dow W&PS.



As a company focused on developing technol-ogy, DuPont launched 1,742 new products last year across a vast range of sectors. The com-pany had more than 9,500 scientists and engi-neers working from research centres based around the world.

The company’s work on solar technology has seen it develop its Apollo thin fi lm PV mod-ules that use an innovative amorphous thin fi lm technology which the fi rm says has a better tol-erance to heat, humidity and weak light. The company is also developing polyimide fi lms for the fl exible and thin fi lm PV industry that it expects will increase effi ciency in CIGS PV applications.

With the Middle East currently claiming the largest share of the company’s biggest projects, Emerson’s innovation in the region is well known. The fi rm saw 33% of its global sales came from new products in 2011, and it won 864 patents throughout last year. In the region, a strategy of opening local facilities close to its customers – such as its Saudi Arabia facility and the recently-opened Ras Laffan service centre – has meant the fi rm can develop local talent and expertise specifi -cally focused on the Middle East.

The growth of the region’s util-ities sector has seen fast process improvements. Emerson has seen particular interest in its wireless technologies, with around 20% of its MENA pressure, temperature and level measurement business coming from wireless adoption.

The company recently launched its Smart Wireless Plan-ning Tool, allowing utilities oper-ators to upload an image of their facility online, design a wireless network and check it against the industry best practices.

“We’re changing the way people interact with the systems and devices that they use to mon-itor and control their processes. These innovations may seem more subtle than a new block-buster device like a turbine or a membrane, but they change the way our industry operates – improving profi ts for our cus-tomers and the quality of life for the people who interact with our equipment. We take pride in living up to our slogan, ‘It’s never been done before’,” says the compa-ny’s marketing director Andrew Dennant.

EMERSON PROCESS MANAGEMENTAUTOMATION TECHNOLOGIES AND SERVICES

DUPONTSOLAR TECHNOLOGY

Dubai’s Empower, established as a joint venture by DEWA and TECOM to provide Dubai with district cooling services, has projected investments of over $2.4 billion over the next fi ve years. The company has set itself the target of four million cooling tonnes by 2015; a goal it says is realistic and attainable.

The company, led by CEO Ahmad Bin Shafar, has recently claimed a gold award at the International District Energy Association’s Annual Conference in Chicago, recognising its total square footage committed to district cooling.

The company emphasised the environmental benefi ts of using dis-trict cooling, suggesting that the technology is at the forefront of cooling solutions – ensuring sustainability and conserving energy resources.

EMPOWERDISTRICT COOLING



Having been involved in the Middle East for close to a century, GE has played an important role in the development of the region’s utilities sector. The company claims to currently sup-port the generation of over 40% of the Middle East’s electricity, and purifi es 800 million litres of water each day.

The company is currently supporting Saudi Electricity Company’s Riyadh PP10 power proj-ect - providing steam turbine technology, power generation services and distributed control sys-tems to convert the plant from simple to com-

The launch of Honeywell’s new UAE facility in February of this year was a continuation of the company’s long involvement in the Middle East utilities sector. Aimed at improving customer support and closer proximity to prospects in the region, the facility will boost the fi rm’s Process Solutions and Scanning & Mobility divisions.

The fi rm is also focused on developing smart grid solutions, recently creating a dedi-cated global team to develop smart grids capa-ble of managing increases in global demand that is forecast to grow 40 percent by 2035. The fi rm believes that its experience in creating and implementing demand response and energy effi ciency programmes for utilities will stand it in good stead in creating smart grids for the region.

With an average investment of 10% of annual rev-enues invested in R&D, together with 44% of the company’s 62,000 employees’ efforts, Huawei clearly views innovation as a key driver. The com-pany is engaged with utilities across the Middle East, offering smart grid solutions that encompass communication and service solutions.

The company believes that regional smart grid adoption requires an integrated ICT plat-form where end-to-end communication and con-nectivity infrastructure will play a key role. It has developed smart metering embedded with cellular connectivity which it says will allow util-

ity companies to focus on their core business of power generation and delivery.

“Overall, the adoption of Huawei’s smart grid solutions and, in particular, Advanced Metering Infrastructure, brings many added values to the core business of utility companies. From boost-ing operational effi ciency and agility, reducing costs, power loss and theft, to automating power distribution, our smart grid solutions are able to provide greater balance of supply and demand for energy consumption and customer transpar-ency,” says Special Industries Solutions princi-pal consultant Abdelrahman Abdellatif.

HUAWEISMART GRID SOLUTIONS

HONEYWELLELECTRICAL SOLUTIONS,SYSTEM AUTOMATION

bined-cycle operation. This will add 1,300 MW to the plant’s output without increasing fuel requirements, signifi cantly boosting operational effi ciency.

The company is also partnered with research centres and universities, including at its GE Energy Fuel Research Centre at King Fahd Uni-versity of Petroleum and Minerals, which looks at the promotion of alternative fuels.

“We are committed to localising innova-

tion and technology by enabling local advanced manufacturing, repair and

knowledge sharing initiatives. We have recently invested more than $500 million on localisation initiatives – signifi cant among them being the $250 million GE Energy Manufactur-ing Technology Centre in Saudi Arabia,” says Joseph Anis, GE Energy president and CEO for the Middle East.

GEPOWER GENERATION AND WATER SUPPLY


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5TH NOVEMBER 2012THE WESTIN, ABU DHABI

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government representatives to promote sustainability initiatives in the Middle East

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Water specialist Passavant-Roedi-ger is active across the Middle East, with current projects including a wastewater plant in Nablus, Pales-tine, to serve a population of 150,000, and the municipal Wastewater Treat-ment Plant Wadi Shallala in Jordan. Having completed over 1,500 plants worldwide, and with a history span-ning 170 years, the fi rm has consid-erable experience in sludge diges-tion and water treatment.

The company has created its Sequential Gas Lance Mixing System for sludge digestors, aimed at reducing the quantity of the main by-product of sewage treatment, as well as making it suitable for envi-ronmental discharge. Using fl ex-ible lances, the system reduces

operational costs and prevents the formation of deposits , in addi-tion to maximising the amount of biogas released for re-use in plant operation.

“Our extensive process know-how, proven in numerous projects, perfectly combines science and practice so that clients can expect fully-developed, well-engineered and proven technology systems that are always perfectly adapted whilst considering local circum-stances. The company’s princi-ple is not only to comply with the regulatory requirements and accepted practices, but also to fur-ther develop our high internal stan-dards,” says managing director Dr Mazen Bachir.

For over a century, Megger prod-ucts have been used in major util-ities around the world, where the company’s testing equipment has ensured the correct, effi cient and safe operation of the power net-works. Since introducing the fi rst portable insulation heater in 1889, the fi rm has built its reputation on innovation – introducing the fi rst commercial cable fault locator in 1950 and the fi rst completely auto-matic, software driven protective relay test system in 1984.

Today it continues to innovate with the launch of its Delta4000 test set which features indepen-dent temperature correction – overcoming the issue of inaccu-rate temperature correction of insulation test results taken at high or low temperatures. The product also features automatic detection of non-linear response, giving the operator a warning and suggesting additional tests are undertaken at different voltage levels.

MEGGERELECTRICAL TESTING EQUIPMENT

MWH GLOBALWATER & WASTEWATER

With previous experience in Middle East projects such as the Jebel Ali sewage treatment plant in Dubai under its belt, MWH Global is no stranger to the region. Recently named as management contractor for the fi ve-year Qatar Drainage Asset Management Programme, the company will now apply its expertise to upgrading Qatar’s drainage systems, working on aspects such as its wastewater treatment and treated sewage effl uent systems.

The company says that it is focused on ensuring that its product develop-ment concentrates on reducing the impact on the environment whilst meet-ing the needs of its clients through superior project design and delivery.

NYMPHEA ENVIRONMENTSUB-SEA SPRING EXPLOITATION

In a region with such pressure on its water reserves, a company that has demonstrated a successful exploitation of otherwise-untapped under-water springs appears impressively innovative. Nymphea has claimed to do just that - using a system that requires no energy or pumps, their system can draw water from sub-sea springs without contamination from the surrounding seawater.

The company has identifi ed potential sites around the Middle East, including sites in Oman and the UAE. Springs in Syria have also been found with a volume of over 5,000 litres per second – potentially enough to meet the water needs of a city of one million people.

PASSAVANT-ROEDIGER WATER AND WASTEWATER TREATMENT




Siemens holds almost 58,000 pat-ents, an incredible fi gure that is no doubt a product of the compa-ny’s impressive annual spend on research and development. In 2011 the fi rm spent $4.8 billion on R&D, whilst its employees dis-closed 8,600 inventions – a fi gure the fi rm says represents a 10% increase year-on-year.

One example of this innova-tion is the fi rm’s development of an innovative wind turbine blade, based on Aeroelastic Tailored

Blade technology. The fi rm says that the new blade form can with-stand harsh conditions far better than conventional rotors, whilst larger rotors can be designed without any increase in aerody-namic load. With a blade of 53 metres in length, this can boost energy yield by 5% whilst weigh-ing 500kgs less than previously.

In the region, the fi rm has drawn attention with its project to create a new manufacturing hub in Saudi Arabia, aimed at supply-ing power equipment to the local market which is experiencing massive energy demand growth. The company is also active in Iraq, including work on the country’s Al Mussaib power plant to provide new rotating elements for four 320 MW steam turbines.

POWERTECH SWITCHGEAR INDUSTRIESLOW VOLTAGE PANEL BUILDER

Since its founding in 1989 as Al Ahli Trading, Powertech Switch-gear Industries has grown into one of the UAE’s leading low volt-age panel builders and switch-gear manufacturers, employing over 95 staff in its state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities in Dubai and Ajman.

The fi rm was recently named as one of the fi rst authorised value provider partners to ABB in the UAE; a development made possible because of the company’s focus on constant

trouble shooting and a solutions-driven approach within budgetary limitations.

“Powertech pushes for con-stant in-house research and devel-opment to identify manufactur-ing and design methods that cut costs and time and simultaneously increase effi ciency. As a value provider partner to ABB, Pow-ertech’s quality standards remain high as they are regularly audited to meet ABB’s own quality bench-marks,” says Arthi Srinivasan, marketing manager with the fi rm.

RSSTEMPORARY POWER AND COOLING SOLUTIONS

RSS temporary power solutions can be seen in action through-out the Middle East, but the fi rm also claims substantial exper-tise in providing temporary cool-ing solutions to customers across the region. Recently, the company has provided temporary cool-ing to Dubai Investment Park in a record-breaking 4 hours, and has supplied 500 Abu Dhabi villas with cooling when nobody could solve the local district cooling network problems.

The fi rm is the fi rst rental company to provide a mobile Energy Transfer Station (ETS), a system that helps regulate the temperature according to cus-tomer requirements through an exchange process to adapt incom-ing and outgoing outputs.

“Rather than buying expensive

chillers to supply several build-ing for a few months, district cool-ing companies have opened their doors to RSS. Thus, a new innova-tive solution was born – rental dis-trict cooling, large tonnage stand-alone cooling and multiple site cooling,” says group marketing manager Robert Bagatsing.

Schneider Electric’s investment in R&D is certainly striking – the company invested over $1.2 bil-lion in 2011 alone, with 9,000 R&D engineers employed around the globe and 385 new patent applica-tions submitted. The company’s breadth of experience is similarly impressive, with interests includ-ing smart metering, district cool-ing and water treatment.

The company has been oper-ating in the region for over 30 years, with its efforts to provide cleantech solutions recently rec-ognised by the Masdar-initiated

Zayed Future Energy prize, where the company was named as the winner in the 2012 ‘large corpora-tion’ category.

Schneider’s group-wide R&D ‘EcoStruxure’ programme has seen the fi rm responding to cus-tomer demand for systems with optimum energy effi ciency, together with lower investment and operating costs. At the same time, the fi rm has been partnering with companies and universities to embark on innovation programmes in areas such as smart grid develop-ment and energy effi ciency.

SCHNEIDER ELECTRICENERGY MANAGEMENT

SIEMENSPOWER GENERATION


RENEWABLES FOCUS


RENEWABLES FOCUS

As a young organisation charged with supporting the growth of global renewable energy, it would perhaps be understandable if the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), and its Director General Mr Adnan Z. Amin, had taken ten-tative fi rst steps in a fairly massive task. This has certainly not been the case. Through such things

as its fl agship programme of investigating countries’ renewable energy potential – the Renewables Readiness Assessment – and its role in reviewing applications for a share of the Abu Dhabi Development Fund’s US $350 million budget, the organisation has an impressive list of concrete achievements it can point to over its short existence.

The challenge, though, is still considerable. IRENA is aiming to draw together knowledge frameworks to support renewable devel-opment; to help stakeholders keep track of the plethora of rapid tech-nological advancements in renewables; and to work with govern-ments on capacity building – ensuring that the investment potential of renewable energy can actually be realised.

“With the scale of investment that is required in renewable energy to meet the various targets that we now have worldwide, it’s not pos-sible that this is going to come solely from the public sector. The

real change in terms of scale for renewable energy investment is going to come from the private sector. The role of

Adnan Amin, Director General of the International Renewable Energy Agency, explains how his organisation is making the case for renewables

RENEWABLESEmpowering

www.utilities-me.com24 Utilities Middle East � August2012

RENEWABLES FOCUS


RENEWABLES FOCUS

government is to ensure that the enabling policy environment for investment is there, and that pro-tections such as environmental and social safeguards are also in place,” Amin says.

Amin and IRENA are recently returned from the Rio+20 Confer-ence in Brazil, held twenty years after the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development. With a focus on issues including energy, sustainable cities and water, there has been a muted response from many in the industry who per-haps anticipated a more seminal conclusion.

“I think the outcome - what it actu-ally is - is an enabling platform. For us, the result on the energy side was very positive. There’s a strong rec-ognition of the renewable energy future and there are a number of areas where we can move forward quite decisively in taking hold of the renewable energy agenda. Of course everything could be better – this one could have been much better – and you have massive dis-appointment from many NGOs that expected some kind of transforma-tional moment in Rio.

“I understand that sentiment, but I think that it’s not helpful to trash it to an extent that people stop treat-ing it seriously. I think it should be treated seriously, we should take the positive parts of it, and we should ourselves turn it into an action agenda. We intend to do that,” he says.

Amin suggests that the confer-ence outcome at least avoided a ‘Copenhagen scenario’ where, in the presence of world leaders, no agreement was reached on sus-tainable development. The ‘Sus-tainable Energy for All’ initiative has set three targets before 2030 – to double the share of renewable energy, to ensure universal access to modern energy services, and to double the improvement in energy effi ciency.

GLOBAL ATLASOne aspect of IRENA’s work that certainly gained a higher profi le in Rio was the organisation’s Global Atlas project; a hugely impressive undertaking that aims to gather data on renewable energy potential into a central, open-access resource.

“The starting point of any investment in renew-able energy is going to be map-ping the resource potential. The Atlas is still at a fairly broad level, but we have already started to gen-erate images on wind and solar that

is giving us a pretty clear idea of where the resources are, and we are expanding this to bring in more and more countries. Of course, there has to be a next step where the investors themselves make the specifi c investigations that are required, but the Atlas in prin-ciple eases that task sub-stantially and gives a very clear picture to the international commu-nity of what is possible in terms of potential,” Amin says.

The Atlas already has renowned institu-tions such as France’s ParisTech and the United States’ National Renew-able Energy Laboratory involved, together with the UAE’s Masdar, all bringing different expertise

to bear on the project. Masdar, for example, is researching solutions to the oft-mentioned issue of dust in the Middle East, and the effects it can have on the effi ciency of solar PV panels. Using new remote imag-ing technology, they can now actu-

Amin believes that a sound business case for renewables has already been made.

“The real change for renewable energy investment is going to come from the private sector.”


26 Utilities Middle East l August 2012 www.utilities-me.comwww.utilities-me.com

“If you look at their conundrum; they are one of the major oil producing countries, yet their domestic oil consumption – which is heavily sub-sidised – is rising exponentially and there are projections that in 20 years they could become net energy importers if they don’t do something about it. It’s very worrying. Realistically the cost of using their own fossil fuel is the interna-tional market cost, plus the cost of the subsidy that they are using, so oil is actually costing them more to consume than for other countries that are consuming Saudi oil. Which to me doesn’t make economic sense, and so I understand their movement into renewables.”

Amin suggests that this motivation is similar throughout the region, and consequently coun-tries are increasingly beginning to look closely at renewables. The issue here, he says, is that there is a tendency to talk a great deal, but to struggle with what the practical nature of renew-able development will look like.

“The problem is going from the idea, and the public support of that idea, to actually making it happen. And here I think you need more of a con-crete push to really empower people to make this move ahead,” he says.

Whether this can be achieved through incen-tivising renewable energy use or energy effi-ciency, the potential benefits of doing so are very exciting.

“We already know, for example, that low level geothermal can be used for cooling. That’s a huge energy expenditure that you can save from

fossil fuels. And it’s being done – they have an experimental plant in Masdar City that they’re testing for district cooling. I think that if that proves its worth, that’s something that can be replicated throughout the region.”

Amin also raises the prospect of desalination powered by renewable energy – a big talking point among many in the water sector. He sug-gests that using renewable energy would decen-tralise the process of desalination, improving water security whilst saving vast amounts of energy.

“If the economics of it begin to work out, it would be revolutionary for this region. If we can derive the volume of water at the cost we need using renewable energy for desalination, it transforms everything.”

OppOrtunitiesAmin believes that developing economies have a real opportunity to ‘leapfrog’ other countries in the renewable sphere if the resource potential – in terms of solar, wind, hydro and so on – can be matched with the right tools to make the market transformation.

“I think what we are going to see over time is that the real growth arena for renewable energy is going to be in emerging and developing econ-omies. There’s been a fairly widescale invest-ment in renewables in developed economies and much of that in the future will be going into replacements with only marginal additions. Real growth is going to come from fast-growing, energy hungry economies.

“And we’re seeing it. China has come from nowhere to become the leading investor in renewables; Brazil is right there; India is right there; South Africa is right there. And we’re seeing more and more developing countries that are beginning to take this path.”

Amin says that the argument for renewable energy has been so compelling that 2011 saw renewable energy capacity additions exceed conventional energy additions for the first time. As such, he believes that his organisa-tion is already on to a winner, and that now it is a question of ensuring that the possibilities and enabling environment are in place to ensure renewable energy’s success.

“I absolutely believe in the tremendous risk we face as a global community from climate change – it’s unprecedented in many ways – but complaining about it is a disempowering activity. Doing something that has a good business case and also addresses the problem – now that’s an empowering thing.”

ally look at the dust in the atmosphere to give a clear sense of where solar investments should be sited to avoid endemic dust problems. It is this kind of knowledge that Amin says can be focused in the Atlas.

“There is a lot of new research coming, and I think the Global Atlas can become the vehicle for taking all that information that exists in differ-ent pockets – either expert institutions, govern-ment coffers or wherever it is – and making that much more systematic and available to investors and the public. It really has huge potential for the future and we are investing a lot in it.”

practical actiOnThis practical focus is a real feature of IRENA’s approach, eschewing the perhaps traditional perception of oversized international organisa-tions that are long on talk and short on action.

“We are taking a very different approach. We have governments on board that are already convinced that renewable energy is an option. What remains is how we deal with the practical issues of policy, investment, cost, technology, and of enabling frameworks for investment,” he says.

“Our focus is really on ‘how do you make prac-tical solutions?’ and ‘how do you get the momen-tum of renewable energy investment really moving fast?’. We’re not going to have philosoph-ical discussions about whether wind or solar is better, or whether renewable energy is an ethi-cal issue or not. We believe it’s a realistic issue – an economic issue. There is a business case for renewable energy.”

Such a view, Amin says, has been taken in the Middle East. For example, Saudi Arabia is plan-ning a huge expansion of its renewable sector, including its 41GW solar energy target, which Amin believes is both massive and realistic.

Renewables Focus

”Real growth in renewables is going to come from fast-growing, energy-hungry economies.”

IRENA has been impressively focused on practical action rather than discussion.


Dr Michael Krämer, senior associate and energy specialist at law fi rm Taylor Wessing, considers how a solar incentive scheme for the UAE could be developed

Solar energy has not yet reached grid parity in most jurisdictions and the United Arab Emir-

ates is no exception. Being a coun-try that consists mostly of desert areas, the UAE should really be a paradise for everything solar and yet it is not.

Admittedly, some fairly large projects are either on the way or in the planning phases. Most nota-bly, there is “Shams 1”, a 100 MW concentrated solar power (CSP) plant in Abu Dhabi, close to the Saudi Arabian border, which is expected to be fully operational by the end of 2012. There is “Noor

1”, a 100 MW photovoltaic power plant, also in Abu Dhabi, which is currently in the tendering phase; and, of course, the Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park in Dubai, which is expected to reach a fi nal capacity of 1 GW using various kinds of solar technologies when completed in 2030.

These projects are very nice to have, but are unlikely to prompt the breakthrough of solar tech-nologies in the UAE or even gen-erally in the Gulf region. Exam-ples in other jurisdictions around the globe have demonstrated that a real breakthrough is achiev-able only if private investors are

encouraged to invest into renew-able (solar) energy generation. A multitude of private investments do not only split the cost burden amongst many, but are also able to create a critical mass capable of generating a signifi cant amount of installed capacity. By way of com-parison, in December 2011, newly installed solar capacity in Ger-many alone accounted for around three GW. Hence, private inves-tors in Germany have installed, in just one month, more than double the capacity that the UAE is plan-ning to bring online in the next 18 years! The comparison might not be absolutely fair, given that Ger-

SOLAR INCENTIVES

many’s population is around 16 times bigger than that of the UAE, but it does nevertheless demon-strate what private investments are capable of achieving.

Suggestions have repeatedly been made to replicate an incen-tive scheme that has been success-ful in one country and apply it in the UAE as well. Whether or not this is a promising approach is the subject of this article.

KEY PARAMETERSThe UAE, as any other jurisdic-tion, is unique in various ways. Any incentive scheme that is sup-posed to “work” in the region by

SOLARIncentivising

SOLARIncentivising

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Solar IncentIveS


encouraging private investors to spend their money on installing solar capacity will have to take these unique parameters into account. In our view, the most important param-eters in the UAE are the following: 1) very low cost of electricity; 2) a high and steady increase of electric-ity consumption; 3) very high solar irradiation levels; 4) significant con-

cerns regarding grid stability; and 5) unique demographics.

Cost of electricityThe cost of electricity in the UAE is very low compared to most other jurisdictions. It is artificially low, however, since the costs are highly subsidised, as is the case in most other Arab nations. In Abu Dhabi,

for example, the cost of electric-ity is as low as AED 0.03 per kilo-watt hour for farms, which is not even US$ 0.01 / kWh. By way of comparison, one kWh of electric-ity in Germany costs roughly AED 1 (approximately US$ 0.25 / kWh). Such low electricity prices are only possible because somebody else “picks up the tab”. In Abu Dhabi

it is both the Abu Dhabi govern-ment and, somewhat surprisingly, the State of Qatar. The Abu Dhabi government keeps the electricity prices in the Emirate at pre-deter-mined levels and pays any differ-ence between “true cost” and the cost actually charged to residents. The State of Qatar assists by sup-plying Abu Dhabi with natural gas, which accounts for the largest part of the UAE’s power generation, at far-below market prices. Needless to say, such artificially low electric-ity prices do not help make the case for solar energy.

Energy ConsumptionUAE residents consume large amounts of electricity. The average annual consumption of a normal household in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, for example, is 41,000 kWh. By way of comparison, annual con-sumption in the UK is in the region of 4,000 kWh. To be fair, electric-ity required for cooling purposes accounts for a large part of these 41,000 kWh while the 4,000 kWh consumption figure in the UK does not take energy required for heating purposes into account.

However, making matters worse, electricity demand has increased rather dramatically in recent years and is expected to con-tinue increasing at a high rate in the future. It has been estimated that the UAE alone will have to invest close to US$ one trillion until 2019 in order to keep up with rising demand.

High irradiation levelsWith approximately 2,200 kWh/m² the annual solar irradiation levels in the UAE are about twice those in Central Europe. In fact, they are amongst the highest in the world. This is a virtually per-petual and yet almost untapped source of energy. It also means that solar technology will be able to produce about twice the amount of electricity in the UAE compared to what the same technology

Shu

tterSto

ck

The uptake of privately-installed PV in the UAE has been very slow, but a tariff paid for self-generated energy could incentivise adoption.

At approximately 2,200 kWh/m2 per year, the solar irradiation levels in the UAE are amongst the highest recorded anywhere on the planet.


would be capable of producing in Germany, for example.

Grid StabilityOne of UAE utility companies’ main concerns is the effect pri-vately generated solar energy may have on the public grid, if such energy is fed into it. This, in prin-ciple, is a valid concern. Large amounts of renewable energy can have a negative effect on the grid, if the amount supplied exceeds certain levels. However, given the extremely high energy con-sumption of private households in the UAE the question is whether there is actually a need to feed any self-generated electricity into the public grid.

DemographicsAround 81% of the UAE’s over-all population are expats. Most expats tend to stay in the UAE for a limited period of time and then either move on or move back home. Incentive schemes require a couple of years to pay off and will therefore not be of interest to a large part of the UAE population. Then again, only home owners are likely to invest in solar roofs and it can be assumed that many of those who purchase property in the UAE intend to stay for a longer period of time.

ExiStinG incEntivE SchEmE moDElSFeed-in tariffsFeed-in Tariff Schemes have been successful in many countries around the globe. Such schemes are based on private power produc-ers feeding all electricity they gen-erate into the public grid against payment of a pre-determined price that is guaranteed for a set time.

A Feed-in Tariff Scheme has the potential to work very well in the UAE too. However, local util-ity companies are concerned that a large amount of privately generated renewable energy could have a neg-ative impact on the grid. Taking the

extremely high energy consump-tion in the UAE into account there is no need to feed any self-gener-ated electricity back into the grid as it makes more sense for households to actually use themselves whatever they produce.

Instead of providing incentives

for energy being fed into the grid, it therefore makes more sense to incentivise self-consumption of self-generated electricity.

net-meteringNet-Metering Schemes work on the basis of self-consumption. The

return on investment is generated by investors using self-generated electricity instead of purchasing such electricity from utility com-panies.

This scheme will work only if pri-vate investors are actually able to generate electricity at lower cost than they would pay to the utility companies. Hence, with the cur-rent cost structure in the UAE, Net-Metering Schemes do not provide any incentive.

However, metering self-gener-ated and self-consumed electricity - and paying a tariff for such electric-ity - makes the investment worth-while for private investors.

The UAE has, so far, not embraced its solar power potential despite receiving twice the average annual sunshine of Central Europe.

Solar IncentIveS

“The UAE, as well as all other Gulf coun-tries, has an enormous solar potential that

so far remains virtually untapped”

Solar IncentIveS


oping a custom solution is the answer.

As mentioned earlier, the high consumption of electricity in individual households makes it unnecessary for any self-gener-ated energy to be fed back into the public grid. Hence, the promo-tion of self-consumption is a more promising approach and takes care of any grid stability concerns of local utilities. Self-consumption does not provide any incentive to any home owner to generate his own electricity, however, unless doing so results in some kind of benefit for said home owner.

In the UAE, it is impossible to self-generate solar energy at prices that could compete with the cost of energy that is charged by local util-ity companies. Therefore there is no incentive for private investors to install any solar capacity. This would change, however, if a tariff is being paid for self-generated and self-consumed electricity. If such a tariff is being paid, the home owners benefit twice. They do not have to pay anything for electricity that they are not supplied with by the local utility company.

The homeowner is also being paid an amount X for any self-gen-erated, self-consumed kWh. These double savings, combined with the extremely high energy yield that investors are likely to achieve with solar in the UAE, make it pos-sible to significantly reduce the payback time of any installed system. In our calculations, apply-ing a tariff of US$ 0.19 / kWh would result in a payback time of around six years.

SubsidiesSubsidy Schemes work by some-one, usually a government author-ity, paying for parts of the system that is supposed to be installed. This lowers the cost for the private investor and thus makes it possible for such investors to recoup their investment.

However, Subsidy Schemes require a fair amount of administra-tion, and usually keep system costs at artificially high levels, which is why a Subsidy Scheme is unlikely to be the best solution for the UAE either.

Tax ExemptionsTax Exemption Schemes, as the name suggests, provide investors with tax incentives if the investor decides to invest into renewable energy generation. This may well provide an incentive for private investors in countries where taxes are actually applied. Luckily, how-ever, there is no real tax regime in place in the UAE. UAE residents do not pay any taxes anyway, which is why Tax Exemption Schemes would not have any effect for obvi-ous reasons.

a CuSTomiSEd SChEmESo what are we left with if none of the typical incentive schemes appear to work in the UAE? Devel-

At the same time, paying only for self-generated and self-con-sumed electricity puts a natural ceiling on solar capacity building. Installing capacity that one cannot consume oneself means installing capacity that does not generate any income. Hence, the “natural” ceiling on any solar investment in the UAE would be the capacity the particular home owner is able to consume in the lowest consum-ing months (in the UAE, usually December and January).

The prevailing consumption patterns in the UAE - compara-tively modest consumption in winter, extremely high consump-tion in summer - make it possible to deduct any payments due to the individual investor from such per-son’s electricity bill. In winter, the bill may well be negative and the generated credit could be rolled over to the next month until the amount payable exceeds the appli-cable credit. Such an approach would simplify the administration of the suggested incentive scheme even further.

The above described incen-tive scheme is just one option, of course. However, we believe it has many advantages. It is very simple, hardly requires any infrastructure update and is easy to administer for utility companies. At the same time it provides an incentive for individ-uals to invest into solar energy gen-eration. With tariffs set at levels comparable to those in Germany, investors would be breaking even after just over four years of oper-ation. Even at lower tariff levels, breaking even would occur signif-icantly earlier than in most other parts of the world.

The UAE, as well as all other Gulf countries, has an enormous solar potential that so far remains virtually untapped. Yet, it makes sense to establish a solar market in a place where the sun does actu-ally shine. Introducing an incentive scheme, such as the one described, may just be the spark needed for the establishment of a viable solar market in the Gulf and may be the key to a solar industry developing.

$1trillionInvestment UAE will need to make until 2019 to keep up with power demand

Dr Michael Krämer, Taylor Wessing senior associate and energy specialist. associate

Abu Dhabi’s Shams 1 will produce 100MW.

MEDIA PARTNERS

The Leaders in Construction Summit 2012 is the Middle East’s premier platform to discuss the most pressing issues facing the

region’s contractors and developers.

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18th September 2012, Jumeirah Beach Hotel,Dubai

LEADERSIN CONSTRUCTION SUMMIT

18th September 2012, Jumeirah Beach Hotel,Dubai

LEADERSIN CONSTRUCTION SUMMIT

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SOLAR SUPPLIERS

32 Utilities Middle East � August 2012

What sort of projects are you working on in the Middle East right now?BA: In Masdar City, we supplied half of the 10MW solar capacity at the site there. We’ve also been working with the local research institutes such as Masdar Insti-tute. We recently commissioned a 3.2 kWp test plant at King Abdul-lah University of Science and Tech-nology (KAUST). These are impor-tant as every market really wants to see solar working on their own ground. You can have all the test data you want, but until it’s in some-one’s own region, they really don’t believe it.

BH: One project we have under-way is a 10 MW project in Saudi Arabia, where Saudi Aramco are building a new offi ce complex with a car park with 4500 spaces. We have used our panels to cover that with solar panels to generate elec-tricity. Another scheme underway is a very small 10kV test facility we built in conjunction with KAUST which is being used to test our sys-tems under different conditions. The test results so far have been really great.

How is the solar market looking in the Middle East?BH: It’s interesting. There’s clearly a growing population – par-ticularly in Saudi Arabia – and a growing population, at its most basic, requires a lot more energy. So what a perfect place this is for solar to actually be implemented. The largest market in the world is in Germany, and the Middle East region has twice the sunlight of Germany. There’s a great oppor-tunity to meet the energy needs of this area and free up the export of fossil fuels for places that are not so suitable for solar power.

BA: Saudi Arabia is a key market, especially with their recent 41GW announcement. They defi nitely spent a lot of time in the last year learning about the industry, and I think they’ve put together a decent proposal on where they want to go, with a concentration on localisation. Now it’s really about implementing policy, and it’s less clear when that is going to come through. But I think with Saudi there is a real need for solar, they’re a very large market and I think if they really put their weight behind the solar industry they could be a leader for the whole region.

plants. That’s…interesting. In the US the market has moved com-pletely away from concentrated solar plants. It used to be that people thought PV was for rooftops and concentrated was for utilities, but that has really switched as the cost of solar panels came down so rapidly. Concentrated really needs direct sunlight, so you shouldn’t be placing it in places that are dusty or hazy or highly polluted. You need very clean mirrors to bounce the light exactly where you want it.

With obvious solar resources, the Middle East is viewed as a real prospect by solar suppliers.

Solar experts Bessma Aljarbou, First Solar, and Brooks Herring, Solar Frontier, talk about the region’s current appetite for solar

SOLAR, SO GOODIs anything holding back the market?BA: Financing is one of the biggest constraints, at least in the rest of the world. This is because there’s an upfront cost, unlike a conven-tional power plant where a lot of the costs are in ongoing fuel and mainte-nance. I think we’ll be spending a lot of time working with the local banks on educating them, on bringing them up to speed, on making them feel more comfortable, so that when it’s time to fi nance the fi rst few solar plants the energy price will be more competitive.

BH: I think the biggest chal-lenge is that many people here have plans. Now it’s time to execute on these plans, and I think actually making things happen – moving from planning to execution – is probably the big-gest hurdle.

What trends and develop-ments do you see in solar?BA: In the Middle East there is a lot of focus on con-centrated solar

Brooks Herring, Solar

Frontier International

Business VP.

www.utilities-me.com

SOLAR SUPPLIERS

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BH: We looked at the environmen-tal consequences of our CIS tech-nology through the whole value chain, and a key metric around that is the energy payback time – the amount of time it takes to generate the same amount of energy from a module that it took to produce that module. So most silicon modules have an energy payback of a year and a half or more. Our energy pay-back time is somewhere in the rank of three quarters of a year. We think being a sustainable provider, with a sustainable value chain, is critical for the Middle East.

BA: From an industry standpoint, there is quite a lot of oversupply in the market, and on the demand side – in Europe and the US – it’s really fallen off. First Solar’s strat-egy has been to shift its focus to emerging markets that are really

driven by a need for energy. So the Middle East is a key market. Now, with what has happened with the economics of solar – with costs coming down – we’re actually com-petitive with a lot of the peak con-ventional power sources. In hot cli-mates, with excellent sunshine, we are very competitive.

Is the Middle East ‘dust issue’ really a problem?BA: Soiling is defi nitely on the minds of everyone in the Middle East . The benefi t of PV is that, even if it gets dust on it, it still works. It just reduces the effi -ciency – so it all comes down to economics. How much are you willing to lose, how much are you willing to pay for cleaning, and what does that mean for the cost of your electricity? I think it’s an issue that can be fi xed

Qatar Solar Technologies (QSTec) is currently building a polysilicon production plant in Qatar’s Ras Laffan Industrial City, with initial plans for output of 8,000 metric tonnes per year. This plant is a ma-jor advance for solar in the region and will help QSTec meet growing demand.

“Globally the solar industry has experienced tremendous growth. In 2011, solar power gen-erating capacity increased by 73%

2 Mins with...QSTec

Dr Khalid Al Hajri, QSTec CEO and chairman, believes solar is set for growth.

and has increased 10 fold in the last 5 years. Within the GCC, solar is a new industry but one that is set to grow as countries look to diversify their energy sources to meet increasing domestic power demands, and solar is an obvious choice. We anticipate an increas-ing demand in Qatar and in the neighboring countries for solar modules and technologies within the next decade. Already in Qatar we are seeing growth within the solar industry with a number of new projects coming on line or being announced that are utilis-ing solar energy,” says Dr Khalid Al Hajri, QSTec chairman and CEO.

“The Qatar National Food Se-curities Program is looking at us-ing solar to power its desalination plants. The 2022 World Cup will be the fi rst carbon neutral World Cup and will be utilising solar en-ergy for its air conditioned solar stadiums and fan zones. QSTec’s mother company, Qatar Foun-dation, has several projects like the Qatar National Convention Centre, the new student housing complex and Msheireb Proper-ties development that will derive a percentage of their electric-ity needs using solar energy,“ he adds.

Braka Update


Utilities Middle East looks at the progress being made on the UAE’s nuclear development in Abu Dhabi

In mid-July, the UAE’s Fed-eral Authority for Nuclear Regulation (FANR) ap-proved a licence for the

Emirates Nuclear Energy Corpo-ration (ENEC) for the construc-tion of two nuclear power reactor units at the proposed Braka site in Abu Dhabi. The FANR Board of Management, chaired by H.E. Dr Ahmed Al Mazrouei, agreed at a meeting on July 17th to authorise the construction of two Korean-designed APR1400 reactors, each capable of producing 1,400 MW.

The licence applies to the first

Braka on trackThe FANR Board of Management

looks over the Braka site.

two of four planned units, and covers the construction of the reac-tors. Crucially, ENEC must apply separately for a licence to operate the reactors, with the first unit pro-jected for completion in May 2017.

“When exactly ENEC applies for an operating licence is a question for them. But one thing is clear – this licence does not include oper-ation. ENEC must apply to FANR, whenever they feel they are ready, for a separate operating licence. We will again need to conduct a thor-ough review of the final design and safety analysis of the facility. We

will look into their management systems, training programmes, plans for start-up testing and normal operations, including peri-odic testing and maintenance, and plans for management of emergen-cies.

“The same way we have handled the Construction Licence Applica-tion, saying “We will take the time needed”, we will also take the time needed for approving any opera-tion. This will depend on the quality of their application and our inspec-tions,” said FANR Director General Dr William Travers.

Estimated project cost:

$20 billion

Forecast CO2 savings:

12 million tonnes per year

Projected completion:

May 2020

4 x APR1400 REACtORs EACh PROduCing 1,400 MW

Braka in Figures

Braka Update

www.utilities-me.com

The construction application had been the subject of a lengthy review, involving nearly 2,000 Requests for Additional Infor-mation, and has looked at issues including the design of the plant, the safety analysis and quality assurances for construction and radiation safety measures. The licence application was subject to additional scrutiny following the

March 2011 Fukushima accident, and FANR has said that the ENEC’s additional assessment has demon-strated the robustness of the pro-posed plan.

“In our 18 month review, involv-ing more than 200 experts, we looked at severe accident manage-ment very thoroughly. In a way, we were fortunate that we were just at the beginning of our review when

the accident at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Station occurred, so we asked ENEC to do a detailed “lessons learned” study. FANR has been interacting with international organisations – for example the IAEA – to ensure a thorough under-standing of the Fukushima events.

“We evaluated ENEC’s analy-sis and have included our conclu-sions in the review of the construc-tion licence application. We looked deeper into earthquakes and tsuna-mis in the Gulf, and we looked into management of multiple accidents at the same time. The analysis that we asked ENEC to do demon-strated the robustness of the pro-posed plant, but it also resulted in a number of design enhancements for added safety,” says Dr Travers.

According to the IAEA, the UAE is the first country to “go nuclear” since China in 1981 (this obvi-ously excludes Iran’s nuclear pro-gramme), and of course much has happened in the nuclear landscape since that date. If this has meant the UAE is under greater scrutiny, it certainly hasn’t struggled in the limelight.

“We cooperate with many domes-tic and international bodies. In line with the country’s commitment to transparency, we have invited the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to conduct a review of the full scope of FANR’s regu-latory work. During December 2011, that mission reviewed organ-

isational arrangements and imple-mentation details of FANR’s review of Braka Units 1 and 2 Construction Licence Application. The mission concluded that “FANR [had] essen-tial regulations and a review pro-cess for effectively conducting the review of the applications received to date”, and that the “Review and assessment in FANR with the sup-port of TSOs [was] organisationally a well arranged and managed pro-cess,” says Dr Travers.

“In other words, we are aware of our responsibilities towards the Government and people of the UAE, and we are playing our role within the global nuclear commu-nity to increase nuclear safety, everywhere,” he adds.

As ENEC gets construction underway at the Braka site, FANR is set to begin a “vigorous inspec-tion programme” for this phase of the project, with ENEC legally responsible for meeting FANR’s requirements.

“FANR’s regulatory oversight during construction is intended to provide an independent check that our requirements are met. In addition to inspectors based in our Abu Dhabi headquarters, we plan to have resident inspectors on the site. We will also conduct inspec-tions at the office of ENEC, its contractors, its major component vendors in Korea, in the US, and wherever we deem necessary,” Dr Travers concludes.

The FANR Board of Management approved ENEC’s construction licence at a meeting on July 17th. Board members investigated aspects of the design such as construction material details.

FANR Director General William Travers listens to details of the Braka construction.

August 2012 l Utilities Middle East 35

Established in 2009, the Federal Authority for Nuclear Regulation (FANR) is the UAE’s sole authority for licencing and inspecting all parties using nuclear power or radiation technology. The organisation has so far issued 13 regulations and a number of regulatory guides on the safety and security of nuclear facilities.FANR’s Preliminary Safety Analysis Report, stretched to over 2,500 pages of technical findings and 223 specific review areas. FANR also received a report from the Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety covering its safety evaluation report on the reference plant for Braka – Shin Kori Nuclear Power Plant Units 3 and 4.

IntroducIng the uAe’s FAnr

IndIa Country FoCus


GlobalData’s Purushottam Uniyal considers how renewables can help bridge India’s power deficit

The shortage in India’s electricity supply is hin-dering its economic and societal growth. The

country has been unable to meet its electricity requirements for the last few years and was also un-able to achieve installed capacity targets for conventional generation sources. Conventional sources are scarce and their price volatility in the international market is making it difficult to secure a fuel supply for new power plants. According to the Load Generation Balance Re-port (LGBR) published by the Cen-tral Electricity Authority (CEA), there were shortages of 8.5% and 9.8% in terms of both energy and peaking availability between 2010 and 2011.

Renewable energy sources are developing at an unprecedented rate and significant capacity was added during the 11th five-year plan (April 2007–March 2012). Unlike conven-tional sources, renewable energy growth far surpassed pre-defined targets. This trend will continue for at least the next decade as the gov-ernment is committed to increas-ing the size of the renewable energy share in India’s power generation mix due to energy security and envi-ronmental concerns. This will help to bridge the demand-supply gap and will also support India’s growing economy.

In March 2012 the government set up a committee to develop legis-lative and policy changes to speed up capacity additions from renewable

power sources such as wind, bio-mass and solar. The committee will be headed by a senior official from the Ministry of Power and include representatives from the Minis-try of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE); power Distribution Com-panies (DISCOMs); the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission; state electricity regulatory commis-sions from renewable-rich states such as Tamil Nadir, Gujarat and Raj-asthan; and power project funding agencies Power Finance Corpora-tion and Renewable Energy Corpo-ration. The panel has made it man-datory for DISCOMs to comply with Renewable Purchase Obligations (RPOs), outlined measures to penal-ise DISCOMs if obligations are not met, suggested amendments to the

Electricity Act 2003 to allow regu-lators to frame innovative market instruments such as Renewable Energy Certificates (REC) to facili-tate development of the renewable power market, made RPO compli-ance mandatory for captive power generators and bulk electricity con-sumers, and suggested policy mea-sures for biomass-based power proj-ects.

As of March 31, 2012, renew-able energy sources accounted for approximately 24.5 GW (12%) of the total installed capacity of 200 GW. Total renewable installed capac-ity will increase to 50 - 55 GW at the end of the 12th five-year plan (March 2017), contributing more than 20% to the total installed capacity. In the 13th five-year plan (April 2017–

Indian renewables

Shut

ters

tock

India has more than doubled its onshore wind

capacity in the past five years.

INDIA COUNTRY FOCUS


March 2022), this growth trend will continue and total renewable capac-ity will cross 90 GW and is expected to approach near to the 100 GW mark.

PRIVATE INVOLVEMENTTowards the end of the 11th fi ve-year plan, the renewable energy sector witnessed greater partici-pation from private entities. Many Individual Power Producers (IPPs) are emerging in the Indian renew-able sector and are developing util-ity-scale renewable energy proj-ects. Foreign investment is also coming through the IPP route and is helping in the development of the sector. Foreign Direct Invest-ment (FDI) infl ow of US $1.25 bil-lion in 319 renewable energy proj-ects was reported during the 2009–2012 period, and CLP, Surya Charya Power, and Orient Power are emerg-ing as key renewable energy utility companies.

The government also supports the transfer of advanced foreign technologies and FDI of up to 100% for renewable energy projects.

The state agencies responsible for renewable energy development are playing a very important role in shaping India’s renewable energy market. Renewable-rich states have formulated very supportive and

transparent policies with defi nitive time-bound targets. Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Rajast-han are providing a range of support mechanisms and incentives in addi-tion to those declared by the MNRE. Gujarat and Rajasthan are focus-ing on solar PV development while the southern states are emphasis-ing wind and solar. Madhya Pradesh has recently announced a policy that allows investors to install renewable projects anywhere in India with a Power Purchased Agreement (PPA) signed to the Madhya Pradesh gov-ernment.

BRIDGING THE GAPRenewable energy sources are attracting more attention due to increased electricity demand, which has led to a huge demand-supply gap. They also seem to be benefi ting from the constraints affecting the development of thermal and hydro sources. The Ministry of Power plans to install 75 GW in the 12th fi ve-year plan, but this target seems diffi cult to achieve due to the prob-lems of fuel supply linkage for ther-mal plants. The currently applied fuel linkage policy is insuffi cient for achieving these targets and the NTPC has already made shortage estimations of approximately 17.5 GW in their target for fi ve-year plans.

Although there is no doubt that renewable energy will record high growth over the next decade, there is still room for more stream-lined growth with a stable, trans-parent and supportive policy and regulatory environment. This will increase investor confi dence. The framework for the development

of renewables has improved sig-nifi cantly in recent years, but still a degree of uncertainty and instability remains.

Over the last six months, there was an uncertainty over the status of accelerated depreciation and gen-eration-based incentives for new wind projects. The RPO and Renew-able Portfolio Standards (RPS) targets are mandatory, but the pen-alty system currently in place is inadequate.

RECs have the potential to be a big success story for renewables, but will not be able to obtain strong legal support in the absence of an appropriate penal system.

12%Current renewables

contribution to India’s overall energy mix

End of 10th Five - Year PlanTotal Installed: 9.6 GW

Wind

Solar PV

End of 11th Five -Year PlanTotal Installed: 23.8 GW

20.56%14%

15%13.07%

1.11%3%

65.25% 68%

End of 12th Five - Year PlanTotal Installed: 51.1GW

Bio-Power

Small Hydro

End of 13th Five - Year PlanTotal Installed: 93.5 GW

10.75% 9.09%

10.15%12.52%

20.19% 24.03%

56.54% 56.73%

2003Year -

2004 2006

2005 2007 2008

2009 2010

2011

2012

National Electricity PolicyPurchase of renewable power through competitive bidding process.

Renewable Energy Certifi cates (REC)Essential for states and utilities to meet their RPO. Trading of RECs in power exchanges began in March.

Generation Based Incentive (GBI) for Wind and Solar PowerIncentive of INR12 ($0.30) / kWh for SPV, INR10 ($0.25) / kWh for solar thermal and INR0.5/kWh for wind.

Accelerated Depreciation Reduced to 15% The government reduced the tax incentive from 80% to 15%. This move is expected to slow down wind growth in short term.

National Bioenergy MissionWill promote biogas and Biomass based power.

National Solar Mission Target of 20 GW of grid connected solar power by 2022. Governmentalso reduced import duty on equipments used in PV and solar thermal projects.

RE Tariff Regulations(Amendment of 2006 Tariff Policy) Amended in 2009 & in 2010.

The Tariff Policy 2006 Fixation of minimum RPO by SERC. Purchase of renewable power through preferential tariffs determined by SERC.

Electricity Act 2003Unfolded a regulatory structure supporting renewable sourcesby introducing preferential tariffs and RPS.


IndIa Country FoCus

Utilities Middle East talks with Frost & Sullivan’s Amol Kotwal about the current state of India’s conventional power sectorHow is India’s utilities market currently performing?The utilities market in India has softened over the past 8-10 months. Power Generation capacity addi-tion, and Power Transmission and Distribution (T&D) infrastructure expansion have slowed down. This has been driven by issues such as the overall economic slow-down, the availability of funds and high interest rates.

India currently faces a power shortage to the tune of 10 – 11%, and this power deficit scenario is hampering the growth of the over-all economy as well as other sec-tors (industry, manufacturing etc.) which have to rely on an intermit-tent supply of power.

Where is most investment in the sector going?The 12th Five Year Plan (finan-cial year 2012-13 – 2016-17) envis-ages a spend of approximately US $250 billion for the growth and development of the power sector in India. This spend is planned to

be split between Power Genera-tion and Power T&D, in an approxi-mate 45:55 ratio. The 12th plan has an increased focus on making the T&D infrastructure more efficient and robust – including reducing T&D losses which currently stand at around 25% and enhancing rural access to electricity.

What are the major projects underway?The demand for new power proj-ects is being driven by the need to rapidly expand the country’s power generation capacity, with the objec-tive of closing the power shortage gap. Current major projects under-

Ultra Mega power plansAmol Kotwal, deputy director of Frost & Sullivan’s Energy and Power Systems Practice.

way include the Mundra Ultra Mega Power Plant (UMPP), which is a 4000 MW thermal power plant project, and the Sasan UMPP, a 3960 MW plant.

Power plant projects are pro-gressing at a slow pace, primarily because of delays in fuel/coal link-ages and clearances.

What are some of the advantages to working in India for project developers?There has been a withdrawal of import duty on natural gas for use as fuel in power plants. This announcement will offset sharp spikes in the price of imported nat-ural gas and help in setting up gas-based capacity in the country.

The Government has also abol-ished the 5% import duty on coal for a two year period up to March 2014. This move benefits power plant developers and independent power producers importing equipment from overseas markets, who can procure capital goods at a cheaper price.

Mundra UMPP – 4000 MWSasan UMPP – 3960 MWTirora (1 and 2) - 3300 MWLalitpur Thermal Power Plant – 1980 MWLanco Babandh – 1320 MW

Major IndIa power projects

What will India’s power sector look like in ten years?The market is currently at a cross-road. Several corrective measures are being adopted to improve the current deadlock situation, which includes increasing the role of the private sector.

The rapidly growing demand for electricity has led the Gov-ernment to plan for huge capac-ity expansions over the next two decades. As per the Government estimates, cumulative power gen-eration capacity is planned to be increased to 835 GW by the end of the financial year 2032 – in line with the increasing power requirement needed to complement annual eco-nomic growth of 8%.

If these plans materialise, India’s power capacity in 2032 would be more than six times that of its capac-ity of that at the end of its 10th Five Year Plan in 2007. By this time, India is expected to become the third larg-est country in terms of power gen-eration installed capacity, trailing behind China and the US.

Register today at www.powerandwaterme.com/utvis1

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Strategic Partner:

ICEBERG CAPTURE


The planet’s Polar Regions might hold the answers to the Middle East’s potable water shortage

S ometimes inspiration arrives before technol-ogy can make it happen, and an idea has to wait

until knowledge and equipment catches up with it. Between 1975 and 1981, Georges Mougin and Saudi prince Mohammed al-Faisal founded Iceberg Transport In-ternational (ITI), a company that aimed to bring Mougin’s idea to exploit tabular icebergs for fresh water to reality. Over fi ve years of research and four Antarctic expe-

Capturing icebergs

ditions, the company looked at the practical feasibility of ‘iceberg cap-ture’ – taking control of a drifting iceberg and towing it to a destina-tion to utilise the freshwater it is made from.

With hundreds, even thousands of icebergs naturally drifting from the Polar Regions each year, the project promised a ground-break-ing - if patently unconventional - solution to water shortages around the world. Mougin says that at the time the project stalled because

precise data on the bottom relief of the oceans either remained undis-covered or was classifi ed informa-tion. Knowledge of the behavior of ocean eddies – potentially giant whirlpools created by ocean cur-rents – was also “primordial” and, crucially, suffi ciently powerful tugboats capable of pulling a berg weighing millions of tonnes were very thin on the ground.

Now however, these issues are no longer the obstacles they were. Moreover, advances in computer

modeling and simulation pres-ents an opportunity to accurately model a prototype iceberg with-out ever having to climb into a boat. Whilst watching a documentary on how Dassault Systèmes had modeled Egypt’s Khufu pyramids, Mougin because aware of the ben-efi ts that the fi rm’s 3D modeling software could have for his project, and also of the existence of a cor-porate sponsorship programme – “Passion for Innovation” – that sup-ported innovative ideas.

ICEBERG CAPTURE


ICEBERG EXPLOITATIONThe idea Mougin presented to Das-sault Systèmes has some impor-tant features, most notably deal-ing with the perhaps glaring issue of preventing an iceberg from melt-ing during the journey.

“The aim of iceberg capture is to take control of a selected iceberg using a large net of the same type as those used to capture tuna. Melt-ing prevention is achieved fi rst by a 12 metre high fl oating belt to prevent wave erosion, completed

by a bottom “blanket” and “skirt” to maintain a still layer of water against the ice to act as an insulator. Melting loss is limited to a certain thickness according to the jour-ney duration and the temperatures of the seas crossed. This thickness is independent of the berg size and therefore represents a percentage that declines with the dimensions,” Mougin explains.

It is important to make clear that icebergs made of compressed snow-turned-ice are completely

Shut

ters

tock

“To do this operation only once in reality, in a physical prototype simulation, would

cost around $12 million” Cédric Simard, Project Director, Dassault Systèmes.

Cédric Simard,

Dassault Systèmes

project director.

Iceberg capture


The 3D modeling allowed the team to alter multiple variables of the iceberg’s journey between Newfoundland and the Canary Islands including weather, sea conditions and route.

solid freshwater, and therefore represent a significant poten-tial water source. Furthermore, Mougin believes that regions such as the Middle East could benefit doubly, with the ice also becoming an important resource for cooling.

“In countries such as the UAE, where all-year air conditioning is a major cause of electrical energy consumption, ice fusion repre-sents a significant cooling power. For district cooling, a slurry of ice pieces could be regularly deliv-ered to provide the cold water oth-erwise cooled by electrocompres-sor units. This slurry would be pro-duced on the iceberg as a quarry, and delivered by pipe or ship.

“The cost of iceberg insulation protection, ocean crossing, quarry exploitation and slurry delivery are largely overcome by the ice value – between US$6 and $8 per tonne. An iceberg of 100 million tonnes at departure could provide 30 to 40 million tonnes of ice for sale,” Mougin says.

Such was the prospect that Mougin presented to Dassault. Cédric Simard, the compa-ny’s project director on the “Ice Dream” scheme, says that the

the convoy – so how many boats would be sufficient to tow a seven million tonne iceberg? Then, how would the convoy behave if it met an eddy? So we simulated that as well. We also took into account satellite data about conditions such as the wind, the swell, the waves and the sea currents,” Simard adds.

In addition to this vast amount of data, Mougin had some very impressive names on the scientific committee that oversaw the project. Amongst those contributing were Professor Peter Wadhams, head of the Polar Ocean Physics Group in the department of Applied Mathe-matics and Theoretical Physics at Cambridge University, and Profes-sor Olav Orheim, a glaciologist and former director of Norway’s polar institute. Simard also makes clear that Georges Mougin himself has more than forty years of experience working in naval engineering, with a “perfect knowledge” of sea condi-tions. Dassault Systèmes software itself is also used and trusted by a large number of more conventional customers.

“Our software is used to build planes, cars, buildings. We have over 800 customers worldwide, and

“An iceberg of 100 million tonnes at departure could provide 30 to 40 million

tonnes of ice for sale” Georges Mougin, WPI.

idea’s potential made it especially appealing.

“The first step for me was to assess the man – Who was he? What was his background? Was he credible? - and then to look at his idea. It really is an outstand-ing project – there are no limits to it and we decided to embark on the adventure and provided him with our help and software solutions to test the technical feasibility of it,” he says.

3D moDelingWhilst Dassault make clear that the sponsorship of Mougin doesn’t imply their involvement in the busi-ness of iceberg exploitation, it is clear that the project went to great lengths to ensure the simulation was as accurate as possible. The

company used real data collected in Newfoundland, with precise rep-resentations of icebergs created through a mixture of satellite data and a kind of 3D iceberg x-ray. The company also created a database of videos, photographs and academic white papers, so that the resulting 3D model was as real as possible.

“Once we have the shape and the physical properties of the virtual iceberg, the two major challenges are to simulate first, the drifting of

2013First planned trial of iceberg protection

Iceberg capture


Tabular icebergs with a consistent regular shape and draft would be targeted for their greater stability and their ability to withstand fracturing during the journey.

A ‘floating belt’ is used to insulate the iceberg and minimise melting during the crossing.

the algorithms of our software are validated by many kinds of industry players and companies worldwide. As such, when you need to simulate, for example, the melting process of an iceberg, that’s not rocket sci-ence to our simulation engineers,” Simard says.

Putting all of this together, the result was a 3D simulation where an iceberg convoy could be simu-lated in a few minutes, with the abil-ity to adjust parameters such as the weather conditions, the size of the berg and the number of boats used. The data allowed the researchers to see the resultant ice loss, how much oil was used, how routing affected operations and the time the whole operation would take.

“So you can see, for example, that from point A – let’s say New-foundland, to point B – the Canary Islands, the journey has taken 140 days, you’ve consumed so much oil, you’ve lost ice up to a particular rate. It only takes two to five minutes to generate, which means if you want to replay it – say with two tugboats instead of one, or a different route – you can in a matter of minutes. To do this operation only once in reality, in a physical prototype simulation,

would cost around $12 million,” Simard explains.

Mougin says that the study was immensely helpful and has helped contribute to the project’s rebirth.

“Using the virtual technologies, we concluded that Mougin’s project is technically feasible. This means that today you have the tug boats with sufficient power available; you have very new composite materi-als to create the giant skirt used to protect the iceberg from melting. We also have the satellite data, both

oceanographical and meteorolog-ical data, that wasn’t available a few years ago. Overall, you have simu-lation technologies of the 21st Cen-tury which you can use to integrate that data and simulate the operation without endangering anyone, and with much-reduced costs, before embarking on the physical proto-type,” Simard adds.

PrototyPesSimard says that whilst the models showed that it was indeed tech-

nically feasible to tow an iceberg from point A to point B with enough protection to prevent it from melt-ing too much, there are still many adjustments needed to make the operation truly cost-effective. Mougin has now taken the test data and founded a company – WPI (Water and Power from Icebergs) – to take the project forward. Exper-imenting with a physical prototype is now the next stage for the project and plans are already underway .

“The remaining challenge is to engage in real time experiments to confirm the simulations; nota-bly the thermal efficiency of the protective skirt. We are planning firstly for an experiment in 2013 with three small icebergs moored or grounded in a Newfoundland bay – one not protected – where they will be subjected to tide cur-rents, so that we can test differ-ent types of protection to define the optimal conditions of their life extension.

“The second, hopefully in 2014, will be for an experimental trans-fer in the north Atlantic to confirm the technical and economic feasi-bility of the scheme,” Mougin con-cludes.

The days when you had to run from measuring station to measuring station every day in all kinds of weather to read off the last water level or installed data logger are defini tively a thing of the past.

GSM-2, which is quick and easy to install, now transmits the measuring data straight to your office by e-mail (via a GPRS Internet connection) or SMS.

The heart of the measuring system is the GSM-2 DataManager software. The measuring data that is transmitted by the measuring stations is continuously read in, stored and displayed by the DataManager, so that you can permanently monitor your equipment.

Performance features of the GSM-2 measuring system:

- Battery-operated (low power consumption; service life of up to 10 years)- Less than 2” in diameter (fits into your standpipe; vandal-proof)- Battery and antenna integrated in the housing- Various sensor interfaces, built-in air pressure sensor- Remote device configuration (by e-mail)- Free PC software available- Automatic further processing of measuring data- Applications: water level/filling level measurements, pressure monitoring in general…

More info: www.keller-druck.com Products Data Loggers

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PROJECTS


utilities project trackerInformation is supplied by Ventures Middle East. Tel: +971 2 622 2455. URL: www.ventures-uk.com

Saudi arabia

Bi'r Ad Dibba IPP Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) 1500 Concept Stage Power Plant

Power Supply to Fakhriya and Khalidiya Substations Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) National Contracting Company

(NCC) 50 project under construction Power Transmission

South Jeddah Power Plant Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) Not Appointed 1500 EPC Bid Power Plant

132/13.8kV Substation at Al Raas Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) ABB Contracting Co., Saudi Arabia 30 project under construction Substation

33kV Panels for Substation No. 8818 Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) Electrical Power Distribution Boards & Switch Gear Company LT 3.25 project under construction Substation

132 kV Swaidi West Substation Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) Al Arrab Contracting Company 17 project under construction Substation

PP12 Power Plant Saudi Electricity Company (SEC)Arabian Bemco Contracting / GS Engineering and Construction Company

1250 project under construction Power Plant

Najran University - 380 kV Substation Najran University ABB Contracting Co. 53 project under construction Substation

Development of Dammam Water Plant Ministry of Water and Electricity;Saudi Arabia Abed Ali Al Habashi 7.5 project under construction Desalination Plant

380/230 kV BSP in Safaniyah Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) Siemens 80 project under construction Substation

Qurayyah Block 6 - Combined Cycle Power Plant Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) Lahmeyer Interna-

tional Arabian Bemco Contracting 600 project under construction Power Plant

Aramco Power Plants in Different Locations of Saudi Arabia Saudi Aramco Not Appointed 1000 EPC Bid Power Plant

380/115 kV BSP Substation at Al-Omran Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) Al Toukhi Company for Industry, Trading & Contracting 90 project under construction Substation

Six Substations for SEC Power Grid Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) ABB Contracting Co.; Saudi Arabia 95 project under construction Substation

380kV Cable Link Kindara-Jeddah Substation Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) Saudi Services for Electro Mechanic

Works Company (SSEM) 60 project under construction Power Transmission

Construction & Reinforcement of Substa-tions at Different Locations in Saudi Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) ABB Contracting Co. 250 project under construction Substation

Substation at Al-Farida in Jeddah Ewaan Global Residential Company ABB Contracting Co.; Saudi Arabia 30 project under construction Substation

Expansion of Power Plant in Al Batha Port Saudi Electricity Company (SEC)Abdualaziz Abdullah Linjawi Consultant

Delta Ltd. Company 18 project under construction Power Plant

KA-Care - Alternative Energy Projects - PV Solar

King Abdullah City of Atomic and Renew-able Energy (KACAST) Not Appointed 3000 Concept Stage Power Plant

Tihama Power Plant Expansion GDF Suez; France; Saudi Oger; Riyadh Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI); Saudi 500 project under construction Power Plant

PP11 Power Plant in Riyadh Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) Fichtner Consult-ing Engineers Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) 2133 project under construction Power Plant

Shuqaiq IPP Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) Not Appointed 2000 EPC Bid Power Plant

Qurayyah - 2 Simple Cycle Power Plant Saudi Electricity Company (SEC)Arabian Bemco Contracting / Doosan Heavy Industries & Const. Company


Project Title Client Consultant Main Contractor

Value / Value Range (US$. Mn) Project Status Project Type

Every Drop Counts to us

www.aesarabia.com

[email protected]

www.aesarabia.com

[email protected]

PROJECTS


United ArAb emirAtes

Five 400kV Substations in Dubai Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) Siemens; Dubai 250 project under construction Substation

Ghantoot to Samha OHL Abu Dhabi Transmission & Despatch Co. (Transco) Larsen & Toubro; Abu Dhabi 6.5 project under construction Power Transmission

33/132 kV Substation at Mushrif Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) Siemens 34 project under construction Substation

IGD - 4th NGL Train - Mechanical & Electri-cal Package ADNOC / Gasco Fluor Corporation Siemens 40 project under construction Other - Power & Water

Mirfa IWPP Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Authority (ADWEA)

PB Power; Abu Dhabi Not Appointed 1800 Project under design Power and Desalination

Plant

Emal Power Plant - Phase 2 Emirates Aluminium (Emal) SNC Lavalin Samsung C&T Corporation 580 project under construction Power Plant

Fujairah 1 Desalination Plant - Expansion ADWEA / Emirates Sembcorp Water & Power Company

ILF Consulting Engineers; Abu Dhabi

Not Appointed 200 EPC Bid Desalination Plant

Nuclear Power Plant in Abu Dhabi Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Authority / Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation

Korean Electric Power Company / Hyundai Engineering & Construction Company/Samsung C & T Corpora-tion/ Doosan Heavy Industries


Shams 1 - Abu Dhabi ADWEA / Masdar / ADFEC Abengoa / Total 650 project under construction Power Plant

Pilot Solar Power Plant in Dubai Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA)

ILF Consulting Engineers; Abu Dhabi

Not Appointed 30 EPC Bid Power Plant

KUwAit

Al Zour South Power Plant - Phase 2 Ministry of Electricity & Water (MEW), Kuwait

Alghanim International General Trading & Contracting; Alstom Power; France


11kV Overhead Line at South Kuwait Ministry of Electricity & Water (MEW); Kuwait Kharafi National 15 project under construction Power Transmission

Installation of 400 kV XLPE Cables Ministry of Electricity & Water (MEW), Kuwait The Contractor Company for Gen. Trading & Contracting; Kuwait 103 project under construction Power Transmission

KOC - Solar EOR Project in Kuwait Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) Bader Al Mulla & Brothers Company 100 project under construction Power Plant

Main Transformer Station at Al Zour Power Plant

Ministry of Electricity & Water (MEW); Kuwait

Alghanim International General Trading & Contracting 140 project under construction Substation

QAtAr

Ras Abu Fontas A2 Qatar Electricity & Water Company (QEWC) Not Appointed 500 EPC Bid Desalination Plant

Qatar Power Transmission System Expan-sion - Phase 10

Qatar General Electricity & Water Corpora-tion (Kahramaa) Hyosung Corporation / Siemens 1200 project under construction Power Transmission

33/11 KV Power Distribution Substation at Halul Qatar Petroleum (QP) Galfar Al Misnad Engineering &

Contracting; Qatar 14 project under construction Substation

OmAn Not Appointed

Wind Power Plant in Oman Oman Power and Water Procurement Company Not Appointed 30 Concept Stage Power Plant

Salalah IWPP 2 Oman Power and Water Procurement Company Not Appointed 700 Concept Stage Power and Desalination

Plant

Sur IPPOman Power and Water Procurement Company /Multitech /QEWC /Marubeni Corporation

Ernst & Young / DLA Piper / British Power International

Daewoo Engineering & Construc-tion 1600 project under construction Power Plant

bAhrAin

Eight 66kV Substations- Package B1 Ministry of Electricity & Water

Electricity Supply Board Interna-tional- Ireland (ESBI)

Olympic Contracting Company 10 project under construction Substation

Substation for Northern Town - Phase 2 Ministry of Electricity & WaterElectricity Supply Board Interna-tional (ESBI)

Not Appointed 70 Concept Stage Substation

Note : The above information is the sole property of Ventures Middle East LLC and cannot be published without the expressed permission of Ventures Middle East LLC, Abu Dhabi, UAE

Project Title Client Consultant Main Contractor

Value / Value Range (US$. Mn) Project Status Project Type

Five minutes with…


José AlberichA T Kearney partner José Alberich talks with UME about smart grids, solar and Saudi

Saudi Arabia has plans for 41GW of solar capacity. Is this optimistic?It’s ambitious, but it’s also realistic because they need it. The projections from the Saudi government suggest that if they don’t change their genera-tion mix, the total domestic oil demand will increase to 8.3m bpd, so they will be consuming around 75% of their total oil production. They cannot afford to do that, so they need to look at renewables. The plan is well supported – KAUST and KACARE are behind this for example – and solar is going to play quite an important part.

How are smart metering projects being viewed in the region?In markets in Europe and America, we are moving to smart metering by law. We are forced to deploy smart metering and smart grids, and we have a number of business cases where the numbers are quite difficult to justify – because you have to replace the commercial meters and modify the grid. Here you don’t have to modify anything because it’s organic growth, so you have the opportunity to move to smart metering as you expand the grid. There is no real planning in any of the countries right now, but it will come very quickly. Once you have the devices installed, moving to net metering and renewable integration is straightforward.

Smart metering needs an active consumer to be truly effective. How do you motivate end-users to get engaged with energy consumption?If you think, in Europe, there are very few people who can tell you how much they pay per kWh. That means there is total apathy to the price. We haven’t been able to make the subject fancy – it’s electricity and people aren’t willing to spend time on it. Maybe technology – hooking people with gadgets such as energy butlers – could be the right path. We’re still deploying the devices, so the smart meters supporting net metering will be there. So far though, we haven’t been able to bring anything to the final consumer that really attracts them.

How do you think the smart grid landscape could look in 10 years?In the best-case scenario, we would see full deployment of smart meters, with customers engaged in managing demand, together with the full deployment of renewables to the extent that has been planned. That is the optimistic scenario, but it’s not unrealistic. Even if we don’t convince con-sumers to be engaged, the beauty is that, with the profile of peak demand overlapping so much with renewables output, the benefits of renewables will still come. There needs to be an awareness that this isn’t a ‘nice-to-have’, it’s a must.

FIVE MINUTES WITH...

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Desalination with an edgeAs a global water solutions provider addressing diverse water needs for a variety of concerns, Aqualyng is carving a unique trail in the desalination industry. Our spectrum of successful, state-of-the-art products & services deliver vital, timely water solutions for communities and corporations alike.

From solving freshwater scarcities and feeding the growth of heavy industry to revolutionising the desalination sphere through cutting-edge innovations, Aqualyng’s desalination water systems get the job done – time after time.

* The Recuperator is our patented energy-saving device which allows recycling up to 98.5%of the energy contained in the reject of the desalination process, which lowers operating costs. www.aqualyng.com

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