Imarket insights issue 02 2017

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Volume 01 | Issue 02 | 2017

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Knowledge

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Analysis

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Opinion

Cover Story P 8

P 36

Greener

business goals on the horizon IN Focus with Hessa Al Ghurair, CHRO, Commercial Bank International P 15

Latin America’s long strides in renewable energy production P 50

Sustainability is a big part of the corporate mandate now, with a growing number of businesses actively investing in green ventures

A review of IFM Awards Dubai

THIS ISSUE

EDITOR’S NOTE

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UK ₤4 | Europe €5.35 | USA $6

Volume 01 | Issue 02 | 2017

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EVEN AS THE price of oil teeters, governments and private entities are actively seeking to diversify their economies. Renewable energy has never been more important as a corporate mandate globally. In this issue of Market Insights, we analyse corporates being involved in clean energy generation and procurement. We focus on the growth stories of various regions such as Latin America, East Africa and Europe. In our special country focus, we look at Saudi Arabia’s new system for quantifying energy projects that’s winning industry approval. Our special packages include an analysis of carbon capture and storage, and we explore the hard-hitting possibility of it becoming a genuine energy

source in the future. The financing of clean energy projects is also dissected by industry experts and legal consultants in an exclusive feature. The issue also has in store some interesting and path-breaking innovations in clean energy made by young entrepreneurs, and how their inventions impact people at the grass-root level. Trainings covers the all important issue of human resource management in banking today, in addition to special contributions on gamification and IFRS Finally, we bring to you a comprehensive round-up of IFM Awards Dubai held early this year, in addition to special interviews with leading solution providers in the GCC such as Saudi Telecom Company and CTM360,

CONTENTS

who discuss the growth of telecom and the state of cyber threat management today.

Knowledge

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Analysis

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Opinion

Cover Story P 8

We hope you enjoy reading this issue of Market Insights!

P 36

Greener

business goals on the horizon IN Focus with Hessa Al Ghurair, CHRO, Commercial Bank International P 15

Latin America’s long strides in renewable energy production P 50

Sustainability is a big part of the corporate mandate now, with a growing number of businesses actively investing in green ventures

A review of IFM Awards Dubai

– Sindhuja Balaji | Editor

Market Insights

P 18

NEWS 04

Impact of global warming on weather

04

Strategic siting of clean energy sources in Africa

05

UAE launches first SDME workshop

FEATURES 21

The Kingdom’s clean energy plan

24

Carbon Capture & Storage - The only hope for mankind?

33

A Eureka moment for a greater purpose

P 26

TRAININGS 38

Managing occupational health risks & liabilities

42

Game on, millennials!

44

The IFRS Storm

P 30

EVENTS 46

Show Preview - Power & Energy Tanzania 2017

48

Show Review - 6th HR Minds Summit

54

Exclusive interview with Saudi Telecom Company

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Special Coverage - CTM360’s Cyber Threat Management

Training Head: Samir Ahmed Accounts: Angela Mathews Knowledge

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Analysis

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Opinion

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Managing Editor: Sindhuja Balaji

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Market Insights

4

News

Global warming directly impacts extreme weather conditions

Strategic siting of clean energy sources could aid Africa’s power needs

A recent study shows findings that extreme weather conditions are a result of human generated emissions, commonly known as global warming. A group of researchers studied the impact of global warming on weather events, showing positive results.

The influence has a significant effect on climate change.

Mainly, global warming is caused due to fossil fuel combustion such as coal, oil and gas releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. As a result, the rise in temperatures of the atmosphere and oceans will fuel climate change. Also, the atmosphere locks up excess water vapor causing storms and global rise in sea levels.

Analysis on Science World Report reads, “The study, published in the latest issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, looked specifically at the link between record weather events over the past many decades and climate change. The researchers found that in more than 80 per cent of the heat records, which included both record hot months and days, there was a pronounced indication of global warming.”

At first, researchers initiated the study with an assumption that there is no correlation between global warming and extreme climate events.

However, the proceedings showed contrast results. The unit cross-examined to find out if the assumption was valid using statistical analysis.

Based on the findings, climate scientist, Noah Diffenbaugh on Science World Report concluded that global warming is linked to record-breaking extremes in precipitation and also the record low Arctic sea ice in 2012.

“The world is not yet at a place where every single record-setting hot event has a human fingerprint, but we are getting close to that point. Greater than 80 per cent of those record hot events is a substantial fraction,” he added.

A new assessment by the US Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has concluded that wind and solar resources in Africa could be the answer to the continent’s rising demand and related costs in electricity generation, and have suggested strategic siting of resource development.

In order to meet the perpetually growing demand for electricity, African nations would most likely have to triple their energy output by 2030. According to lead researchers Ranjit Deshmukh and Grace Wu, wind and solar, which are often dismissed for being expensive and “temporally variable” could very well be the solution Africa needs now. Given the abundance of solar and wind resources in almost every African nation, stated the researchers in their report titled Strategic Siting and Regional Grid Interconnections Key to Low-Carbon Futures in African Countries. In addition, Wu and Deshmukh believe that total system costs would be lower if the countries developed their resources in isolation without strategic siting. “System costs can be further reduced if wind farms are sited where the timing of wind generation matches electricity demand rather than in areas that maximise wind energy production. These cost savings are due to avoided natural gas, hydro, or coal generation capacity.”

For instance, researchers discovered that in a highwind scenario in the South African Power Pool, strategic siting and grid interconnections could reduce the need for conventional generation capacity by 9.5% , resulting in cost savings of six to 20%, depending on the technology that was avoided. Together, international energy trade and strategic siting can enable African countries to pursue ‘no-regrets’ wind and solar that can compete with conventional generation technologies like coal and hydropower,” Wu said. “No-regrets options are low-cost, low-impact, and low-risk.”

Wu added that the manner of tackling the impending energy crisis by Africa could very well set the precedent for other countries while managing their own energy needs.

Market Insights

Issue 02 | 2017 | www.imarketinsights.com

News

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South Australia plans to house the world’s largest solar farm

First international workshop for SDME launched in UAE

In response to South Australia’s major blackouts, Lyon Group is set to develop a solar farm and battery storage project at Morgan in Riverland region. The US$1 billion project, which is slated to begin by end of the year is notably the biggest system in the global clean energy sector.

On the project front, its 330-megawatt solar generation and 100-megawatt battery storage system is signaled as brilliant news to the Riverland region.

The system will establish 270 new jobs to build, maintain and operate 3.4 million solar panels and 1.1 million batteries. “The sort of people that we’ll be looking to attract are electricians, mechanical fitters, electrical engineers,” added Michael Ottaviano, CEO of the Carnegie Clean Energy.

Many industry experts and analysts share divided ideas: if the system’s capacity would reinstate the region from its recent blackouts. Still, the positioning of the system in the Riverland region promises geographical resilience.

Lyon Group has also proposed a small-size solar farm and battery storage facility, named Kingfisher. According to David Green, a Lyon partner, “If the 4.7 million solar panels at Riverland and Kingfisher were placed end to end, they would reach from Adelaide to Brisbane and back, and then all the way to Melbourne.”

Renewable energy companies like Carnegie Clean Energy, Zen Energy and Tesla are looking forward to bid for tender. A news feature on ABC News reads, “The tender would not determine whether or not Lyon’s projects were built, but would influence the final storage configuration in terms of the balance between optimizing grid security and capture of trading revenue,” according to Green.

Ian Hore-Lacy, senior research analyst at the World Nuclear Association said, “This is a fascinating project, but it will inevitably take South Australia further from having reliable low-cost power.”

DEWA and Dubai Supreme Council of Energy launched the first international workshop for Solar Decathlon Middle East (SDME) – a collaboration between the USA’s department of energy and the Dubai Supreme Council of Energy.

HE Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, vice-chairman of the Supreme Council of Energy in Dubai and MD & CEO of Dubai Electricity Authority (DEWA) inaugurated the twoday workshop. The workshop was attended by HE Paul Malik, Consul General of the United States of America to Dubai, HE Valentina Setta, Consul General of Italy to Dubai, Richard King, SDME Senior Advisor, and a number of officials, researchers, and former participants of the Solar Deathlon.

On the first day of the workshop, Al Tayer launched three new platforms of the World Green Economy Organisation (WGEO), which was launched by HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, in October 2016 and supported by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). These are Youth, Academia, and Civil Society Organisation.

Dubai will host two rounds of this distinguished competition. The first is in 2018 and the next in 2020 to coincide with World Expo 2020 in Dubai, with the appropriate theme of ‘Connecting Minds, Creating the Future.’ “Hosting this international competition in Dubai reflects the commitment of our leadership, headed by His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the UAE, and His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, to adopt innovation as an approach to finding solutions to the challenges that face the world. It reasserts their belief in the important role young people play in building a sustainable future. The UAE has become a platform for innovation, a destination for innovators, and an incubator for creative minds from all over the world,” said Al Tayer. www.imarketinsights.com | Issue 02 | 2017

Market Insights

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Events Calendar

Events /2017 Date

Event Name

Location

Website

3–5 May 2017

ICCI Istanbul

Istanbul Expo Center Istanbul, Turkey

http://www.icci.com.tr/

10 – 11 May, 2017

All Energy Exhibition & Conference

Glasgow Event Campus Glasgow, Scotland

http://www.all-energy.co.uk/en/

May 30 – June 2, 2017

Intersolar Europe

Messe Munchen Baku, Azerbaijan

http://www.ogpoasia.com/

May 31 – June 3, 2017

Caspian Power

Baku Expo Centre Muscat, Oman

http://www.caspianpower.az/

June 6 – 8 June, 2017

CIGEE

China National Convention Center Beijing, China

http://www.cigee-expo.com/

6–8 June, 2017

Offshore Wind Energy

Pacifico Yokahoma Yokahoma, Japan

http://offshorewind2017.com/

27 – 29 June 2017

Power Gen Europe

Koelmesse GmBH Cologne, Germany

http://www.powergeneurope.com/en_GB

11 – 13 July, 2017

PV Japan

Excel London London, United Kingdom

http://www.jpea.gr.jp/index.html

Awards 2017 Recognising the best and brightest INTERNATIONAL FINANCE PUBLICATIONS LIMITED 843 FINCHLEY ROAD, LONDON, NW11 8NA Phone: +44 (0) 207 193 5502 | Fax: +44 (0) 208 181 6550 Web: internationafinancemagazine.com/events Market Insights

Issue 02 | 2017 | www.imarketinsights.com

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Feature | Corporates Clean Energy

Cover Story

officially taking the green route Sustainability goals are now a big part of corporate strategy, as studies reveal an increasing number of businesses actively engaging in developing or purchasing power through sustainable means

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ENEWABLE ENERGY GENERATION is the buzzword in financial circles now, with corporates making a beeline to include sustainability as part of their agenda. In the past year, studies have revealed that major corporates are steadily shifting towards generation and/or procurement of clean energy, and the numbers are only expected to go up.

Setting clean energy goals is no longer restricted to major conglomerates – several examples have proven that the change can begin at home. Right from the USA all the way to Australia, there are an increasing number of businesses working on increasing their contribution to clean energy Market Insights

generation. Businesses are now utilising their existing net worth and resources to further consolidate an action plan for the effective deployment of renewables as a part of their corporate strategy.

Corporates step up and lead the way A new survey by PwC has revealed that 72% of companies are actively procuring clean energy – mainly wind and solar. While some have specific renewable energy goals, others are lured by attractive paybacks as a result of incorporating clean energy procurement in their corporate agenda. In addition, the survey

Issue 02 | 2017 | www.imarketinsights.com

found out that the 72% of companies surveyed opted for a clean energy mandate because of limited exposure to energy price variability, to improve the company’s brand image, to reduce the risk of outage or supply and to keep up with competitors. Of the companies surveyed, 80% are planning to build out their clean energy portfolio by diversifying transactions such as through offsite Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) or an onsite direct purchase.

Solar and wind is expected to dominate purchase decisions, said the PwC survey with 96% and 69% respectively. In addition, the respondents believe that investing in technologies that ramp up their

Corporates Clean Energy | Feature

Cover Story

Going 100% renewable Google

Goldman Sachs

Walmart

IKEA

Swiss Re

Astra Zeneca

Apple

Microsoft

Facebook

BMW

General Motors

H&M

Nike

Philips Bloomberg

Coca Cola Enterprises Dentsu Aegis Network

Diageo

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Johnson & Johnson

P&G

Infosys

VMWare

Nestle

Salesforce

Starbucks

UBS

Tata Motors

Unilever

Wells Fargo *Data provided by RE100

clean energy investments will be the need of the hour. This includes investing in advanced meters, energy management software, energy storage, Combined Heat & Power (CHP) and microgrids.

re100 A classic example of corporates and businesses mobilising their efforts for clean energy generation is the RE100 initiative – the result of a partnership between The Climate Group and CDP. RE100 is a collaborative of global businesses that have committed to 100% renewable electricity and working to increase demand for and delivery of renewable energy. Companies that are part

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Corporate Power Purchase Agreements

The PPA is likely to contain terms that define the sale and purchase conditions, as well as renewable energy subsidies. Certain European nations impose provisions that require the corporate to provide or obtain metering facilities or regulatory activities that can only be undertaken by licensed electricity suppliers.

The USA has been one of the biggest buyer of corporate PPAs, but of late, there has been a significant increase in the demand for PPAs in Europe and Asia Pacific as well. The immense draw towards renewables has slowly begun offsetting the demand for conventional power generation through utilities. A report

by Advanced Energy Economy has stated that within a decade of companies signing large-scale and/or long-term Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs), corporate wind contracts have outstripped utility demand. In the USA, Google set the ball rolling in 2010, when it signed a PPA with a wind farm in Iowa.

Apple signed a PPA with First Solar to supply power to its headquarters from a 130MW solar park and Walmart signed a long-term PPA with Pattern Energy’s 200MW Texan wind facility. There are several more examples of US-based corporates investing heavily in PPAs. Last year, gaming giant MGM Resorts announced that it is capable of purchasing its own electricity from the wholesale market, and decided to withhold purchasing power from Nevada Power.

The surge of interest in a corporate renewables strategy has created the demand for corporate Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs). PPAs are long-term contracts that allow businesses to directly purchase power from energy generators.

Usually, a corporate entity enters a long-term agreement (normally exceeding 10-15 years) with an energy generator for the purchase of electricity at a fixed price per kWh.

A report in DLA Piper has noted a piqued interest towards corporate PPAs in Europe.

The region is moving towards an auction-based regime for renewable generation assets.

Government subsidies are not as readily available as they were a while ago, it is essential to have a strong PPA structure in place, in order to enhance bankability of projects, added the report.

of RE100 span various sectors including technology, automobile, retail, manufacturing, and telecommunication to name a few.

To maintain their commitment to 100% renewable electricity generation, the companies are required to procure renewable energy from suppliers and generators, mainly through Power Purchase Agreements or renewable energy certificates. In addition, these companies would also have to produce their own clean energy locally through onsite or offsite facilities. These facilities could either be off-grid or grid-connected.

According to the latest annual report published by The Climate Group, 11 of the 87 RE100 members have already reached their 100% target, while majority of the members have committed to achieving their target by 2024 or before. Significant progress in achieving targets was made by members such as Goldman Sachs (86%), H&M (78%) and Elopak (86%). While surveying sectorwise progress, it was noted that telecommunication companies were the closest in achieving 100% renewable electricity in 2015, while IT companies purchased the highest amount of clean energy (7.2TWH). Regionally, the highest demand for clean energy was from North America, followed by Europe and Asia.

www.imarketinsights.com | Issue 02 | 2017

Market Insights

10 Feature | Corporates Clean Energy

Moreover, PPAs bring certainty of price, avoiding the possibility of market fluctuations, and provide corporates a definite reason to invest more in renewables. One of the most notable examples of PPAs in Europe is between Facebook and Brookfield Renewable Energy for 150MW to generate power for Facebook’s data centre.

In Asia, the demand for PPAs isn’t as high as it is in Europe and USA but there has been some uptake. Australia, India, China and Singapore can be considered trendsetters in the region for their absorption of PPAs as well as for the introduction of legislations that enable renewable energy to be a prominent part of a corporate’s mandate.

Based on the success of the Renewable Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPP) in South Africa, Africa is a prime example of a region harbouring successful energy projects that have been privately funded. The REIPPP model has spurred similar setups in Ghana, Tanzania, Senegal, Guinea, Zambia and Kenya. Following the first wave of project awards in 2011, the pricing for clean energy has supposedly fallen, reaffirming the model’s sustainability in the region.

The economics of renewables The reduction in clean energy power tariffs in comparison to fossil fuel power tariffs has only strengthened the intent of companies to actively pursue clean energy generation projects. A report by McKinsey & Company’s Oil & Gas explains how the economics of renewables is improving. In 2011, 70GW of clean energy was installed and annual global investment in the sector was at US$279bn. In 2014, 95GW was installed (a near 40% increase) although investment fell a little to US$270bn. Regulatory support, feed-in-tariffs and tax credits can be Market Insights

credited significantly for allowing the prices to remain low. In the USA, McKinsey has predicted that solar will remain competitively priced alongside conventional fuels, while wind is either at or near to being competitive on a cost-per-watt basis. This is largely due to the use of lesser expensive materials and higher efficiency, compared to solar. Additionally, there is room for more savings through soft costs such as permitting, licensing and maintenance.

Feed-in-Tariffs and Net Metering

There are ways to enhance clean energy investments as well as incentivise some others - Feed-inTariffs (FiT) and net metering are two methods that aim towards just that. Through these two methods, energy producers are compensated for the electricity they send back into the main power grid. Feedin-Tariffs were commonly used earlier, when solar was still quite expensive. In many places, net metering (and gross metering) have begun gaining popularity.

A report by GreenBugEnergy Inc. has stated that net metering offers advantages such as offsetting hydro bills and allowing a user to pay for electricity used more than what is generated; there is no need for a formal contract and its easy and simple to implement.

Moreover, net metering acts like a perfect hedge against rising electricity prices where the concept does exist, there are laws that ensure a user’s right to net meter. However, net metering has some significant disadvantages such as different rules for users depending on how long they can bank their credits, and lack of payments for power generated more than the stipulated usage.

Feed-in-Tariffs (FiT), on the other hand, works to the favour of those who can produce electricity that

Issue 02 | 2017 | www.imarketinsights.com

Cover Story

can be sold to power grids. If a user can sustain production, the duration for a guaranteed contract is about 20 to 40 years. For instance, in Ontario, Canada, the period of the contract is 40 years for hydro power.

Additionally, through a FiT model, an owner can sell all the generated power, if he can generate more than he ideally uses. The price paid is partly indexed to inflation. However, this model is more complex to implement because procuring a contract is a competitive process.

Rates paid by owners are usually higher than FiT contract prices, so chances are he could end up buying back the electricity used at a higher price. Also, there is no hedge against increasing electricity prices unlike net metering.

Recent examples have shown that clean energy providers are opting for feed-in-tariffs. In Malaysia, a renewable Feed-in-Tariff mechanism has been deployed, under the Renewable Energy Act of 2011. The Southeast Asian nation has adopted a target of 11% installed renewable energy capacity by 2020, based on a report by Clean Energy Ministerial.

Meanwhile in Australia, more than 130,000 solar households in Victoria are expected to benefit from a steep increase in their solar Feed-in-Tariff in 2017-18, with a return of 11.3 cents/kWh for exports. This will be an increase from the current five cents/kWh – a hike announced by the Essential Services Commission following a massive jump in wholesale prices. The Victoria Labour government too, on its part has given instructions to include some benefits such as a carbon price, network, and environmental advantages.

Companies will play an active role in enhancing their carbon footprint as well as ramp up the technology to sustain the energy sector. A corporate buy-in could go a long way in providing stability and strength to the clean energy sector. 

12 Feature | European Union

Region Focus

Mapping the clean energy story in European Union This year marks two decades since the Amsterdam Treaty’s recommendation to develop EU on sustainability. We take a look at how far the bloc has come in terms of setting targets, completing them and planning the future of clean energy development

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OLLOWING COP21 IN Paris that was held in 2015, the global focus shifted to renewables prominently. By then, Europe had already managed to make a mark for itself as a continent that was setting the precedent for renewable energy goals. This year makes it two years since COP21, but where does Europe stand now in clean energy generation?

Europe’s clean energy story so far In 1997, the Amsterdam Treaty Market Insights

stated that the future development of the European Union should be founded on sustainable development. In the past 20 years, almost all the 28 EU nations have embarked on setting clean energy generation targets. Statistics from Eurostat show primary production of renewable energy within the EU-28 was 196mn tonnes of oil equivalent (toe) – this is a 25.4% share of the total primary energy production from all sources. Between 2004 and 2014, the quality of renewable

Issue 02 | 2017 | www.imarketinsights.com

energy produced within the EU28 increased by 73.1%, which is almost a 5.6% increase per year. While wind and solar are commonly tapped for clean energy production, in Europe, trends have favoured the development of energy from biofuels and renewable waste. Hydropower was the second most popular form of harnessing energy, while wind and solar energy generation was comparatively lower. Tidal energy and geothermal energy also constituted a small part of

European Union | Feature

Region Focus

as hydropower, wind, solar, geothermal, and tidal energy. Not only did these countries produce significant amounts of power, but they also clocked in record consumption levels. Sweden had the highest levels of consumption at 52.6% while Latvia, Finland and Austria each registered usage levels exceeding 30%.

By 2014, some of the member countries increased their share in production by eight percentage points, while others surpassed their targets for 2020.

Strategies supporting clean energy generation This progress has been largely possible due to the development of strategies and long-term plans that support the sustenance of clean energy generation. In 2007, Europe set out to achieve a 20% share in the renewable energy mix and a 10% share in transport powered by renewable energy by 2020.

These goals have been supported by policies, which are at the helm of Europe’s larger goals for a smarter and sustainable future.

The Energy Roadmap 2050

the energy mix. However, of late, solar and wind energy generation has witnessed a rapid expansion in Europe.

In 2014, Germany emerged the largest producer of renewable energy with a share of 18.4%. Italy and France followed with 12.1% and 10.7% respectively. Spain and Sweden completed the top five league of producers, with shares of 9.2% and 8.5% respectively.

The diversity in climatic conditions across Europe gave rise to a range in the energy mix, such

The EU has committed to a longterm goal where it aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80-95% by 2050, in comparison to its 1990 levels. This roadmap explores ways to achieve this goal, while looking at the transition of energy systems, competitiveness, security of supply and their compatibility to greenhouse gas reductions. Some of the key takeaways of the Energy Roadmap 2050 includes creation of a common and single energy market, completely decarbonising the energy system, increasing the share of renewable energy and early investment in infrastructure.

Europe 2020 Strategy In December 2008, the 2020

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climate and energy package was adopted to encourage EU nations to increase the use of power from renewable energy by 20% while reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 20% and improving energy efficiency by 20%. The EU leaders enacted these measures as legislation in 2009.

Directive 2008/28/EC This directive of the European Parliament and of the Council, implemented by Member States in December 2010 has also set targets for EU nations such as procuring 20% share of energy from renewable sources by 2020 and 10% share from the transport sector specifically.

In addition, the directive also improves the legal framework for promoting renewable electricity, requires national action plans that establish pathways for the development of renewable energy sources, including bioenergy. For countries to achieve their targets, cooperation mechanisms would be created that would help target cost effectively and establish sustainability criteria for biofuels.

In January 2014, the European Commission announced a set of energy and climate goals for 2030 in a bid to boost private sector investment and low carbon technologies. One of the key targets proposed was to boost the share of renewable energy to reach at least 27% by 2030 – objectives seen as a step towards meeting greenhouse gas emissions targets for 2050.

Clean Energy Generation in Europe today The continent has tasted success in setting new benchmarks for clean energy generation and consumption – several EU nations have served as examples for having utilised the potential of their clean energy resources and

www.imarketinsights.com | Issue 02 | 2017

Market Insights

14 Feature | European Union

creating an ecosystem around it.

One of the foremost examples is Sweden – with a production percentage of 52.1, the country has become the first to surpass its goal of producing 49% electricity solely from renewable energy sources by 2020. According to research done by Swedish Cleantech, this progress has been made possible due to the country’s keenness to adopt new technology as well as industry demand. There is a strong correlation between economic growth and waste reduction/greenhouse gases, exacerbated by the belief in a sustainable economy. Biofuels dominate the energy mix, followed by heat pumps. They provide heating to almost 93% of the country’s buildings and 83% of commercial buildings.

Last year, Sweden introduced a new support system to facilitate the deployment of home energy storage systems and was planned to cover 60% of system costs.

This scheme was meant to support the existing solar PV generation programme in Sweden, which would eventually lead to setting up a smart, distributed grid based on clean energy.

Eurostat’s report has shown that Bulgaria and Estonia too surpassed their targets of 16% and 25% respectively five years ahead of schedule.

According to Innovation Norway, 97% of the electricity generated in Norway is through renewables.

In addition, the country is already a major power of hydroelectric power as well as a major oil & gas exporter. In exchange for renewable power from Sweden and Finland, Norway exports its hydropower. Similar green exchange plans could happen with UK and Germany in the next four years. However, the landmark exchange agreement would be with Denmark for its wind power.

Market Insights

Region Focus

Denmark is among the most exciting clean energy markets in Europe – the country produces 40% of its power from wind – more than any country on this planet. The country is a major exporter of its wind generated electricity. Compared to the UK, Germany and even China, Denmark is considered a smaller player in the wind energy space. It has emerged a veritable force, mainly because of its technology to ramp up production as well as green exchange agreements.

The country, which is already running on 40% renewable energy, is planning to become fully cleanenergy driven by 2035. Already, the government has established processes and regulations that can further aid a green economy.

Denmark is considered the most energy-efficient EU nation, largely due to optimised business processes and industrial facilities, according to Laurie Guevara-Stone of the RMI Blog.

The future of clean energy generation in Europe Several studies have revealed that while ambitions are flying high across the EU, the translation into target delivery hasn’t been uniform. Countries such as Denmark, Sweden, Germany and Norway have emerged major trendsetters, while other EU nations are still working on fulfilling their 2020 goals.

Data from Wind Europe has revealed that wind farms account for more than half the installed capacity. However, owing to its intermittent nature, coal still is a major part of the EU’s energy plan for power generation. The future of the energy sector also depends on policy development, feels Giles Dickson, chief executive of Wind Europe. He said that only seven out of 28 EU nations have clear policies and wind power volumes

Issue 02 | 2017 | www.imarketinsights.com

in place for after 2020. This is especially worrying given that the EU has set a new target – to raise renewable energy share by 27% by 2030. Although this isn’t a binding agreement, it is bound to alter the power generation plans and layouts for major stakeholders.

The lack of mandatory national targets makes it harder to track and hold countries accountable.

In addition, the rising concern is that many governments aren’t enforcing the closure of coal plants to meet climate goals.

Barring the UK, which has pledged to shut down its coal plants by 2025 to facilitate a cleaner energy mix, other EU nations don’t have legislations in place to phase out production by existing coal plants.

Dickson feels that unless the governments put pressure on their coal producers to shut down their operations and gradually move to cleaner options, the transition for a cleaner energy mix would be skewed and improperly executed.

Clean energy projects are costly.

Although now, the price of wind and solar have become cost-effective compared to 2008, in order to achieve higher levels of success with bigger projects, a large amount of investment is needed. According to a study called European Energy Industry Investments by the European Parliament’s DirectorateGeneral for Internal Policies, annual investments of US$100bn to US$153bn would be needed for the power sector in Europe between 2021 and 2050. Of these, US$57bn to US$84bn per year would be necessary for electricity generation but US$42bn to US$65.5bn per year would be for transmission and distribution grids.

As we inch closer to the 2020 timeline, it is important for the nations to survey their strengths and drawbacks in clean energy generation, and allow the industry to thrive as a whole in the region. 

Latin America | Feature

Region Focus

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Latin America – a paved landscape for renewable energy Some regions enjoy abundance in natural resources, others have strong policies and laws in place that enable the growth of the clean energy industry. Latin America appears to be on point in both aspects and is effortlessly moving ahead to become a trendsetter in clean energy generation

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eAdIng the wAy in clean energy, Latin America — notably Brazil, Chile and Mexico – has emerged as one of the world’s most dynamic energy markets combating climate change.

The region’s abundant renewable energy and growing investments are attracting investors worldwide as it offers excellent opportunities for solar and wind projects.

Enabling policies and national energy security also play a key role in its global transition to a green economy.

Going by IRENA’s analysis, the Latin American regions saw a drop in renewable capacity mix — from 95% in 2000 to 83% in 2016 — primarily due to growing trends in other renewables.

IRENA’s Renewable Energy Benefits: Measuring the Economics report furnished details that

countries like Mexico and Brazil can improve their GDP by more than one percent in 2030. This can be achieved by proliferating renewable energy deployment.

Emerging markets are expecting a cumulative average growth of eight percent over the next five years, reflecting a 109GW market by 2021. According to Henning Wuester, director of IRENA’s Knowledge, Policy and Finance Centre, “Wind is growing fast – more than 2.7GW of wind power was commissioned in 2015.

That’s three times more than in 2013. We have seen similar trends throughout the region, and Argentina is now poised to become a key market. Technologies like wind, solar and bioenergy, have important climate, technical and economic complementarities with large hydropower. If leveraged,

these synergies can improve the economic performance and reliability of power systems, and provide market entry opportunities for new, smaller players.”

Another success story rolled out when Latin America’s renewable energy investments climbed the index: it has gone up by twice as much that of worldwide growth.

Arguably, no other region in the world has encountered such a rate.

From Chile to Argentina, countries are securing significant levels of clean energy. The trend in renewables is scaling up because of the lowered cost of some technologies and robust demand in the recent times.

However, the current conditions present themselves in a two-fold situation – as a challenge to the region’s energy model and as an opportunity to transform the

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Market Insights

16 Feature | Latin America

model into something significant.

Ben Warren, global power and utilities corporate finance leader at Ernst & Young said, “Latin America, in particular, has become something of a litmus test for how quickly markets can grow.”

Players with the highest renewable energy investments — Brazil, Chile and Mexico have hit the top ten, and Argentina is the highest new entrant listed in EY-RECAI, 2016. According to the World Bank’s Doing Business Report 2017, Chile still leads the renewable energy sector in Latin America. Chile’s El Romero is noted as one of the largest photovoltaic solar power projects in the world.

Owned by Acciona Group, the project will help Chile offset 474,000MT of carbon dioxide emissions a year. Furthermore, Chile as a country has formulated a long-term National Energy Policy named ‘Energy 2050’ — to ensure by 2050, 70% of the country’s electricity comes from renewables.

Chile is not the only country to have progressed in the renewable energy sector. Even Mexico, with its compatible energy

Region Focus

reform policy may bolster huge investments and returns in the energy sector. The policy has exposed the country’s energy market to the private sector attracting international firms like Iberdrola and Mitsui & Co., Ltd. to trade clean power in Mexico. According to pv magazine International, the country’s firstever energy auction, since its reform policy, witnessed more than 2GW of solar and wind energy capacity — and was awarded Power Purchase Agreements across 16 projects. Overall, the project investments estimated to US$2.5 bn. The second auction took place later in the year 2016, with an additional increase of 50% energy, compared to the first.

Today, renewable energy investors have their hands on Argentina — mainly because of its new entry on the index at number sixteen, as ranked in EY-RECAI, 2016. Mauricio Macri’s government launched its new clean energy project, RenovAR, which includes a ‘green trust fund’ to instill confidence and ensure security for investors.

Gliding towards a future-ready economy, Latin America has set

ambitious goals, and most of them have propagated laws in this regard.

Bloomberg New Energy Finance believes, globally by 2025, solar energy may be cheaper than coal.

Fortunately, the momentum is changing. Chile’s ‘Law 20/25’ also known as the NonConventional Renewable Energy Law was passed by the Chilean government in 2013. According to the law, Chile has a target to source 20% of the country’s electricity from renewable energy by 2025. Mexico and Argentina have also joined the line with similar targets.

Policymakers and thought leaders recognise renewables as a catalyst for change — in job creation, GDP growth, expansion of industries and the like. ‘Latin America Enjoys Abundant Renewable Energy but Lacks Policies for Use’ published on Scientific American reads, “Countries and regions that take the lead in developing new energy sources will have the first-mover advantage in one of the world’s fastest growing economic sectors — reaping the economic growth and job creation that will flow from it.” 

Apple commits to 100 per cent clean sources Apple has entered a partnership with Japanese electronics company Ibiden to power up its renewable energy-based product manufacturing in Japan. Ibiden will invest in more than 20 new renewable energy facilities, which include one of the largest floating solar photovoltaic systems in the country. The American technology giant’s initiative has resulted in a global campaign to promote clean energy over fossil fuels.

By the end of 2018, Apple’s collaboration with Ibiden will generate more than 2.5 billion Market Insights

kilowatt hours per year of clean energy for manufacturing its devices. Kyoichi Yamanaka, managing director of Ibiden’s Environment Group stated, “Our products help Apple devices run smarter, and now we are powering our operations with

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smarter energy too.”

Today, Apple is operating in 23 countries, and more than 93 per cent of its operations use renewable energy. The company has made significant advancements by transitioning from fossil fuels to clean energy.

“We are proud to partner with suppliers like Ibiden who recognise that renewable energy investments are good for the environment and good for business,” said Lisa Jackson, vice-president for Environment, Policy and Social Initiatives at Apple.

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18 Feature | East Africa

Region Focus

Eastern Promises for a Better Future While Africa has abundant reserves of natural resources to harness clean energy, East Africa enjoys distinct advantages over other parts of the continent for now. PhD pursuant Franklyn Kanyako discusses how East Africa is emerging as a leader in clean energy policy in addition to highlighting the challenges faced by the bloc to accomplish its goals

East Africa’s progress with energy policy According to a report by the World Bank Regulatory Indicators for Sustainable Energy (RISE), as many as 40 per cent of subSaharan Africa have barely taken any of the policy measures needed to accelerate energy access. In fact, 70% of Africa’s least electrified nations with access rate below 20% of the population have yet to begin establishing an enabling environment for energy access.

Having said that, East African countries are emerging as leaders on the continent Market Insights

for crafting policies on access to energy, energy efficiency, and investment in renewable energy. According to the World Bank score index (RISE), Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda, lead the continent with 70%, 55% and 54% respectively, on energy access, efficiency, and renewable energy, excluding South Africa.

What these countries have been able to do is create a dedicated budget for electrification, capital subsidies for utilities to provide distribution systems to rural areas and direct subsidies to support the payment of connection fees by consumers.

These policies along with a

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decline in global prices for PV equipment have contributed to the region seeing US$139.8mn of capital raised by off-grid solar companies, representing approximately 50% of all offgrid investment made worldwide US$276mn in 2015, according to REN21. In the on-grid market, renewable electricity made up 65% of the EAC (East Africa community) region’s total installed, grid-connected power generating capacity in 2015. This is significantly higher than other parts of sub-Saharan Africa where currently it stands at 28.6% and 23.5% in the ECOWAS and SADC regions.

East Africa | Feature

Region Focus

Paris Climate Change Agreement and the bloc’s progress East African countries set an ambitious goal at the Paris Agreement on Climate change.

They have been working aggressively together with development partners, especially the European Union. In March, the EU announced a contribution of US$319mn for 19 renewable energy projects in Africa, as part of the Africa Renewable Energy Initiative (AREI), is expected to leverage around US$5.1bn and add 1.8GW of new clean power generation on the continent.

While the EU funding is not solely

for East Africa, the incredible partnership between EAC and EU has been productive. For example, under the Global Energy Transfer Feed-in-Tariff, a support scheme which aims to make Eastern African renewables more accessible by keeping costs down, the 10MW Soroti Solar Power Station in Uganda, assumed be the largest in East Africa, owned by Access Power and cost around US$19mn entered into operation. In Ethiopia, the government inaugurated one of the continent’s largest wind farms in 2013 — the US$290mn, 120MW Ashedoga plant. This was followed by the even larger 153MW Adama II facility in 2015.

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This picture is set to change with the governments second ‘Growth and Transformation Plan’, which will see total output pass 17,000MW by 2020 and a vastly increased share from the air. Over in Kenya, for the past 15 years, Kenya’s geothermal output has rapidly increased, from 45MW to 533MW, accounting for around half of the power on the National Grid, and the proportion continues to increase. A fifth major power plant is being added to the Olkaria field at the cost of US$40mn, through a loan from Japan, which will be fully operational by 2018.

Meanwhile, the Lake Turkana Wind Power (LTWP) project is both the

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Market Insights

20 Feature | East Africa

largest single wind power project in Africa and the largest single private investment in Kenya’s history. The project comprises of 365 wind turbines, is set to generate up to 310MW of power when it comes online towards the end of 2017, contributing 15-20% of Kenya’s energy needs.

Present Challenges There are many challenges to the clean energy investment in East Africa, although not exclusively.

I will break them into two. The first one is the institutional challenges — there is a shortage of well-trained renewable energy professionals in region, and the high cost of hiring an expert discourage renewable developers in the region. Also, the bureaucratic process in approving clean energy project is rather tedious; this discourages many independent power producers from investing their money. Lastly, availability of land for energy project is becoming in big issue, not just in EAC but Africa entirely.

Region Focus

Most locals, feeling ignored by the government or for cultural or religious reasons are often reluctant or charge exorbitant fees to lease their land. However, the major challenge, which I think is an existential threat to clean energy investment in the region is access to financing for independent power producers.

In Kenya for example, the Lake Turkana wind project ran out of funds, and it was scrapped.

There is the new rush for crude oil exploitation in the region, in countries such as Kenya, Tanzania, Congo, Uganda and Somalia are all in a rush to get their crude oil to their market after a substantial deposit of crude oil in the region.

I think African leaders, not just EAC, are focusing too much on electrification and ignoring other sectors such as the heating, cooling, cooking, transportation sectors. They could diversify renewable energy mix by attracting investment in biomass to serve

to those less policy-focused sectors. They also promote region integration of the power sector. The East Africa Power Pool, which was launched in 2005 is a specialised institution charged with promoting power exchanges between utilities and fostering power system interconnectivity. However, it hasn’t been a success.  About the Author: Franklyn Kanyako is a PhD student at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, where he is conducting research on climate change and surveying R&D portfolio investments in energy. Previously, he has worked with the United Nations Climate Change Support Team in New York, USA and the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology in Abu Dhabi, UAE. He holds a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology and a bachelor’s degree in aerospace, aeronautical engineering from the Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

Dominion expands solar power in Virginia Dominion Energy, Inc. has made an announcement to expand renewable energy in Virginia by investing more than US$800 million in solar power.

Dominion intends to add 3,200 megawatts of solar generation capacity over the next 15 years.

Giant solar systems are going to be installed in the state as briefed in the company’s plan. This means, the systems can generate power to nearly 1.3 million homes.

Diana Corsello, director of business development for Dominion utility solar projects said, “As we build additional solar generation, we will look to modernise our grid. What that means is for years we have had Market Insights

really a one directional system where we would have generation and then we would serve our customers in one direction. Now that we have solar on rooftops, we may have solar at your home, we will need a two way system.”

Grid modernisation will provide substantial information to users on energy consumption and ways to curb excess energy usage. In an official statement issued by Dominion, the company anticipates future national and state energy policy to include limitations on greenhouse gas emissions in some form.

According to Paul Koonce, CEO of power generation at Dominion Energy, “For the first time, the subsidised costs of

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utility-scale universal solar power are expected to be low enough to make it a component of future generation additions at reasonable cost to our customers,” The energy company holds a solar power partnership with the University of Virginia and aims to largely focus on its renewable energy expansion through 2017.

Going by the company’s plan, carbon footprint in Virginia could reduce by approx. 25% over an eight year span.

“Our company has made a major commitment to develop significant blocks of solar generation to meet customers’ energy needs going forward,” added Koonce.

Saudi Arabia | Feature

Country Focus

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The Kingdom’s plan for

renewable energy Saudi Arabia’s latest clean energy target and consequent roadmap to achieve the same has won the approval of industry experts and leading solution providers

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he name Saudi Arabia usually elicits a similar response among most people - oil. The Kingdom has long been one of the leading producers of oil globally that has helped power an economic behemoth for decades. However, over the past couple of years, another industry has steadily risen as an economic driver of growth and profitability, making Saudi Arabia sit up and take notice - renewables.

The country has kicked off an ambitious clean energy generation plan amounting to nearly US$50bn, in a bid to reduce the usage of oil. Saudi Arabia’s oil minister announced that the country aims to generate up to 9.5GW of power through clean energy sources by 2023.

Presently, the country’s energy demand stands at eight percent and is being fulfilled by oil and natural gas. In order to utilise them for domestic consumption, the switch to renewables through production and export of power would largely help the economy.

As part of its ambitious Vision 2030, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has ranked clean energy generation as a core part of the country’s strategy towards economic diversification. A fiveyear plan called the National Transformation Programme was announced in June, which set a target of 3.45GW to be generated from clean energy sources by 2023. This would cover about four percent of the total power consumption. Currently, the

Kingdom generates less than one percent of its total energy from clean energy sources. In May 2012, the King Abdullah City for Atomic & Renewable Energy announced that it would install 41GW of solar power by 2032 (often viewed as an unrealistic goal given that the country would have to start from the very beginning).

Notwithstanding, clean energy generation is a major part of the country’s economic goals. The country’s oil minister Khalid Al Falih has also stated that in the future, Saudi Arabia could be a major energy exporter to African nations as well as Yemen, Egypt and Jordan.

Recent developments indicate that Saudi Arabia, while aside from having major plans to revolutionise

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Market Insights

22 Feature | Saudi Arabia

clean energy generation, is also on track to developing an equally lucrative roadmap to achieve its goals. The recently launched Request for Qualification has managed to capture the attention of private entities and governments alike, driving home the message that Saudi Arabia is strategically planning the growth of the clean energy sector.

Ahmed S Nada, vice-president and region executive for First Solar Middle East shares his thoughts on the RFQ and its significance.

First Solar is credited with helming major renewable energy projects in the Middle East.

Saudi Arabia is set to revolutionise the clean energy industry. Can you elaborate on the sustainability of the nation’s renewable energy plans?

The clearest indicator of the seriousness and future sustainability of Saudi Arabia’s renewable energy plans comes from the recently launched RFQ. To begin with, the RFQ is clearly designed to ensure that only the industry’s most financiallyand technologically-credible players make it to the next stage in the procurement process. By putting in place, stringent prequalification criteria, the Kingdom is avoiding the risk associated with inadvertently including inexperienced, unqualified bidders in the procurement process.

Critically, there are indications that the later stages of the process will mandate that bidders source their technology from bankable, top-tier suppliers that have the financial strength to stand behind their performance guarantees and product warranties. At a time when the stability of a number of photovoltaic (PV) module manufacturers is being called into Market Insights

Country Focus

question, this will, once again, lower risks while boosting the financial credibility of the assets being added to the program.

There is other evidence that the Kingdom is effectively managing risk, the size of the tender being the most apparent one. While REPDO could just as easily have tendered larger projects, it has prudently chosen project sizes that allow for important learnings to be carried forward through the remaining phases of the program, while also sufficiently benefiting from the economies of scale. It is clear that the 700MW – 300MW of solar PV and 400MW of wind tender is just the beginning, with immediate plans to rapidly scale the Kingdom’s renewable energy portfolio to just over one-third of the 9.5GW target. While there is no doubt that Saudi Arabia is already a serious contender in the renewable energy space, the successful completion of the first round of procurement will be its strongest response to any naysayers.

What do you think is the right balance while maintaining an energy plan?

Is it prudent to completely invest in clean energy?

We always advocate that solar PV forms part of a comprehensive energy mix. It is much too early to aim for 100% renewables, and Saudi Arabia is making the right moves by incrementally increasing its capacity.

While multiple stakeholders get involved in project execution, how challenging is it to have a centralised body overseeing cash flows, project development and other variables?

Saudi Arabia has underpinned the

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program’s success by funnelling it through a single department – REPDO is an office of the Saudi Ministry of Energy, Industry and Mineral Resources - rather than the previous approach of giving numerous stakeholders the task of executing. This structure helps streamline the program while ensuring its success by avoiding the pitfalls of having too many stakeholders involved in the decision-making process.

The RFQ as well as REPDO’s steps to ensure project execution and completion only cement the Kingdom’s commitment to its clean energy goals, feel several experts. In its first phase, 700MW – split between 300MW in Sakaka, Al Jouf province and 400MW in Midyan, Tabuk province – of power will be generated, states the National Renewable Energy Programme.

The projects will be backed by 25-year Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) for solar PV and 20-year PPA for wind.

Both sites have undergone full pre-development work and site assessments will be made available to pre-qualified bidders at the Request for Proposal (RfP) stage. Pre-qualification is open on an individual basis to entities that are involved in the power sector, or to a consortium where at least one firm is experienced in the power sector, especially as an independent power producer.

Regional and national players are encouraged to be part of the prequalification process.

A credible clean energy programme, with the right checks and balances has placed Saudi Arabia at the top of the list of countries keen on producing their own electricity. Competent execution and sound leadership could very well propel Saudi Arabia as a leader and visionary in clean energy project management. 

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24 Feature | Carbon Capture Technology

Trending Now

Carbon Capture & Storage The only hope for mankind?

Carbon Capture & Storage is being touted as a distinct but definite possibility to cleaning up the environment. We weigh in on the utility of the technology as well as its relative infeasibility at the current nascent stages of development

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he expansion of the carbon capture and storage (CCS) market is attracting commercial investments from around the world.

However, building a global CCS platform won’t be easy. Emerging countries such as India, USA and China own giant coal reserves, emitting high levels of carbon dioxide. Such growing economic concerns and irreversible warming are touting CCS-equipped potential breakthroughs to prevent climate change. Some researchers and analysts of this technology also rely on projects to strengthen its core.

Carbon Capture and Storage Market Insights

technology is instrumental in establishing a low-carbon economy.

David King, Former UK chief scientist termed CCS as “the only hope for mankind.” According to GCP estimates on Carbon Brief, global emissions in 2014 will have discharged 40,000MT of carbon, of which 16,000 tonnes were emitted from coal. Coal-fired power stations produce at least 50% more carbon dioxide per kWh, compared to natural gas burning plants.

Carbon Brief analysis shone the spotlight on 22 large-scale projects under way or in operation

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in 2014. The combined efforts of these projects will capture nearly 40MT of carbon per annum. Presently, there are five CCS projects under construction.

However, two of these projects are expected to commence operations in 2017.

The world’s first major CCS power station project at Boundary Dam, Canada is a watershed moment in the history of combating climate change.

Needless to say, its prominence comes from its role — as the first commercial scale power station,

Trending Now

with CCS as a component of its generating unit.

Today, the CCS market is quite prominent in certain sections of the globe. The technology is expected to sequester at least 2,200 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide emission through the present century. Yet the future of pure carbon capture is still open to question. Carbon Capture and Storage Market reads, “If 60 per cent of the U.S. power production from coal was fitted with Carbon Capture and Storage technology at reasonable costs substantially lower than today’s R&D variety, this would represent the commercial potential of a US$50 billion business in 2020.”

Referring to IEA predictions on Carbon Brief, the CCS industry needs to scale up to capture at least 2,000 MT of carbon emission in 2030. It further needs to improve its capacity of capturing and storing up to 7,000MT in 2050. This expectation beats the record of the world’s oil industry — challenging its core.

On the project front, 2017 will be a technology driven year for North America’s CCS. Its biggest project: Petra Nova carbon capture system is developed at the coal-fired power plant — W.A. Parish Generating Station. Being a billion dollar facility, it will be seen as the world’s largest post-combustion carbon capture project at a power station.

Designed to capture 90% of carbon dioxide, Petra Nova is the next breakthrough in CCS technology. The project is run on a tried-and-tested KM-CDR process developed by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. and Kansai Electric Power Co. The process uses an amine solvent KS-1 for absorption and desorption of carbon dioxide.

“The technology we’re using is definitely evolutionary, not revolutionary,” said David Greeson, vice-president of development at NRG Energy, Inc. Its mechanisms

Carbon Capture Technology | Feature

are simple, yet futuristic. The captured carbon emissions will be compressed, dried and transported through an 80-mile pipeline to an operating oilfield. Towers will lock up emissions that will be used for enhanced oil recovery, and then, sequestered.

Petra Nova’s demonstration project hit operations in January 2017. NRG Energy, Inc. and JX Nippon Oil & Gas Exploration Corp. have individually contributed US$300mn for the project’s development. The Japan Bank for International Cooperation and Mizuho Bank Ltd. have also credited loans worth US$250mn.

Advancements in carbon capture technologies are feeding optimism in global energy. Its latest innovation is Carbon Capture and Utilization (CCU). Tuticorin Alkali Chemicals is converting heat-generating emissions into a business venture — and how.

Located at the industrial port of Tuticorin, the plant captures carbon dioxide from its own coal-powered boiler to make baking soda.

Carbon dioxide is a recognised raw material in global chemical market.

Infact, overworked oil fields thrive on enormous carbon emissions from coal-fired plants. “So far the ideas for carbon capture have mostly looked at big projects, and the risk is so high they are very expensive to finance.

We want to set up small-scale plants that de-risk the technology by making it a completely normal commercial option,” said Anirudh Sharma, CEO and co-founder of Carbon Clean Solutions.

The plant is said to be a groundbreaking innovation in Carbon Capture and Utilization.

The subsidy-free carbon utilisation project captures 60,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide from the 10MW power station annually.

Norway’s Carbon Capture and Sequestration project — TCM will obtain huge benefits from the Norwegian government. Vegar

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Stokset, head of communications at TCM explained, “Norwegian government’s proposals for further funding of TCM will give us the opportunity to continue the important work of bringing CCS costs down.

This is essential to enable full-scale CCS to be deployed worldwide, and contribute to fighting climate change.”

Recently, The University of Melbourne and CCS technology consortium CO2CRC in Australia founded an advanced carbon research facility. Norway and India’s latest development in carbon capture came to light right after this establishment.

Backed by the Australian Federal Government, the Peter Cook Centre for CCS Research will oversee the centre’s new laboratories. In an essay ‘Boost for Carbon Capture Projects in India, Norway and Australia,’ Malcolm Garratt, chairman of the scientific advisory committee of the Peter Cook Centre said, “The research activities cover many aspects of capture and storage, including solvent and membrane research, negative emission techniques, geochemical modeling etc.”

Globally, the technology is proven. IEA estimates on Center for Climate and Energy Solutions states “Carbon Capture and Use-Storage could result up to 14% of the global greenhouse gas emissions needed by 2050 to limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius.” But there are challenges too. The three-tier process of capturing, compressing and injecting carbon underground requires optimum power that could have otherwise been used in mills and foundries.

In the end, the lack of carbon price signal is also slowing down future developments. According to the annual Global Status of CCS — policymakers and governments need to look for more ways to formulate regulatory policies that will speed up the deployment of Carbon Capture and Storage. 

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Market Insights

What’s Hot

Image used for representational purposes only

26 Feature | Renewable Energy Financing

The Economics of

Renewable Energy Financing Market Insights speaks to renewable energy experts about the latest trends in corporate financing of clean energy projects What is renewable energy procurement and why are corporates getting enticed by it?

One of the biggest developments in the renewable energy marketplace in the past few years has been the rapid growth in corporate renewables purchases, despite the renewable energy market being traditionally dominated by utilities.

Historically, in regulated markets, Market Insights

companies did not have much of a choice over where to source their energy.

However, the external cost of high carbon energy is becoming increasingly obvious to corporates, and stakeholders are pushing the shift towards renewable energy on all fronts.

Increasingly, stringent climate change-related reporting requirements of emissions are

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being driven by legislators and investors demanding both transparency and real action.

Customers and employers are also demanding sustainable products, even at B2B level where the focus is more on reputation and reduction of supply chain emissions (Scope 3 emissions) for a buying company. On the other hand, businesses have come to realise that renewable

What’s Hot

energy also offers various longterm sustainable benefits, as it allows companies to meet their CSR commitments such as the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) or pledges to specific initiatives such as the RE100 or the Renewable Energy Buyers’ Principles.

Practically speaking, from a procurement perspective, rules on renewable energy procurement are becoming increasingly more standardised across the globe, making it easier for CSR representatives to work with their in-house energy buyers.

There are a variety of options in both unregulated and regulated markets.

How is it profitable now to invest in clean energy? Aside from being an environmentally sound move, does it augur well for a company’s profit margins?

Despite ongoing fossil fuel subsidies, which are being scrutinised for phase out.

Backed by the vocal divestment movement and plunging fossil fuel prices, renewable energy is becoming increasingly costcompetitive. This is a result of billions of investments during the last years, combined with an increasing corporate demand. In the year 2015 alone, 154GW of renewable energy capacity was added to the global market.

Renewable energy deals as ‘green tariffs’ are available at or even below standard nonrenewable energy tariffs, and often offer long-term fixed rates.

This is economically beneficial for energy-intensive and growthoriented companies, such as industrials and consumer goods, as it allows for better forecasting of production costs.

Wherever possible, companies have chosen to opt for on or near site installations that are directly

Renewable Energy Financing | Feature

grid-connected to their premises or production facilities. Where unfeasible, power purchase agreements (PPAs) can offer a good alternative from a cost perspective for high volumes of consumption: PPAs represent direct contracts with electricity generators, covering all relevant terms for delivery of electricity, and can last up to 20 years, providing long-term security of energy at a fixed cost.

Finally, where on or near site installations or PPAs are not feasible, Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) are a legitimate, reportable, and accessible way to purchase green electricity to compensate for residual fossil fuel emissions under a standard energy tariff.

RECs are available under national tracking schemes such as ‘RECs’ in North America or ‘Guarantees of Origin’ in Europe, as well as I-RECs in regions without national tracking systems. It is worth noting that RECs are traded separately from the underlying, produced electricity.

In other words, green tariffs always include the cost of the utility having to purchase RECs separately from the renewable plants that they contract with, even though this will not show up on the invoice.

Aside from being an environmentally sound move, investing in renewable energy by purchasing RECs not only augurs well for a company’s profit margins but can also support the global sustainable development agenda: RECs can be purchased from plants near a company’s own operations, and their purchase encourages green power developers to build new facilities while creating jobs and sustainable livelihoods. Therefore, a company can also link their acquisition of renewable energy to their SDG goals.

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Can you tell us how the corporate clean energy goals are aligned with UN’s Sustainable Development Goals?

The growing demand for renewable energy is also driving supply, which is directly aligned with SDG 7 ‘Affordable and clean energy’, as well as indirectly with other SDGs. For instance, efforts to encourage clean energy has resulted in more than one fifth of the world’s power being generated by renewable sources in 2011.

Still, one in five people lack access to electricity, and as demand is rising continually, there needs to be a substantial increase in the production of renewable energy across the world.

As for other SDGs, renewable energy plants contribute to many of the other goals by creating jobs, which in turn contribute to reducing poverty (SDG 1) and providing decent work and economic growth (SDG 8). By their nature, the plants also contribute to industry and infrastructure (SDG 9), sustainable cities and communities (SDG 11), and climate action (13). Where they directly replace polluting plants, they can also contribute to SDGs 3 ‘Good Health’ and 6 ‘Clean Water’.

Is it incidental that largely American companies are championing the cause of corporates in clean energy generation? Why is this so?

Within the renewable energy space, large American corporations have recently received a great deal of positive press for their renewable energy commitments and actions. Many of the renewable energy leaders are multi-nationals with global manufacturing, who look at renewable energy as a way to reduce their global cost base, secure supply in the long term and minimize risk, as well as

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Market Insights

28 Feature | Renewable Energy Financing

contribute to the communities they are part of.

While renewables accounted for 13% of the USA’s electricity generation in 2014, the top three countries leading the transition to renewable energy are, at present, Sweden, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua. In addition, it is increasingly the developing countries that are taking the lead in pursuing green energy investments to build their future energy infrastructure. For instance, Bangladesh serves 25mn people with solar energy, while India is planning to power 18mn homes with solar by 2022.

Given that it is a new space, how can the industry benefit from best practices and more importantly, who is qualified in guiding companies to make the most strategic and productive moves Inputs by

Marie Christine Bluett Head of Renewables Portfolio Management, South Pole Group

towards attaining their clean energy goals?

For a global company operating in many countries, creating and implementing a robust renewable energy strategy can be a daunting endeavour. The best way to get started is to assess the status quo in-house for the entire global operations, i.e. identify the current contractual agreements in place. Luckily there are already service providers with global capabilities who can map out the journey towards 100% renewable energy country by country.

The growth of the renewable energy marketplace during the last years has been remarkable.

Companies should not miss out on the opportunity to secure their energy supply in the long term while contributing to their CSR goals and living up to their global pledges.

Inputs by

Melanie Wilneder Key Account Manager, South Pole Group

About: South Pole Group offers comprehensive sustainability solutions and services. We enable our customers to create value from sustainability-related activities. The company has offices in Thailand, China, Indonesia, Taiwan, Mexico, South Africa, Turkey, Vietnam, Australia, Kenya, Ghana & Iran Market Insights

Issue 02 | 2017 | www.imarketinsights.com

What’s Hot

How does a corporate PPA work?

These PPAs can be structured a few different ways. On site renewables can be a direct sale of electricity under a classic PPA structure (these tend to be smaller generation facilities). The new trend is for contracts with large facilities (not located on site). The contracts are designed to be financial contracts between the corporate buyer and the facility owner. The exact structure depends on market design and how (or if) non-regulated utilities can contract for electricity. The most common arrangement in the US market is a contract for differences (also called a virtual PPA, but lots of things are called a virtual PPA). Under a contract for differences, the buyer and seller essentially make a fixed for floating swap of the price for power. So, the buyer will agree to a fixed price to buy the power from the wind or solar farm at a defined delivery point near the facility. To the extent, the market price is under the agreed fixed price the buyer will send a payment for the difference between the market price and the fixed price to the seller. This allows the seller to have revenue certainty, which is necessary for project financing.

Conversely, if the market price is higher, the seller would make a payment back to the buyer.

The amount could be all or part of the difference depending on the nature of the agreement. The corporate buyer would also get all of the associated environmental attributes, so it could show progress against clean energy, climate, or sustainability targets.

A report by DLA Piper has shown that North America has the largest number of corporate PPAs – could you point out why? And specifically, technology companies

Renewable Energy Financing | Feature

What’s Hot

29

opposed to distributed generation, which undermines the utilisation of wires.

How are major companies going about procuring storage capacities for power they purchase?

US-based Amazon is expanding its clean energy portfolio. (Image source: Amazon)

appear to be the largest takers – are there other sectors showing interest in pursuing corporate PPAs? There are several regulatory markets that allow the virtual PPA in North America. The development market for renewables is fairly robust, so there are assets that corporates can contract with, or developers willing to build to meet demand. This is because market vitality prices for utility scale renewables have been dropping significantly. The other market that we’d expect to see a lot of activity is Europe, but corporate buyers are having a hard time getting used to making a claim for the full additionality of a contract.

This is because European mandates often require the construction of new renewable power.

Technology companies have been out in front on this because while they have large power demands (data centres), they also tend to have more aggressive climate and sustainability goals.

Such companies appear to have a sophisticated understanding of power markets and place more value on managing future price volatility than other buyers.

Given that this is a relatively new field within corporates, how are companies placed with finding the right kind of strategists to guide

them in procuring PPAs? It’s not easy to do. There are not that many advisors that have real experience in this market.

The learning process can take a long time and it also requires new collaboration between sustainability offices, treasury functions and operation and procurement within a company. We still see a lot of deals promised, or even agreed to with developers that are un-financiable because one or both parties does not fully understand what investors and lenders expect to see in projects and revenue certainty before providing capital for a project.

The demand for corporate PPAs are slowly undermining the presence of major power utilities – is this trend expected to continue to eventually replace the role of utilities in providing clean energy?

Utilities are aware of it, and some are actively trying to meet corporate renewable buying needs.

In the USA, we have vertically integrated markets where utilities own generation as well as T&D – they are in many cases trying to be that renewable generation provider. In restructured markets, where the utility own the wires, but not necessarily the generation these deals actually can help by accessing more T&D use (as

Only some are - more typically they are simply using the existing available power within the grid system and entering into one of these financial instruments to move the revenue/cost risk and transfer the renewable attributes.

That said, we are seeing an increase in interest for storage both in a grid balancing context and as a way to provide firm output from intermittent sources like solar or wind.

According to you, where will the global corporate PPA market be in the next five years? Which region/ country is expected to emerge a leader in this space and why?

Projections for the US market have the market growing to as much as 60GW over the next few years, so on an absolute basis, I’d expect to see a great deal of growth. I think the additionality challenges in the EU market will get worked out and we will see growth there as well.

Mexico could be strong. 

Inputs by

Elias Hinckley Energy Practice Leader and Partner, Sullivan & Worcester LLP

www.imarketinsights.com | Issue 02 | 2017

Market Insights

30 Feature | ACE1 Ultra Clean Biomass Stove

Photography: Bete van Meeuwen

Innovations

Ultra Clean and Super Safe Household Air Pollution affects more lives in Africa than we can imagine, and the Walker family in Lesotho is trying to help one household at a time with their highly popular innovation

A

study by the World Health Organization has stated that household air pollution results in four million deaths annually. Millions continue to cook their meals over open fires and face a constant hazard of contracting lung diseases in addition to putting themselves in physical jeopardy. The Walker family witnessed this issue first hand in Lesotho and saw an opportunity to make a difference.

They devised the ACE 1 Ultra Clean Biomass Stove, which runs on solar panels and batteries, completely mitigating the need for open fires to cook meals and ensuring Market Insights

access to cleaner air to millions of Africans.

Judith Joan Walker is the operations director of African Clean Energy – the company that produces the ACE 1 Ultra Clean Biomass Stove. Along with her brother Ruben and father Stephen, Judith works towards providing off-grid household energy solutions to those living in subSaharan Africa and elsewhere in the developing world. “With three billion people cooking on biomass, it certainly is not a niche problem. The problem is that our customers

Issue 02 | 2017 | www.imarketinsights.com

are not considered rich enough to address with high technology and long-term solutions. We need to change this strange perception and look instead at what they are spending now on negative coping mechanisms, and then look at solutions to make a range of energy products available and affordable.�

Having lived in Lesotho for a while, the Walkers recognised the need for an advanced product that would address the issue of Household Air Pollution (HAP).

Specifically, Judith noticed that although there were a range of

32 Feature | ACE1 Ultra Clean Biomass Stove

products available, none of them categorically addressed energy needs adequately for the kind of rural customer that she wanted to help. She recalls a time she visited a home in a village in Lesotho where a cooking fire was blazing, and she had trouble standing in the house for more than 30 seconds due to the smoke and fumes. “If you drive through the mountains around dinner time, you can see whole villages engulfed in smoke. You’ll frequently see women with huge bundles of wood travelling long distances. This is such a waste of time and energy for anyone, and there simply hasn’t been another option offered.”

ACE 1 has brought together forced draft cook stove technology with solar panels and high quality batteries that addresses three needs – cooking, lighting, and mobile phone charging.

A fan blows oxygen into the chamber through holes at both the bottom and the top. This drives the fire to increase in temperature until it reaches approximately 1,000°C. These conditions cause the biomass to gasify. Then, the hot gas floats up to the top, meeting more oxygen and combusting completely. The stove will produce as much as 5kW worth of energy, and the outside temperature, though warm after continued use, does not become hot enough to cause injury. When fully charged, the battery will Market Insights

power the fan for over 20 hours of cooking. The battery can also be used to charge a mobile device or run LED lighting, and is charged using a solar panel.

By burning all the biomass (and thus not producing any smoke) the user needs nearly 70% less fuel while cooking. This significant reduction in fuel use is a huge environmental benefit for two reasons - less fuel means less deforestation; more efficient combustion means less carbon dioxide and negligible particulate matter such as black carbon is released into the atmosphere.

“Since one can use almost any biomass fuel cleanly, it is often easier to use small fuels like twigs, or otherwise wasted sources like corn cob centres, cow dung or agricultural waste. Large pieces require more effort to break down to fit the burning chamber. This means there is a strong incentive to use more sustainable sources and not chop down trees,” said Walker.

An energy lab in Colorado State University has tested the ACE 1 Ultra Clean Biomass Stove as a IWA Tier 3 for emissions, 3 for efficiency and indoor emissions, and 4 for safety. African Clean Energy has a team of sales executives that perform most maintenance services, in addition

Ruben and Judith Walker

Issue 02 | 2017 | www.imarketinsights.com

Innovations

to remote teams that are trained in maintenance and services. Judith explains that they structure a repeat loop through regions that would enable them to return to old customers and sell to new ones in a consistent manner. In addition, the teams also call customers for payments as well as take their inputs for survey. Youth leaders are also trained to perform basic troubleshooting and servicing, so issues can be identified and addressed quickly.

Currently, the company’s home market is Lesotho and the Walkers are rolling out their product in Uganda and Cambodia. According to Judith, there is probably not a country in sub-Saharan Africa where the ACE 1 Ultra Clean Biomass Stove isn’t relevant as energy poverty, especially among rural Africans, is quite high. To mitigate this issue, Judith feels that innovation and local manufacturing of goods would help. “They create jobs, stimulate local economies and manufacture diversity, which will create only a larger network of opportunities.

We like to provide additional training to the local stakeholders to enhance their capabilities.

While solar and wind have huge potential for mass production, Judith feels biomass is equally important as an energy source, “With open fires being widely used, wood fuel is rapidly disappearing so something has to change. Waste-to-energy is interesting to explore – from our perspective, pellets and briquettes from waste or from the clearing of invasive plants, have huge potential.”

While large energy needs can be met through grid expansion by harnessing solar and wind, the poor cannot be expected to wait decades to have their problems addressed, she feels. 

Ampd Silo | Feature

Innovations

33

A Eureka moment

for a greater purpose Two young Hong-Kong based engineers tell us their story of devising a product that effectively tackles the power and energy crisis in countries lacking adequate power supply

I

t took a blackout for two young engineers to come up with a revolutionary idea that has won them awards and accolades.

Brandon Ng and Luca Valente are the founders of Ampd Energy – a Hong-Kong based award-winning energy storage company that has created Ampd Silo – an energy storage mechanism that runs on lithium ion batteries and is an environment-friendly alternative to diesel generators and lead batteries.

The two engineers met in Beijing in 2013 and wanted to build a fast, high-performing electric motorcycle. Their brainstorming sessions eventually led them to believe that they could come up with a product that has a far greater reach in society and can positively impact people.

Brandon said, “Millions of people around the world lack access to stable power supply. Through our

innovation, we saw opportunity to develop and market a niche product that would address the energy crisis actively.”

According to data provided by the World Bank, the average cost incurred by businesses without stable supply of electricity is about 4.7% of the total revenue.

In some countries where power supply is highly unstable, the cost to business can go up to 30%. Largely, businesses make use diesel generators or lead batteries as power backups. Diesel generators are among the largest pollutants around, compared to a diesel car, a generator emits twice as much carbon dioxide and 10 times as much nitrogen oxide. In addition, particulate emissions are 40,000 times worse. On the other hand, lead batteries cause major environmental disturbances. For instance, China produces 2.3bn kg of used lead batteries every

year. Most of the batteries go into recycling facilities, which are poorly regulated, not sophisticated and badly maintained. This leads to seepage of lead into the ground and groundwater.

Recognising the hazards of these widely-used power backup mechanisms, Brandon and Luca used lithium ion batteries in the Ampd Silo. This ensures the storage of large amounts for long time periods and completely obliterates the use of lead acidbased battery backups. Currently, the Ampd Silo can power loads up to 10 or 20 kilo volt ampere (kVA).

“A typical 10-person office setup needs around four to five kVA. As would an operating theatre. A three-bedroom apartment would need about is about three to four kVA,” explained Brandon. The engineers at Ampd Energy are working on a model that would allow three silos to run in parallel,

www.imarketinsights.com | Issue 02 | 2017

Market Insights

34 Feature | Ampd Silo

Ampd Energy at CES Las Vegas 2017

with a combined capacity of up to 60kVA, thereby enabling the silo to power bigger clusters of buildings.

Ampd Silo featured at CES 2017, one of the biggest consumer electronics show in the world.

They won two awards as well; The CES Innovation Award and the Best of CES Finalists Award. The product has tasted immense success in Indonesia, which is one of the key markets for the

Market Insights

Innovations

company. Ampd Energy is working closely with a leading hospital group in Indonesia for a largescale collaboration. In addition, the product will be launched in the Philippines and Vietnam. “We’re also looking at India very closely as we see a great need for energy storage systems there.”

India is currently pursuing an agenda for an economy largely powered by renewable energy, through solar and wind projects.

While the push for renewables is much needed, Brandon also highlights the drawbacks of producing excess solar energy.

“Ampd Silo can store electricity from generated from anywhere – be it solar or otherwise. What it brings to the fore is the need for power storage. There have been cases of surplus clean energy production in countries like Germany, where the price of energy falls to negative numbers during the day. In the state of Hawaii, there is so much solar power being generated that surplus goes right back into the ground. Having environmentfriendly storage facilities would enhance the relevance of clean energy production through solar, wind and other natural resources,” explained Brandon.

One of the most popular energy storage systems in the market now is Tesla’s Powerwall.

But this is where the Ampd Silo is markedly different in its approach and market relevance. “Our product is for markets that lack a stable grid supply or for markets that could use surplus power for core functions such as in hospitals, data centres and telecom

Issue 02 | 2017 | www.imarketinsights.com

companies. The widespread relevance of our product makes it appealing in a wider range of markets.”

Groundbreaking innovation requires inputs from the best of minds and Ampd Energy is no different. Brandon holds a master’s degree in chemical engineering from the Imperial College London.

He has founded two start-ups, advised renewable energy investment and development projects at the Environmental Justice Foundation and has worked as a proprietary equity derivatives trader in Barclays Capital, London.

Luca Valente has a master’s in mechanical engineering at the Pontiff Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro and an MBA from the Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business. Valente worked for Volkswagen and Embraer. He moved to China in 2005, where he led the engineering team at Harbin Embraer Aircraft Industry - the joint venture between Embraer and Aviation Industry Corporation of China. 

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36 IN Focus

HR in Banking

Decoding Human Resource Management in Banking As the world becomes a virtually smaller place, there are a plethora of opportunities for human resource executives to affect change from a micro to macro level. Hessa Al Ghurair, Chief Human Resources Officer at Commercial Bank International, Dubai shares her thoughts on a variety of pressing matters ranging from how nationalisation can uplift the UAE workforce in the near future to the need for constant upskilling in order to make a real difference Up-skilling the workforce is imperative to achieving the best results under UAE’s nationalisation plan.

Can you mention some examples of quality trainings/educational outreach programmes and their impact on the quality of workforce?

The future of the bank and the UAE is the next generation of young, bright, ambitious Nationals. Emiratisation is not about quotas or “check-box” exercises; Nationals are the future business leaders of our region and CBI provides unstinting support at every step of the way. We are currently focusing on revamping our National Development Program to adapt to the needs of our future workforce. We will focus on providing ongoing learning opportunities, which will reskill and upskill our employees, through a flexible and blended-learning approach to development. At the same time, we encourage Nationals to take a proactive approach to their own learning and development.

While traditional training has its place, we will complement existing initiatives with job rotations, international opportunities, crossfunctional collaboration projects, mentoring, active feedback sessions and workplace action programs.

Given the mandate to retain/ hire top talent from outside UAE, how easy or hard is it to maintain a sense of equilibrium within the workforce today in the UAE? Market Insights

Issue 02 | 2017 | www.imarketinsights.com

At CBI, we embrace diversity and inclusion. We want different cultures and backgrounds on our teams and actively look for expertise and top talent, both locally and abroad.

Maintaining an equilibrium isn’t necessary when you have a positive working culture that celebrates diversification, collaboration and different perspectives.

What do you think are the leading concerns and expectations of a millennial workforce? How are conventional sectors such as banking & finance equipped to deal with the new age workforce?

Each generation of workers comes with different needs and expectations. HR professionals and business leaders need to work together to understand their workforce. Find the gaps between perception and reality by using metrics and analytics to help tap into the hearts and minds of employees, which will provide insights to guide strategic decisions on people planning. Typically, research has shown that millennials are looking for organisations who can help them grow as people and not just as professionals. Diversity, flexible working, work-life balance and corporate social

IN Focus 37

HR in Banking

responsibility are all areas, which are becoming more and more important to the future workforce. Just as importantly, they want ongoing development opportunities, which allows them to collaborate, knowledge share, connect and network.

It has been recognised that knowledge transfer is imperative to developing leadership at all levels. How would you recommend the implementation of the best knowledge transfer measures?

The best way to encourage knowledge transfer amongst leadership is flattening silos and hierarchies. Knowledge transfer is a working style driven by employee behaviour and can only be created in a work environment that encourages team work, collaboration and continuous learning. Openly sharing activity, information, best practice, skills and expertise requires a mindset shift, which should be role modelled through day-to-day behaviour. To have this commonly exchanged amongst employees, it needs to come from the top. Some recommendations are – make information widely available, inspire and incentivise team players who collaborate, mentoring and coaching programs, develop project working groups with employees from different departments and provide training on knowledge transfer methods and tools.

What are your thoughts on the role of analytics and measurement processes in HR? Do you think they can make existing HR management systems stronger and impactful?

HR analytics turns big data into business intelligence. The sheer volume and velocity of big data is rendered useless if it cannot be translated into insights, which enhance decision making and

organisational performance. HR analytics allows a deep-dive into the “how” and “why” behind issues of attrition, hiring, performance, benefits and compensation, which can forecast workforce requirements, optimise talent, recognise factors behind employee engagement, prove benefaction to achievements and highlight trends necessary for proactive solutions.

A survey has stated that Learning & Development (L&D) is going to be a major investment for medium and large companies in the coming years. Specifically, what kind of L&D programmes can the banking sector benefit from?

In order to remain competitive, organisations need to adapt to market needs and customer demands. Learning and change are interconnected. Enabling an organisation to respond and adapt, through agile thinking will always provide sustainable solutions.

Learning ensures top talent, top service and the top attitude. But in order for it to be done well it must be done in partnership between HR, the business and employees.

Employees need to assume ownership over their learning and developing by investing in themselves and driving their own career paths.

While increasing female participation across the workforce, do you think there are any lapses in execution? What can be done to overcome them?

The UAE is leading the way in women empowerment compared to its Middle Eastern neighbours.

The significant increase in female participation in the workforce over the recent years speaks to the political agenda and progression in mindset found in the UAE. CBI is committed to the leveraging female representation in the private sector and has 43% female

workforce. We are now focused on female representation in senior leadership roles, ensuring we have diversity around the executive committee table. We need closer collaboration between our educational institutions, government and private sectors.

HR and business leaders need to work together to ensure all qualified candidates have a level playing field and equal opportunities. We need to act - by adjusting policies, encouraging flexible working and investing in female development. We also need to influence - by engaging in business cases, advocacy and communication campaigns to build a work environment that supports opportunities of women.

Can you identify three major trends that one can expect in HR in the coming year and their significance?

•

Big Data and Analytics will continue to dominate

•

Digitisation and gamification of HR processes

•

Less focus on annual performance review and greater focus on more frequent and ongoing feedback and measurement throughout the year. 

Hessa Al Ghurair is an advisor to business leaders in the UAE across all critical aspects of HR, where she is primarily responsible for developing and implementing programs and policies that advance CBI’s talent base while supporting the company’s business strategy.

She leads a HR team that supports more than 750 employees in the UAE. Prior to her stint in CBI, she worked at Tanfeeth as Chief People Officer. She has also held senior HR managerial roles with Emirates NBD, Barclays Bank PLC and Mashreq Bank.

www.imarketinsights.com | Issue 02 | 2017

Market Insights

38 Trainings

W Series

Managing Occupational Health Risks and Liabilities Renowned industrial hygienist and educator Dr. Jas Singh explains the need for occupational health programmes in Asia, Middle East and Africa

C

ompanies are increasingly implementing occupational health programs as they have adopted regulations to protect workers from exposure to hazardous materials and physical agents such as noise, heat stress, radiation, and ergonomic stresses.

Such developments are relatively new to many Asian, Middle Eastern, and African countries that are trying to implement measures to protect workers and comply with the expanding regulations.

Market Insights

Worker exposure hazards are numerous and complex in the oil, gas and mining industries; the two industries important to the Middle Eastern and African regions. It should be noted that despite exposures to highly toxic and sometimes carcinogenic materials such as benzene in the oil and gas industry and asbestos and toxic metals- mercury among thosethere is a lack of recognition and control efforts in these industries.

Much of this inaction is perhaps

Issue 02 | 2017 | www.imarketinsights.com

related to the lack of qualified and credentialed individuals in occupational hygiene disciplines in the region.

Two of the oldest and most respected occupational hygiene organizations below have made recent efforts to fill this gap. These are the British Occupational Hygiene Society (BOHS) and The American Board of Industrial Hygiene (ABIH), which have developed criteria and credentials to improve practices in

Trainings 39

W Series

The IHTA/BOHS scheme is comprised of the following modules Occupational Hygiene

Foundation

W501 – Measurement of Hazardous Substances

Intermediate

W502 – Thermal Environment

Intermediate

W503 – Noise

Intermediate

W504 – Asbestos

Intermediate

W505 – Control

Intermediate

W506 – Ergonomics

Intermediate

W507 – Health Effects of Hazardous Substances

Intermediate

occupational hygiene. They have also developed credentials for safety and health professionals to improve their skills.

Both organisations offer certifications directed at different levels of professional skills and expertise. One of the global schemes aimed at a large number of individuals involved in occupational safety, hygiene and health in general is the OHTA/ BOHS modular scheme whereby an individual with interest in occupational hygiene (industrial hygiene) can take modular courses to enhance their qualifications and skills which will to advance up the OH ladder to higher levels of the profession.

The OHTA/BOHS eight modular offerings address the various disciples that comprise occupational hygiene, also referred to as industrial hygiene.

By passing a module, a candidate receives a certificate showing

proficiency in that subject.

When a candidate passes six modules, four compulsory (501, 503, 505 and 507) and any two of the three options (502, 504 and 506), he or she earns a comprehensive certificate called ICERTOH (International Certificate in Occupational Hygiene). A candidate with an ICertOH can then proceed further to earn a higher-level credential either from the BOHS or from the ABIH. This is a truly multinational project to improve worker health under the guidance of the International Occupational Hygiene Association (IOHA) and its member organisations.

In addition to these intermediate level courses there is also a foundation level ‘Principles’ module. This provides a general introduction to occupational hygiene and is suitable as a starter course for those preparing to study the other modules. Additional study at postgraduate level can be used to build the knowledge and skills required for professional accreditation under one of the IOHA National Accreditation Recognition (NAR) schemes or from the American Board of Industrial Hygiene.

Anyone can download materials free of charge from the OHTA website. Approved course providers and their courses are listed on OHLearning.co.

Approved course providers offer OHTA awards which bear the IOHA (International Occupational Hygiene Association) logo and the phrase ‘Supported by IOHA’. 

About the Trainer:

Dr. Jas Singh is a globally renowned industrial hygienist and educator.

After more than forty years of practice in assessing and controlling exposures in the workplace and community, and providing industrial hygiene (IH) consulting services to many of the largest global corporations, Dr. Singh formed his own company in 2013.

The mission of the company is to provide high quality occupational hygiene education and consulting to the professional industrial hygiene (IH) community’. Dr. Singh’s contributions to the IH profession are many. He is a past director of the American Board of Industrial Hygiene (ABIH), the American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA), and is a past president of the Academy of Industrial Hygiene.

He is a recipient of the Academy’s prestigious Henry Smyth award and AIHA’s ‘Distinguish Service Award’.

In 2015, Dr. Singh was awarded the ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ by the American Board of Industrial Hygiene (ABIH) for his contributions toward promoting industrial hygiene education and certification around the globe.

Editor’s Note:

The International Finance Publications Ltd. strongly supports and recommends these global credentials for corporations trying to manage health and safety related risks and liabilities. We can organise any OHTA module for a company by utilising approved global trainers with the highest qualifications and proven track records. www.imarketinsights.com | Issue 02 | 2017

Market Insights

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42 Trainings

Gamification

Game on,

Millennials!

Can gamification help organisations engage millennials and post millennials? Gamification experts Pete Jenkins and Vasilis Gkogkidis break down the essence of the concept and its necessity today in professional setups world over to solve personnel problems

T

he generAlly Accepted definition is that “Gamification is the use of design techniques from games in a business context or some other non-game contexts.” Werbach (2013). That doesn’t really explain why you would use gamification though. We see gamification as a way to apply game mechanics to increase someone’s engagement with a process so that you get more of the behaviour you desire from that someone. One definition that describes what we do for companies more accurately is that gamification is “the use of game design metaphors to create more game-like experiences”.

Gamification is also about understanding why certain game mechanics are so engaging and fun and how to choose which game techniques we should be using in any given situation. It is based upon existing theories from motivational psychology, behavioural economics, user experience design, game design and more. Importantly, gamification gives us a practical framework that enables us to easily apply these psychological theories to a business or process.

Who are millennials and post millennials?

Millennials are born between 1980 and 1995 and according to a survey done by PwC, they will form 50% of the global workforce by 2020. Post millennials or Generation Z as they are often mentioned, are individuals born from 1996 onwards. The centre for generational kinetics reports that there are 23 million post millennials in the US and are the fastest growing generation in both the workplace and the marketplace.

Both generations have grown up in an always digital world with applications like Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, LinkedIn, TripAdvisor and Foursquare as part of their daily routine. The following graph also shows how many more games they play compared to the older generations.

Market Insights

Issue 02 | 2017 | www.imarketinsights.com

THE FIRST DIGITAL NATIVES Millennials Have grown up with the internet and smartphones in an always-on digial world Play Video Games 60% 50% 40% 30%

Millennials Gen X Boomers

20% 10% 0%

Getting feedback on what they do or post online is something that millennials are used to. You share a photo from your holidays in Hawaii and get 100 likes and 20 comments in a few hours.

In GAMIFICATION+, we often explain how social media and games can affect your mood. Dopamine, serotonin, and oxytocin are three neurotransmitters that can be activated by a ‘Like’ on Facebook or finishing a hard level on a game. Work is gamified too. You have job titles like regional manager, CTO or business expert that we proudly display on our LinkedIn profiles. We work hard to get these titles so we feel that our hard work is rewarded. Is a promotion enough to keep employees motivated and engaged with your company brand every day?

That’s where gamification can come in and add value both to the organisation and the people working for it. Using gamification, you can do two things that are very important for humans. Set clear goals and give fast and frequent feedback.

Goals Games give players a clear goal from the get go. In most

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Gamification

sports like football, basketball or tennis the goal is pretty simple. Score more points than your opponent and you win. In video games, it is no different. Mario wants to save his girlfriend from Donkey Kong and later from Bowser. Sonic the hedgehog is trying to save the world from the evil Dr. Robotnik. Games give you a clear goal and constant feedback on how well you are doing on achieving that goal. Feeling you have a goal and bigger purpose in life can be really motivating. John F. Kennedy visited the NASA space centre in 1962, walked up to a janitor and said “Hi, I’m Jack Kennedy. What are you doing?” and the janitor answered, “Well, Mr. President, I’m helping put a man on the moon.” In games, we call that epic meaning.

It’s a sense of having a bigger purpose in the game.

You are on a quest that seems impossible at start but tackling every bit of challenge along the way means you eventually reach your goals. Having a goal in sight always helps people be more motivated. We want to achieve things, share them with our peers and feel proud of our achievements.

Feedback Gamification can also help us give more feedback to employees on their everyday tasks. Even the simple, boring things that lead to something bigger. One product we really like at GAMIFICATION+ is Bonusly.

Bonusly is a way to recognise your co-workers hard work and promote a culture of positive recognition and feedback in your organisation. The way it works

Pete Jenkins is an international speaker, adviser and trainer in gamification. He took the number one spot on the ‘Gamification Gurus Power 100’ in February 2016. In 2000, Pete founded the company GAMIFICATION+ LTD. He has since advised and trained companies of all sizes, both in the UK and internationally, on the use of Gamification. In addition, Pete is Chair of GamFed (the International Gamification Confederation). He has been Entrepreneur in Residence at the University of Brighton for eight years. In addition to researching gamification for HR at CROME (the University’s Centre for Research on Management and Employment), he lectures on gamification and entrepreneurship at undergraduate and post-graduate levels. Pete is Ambassador for Brighton & Hove Chamber of Commerce and for Worthing & Adur Chamber of Commerce.

is that each month you get an allowance of points that you can give to your colleagues-employees to say well done on things like this month’s sales report or a presentation they did for their team.

It’s a way to give regular feedback on everyday tasks and let people know that their work is being appreciated. Letting people know that each time they perform a task they get a bit closer to their goals can prove very motivating for employees.

Conclusion Companies can use gamification as a tool to engage and motivate millennials and post-millennials in a meaningful and valuable way. Giving your staff a clear goal motivates them to try more and reach for that goal. Giving them feedback on how well they are doing in achieving that goal ensures they will stay motivated.

Gamification should be applied with the utmost care though. You should empower your employees instead of making them feel they are constantly watched or judged. The systems you deploy should add value to the organisation and the employees.

Focus on positive rather than negative feedback and give people ownership of their achievements and hard work.  International Market Metrics conducted a highly successful gamification training with Pete Jenkins in UAE in 2016.

Vasilis Gkogkidis is an international speaker, designer and trainer in gamification. He holds a master’s degree from the University of Brighton with a distinction. During his masters, he studied gamification for business alongside Pete Jenkins and started working full time at GAMIFICATION+.

He has since designer gamification solutions, spoke several times for organisations and delivered training on gamification and corporate strategy. Vasilis is the Greek ambassador of GamFed (the International Gamification Federation) where he spreads best practices on gamification in Greece and nearby countries. He is also the organiser of the Thessaloniki gamification meetup where he organises talks and workshops related to gamification.

www.imarketinsights.com | Issue 02 | 2017

Market Insights

44 Trainings

IFRS

The IFRS Storm Renowned IFRS expert Mike Turner debunks the term International Financial Reporting Standards and explains why it is commonly referred to solving issues in financial reporting

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nternational Financial Reporting Standards, or IFRS, is a hot topic these days in the financial world. It is often in the headlines of the financial press but is often not very well understood.

We often hear that IFRS is the solution to our financial reporting problems and governments around the globe are encouraged by the IMF, World Bank, and other international organisations but many financial professionals do not understand why.

Let us first look at the USA model and understand what US GAAP aims to achieve. In the USA, US GAAP is required by entities that are listed on the US capital markets (IFRS is allowed for foreign registrants), broker dealers, banks and a few other regulated entities.

The typical business that is family Market Insights

owned or held by a small group of investors in the USA is generally not interested in US GAAP nor required to prepare accounts under US GAAP. With all the election news from the USA, did you notice how President Donald Trump’s financial data has remained highly confidential? There is no legal requirement to prepare or report financial information about a legal entity that is not publicly traded.

In the UK, all legal entities are required to prepare accounts that are lodged with the company’s house. For a nominal fee, these are available to the public. IFRS is required for the larger listed entities and there are less onerous reporting requirements for smaller entities, albeit they can still be accessed by the public.

Issue 02 | 2017 | www.imarketinsights.com

When it comes to US GAAP, this stems back to just after the Great Depression and the acts of the US Congress that required US public companies to report information to their shareholders that should be entitled to such information as they are owners.

The emphasis for the last century was to improve investor financial information. Over the past century, public entities such as Enron, WorldCom, and numerous others have misreported earnings to manipulate the share prices and investor perception. Obviously, US GAAP had its share of failures.

With the globalisation of equities, having a different reporting standards around the globe was not workable. Prior to the adoption of IFRS in Germany, Daimler Benz reported earnings of

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IFRS

US$370mn under IFRS and a loss of US$1bn under US GAAP – how perplexing this would be for the global capital markets?

A truly global standard that would be acceptable to all stakeholders was IFRS since it was not tied to any country. The perception or reality of American domination put US GAAP off the table.

In 2005, when the EU mandated IFRS for all listed entities, IFRS was not a global player. National governments have been adopting IFRS around the globe and now all countries in the Middle East are the most recent entrants. With the potential listing of Saudi Aramco, its adherence to IFRS will be the cornerstone to global acceptability and obtaining the maximum market valuation.

The core objective of US GAAP is to provide information to the capital markets. Over the years, US GAAP has developed into a complex and cumbersome set of accounting rules. The main reason for this is that the standard setters wanted to prevent companies from misleading investors but creative accountants and lawyers never let this crystallise. In the end, the US GAAP standard setters with more than 20,000 pages of guidance have reached the same conclusion that the IASB that standards should not be rule-based but established on a set of principles.

As the norm outside the USA

was more financial transparency (remember President Trump), global standards were required to be established for large listed multinationals as well as smaller non-listed entities. Having a single set of standards was untenable.

In 2009, there was a split and the IASB supported two sets of standards – full IFRS to support the capital markets and IFRS for SME. The name IFRS for SME to me is a typo – it should be IFRS for non-listed entities. Even a billiondollar company is allowed to use IFRS for SMEs as long as its debt and equity is not listed on a public exchange.

After 2009, as full IFRS primarily refocused to the capital markets, it was now in a positon to be better and work with US GAAP standard setters for global harmonisation as their core objective was not fully aligned to support the capital markets with financial reporting and disclosure. I believe the standard setters are ahead of what we can practically do. The result is that the financial statements and the IFRS guidelines should support the users. Disclosures are lengthy and verbose and generally don’t get to the point.

My most memorable disclosure was when I was asked to review a large national insurance company and they had no disclosures on their accounting policy for agriculture to conclude it was not applicable. The current template of

disclosures provides questionable relevant information and is more likely to dazzle the users with frivolous information – the next work project that is expected to be tackled by the standard setters.

A few years back there were discussion papers issued that all liabilities (I mean all including provisions) should be fair valued, the statement of position (commonly referred to as the balance sheet) and the statement of comprehensive income (commonly referred to as the income statement) has a joint discussion paper with the USA to bifurcate this into sections like the cash flow – operating financing and investing. This would be great info for a user but imagine as a preparer of financial statements having to separate wages and salaries into these sections for an accountant! This concept did not make it very far with the resistance from the preparers.

The recent standards in financial instruments, leasing and revenue recognition are further aiming to improve IFRS. My hunch is that they will need a lot of revisions over the coming years. Even though they were done in collaboration with US GAAP standard setters, the only converged standards is revenue recognition. With the aim of global harmonisation this is nothing to brag home about. 

Michael Turner, a UK Chartered Accountant, US Certified Public Accountant, Certified Financial Analyst (CFA) and IFRS expert trainer in International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). www.imarketinsights.com | Issue 02 | 2017

Market Insights

46 Events | Power & Energy Africa 2017

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Tanzania to host 3rd Power and Energy Africa event East Africa is quickly mobilising its resources and investments to ramp up its position as a major power and energy bloc. Meet heads of state, investors and innovators at the Power & Energy Africa 2017 to learn about East Africa’s growth story

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REPoRT BY BERKELEY Lab stated that Africa can meet its energy needs by strategically siting wind and solar resources. The continent is abundantly endowed with access to multiple resources that can help generate electricity and provide electricity to millions of Africans.

According to the IEA, 68% of the African population has no access to electricity. Over the years, the need for powering Africa has been recognised and mega projects are underway or functioning in different parts of the continent. In light of the growing need for power in Africa, ExpoGroup is conducting the 3rd Power & Energy Tanzania 2017 at the Mlimani Conference Centre in Dar es Salaam from 16th to 18th August, 2017. The event will largely highlight the role played by the East African Community as well as the Market Insights

extensive contributions made by international companies and organizations to increase the supply of power in East Africa.

Energy Talk Africa 2017 – the official conference of the Power & Energy and Solar Trade Exhibition will serve as a platform for experts in the energy sector to share their insights and valuable information about the industry. The conference is expected to draw government representatives, trade missions and embassies, energy utilities, transmission companies, solar and thermal/PV/CSP producers, investors, power/oil & gas/ mining companies and telecommunication experts.

The conference is expected to discuss the emerging opportunities in the solar sector, the role of energy efficient and green cities, global trends and innovation, green energy generation and eco-friendly materials, the impact

Issue 02 | 2017 | www.imarketinsights.com

of solar power and consequent development plans.

Additionally, the exhibition will showcase a range of solutions and technologies in the power and energy sector. At Power & Energy Africa 2016, organisers hosted exhibitors from more than 22 countries such as Austria, Belgium, China, India, Germany, Hong Kong, UK, USA, UAE, Singapore, South Africa and Singapore. Exhibits primarily included solutions for new & renewable energy, transmission and distribution equipment, energy efficiency and conservation products, biogas systems and energy meters.

There were 4,770 visitors, out of which importers comprised 38% and visitors from East Africa were the highest. Organisers are hopeful that the footfalls will be impressive this year as well, with high levels of participation from African nations. 

Show Review

3rd Annual Post Trade Forum | Events

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Trading in Europe today Event organiser GLC Europe presented the 3rd Annual Post Trade Forum at Vienna, where major industry trends in trade as well as economic events were analysed by experts belonging to the fields of banking, finance, regulation and policy

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lobAl leAdIng conferences Europe conducted their 3rd Annual Post Trade Forum on 23rd and 24th February, 2017 at the Austria Trend Hotel Savoyen, Vienna, where global regulatory standards were widely discussed by industry experts.

Post-trade processing took centre stage for the speakers, as they shared their insights on EMIR, MIFID II, T2S among others.

In addition, they also forecast the upcoming trends in settlement and clearing. Functional topics such as CSD regulation, CCP resilience, recovery and resolution were also discussed and relevant industry updates provided.

Political developments and upheavals have a direct impact on trading. One major political event that affected the future of EU trading was Brexit. Even as the UK prepares to officially leave the EU, there are several issues to be ironed out that would directly impact the nature of trading between the member countries.

Specifically, with respect to asset management, Brexit was discussed extensively at the forum.

Speakers included Hannes A Takacs, associate director, local currency and capital markets development, EBRD United Kingdom; Meike Stroter, deputy head of market infrastructure management, European Central Bank, Germany; Marko Niederheide, director, market advocacy, Deutsche Bank AG Germany; Patrick Pearson, director general financial stability, financial services and capital markets, European Commission Belgium; Richard Scavetta, senior program director for T2S, Citi United Kingdom; Ruth Walters, senior manager, resolution directorate, Bank of England United Kingdom; Massimo Morini, head of interest rate and credit models/ senior consultant Banca IMI/ World Bank Italy/ USA; Ben Van Der Velpen, senior securities market consultant, ING Bank, The Netherlands; Rafael Palta, secretary general, European Association of CCP Clearing Houses (EACH) Belgium; Marcello Topa, director, EMEA Market Policy & Strategy, Citibank Italy; Goran Fors, deputy head of investor,

Servicest SEB, Sweden; Alexander Westphal, associate, International Capital Market Association (ICMA), United Kingdom; Thanos Kagiaras, manager, post trade & prime services, Association for Financial Markets Europe (United Kingdom); Magnus Olsson, business owner client clearing and collateral service, Swedbank, Sweden; Mike Clarck, director, global product management, Deutsche Bank United Kingdom; Sander Van Leijenhorst, senior supervision officer, Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets, The Netherlands; Adam Jacobs Dean, global head of markets regulation, The Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA), United Kingdom; Angus Canvin, senior adviser, regulatory affairs, The Investment Association, United Kingdom; Alina Dragomir, senior policy officer, European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), France; David Farmery, director, message automation, United Kingdom; Daniele De Gennaro, policy advisor, financial markets, European Banking Federation, Belgium. ď Ž

www.imarketinsights.com | Issue 02 | 2017

Market Insights

48 Events | 6th HR Minds Summit

Show Review

What makes employees tick?

At the 6th HR Minds Summit held by GLC Europe, eminent HR leaders and business heads came together to highlight the growth trajectory of the industry, in addition to discussing the various challenges faced by the industry in Europe today

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UNGARY-BASED EVENTS company GLC Europe conducted the 6th HR Minds Summit at the Austria Trend Hotel Savoyen on 2nd and 3rd February 2017, where major trends in the field of human resource management were widely discussed by industry experts. As world economies develop at a rapid pace, human resource management too has drastically evolved. With the influx of new generations of employees coming to the fore, and more so, assuming positions of power within organizations, the need to assess and analyse the latest trends is imperative. Right from understanding motivation across different bands of individuals, to building strategies for the right person in the right job, the 6th HR Minds Summit allowed experts to delve into the current scenario at workplaces and discuss the future of the industry.

Through topics such as change management, cultural organisation, leadership programmes, HR analytics, employee engagement, Market Insights

technology in HR, innovation and talent attraction, the summit brought together a diverse range of leaders and thinkers in the HR space. In a bid to promote and enhance one’s brand, HR professionals have become more transparent and open in their pitches. Yet, challenges in hiring and retaining the right kind of talent remain, and talent acquisition presents itself as a constantly evolving process.

Through this event, the unique challenges faced by European companies were widely discussed through open panels and roundtable sessions.

Speakers included Lars Olof Grun, head of HR – product development at General Motors Europe (Germany); Sandy Begbie, chief people officer, Standard Life United Kingdom; Bernard Van Stekelenburg, former CHRM, Associated British Food Agriculture, United Kingdom; Michael Virardi, speaker/author/ trainer, Cyprus; Adam Hodgkinson, HR people development partner, Leadership, Nations & North

Issue 02 | 2017 | www.imarketinsights.com

BBC, United Kingdom; David Sperl, HR director Digital EMEA + APAC, Austria; Petra Berecova, senior vice-president, executive management, Deustche Telekom AG Germany; Mark Vlaaderderen, senior director/ head of leadership, talent & learning, Phillips, The Netherlands; Shivani Wadhwa, HR director, WWF Switzerland; Anita Zivkovic, president, AISEC Austria; James Hudson, head of recruitment (Europe), Levi Strauss & Co., Belgium; Andreas Steurer, head of HR expertise centre & operations, UniCredit Austria; Michiel Van Den Berg, head of group remuneration and organization effectiveness, Erste Group AG, Austria; Simona Popovici, group HR director, KMG Rompetrol, Romania; Martina Huemann, cofounder and manager, WU Vienna University of Economics & Business, Austria and Roxana Milas, HR lead, central east Europe, consumer segment, Microsoft Austria.

In addition, GLC introduced a HR Hackathon, where participants previewed the most innovative and technologically-driven breakthroughs in HR. 

50 Events | IFM Awards | Dubai

Show Review

Celebrating innovation and growth The fourth edition of IFM’s annual awards took place at Dubai’s JW Marriott Marquis Hotel on 26th January 2017 in a glittering ceremony. This was IFM’s first EMEA-centric awards ceremony, where leading banks and financial services companies in the region were awarded for their establishments in Dubai

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s the city of Dubai was winding down for the weekend in January, Marriott’s Emirates Ballroom was abuzz with anticipation.

Award winners milled around the elegantly decorated foyer and mingled with their industry counterparts over hors d’oeuvres and drinks.

The event, hosted by Phil Market Insights

Blizzard, began with H.E. Hani Al Hamli, secretary general of Dubai Economic Council launching Market Insights, the newest business quarterly magazine produced by International Finance Publications Ltd. The magazine will focus on oil & gas, clean energy, technology and construction in four upcoming quarterly issues this year, in addition to being a

Issue 02 | 2017 | www.imarketinsights.com

publishing platform for corporate trainings as well as prominent industry events.

There were 50 categories of awards ranging from insurance, banking mobile application, Islamic finance technology, wealth management and foreign exchange. However, there were also some big winners in telecom, medical insurance and real estate.

IFM Awards | Dubai | Events

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Telecom reigns at IFM ceremony

Big wins Saudi Arabia and Qatar emerged big winners of the night – nine of the winning companies were from Saudi Arabia that won 11 awards, eight were from Qatar that won nine awards. Five UAEbased companies won eight awards, while four major Omani corporations were given four awards. Four Kuwaiti companies bagged six awards, while there was one winner from Bahrain. Three Egyptian companies won three awards, and entries from Lebanon, Mozambique and Kenya won one award each.

The growth of the telecom industry in GCC reflects the mobility it has gained in the region. More so, steps are being taken by the governments to actively propagate the growth of other sectors in a bid to move away from their reliance on oil, and consequently diversify the economy. Saudi Telecom Company from Saudi Arabia and VIVA from Kuwait bagged the awards for Best Telecom Company – GCC and Best Telecom Company of the Year respectively. Saudi Telecom Company, also the cohost of the ceremony is making great strides in the region through its forays into digital platforms and acquisition of towers to expand its reach. VIVA Kuwait is considered the fastest growing and most competent telecom operator in Kuwait, offering a wide range of services for businesses, individuals and corporate entities.

In a statement issued to the media, Eng. Salman bin Abdulaziz Al-Badran said, “Reaping such an accolade proves our exceptional performance and the high quality standards our professionals are providing to our customers. We endeavour at VIVA to foster our leadership in the telecom market with our innovative products and services that meet customers’ aspirations.”

Luxury living a top draw Real estate and luxury retail too won top accolades at the ceremony. UAE’s SKAI Holdings, renowned for its stylish residential and luxury properties, won the Best Luxury Project UAE for its signature Viceroy Dubai Jumeirah Village, as well as the Most Innovative Real Estate Development Company in the UAE. Mr. Mohammad Abdul Rahim Al Fahim of Paris Gallery won the Best Luxury Retail CEO in the UAE. Paris

Gallery is one of the country’s leading retailers, with a presence across UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Iraq, Qatar and Bahrain.

Innovation a top priority Setting standards for economic growth are freezones, and Oman’s upcoming free zone Duqm was awarded Emerging Economic Freezone (Investment Offering).

Ismail bin Ahmad al Balushi, deputy CEO of Duqm said, “It is an honour to receive such an award and to be present at this ceremony. It feels good to be recognised by the international business community for our work in enhancing the importance of free zones in the GCC economy.”

He explained that this award was particularly motivating as Duqm has a strong focus on innovation right from planning, promotion and corporate social responsibility.

Innovation ranks high for Saudi Arabia’s leading healthcare insurer Bupa Arabia as well, which won Best CSR Initiative and Best Medical Insurance Company in Saudi Arabia. Eng. Ali Sheneamer, chief commercial officer of Bupa Arabia said, “We focus primarily on healthcare. Our goal is to innovate and introduce new services in the market. We have been leading with our initiatives such as online

www.imarketinsights.com | Issue 02 | 2017

Market Insights

52 Events | IFM Awards | Dubai

pre-op SMS services, coaching services from doctors for emergent patients, Telemedicine, Doctor on the Phone and more. We want experienced people who can empower the citizens to be able to help themselves at critical times.”

While the standard of banking and financial services are of high quality in most GCC countries, there are some others like Egypt that are making quick and successful strides in upping their standards too. EG Bank won the Fastest Growing Bank award, Ahli United was adjudged the Best Trade Finance Bank while Bank Audi was specifically awarded for its retail banking product Novo. Mohammad Fayed, deputy chairman and managing director, Bank Audi said, “This award

Market Insights

Show Review

shows that Bank Audi is among the high-tech banks in Egypt, offering some of the best solutions in the market.” Specifically, the company’s product Novo is among the several innovative banking services for the ‘millennial banker’. Novo is a stateof-the-art multi-touch interactive application that allows customers to browse through Bank Audi’s range of products, talk to a personal advisor, procure personalized details for credit cards and loans or even locate the nearest ATM. Fayed added, “Novo is a very new banking experience, and very new to the Egyptian market. Almost 52mn in Egypt is un-banked – we can say our country is under-banked. However, the Central Bank of Egypt is taking several measures to improve

Issue 02 | 2017 | www.imarketinsights.com

financial inclusion. Specifically, we want to empower the younger generation through financial inclusion.” Fayed revealed that Bank Audi is on its way to introduce its mobile wallet, following approvals from the Central Bank of Egypt, in a bid to bring more people to bank online easily.

The awards ceremony was a culmination of efforts to bring up the financial services industry to new heights in the region.

Especially with new products and innovative services winning top honours, it was reaffirmation that creativity ranks highly for all the contenders, who vow to introduce newer products and offerings in the market soon. 

IFM Awards Review | Dubai | Events

Photo Gallery

Company

Category

KAMCO

Best Wealth Management Company; Best Real Estate Fund

Saudi Telecom Company

Best Telecom Company – GCC

Qatar National Bank SAQ

Most Innovative Bancassurance Product – Qatar

Barwa Bank

Most Innovative Islamic Banking Product –Qatar

Capital Markets Authority

Most Innovative Capital Markets Regulator – Africa

Cooperative Insurance Company (Tawuniya)

Most Innovative Insurance Company – KSA

Duqm

Emerging Economic Freezone (Investment Offering GCC) – Oman

EG Bank

Fastest Growing Bank – Egypt

Gulf Bank

Best Retail Bank – Kuwait

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Al Ahli Takaful Company

Best Takaful Company – Saudi Arabia

NBAD Securities

Best Equity Finance Company; Best New Mobile Application; Best Research House

Paris Gallery

Best Luxury Retail CEO – UAE

QNB Al Ahli

Best Retail Bank – Egypt

SABB

Best Bancassurance Company – KSA; Most Innovative Takaful Provider – KSA

Aafaq Islamic Finance

Most Innovative Finance Company

SKAI Holdings

Best Luxury Project – UAE

Saudi Investment Bank

Best Environmental Sustainable Bank – KSA

VIVA

Best Telecom Company of the Year

Al Jazeera Finance Company

Best Islamic SME Finance Company – Qatar

Al Khaliji Commercial Bank

Fastest Growing Private Bank – Qatar

Al Jazira Capital

Best Brokerage CEO – KSA; Fastest Growing Islamic Brokerage House – KSA

Bahrain Islamic Bank

Fastest Growing Credit Card Issuer – Bahrain

Bank Audi

Most Innovative Retail Banking Product

Bupa Arabia

Best CSR Initiative (Insurance) – KSA; Best Medical Insurance Company – KSA

Domino

Best Independent Investment Advisory Firm

Global Investment Bank Limited

Most Innovative New Bank – UAE

Macro Software Systems LLC

Best IT Service Provider – Oman

Masumali Meghji Insurance Brokers

Best Insurance Broker – Kenya

Oman UAE Exchange

Best Foreign Exchange Provider – Oman

Path Solutions

Best Islamic Finance Technology Provider - Lebanon

Qatar International Islamic Bank

Best Islamic Bank – Qatar

SKAI Holdings

Most Innovative Real Estate Company – UAE

Al Yusr Leasing & Finance

Best Leasing & Finance Company – KSA

Warba Bank

Fastest Growing Bank – Kuwait

Ahli United Bank

Best Trade Finance Bank – Egypt

ATS Travels

Best Travel Management Company – UAE

Barwa Bank

Best In-House Marketing & Communication – Qatar

First Finance

Most Innovative Finance Company – Qatar

Gulf Bank

Best Retail Customer Service Bank – Kuwait

QNB Al Ahli

Most Innovative Bank – Egypt

Saudi Investment Bank

Best Customer Loyalty Programs – KSA

Aafiya TPA Services

Best Insurance TPA – UAE

Zubair Corporation

Best Social Economic Development Company – Oman

Doha Bank

Best Commercial Bank – Qatar www.imarketinsights.com | Issue 02 | 2017

Market Insights

54 Events | IFM Awards | Dubai

EXCLUSIVE

Revolutionising

telecom in the Kingdom While Saudi Arabia’s telecom sector is progressing at breakneck speed, one of the foremost telecom operators Saudi Telecom Company is particularly contributing to this immense growth story. Corporate communications general manager Amjad Shacker tells Market Insights how the company is staying ahead of the curve and capitalising on the Internet of Things (IoT)

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he Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has a robust telecom sector.

The governor of the country’s Communications & Information Technology Commission (CITC) said that the volume of the telecom sector in the country is estimated at US$47bn, with spend on the telecom and IT sector reaching US$34bn in 2016.

Saudi Telecom Company enjoys great customer loyalty and the confidence of shareholders.

The mobile footprint in GCC is growing steadily and mobility largely drives the economy.

What is STC’s role in revolutionising this digital movement?

STC is driving the largest digitisation program in the region. Saudi Arabia has a very ambitious Vision 2030 program that has the digitisation of the economy and the society at its very heart. As a result, we are driving the agenda across all three dimensions necessary to digitalise the country and the region: •

Infrastructure: From high-speed mobile and fixed broadband networks, to large stateof-the-art data centres across the Kingdom, STC is at the forefront

Market Insights

Issue 02 | 2017 | www.imarketinsights.com

of the deployment of the infrastructure necessary to support the digital economy •

Enabling platform: STC is the leading ICT platform supplier in KSA, whether that it is our Cloud and IoT platforms for our Business and Enterprise customers, or our mission critical platform environment for Emergency and security services, STC is ensuring that KSA has the leading global platforms upon which to build the new digital services of the future • Services and Applications: In addition to digitising its own, traditional, communication services, STC is now the leading systems integrator in KSA and routinely works with global partners, such as GE, to integrate their applications into solutions for Enterprise and Government. STC is building a huge ecosystem of partners and suppliers from around the region and the world to enable the delivery of the very best digital services and solutions for KSA STC launched Saudi Arabia’s first corporate

IFM Awards | Dubai | Events

EXCLUSIVE

incubator for ICT startups.

What do you think about the start-up ecosystem in KSA and consequently GCC now and how is STC developing this?

We are overwhelmed with the success and response to our incubator InspireU. In our latest in-take of six new startups, we had more than 600 applicants.

We believe there is a tremendous, untapped entrepreneurial talent in Saudi Arabia and STC is determined to unleash this, not just for our own advantage but also as a key part of achieving the Vision 2030 objectives. Based on the current success, we are now working on plans to dramatically expand the scale and scope of our incubator initiative, potentially with partners.

Your company lays emphasis on a knowledge-based economy. How do you plan on capitalising on this and driving growth?

In addition to our incubator initiatives, we have heavily invested in our venture capital venture fund, STC Ventures. STC was one of the early investors in successful digital companies such as Careem, where we have recently invested a further US$100mn in its latest capital raising. We believe in investing in technology, businesses and most of all people.

This year, we will launch our STC Academy as part of our investment in developing the ICT leaders of tomorrow. At the end of the day, a knowledge-based economy is extremely dependent on the talent of the people. STC aims to be a major part of developing that talent to ensure the future growth of the Kingdom and the region.

A balanced workforce is being increasingly viewed as a quantum of a company’s overall success. How does female representation in STC’s workforce and leadership fare in

balancing the gender divide?

The Saudi market has a highly educated female population that will help benefit future plans. Our management has taken forward-looking steps to support the empowerment of female recruitment within STC core and non-core areas of work.

Despite the ongoing progress, STC has made efforts in this regard by strengthening our HR policies that will allow for female empowerment, improving work environment and services.

Though we have just taken the baby steps in this direction, STC will continue to increase the rates of female participation in its workforce with major support from the management.

Our HR Team is working on a female staffing strategy to implement cross-cutting activities that will establish female development programs, enhance equality of women employees and enable their empowerment.

Those programs are expected to promote female recruitment in core business areas, by enhancing HR policy and programs that will open up avenues and future opportunities to encourage women’s participation to run STC business areas.

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critical, while some of them are extremely mission critical. The enterprise focused business unit, STC Business, delivers mission critical communication solutions, robust connectivity to tie sites together, ICT services from the cloud, managed services and IoT portfolios. Because of the high technology adoption in this sector, there is huge potential, but from what we see from our end, services need to be delivered with high quality, be technically robust, and have high availability service agreements in place.

Cyber threat remains a key concern for businesses today. How is STC combating this with its clients?

Cyber threat has been a major concern of business globally for many years; however, it is massively increasing in the region and making headlines as never before due to multiple reasons.

Cyber threat today comes in different shapes and forms including targeted attacks which are the most difficult to detect and prevent.

The GCC’s economy is largely driven by oil and energy. How is STC working on integrating its services with these major sectors?

What do you think is the potential in delivering sector-based services?

STC, being the Kingdom’s cyber gateway to the world, has a major duty to protect its own enterprise IT infrastructure and customers.

At the enterprise level, STC is investing in technologies and people to follow the multi-layered security approach to secure its network and information assets, starting from endpoint protection up to the internet gateways to ensure security and availability for its clients and customers.

The oil and gas sector is one of the most advanced sectors in the Kingdom when it comes to technology adoption with sensors and business automation being a key part of how operations are managed, and how performance is tracked. Many of these systems are business

STC IT Security department, being part of Infrastructure Services, works closely with the various stakeholders to secure the entire infrastructure including customer data using the latest technologies and adopting international standards and security best practices. 

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Market Insights

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‘Change is the only constant in the cyber security industry’ The financial industry worldwide is on the brink of major change, especially due to the rising prevalence of cyber crime. Armed with the latest technology and preventive measures to preserve the security of banks, Bahrain-based cyber threat management company CTM360’s Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) discuss the various challenges the industry is facing and how they are integrating with their clients to provide real-time and quick solutions.

How does CTM360 identify cyber security needs and evaluate their relevance?

Understandably, the financial industry is in the frontline of cyber crime where monetary and brand reputation losses from cyber attacks are very evident.

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The challenge is to keep up with the latest variation, timely detection, and comprehensive response. Having served the regional industry for a long time, we recognise that the only thing constant in the cyber security industry is change. The level of complexity and challenges are also

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constantly morphing. In response, we have adopted the strategy to remain agile, researching and evolving service offerings; facilitating dialogue and industry collaboration across the security industry, in addition to remaining primary drivers.

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Cyber Threat Management

has to be on collaboration as mitigation of cyber threats alone is a losing battle if we do not work together. If you are insecure in disclosing how you were breached, how do you expect any other to warn you based on how they have been breached? Thereby, for the same we have developed a trusted community platform termed TRUST360. Lastly, organisations need to have a cyber incident response unit that would have the ability to even monitor and neutralise attacks at a very early stage, while attack elements are evolving in cyberspace.

What steps are being taken by CTM 360 to mitigate cyber risks?

Specifically, which area in IT security do you believe needs to be in the spotlight this year and why?

Our view may come as a surprise to many as we neither want to focus only on threat vectors or any new cutting edge technology.

We believe that rather than doing more we should do different.

Firstly, organisations need to adopt clarity of differentiating functions, i.e. IT security with the goal of enhancing secure enduser experience, information security with the goal of protecting information assets and cyber security with the goal of neutralising cyber attacks in cyberspace. Within these three domains, individuals performing either function need to understand and appreciate the challenges of other two. Secondly, the focus

CTM360 takes a holistic approach to managing cyber risks. By fortifying genuine assets, eliminating suspicious incidents and neutralising malicious threats, CTM360 can manage threats at every stage of the cyber kill chain.

The company has developed multiple tools and systems and currently offers them under 10 service modules that prevent, identify, manage or mitigate threats in cyberspace.

Banking services are coming up significantly in the Asia Pacific region. What are your thoughts on this and does CTM plan to extend their services to this region too?

APAC can be considered more agile in leveraging technology for enhancing banking businesses.

Due to lack of cyber security skills, the challenge would be to adopt the latest secure practices at the same pace. CTM360 is addressing this very gap by proposing to be the 24x7 cyber security unit for subscribed members. We are focused on expanding into APAC in 2017 as it holds tremendous untapped potential and the banking services industry is flourishing with four to five core

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markets, including Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, Japan and China.

Usually, how do you assess the scope of work with your clients?

What are the parameters you would need to understand the kind of help they need from your company?

The scope in the industry is normally defined by the category of attacks that an organisation may opt for and the brand keywords that the detection would be conducted upon. At CTM360, we prefer to act as the cyber security team for our subscribed members, hence our scope is meant for anything and everything in the cyberspace. The only difference is that we stay outside a member’s firewall, detect and neutralise all forms of attack elements in the cyberspace. Being the intelligence unit, it is our job to identify and run an inventory on all the cyber assets of our members as well. Hence, we do not need our members to give us any parameters but they do need to let us know the focus areas that their business and risk feels aare important. Next, it is our job to always provide threat intelligence that is credible and memberspecific, i.e. by severity and by relevance.

FinTech, InsurTech and RegTech are among the biggest trends in banking today – how can companies like CTM360 help banks make the switch safely?

Adopting any new technology comes with a complete new set of security challenges, especially when security in general is an afterthought. The common components in the new threat scenarios and the old are the attack elements within the early stages of attack, and that is what cyber security is all about. So,

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Cyber Threat Management

effective without requiring any changes in cyber security operations. Moreover, TRUST360 provides the community platform to gain knowledge about security challenges being faced by other banks in this migration, facilitating cooperation across all stakeholders. Buzz words without understanding feasibility, risks and practicality remain risky.

Can you tell us a bit about CTM 360’s most popular products and services?

Mirza Asrar Baig, CEO, CTM360 with the award for Cyber Security Partner at IFM’s EMEA Awards Ceremony in Dubai’s JW Marriott Marquis Hotel

when any bank is switching, CTM360 is very operative and Market Insights

The 24 x 7 x 365 CTM360 Cyber Incident Response Unit (CIRU) was developed to address the needs of the regional financial sector; however, in a short span of time, the CIRU is now servicing multiple industry verticals, (e.g. Aviation, Healthcare, Hospitality, Oil & Gas, Petrochemicals, Retail, SWFs) and across many geographies. CIRU’s unique ability to action holistically on all cyber attack elements across the cyber kill chain has established CTM360 as the preferred Cyber

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Security partner for majority of GCC financial sector. Any entity with an online presence can benefit from a subscription to CIRU with minimal effort and time. All modules fit a specific purpose and are bespoke to the subscribed member ranging from prevention, detection and mitigation.

What are your key markets for expansion in the GCC? CTM360 quickly evolved from being specific to Saudi Arabia through its parent company, IT Matrix, to catering to the regional GCC markets. After going global in 2016, the next phase of expansion will involve establishing global satellite centres for CIRU in 2017.  Inputs have been provided by a range of Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) within the CTM360 network. CTM360 was the Cyber Security Partner for IFM’s EMEA Awards Ceremony held in Dubai on 26 January, 2017