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Power
Supporting the energy transition
in the Middle East Ahmad Hussein, country head of electrification business, ABB, Saudi Arabia, discusses ABB’s initiatives to promote smart and sustainable energy operations.
To what extent can electrification help oil and gas operators reduce their carbon footprint and improve their operations? We see more and more every day the aim of oil and gas operators to reduce their carbon footprint. Related to this need, there is a new trend from oil and gas players to improve energy efficiency and use renewable energy. ABB can support in different ways to provide efficient, safe, smart and more sustainable electrification: from providing EV chargers for their facilities to controlling and managing energy to push for green hydrogen to become cost-competitive and take advantage of this. How can ABB technologies facilitate the integration of renewables into the grid, while maintaining grid stability? Grids are evolving in line with the sustainable 28
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integration of renewables is working with partners to develop solutions for a safe, smart and sustainable future, maximising the benefits from the existing robust infrastructure instead of a "rip-and-replace" strategy.
Image Credit : ABB
What opportunities do you see arising from the energy transition in the Middle East, and how is ABB helping the region move to a low carbon future? The Middle East and Africa region is making solid renewable energy progress, and is on track to realise its vast renewable energy potential and diversify its energy sources. Moreover, owing to the availability of low-cost gas resources, the region plays a significant role in exporting blue and green hydrogen. The energy sector also calls for energy storage policy regulations to unleash the full potential and make power trading more commercialised. In addition, a rapid expansion of renewable integration to the grid in the world's fastest-growing region in terms of energy consumption, and the transition to low carbon communities, require a modern, smart and flexible power grid. In response, ABB is developing innovative grid solutions to enable power distribution products, solutions, and services digitally. Our smart technologies help customers to create reliable, efficient, and more resilient grids. Designed to optimise operational costs and reduce capital expenditure, they enable fast integration of future-proof solutions and decision-making based on real-time data from the ABB Ability™ cloud solutions.
Ahmad Hussein, country head of electrification business, ABB, Saudi Arabia.
energy transition, and the grids of the future will be completely different in structure from the traditional model we know. Networks with decentralised power generation will require decentralised solutions to ensure grid stability and resilience. Weather determines how the power plants operate by generating "nonsynchronous" power, and creates grid challenges regarding stability and resiliency. ABB Electrification is proud of the industry's most comprehensive portfolio designed to meet the current and future challenges in the grid. Attention has turned to ABB synchronous condensers with their former function of reactive power compensation in that context. Together with solutions that secure grid stability, the key for facilitating the
How can digitalisation help to optimise the management of utilities, and what are the main challenges? We live in an era of revolution: energy revolution with renewables; energy storage and the introduction of electric vehicles; and the Fourth Industrial Revolution, which builds on the digital process, representing new ways in which technology becomes embedded within society. Utilities that focus on asset management, leveraging advanced data analytics and applying digital technologies can significantly improve operational performance, improve customer services and overcome the main challenges with DER integration or ageing infrastructure. How can data-driven energy management solutions help companies to improve energy efficiency and operate more sustainably? Data-driven energy management solutions are gaining traction for optimising energy efficiency, availability and environmental sustainability. Energy efficiency has become essential to running cost-efficient operations. ABB Ability™ Energy Manager provides a real-time understanding of energy consumption and identifies areas of improvement. It is scalable and can monitor site performance and supervise the electrical system and allocate costs. Scheduled automatic data exports execute and analyse to improve the use of assets and help managers to make informed decisions to optimise the business. In addition, alerts and notifications support predictive maintenance to key personnel with remote implementation to achieve energy savings. Data-driven decision making improves reliability and performance by enabling organisations to predict system behaviour and optimise performance of assets to increase overall efficiency and productivity. n
