AUG / SEPT 2013
publication licensed by impz
SMART PLAY
Utilities turn to data crunching to overcome business challenges Automation ready equipment eases smart grid roll outs
POWER AND WATER
CONTENTS AUG / SEPT 2013 SMART PLAY
4/
editor’s note
12 / RounD up
8/
ADvisory board
14 / In the region
28/ Automation ready equipment
17 / At large
32/ Utilities turn to data crunching to
10 / mosaic
20
eases smart grid roll outs
overcome business challenges
20 / industry notes
22 / SECTOR REPORT
Voice of the Industry
Filtering trends
A new global cable industry association aims to bring together all interests within the industry supply chain under a seamless communication framework.
Advanced filtration offers emerging markets a cost-effective alternative to water recycling
22
24 / on the record
46 / TEST & MEASUREMENT
Unlocking the grid’s potential
24
Marc Lamey, Vice-President Smart Grid Sales and Business Development of Alstom Grid on the technology enablers and trends within the smart grid market market
Localisation made easy - 1
46
INDUSTRIAL AUTOMATION
A new measurement system makes PD localisation in power transformers easier due to the combination of electrical PD measurement technique and intuitive 3D visualisation of the test object
62 / ONSITE
34 / Safe Wireless 36/Advanced Process control
World’s largest offshore wind farm London Array generates enough energy to power around 500,000 British homes.
62 39 / ROUND TABLE
65 / FLIP SIDE
Sustainability in the hospitality industry Exploring energy efficiency and water conservation challenges in the hospitality industry in the UAE.
39 EXPERT COLUMN 51/The TIME is now
The Arabian Gulf countries’ economic success is founded on energy intensity; yet, the time is right to take a closer look at energy efficiency, says Samuel Merkli
61/ Betting on control
An app to save irrigation water
A smart phone app which ensures sustainable farming and conserves irrigation water – read on…
65 SPOT LIGHT 6/ NYNAS
52 / TENDERS & PROJECTS 10 Power projects that matter
64/ EVENTS
Building control systems shouldn’t be allowed to become obsolete, argues Moheet Viswas
POWER & WATER MIDDLE EAST / AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2013
3
Editor’s NOTE
Publisher Dominic De Sousa Chief Operations Officer Nadeem Hood • nadeem.hood@cpimediagroup.com
Anoop K Menon anoop@cpi-industry.com
A sound mix
A
t the round table organised by Siemens in Abu Dhabi, as a run up to the World Energy Congress in Korea next month, one could get an inkling of the challenges in store for the region’s power and water sectors in the immediate future. The head of Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) and the representative from Kuwait’s Ministry of Electricity & Water (MEW) acknowledged that rationalisation of highly-subsidised tariffs is critical to controlling the unsustainable growth in electricity and water consumption in both countries. Last year, Saudi Arabia spend nearly USD50 billion in annual subsidies for utilities and transport sectors. In the case of Kuwait, the summer peak demand is double of the winter peak which means nearly 50% of the capacity remains idle for nearly nine months in a year. The varied steps being taken to curb this high consumption trend reveal seriousness of the intent. In the UAE, for example, the Emirates Authority for Standardisation & Metrology (ESMA) has announced regulations for energy efficient electrical appliances, starting with washing machines and air conditioners. In Saudi Arabia, SEC will supply electricity to new buildings only if they have thermal insulation. On the supply side, SEC has decided to focus mainly on combined cycle and cogeneration technologies to maximise fuel efficiency. As Dr Michael Suess, CEO Energy Sector, Siemens pointed out during the discussion, open cycle gas turbines have an efficiency of 32% while Combined Cycle Gas Turbines (CCGT) have an efficiency of 60%, which implies double the power output for the same amount of fuel. In the Gulf region overall, there is a broad trend underway to diversify the fuel mix, led by gas, nuclear energy, renewable energy and even clean coal. Kuwait is aiming to generate 15% of its total power requirements from solar and wind energy by 2030. Diversification of energy mix is important because future income is each tonne of oil and gas saved through the use of renewable or nuclear energy. At the same time, given the region’s almost total dependence on desalination for potable water supplies and the oil & gas sector for a substantial chunk of national income, any fuel diversification strategy should factor in reliability as losses from shutdowns could be too high.
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POWER & WATER MIDDLE EAST / AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2013
Associate Publisher Liam Williams • liam.williams@cpimediagroup.com Editor Anoop K Menon • anoop.menon@cpimediagroup.com Director Harry Norman • harry.norman@cpimediagroup.com Tel: +971 4 440 9131 Marketing Manager Jasmine Kyriakou • jasmine.kyriakou@cpimediagroup.com Tel: +971 4 440 9100 Senior Designer Marlou Delaben • marlou.delaben@cpimediagroup.com Designer Cris Malapitan • cris.malapitan@cpimediagroup.com Digital Services Manager IT Department Troy Maagma • troy.maagma@cpimediagroup.com Web Developer Waseem Shahzad • waseem.shahzad@cpimediagroup.com Production James P. Tharian Rajeesh M Circulation Rochelle Almeida rochelle@cpidubai.com USA and Canada Kanika Saxena Director - North America 25 Kingsbridge Garden Cir. Suite 919 Mississauga, ON. Canada L5R 4B1 kanika@cpi-industry.com tel/fax: + 1 905 890 5031 Published by: Head Office PO Box 13700 Tecom, Grosvenor Business Tower, Office 804 Dubai, United Arab Emirates Tel: +971 4 440 9100 | Fax: +971 4 447 2409 www.powerandwater-me.com Printed by: Printwell Printing Press LLC © Copyright 2012 CPI. All rights reserved. While the publishers have made every effort to ensure the accuracy of all information in this magazine, they will not be held responsible for any errors therein.
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Spotlight
Insulating oil analysis and its role in transformer condition monitoring
Bruce Pahlavanpour, Nynas AB
O
il and paper have been used as insulating materials in oilfilled electrical equipment for nearly a century. Despite the apparent mechanical weakness of oil and paper they are effective insulators, especially in combination. This is exemplified in the observed synergism of paper impregnated with oil: the dielectric strength of paper and oil on their own is 40 and 12kV per mm respectively, however their dielectric strength in combination is 64kV per mm, which is significant improvement.
Even in ideal conditions, oil and paper will degrade, or ‘age’, as their useful service lives is finite. The actual processes involved depend on the operating conditions of the equipment, but the rate of ageing is normally a function of temperature and moisture. Both oil and paper will age rapidly at high temperatures and moisture acts as a catalyst for the ageing of oil. There are also other catalysts present in a transformer which are responsible for oil ageing; these include copper, paint, varnish
At Nynas, we’re passionate about everything to do with power.
6
POWER & WATER MIDDLE EAST / AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2013
and oxygen. The principal mechanism of oil ageing is oxidation, which results in acids and other polar compounds being formed. These oxidation products will have a deleterious effect on the paper degradation processes. Transformer condition Monitoring Early in the history of oil filled electrical equipment, it was realised that an explosion in a transformer was caused by the rapid evolution of gases formed by deterioration of the insulation, but it was not until the early twenties when Buchholz
Spotlight
developed his gas and oil actuated relay. Since then it was accepted that the action of electrical or thermal stress in oil would cause sufficient deterioration to evolve gases which would then dissolved in the oil. Analyzing gases dissolved in oil is widely used as a diagnosis method for oil filled transformers. This diagnosis method is effective for preventing accident and transformer failure. Condition assessment and monitoring techniques have received a technological boost in the last
few years but at the heart of it is a technique dating back several decades. Dissolved gas analysis (DGA) is still the best technique for detecting abnormalities in transformers. The sampling of oil and subsequent analysis for dissolved gases is well defined in IEC60567. The interpretation of the results is less straightforward as there are recognised standards and several other publications, which may be used for interpretation of DGA results. Whilst they may have
similar approaches they may not always lead to the same conclusion. Gas concentration ratio is the most commonly used method. Analysis of dissolved gases in oil is widely used as a diagnosis method for oil filled transformers. It is relatively simple and cheap to use. This diagnosis method is effective for preventing accident of transformer. Although DGA is an extremely valuable tool with many applications but as in any single test procedure, it does not furnish a total picture of the condition of transformer.
Need to talk to a transformer oil supplier who understands your business? One who’s local enough to be near you, yet global enough to have the expertise you need. Get in touch. www.nynas.com
POWER & WATER MIDDLE EAST / AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2013
7
MOSAIC Status of technologies and components modeled by EIA Revolutionary
Evolutionary
Mature X
Pulverised Coal
X
- Non-CCS portion of Pulverised Coal Plant X
Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle - Advanced Combustion Turbine
- Gasifier
X
X X
Conventional Natural Gas Combustion Turbine - Conventional Combustion Turbine
X
- Balance of Plant
X
X
- Advanced Combustion Turbine
X
- Balance of Plant
X X
- Balance of Plant
Mature
Advanced Natural Gas Combustion Turbine
X
- Heat Recovery Steam Generator
Evolutionary
- Balance of Plant - CCS
Pulverised Coal with CCS
- CCS
Revolutionary
Advanced Nuclear
X
Biomass
Conventional Natural Gas Combined Cycle
X
- Pulverised Coal
- Conventional Combustion Turbine
X
- Heat Recovery Steam Generator
X
Municipal Solid Waste/ Landfill Gas
X
- Balance of Plant
X
Conventional Hydroelectric
X
Advanced Natural Gas Combined Cycle - Advanced Combustion Turbine
X
Geothermal
X
Wind X X
- Balance of Plant
X
Advanced Natural Gas Combined Cycle with CCS X
- Heat Recovery Steam Generator
X
- Onshore/Common Components
- Heat Recovery Steam Generator
- Advanced Combustion Turbine
- Fuel Preparation
- Offshore Components
X
Solar Thermal
X
Solar PV - Modules (Utility and End Use)
X
- Utility Balance of Plant
X
X
The above table classifies the status of each utility-scale power generation technology and component as modelled in Annual Energy Outlook 2013 produced by the US Energy Information Administration (EIA). The table has been sourced from the EIA study ‘Updated Capital Cost Estimates for Utility Scale Electricity Generating Plants’ released in April this year.
USD46 billion
ABI Research estimates on cyber security spending for critical infrastructure globally by the end of 2013. Increased spending over the next five years will be driven by a growing number of policies and procedures in education, training, research and development, awareness programmes, standardisation work, and cooperative frameworks among other projects
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POWER & WATER MIDDLE EAST / AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2013
2020
The expected year of operation for the proposed USD1 billion GCC Water Grid. GCC Interconnection Authority (GCCIA), which oversees the GCC Power Grid, has awarded a contract to Artelia to carry out a feasibility study on the project.
ROUND UP
Masdar Institute fabricates first organic PV cell
The construction of the first phase of Dubai Electricity and Water Authority’s (DEWA) Al Lusaily desalinated water reservoir project has been completed. The second phase of the AED246 million project will be completed in next 14 months. With a combined capacity of 120 million imperial gallons of desalinated water, the Lusaily project will enhance the total storage capacity in Dubai to 790 million imperial gallons upon completion. “The project aims to strengthen water networks to raise the amount of water flow to meet the growing demand in different areas in Dubai,” said Al Tayer.
Researchers at Masdar Institute have fabricated the very first bulk-hetero-junction solar cell in the UAE, marking another technological breakthrough for the country in clean energy. These are also the very first solar cells fabricated at the Masdar Institute cleanroom. Ms Mejd Alsari, a UAE national student, and Dr Samuele Lilliu, a post-doctoral fellow working at the Nano-Optics and Optoelectronics Research (NOOR) Laboratory under Dr Marcus Dahlem, Assistant Professor, Microsystems Engineering, have fabricated the first polymer-based organic photovoltaic solar cell (OPV), which can also be printed on flexible substrates. The first bulk-heterojunction OPV solar cells fabricated at Masdar Institute are part of a new major research project on organic photo-detectors. The research project focuses on improving the performance of organic/hybrid bulk hetero-junction (BHJ) photo-detectors such as OPVs and organic photodiodes (OPDs). It equally aims to stress on the efficiency enhancement, lifetime lengthening, and fabrication cost reduction of OPV/OPD devices.
Tri-Tech bags SIPCHEM wastewater deal
Kuwait invites bids for renewable energy park
Tri-Tech Holding, which provides turn-key water resources management, water and wastewater treatment, industrial safety and pollution control solutions, has been awarded a Basic Engineering Contract by Saudi International Petrochemical Company (SIPCHEM) to design a Zero Liquid Discharge System for a wastewater treatment plant. The contract, awarded to Tri-Tech’s US subsidiary is valued at approximately USD 545,000. A Detailed Engineering Contract is a contingent upon completion of the basic engineering. TriTech’s CFO Phil Fan said that the contract is a testament to his company’s experience designing Zero Liquid Discharge systems using mechanical vapour compression technology.
The Kuwait government has invited bids for the construction of Shagaya renewable energy park, as part of its plan to generate 15% of its electricity through non-oil sources by 2030. According to the Oxford Business Group, the 100 km2 Shagaya Energy Park, which is located west of Kuwait City, should have the capacity to generate 70 MW of energy once the first phase is completed in 2016. Solar thermal energy will account for 50 MW, while the balance will be generated by wind and photovoltaic sources. The second and third phases are expected to have the capacity to generate an additional 930 MW and 1000 MW of power, respectively. The government expects the project to be completed by 2030.
H.E. Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD and CEO of DEWA, visited the construction site
DEWA completes phase 1 of Al Lusaily reservoir project
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POWER & WATER MIDDLE EAST / AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2013
Malaysia’s TNB awarded Shuaiba North co-gen deal Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) through its wholly-owned subsidiary, TNB Repair and Maintenance (TNB REMACO) and Kharafi National of Kuwait recently signed a contract with Kuwait’s Ministry of Electricity & Water (MEW) for the Operation & Maintenance (O&M) of Shuaiba North Co-Generation (Power & Distillation) Plant in Kuwait. The seven year contract is valued at KD88.882 million. Shuaiba North is located within Shuaiba Industrial Authority Area, approximately 40-km from Kuwait City. The dual-fired plant (natural gas and distillate), is able to produce around 780 MW of power and 45 MIGD of distilled water and was commissioned in 2010. In January 2013, Kuwait’s Central Tender Committee (CTC) issued a letter of award (LOA) to the joint venture (JV) between TNB REMACO and Kharafi National for the Operation & Maintenance (O&M) of Shuaiba North Co-Generation (Power & Distillation) Plant.
KSA’s renewable energy plans face challenges By 2032, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia aims to meet a third of its energy demand (54 GW) using renewable energy. In addition to 41 GW of solar power, 25 GW of CSP and 16 GW of PV, the Kingdom is aiming to generate 18 GW of nuclear energy, 3 GW of waste to energy, 1 GW of geothermal and an additional nine GW of wind power. Keisuke Sadamori, Director of the Energy Markets and Security Directorate, International Energy Agency (IEA), pointed out that policy uncertainty constitutes the largest risk for renewable investment. Hence, Saudi Arabia should introduce long-term policies to provide a predictable and reliable framework to support renewable deployment. Dr Rasheed M Alzahrani, CEO, Riyadh Valley Company added that absence of a detailed time-line for a clear and gradual shift to renewable energy in the country and the slow adoption and advancement in renewable energy initiatives are major challenges for the Kingdom. Both will be speaking at Third Annual Solar Arabia Summit taking place on September 29- 30 in Riyadh.
ROUND UP
ESMA to extend energy rating coverage The Emirates Standardisation and Metrology Authority (ESMA) has passed into legislation and implemented the first phase of the new energy rating system to grade the energy consumption of products using a star rating system - setting a benchmark for energy efficiency. The first products required to adhere to the energy ratings system were residential air conditioning units, when compliance became mandatory earlier this year. Washing machines will need to meet energy rating standards from June 2013, after legislation was passed in early April. Other products currently being addressed by the ESMA board are expected to be passed into legislation and implemented over the coming months include cooling and refrigeration products, lights, water heaters, motors and water pumps. Implementation of the star rating system is mandatory and the government is encouraging manufacturers to produce higher quality products. Manufacturers and importers of lower rated products will be charged fees according to the star rating of the products.
Ahmed Bin Abbood Al Adawi
TAQA appoints new global head for water division
TAQA, the international energy company from Abu Dhabi, has appointed UAE national Ahmed Bin Abbood Al Adawi to head the company’s water divisions globally. With more than 13 years of experience in international energy, Al Adawi will take up the post as Vice President, Water Development and Projects. His previous role with TAQA was Director of Business Development and Special Projects for the company’s power and water business. Before joining TAQA, Al Adawi was a business developer at Mubadala. In his new role he will report to Frank Perez, Executive Officer and Head of Power & Water.
Severn Trent Services appoints new VP Lawrence Quinn
Anil Raina, Executive Vice President, CG; Kailash Vijayvargiya, Hon’ble Minister, Commerce, Industries & Employment, Surendra Patwa, MLA; Laurent Demortier, CG Managing Director and CEO, Gautam Thapar, Avantha Group Founder & Chairman.
CG’s new motor facility to address global markets Avantha Group Company CG has set up a new motor facility in India to meet growing global demand for drives and motors. The Bhopal facility will design and deliver customised and energy-efficient rotating machines as well as advanced electronic drives. The equipment is targeted at the oil and gas, cement, mining and metals, water treatment, electrical transportation, and power generation sectors. The new plant is geared to manufacture large voltage motors up to 15 MW, generators up to 25MVA, and traction alternators and will also include a Global Design Centre for large motors. Avantha Group Company CG’s CEO & Managing Director, Laurent Demortier, said: “We are proud to add another state-of-the-art facility in Madhya Pradesh and thank all for making this possible. The opening of this plant is an important step in the deployment of CG’s Industrial Business growth strategy. It provides CG with a competitive manufacturing platform on a global scale and will be the harbinger of an augmented global presence for CG.”
Severn Trent Services has appointed Lawrence Quinn as Vice President, Regional Operations for water treatment technologies. In this role, he will have the global business P&L responsibility for the Water Treatment Business and will oversee global manufacturing operations for all Severn Trent Services and Severn Trent De Nora products. Quinn will be based in Colmar, Pennsylvania. Prior to joining Severn Trent Services, Quinn held the post of President and Chief Executive Officer at Alstom Chattanooga Turbines. He began his professional career with the Alstom Corporation, holding various leadership positions in the company’s engineering, manufacturing and construction businesses.
Wilo ME organises seminar on ‘Save Water ... Pave Future’ Wilo Middle East, a major player in pumping systems market, organised a seminar in Dubai titled ‘Save Water. Pave Future.’ The seminar was conducted by Thomas Lang, Director-Group Competence Team, Wilo SE Germany. “The all-round development of the region has been throwing up multiple challenges. Wilo is fully committed to its responsibilities towards the community and has been joining hands to highlight the challenge of saving water effectively,” said Dr Amer Mokbel, Director for Sales, Gulf, Wilo Middle East. A large number of key players from the government and the private sector attended the seminar. The Dubai head office of Wilo Middle East cover KSA, Egypt, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait, Yemen and Iran. POWER & WATER MIDDLE EAST / AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2013
13
IN THE REGION
Lebanon launches landfill gas-to-energy (LFGTE) project GE’s Jenbacher gas engine technology helps averda power Lebanon’s new clean energyproject
GE’s Jenbacher J312 gas engine
L
ebanon has launched its first landfill gas-to-energy (LFGTE) project in Naameh, near Beirut, using GE’s Jenbacher gas engine technology. The on-site power project will be powered by one of GE’s Jenbacher J312 landfill gas engines and potentially generate 637 kilowatts of renewable electricity. By using the landfill gas in the Jenbacher gas engine to produce electricity instead of letting it escape into the atmosphere, the project will reduce the landfill’s emissions and contribute to the country’s environmental sustainability. This project also will eliminate the equivalent of about 12,400 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) - the amount of emissions produced by about 6,100 cars per year. Operated by averda international, the project is considered to be a pilot project and could be expanded to utilise the Naameh facility’s full capacity. Naameh is the biggest sanitary controlled landfill in Lebanon, serving the Greater Beirut and Mount Lebanon area since it
14
was established in 1997. The new LFGTE project is a significant initiative in which the waste is converted to useful energy, highlighting a new long-term energy development model that potentially can be emulated in other parts of the country. It is set to begin operating during the last quarter of 2013. Landfill gas typically comprises approximately 55% methane and 45% CO2— greenhouse gases that contribute to environmental degradation. GE’s Jenbacher gas engines utilise captured methane gas as a fuel to produce electricity and have widespread applications in the Middle East. Hani Wazzan, supply chain director at averda, said: “The Naameh project is a landmark that reflects the company’s focus on adopting environmentally sustainable alternatives and inspiring similar applications for other projects. The twin challenges of landfill management— promoting environmental sustainability and tapping the site’s renewable energy poten-
POWER & WATER MIDDLE EAST / AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2013
J312
GAS ENGINE
tial—are being addressed through averda’s collaboration with GE, with averda providing the quality engineered setting and GE supplying its advanced Jenbacher gas engine. This collaboration creates an opportunity for strengthening the cooperation between GE and averda to apply similar technologies in other sites operated by averda in Lebanon and the region.” Nabil Habayeb, GE President & Chief Executive Officer for the Middle East, North Africa and Turkey, said: “GE has long-term partnerships in Lebanon, where we support the country’s public and private sector in strengthening energy sector efficiencies. The potential benefit of the Naameh project is that it could encourage other landfill sites to use the gas that is currently being flared for conversion to electricity. The contribution of the project to the environment and the energy sector makes it a great value to the community. The project reiterates our commitment to introduce advanced technologies to Lebanon to support sustainable energy initiatives. We are honored to be part of this initiative and thank our collaborators for their trust in our competencies.” GE’s Jenbacher gas engines are part of GE’s ecomagination portfolio. They can operate not only on natural gas, but also on a broad range of alternative gases including digester biogas, landfill gas, coal mine gas and sewage gases. GE had earlier delivered Jenbacher gas engines for the solid waste treatment facility and a sewage treatment facility in Sidon with a capacity to generate 2MW of power. The electricity generated is used for treatment facilities and for a plastic recycling facility. GE is also providing energy services to the Electricite Du Liban, including spare parts, repairs and other services as required for the maintenance of the installed GE turbines.
IN THE REGION
BwB
completes first stage of commissioning at Tubli WPCC The HYBACS process treats approximately 33% of the full plant load with only 20% of the existing secondary treatment capacity.
B
luewater Bio International (BwB), a leading provider of innovative highperformance, cost-effective water and wastewater treatment technologies, has announced that their proprietary HYBACS wastewater treatment plant upgrade at Tubli Water Pollution Control Centre (WPCC), Kingdom of Bahrain, has received flows for the first time. The introduction of flows to the HYBACS plant was overseen by key personnel from the Sanitary Engineering Planning & Projects Directorate (SEPPD), the project management division for the Ministry of Works. This completes the first stage of commissioning of, what the company claims to be the largest environmental improvement project of its kind in the region, serving a population equivalent of 800,000. The project is being implemented in two stages to meet the client’s continuous treatment requirements with overall completion due in October 2013. The BD8 million project, awarded by the Ministry of Works and executed by BwB, was in response to the current wastewater treatment works at Tubli WPCC being overloaded. The original plant was designed for a capacity of 200,000m3/d however, as a result of rapid urbanisation within the Kingdom, it now receives in excess of 300,000m3/d. The upgrade of the Tubli plant using HYBACS alleviates the overloading problem
without the requirement for green-field construction, thereby utilising the existing secondary treatment assets whilst avoiding additional land take. The upgrade comprises the conversion of two of the 10 existing aeration lanes and four of the 12 existing clarifiers into the HYBACS plant, with 42 SMART units (the key component that drives the HYBACS process) positioned upstream of the aeration lanes. The 100,000m3/d excess flow is diverted after the existing preliminary treatment works to the HYBACS plant, meaning that the HYBACS plant is treating approximately 33% of the full plant load with only 20% of the existing secondary treatment capacity. The project falls within the Bahrain Vision 2030, under which improvement of the Kingdom’s infrastructure is a high priority. With the HYBACS upgrade now eliminating immediate concerns at the works, the long term Master Plan for the Tubli Wastewater Treatment Plant improvements can be fully planned, designed and implemented.
Dubai Municipality targets 20% reduction in energy consumption The energy conservation project launched by the General Maintenance Department will target mainly air-conditioning and lighting systems in various DM facilities.
20%TARGET
T
he General Maintenance Department of Dubai Municipality has initiated an energy conservation project across DM facilities. Eng Juma Khalifa Al Fuqaei, Director of General Maintenance Department, said the project aims to achieve 20% reduction of total electricity consumption of the municipal facilities by addressing areas like air conditioning, lighting and various technical and administrative procedures. DM has set up an internal action team to undertake energy saving initiatives. The team’s responsibility includes the development of energy-saving policy, learning best practices, modern technical systems and their applications, carrying out preliminary experiments and measuring their results, identifying viable projects and developing a technical action plan. Al Fuqaei said the team will undertake the application of energy saving projects in DM facilities, review the, develop and improve projects, review the methodology and improve it every three years. The agenda includes replacement of 1,100 normal ballasts with electronic ballasts in a number of municipal facilities, replacement of 300 timers with astronomical timers to illuminate the parking areas in markets, installation of 61 solar-powered lamp posts in the running tracks of Jumeirah open beach, replacement of 1,000 conventional lamp posts with solar-powered ones in Al Mushrif and Al Mamzar parks, ambient cooling in six areas using chillers, remote control of air conditioning systems in Al Twar Centre, deployment of solar water heating in Al Quoz graveyard and building five chalets that use solar energy to power their internal and external devices. Total cost savings from this project is estimated at AED 400,000 annually. Additionally, the department has also proposed eight new projects to save energy which include heating swimming pools using chillers in Al Mushrif and Al Mamzar parks, replacement of lights in popular neighbourhood parks with LED lights, changing 1,000 lamp posts in Al Mushrif, Zabeel and Jumeirah Beach, constructing 10 toilets using solar energy, remote control of air conditioning at Dubai Central Laboratory and Naif Souq and replacement of the air conditioning in the old main building of DM. The total cost savings from the new proposed projects are estimated at AED 12,323,000 annually.
POWER & WATER MIDDLE EAST / AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2013
15
IN THE REGION
600,000 TONNES A DAY
Electric-powered urban vacuum cleaners acquired by Tandeef - Bee’ah to clean pedestrian areas and parks
Zero Emission waste collection Tandeef acquires new ‘zero emission’ fleet of electric and solar-powered vehicles to boost collection operations for 600,000 tonnes of Sharjah’s daily waste
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T
he waste collection and city-wide street cleaning division of Bee’ah, Tandeef, has introduced a new range of electric-powered vehicles that will enhance operations to clean the city’s streets and collect waste estimated at 600,000 tonnes a day. This new fleet includes ‘zero emission’ mobile equipment such as new waste compacters, urban vacuum cleaners, automated sweepers, street vacuums and the region’s first solar-powered boats that can collect up to two hundred kilograms of waste from Sharjah’s lagoons and floating debris. Commenting on the new fleet, His Excellency Salim Al Owais, Chairman of Bee’ah
POWER & WATER MIDDLE EAST / AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2013
said: “This is yet another first for Sharjah, the Green Emirate. With our new ‘zero emission’ fleet and region’s first solar boat, we are working to keep the environment safe and pure for residents in Sharjah. Bee’ah will continue to lead the way towards sustainability and waste management in the UAE. Keeping us on-track to achieve our aim of zero-waste to landfill by 2015, this new environmentally-friendly range of equipment will help reduce carbon emissions, noise and pollution while keeping Sharjah clean.” The region’s first solar-powered cleaning boats are sized to easily manoeuver around the Mamzar and Khaled Lagoons in Sharjah. They come equipped with a solar roof supplying the energy required to run the two electrical pod-propulsion placed under the hulls. While navigating in a given area, the boats can collect floating waste such as plastics, polystyrene and wood; and stores them on board in a dedicated container with a capacity of two hundred kilogram, which will eventually be taken to the Bee’ah Waste Management Centre for processing and recycling. “We have set out continuously to reduce the carbon dioxide emissions of our company’s equipment and vehicles and this is yet another step on that path,” said Bee’ah Group CEO Khaled Al Huraimel. “While the new fleet will be working on the streets and lagoons, we will be continuing to research other technologies that can further assist us to attain our sustainability objectives.” Bee’ah also prioritises the powering of its existing waste collection and haulage vehicles with low sulphur diesel, which helps decrease particulate emissions in the atmosphere, without lowering performance. All 500 of its waste collection vehicles are fitted with GPS vehicle tracking and computerised route-optimisation systems. This new technology helps maximise vehicle service productivity and develop more efficient routes for waste collection, in turn reducing emissions from excess fuel consumption.
AT LARGE
UK Prime Minister inaugurates
World’s largest offshore wind farm 630MW London Array powers half a million UK homes
P
rime Minister David Cameron inaugurated London Array built by the consortium of DONG Energy, E.ON and Masdar at a ceremony held at Turner Contemporary in Margate, Kent. London Array, the 630MW offshore wind farm located in the Outer Thames Estuary, first started generating power in October 2012. The 175th turbine was bought online in March 2013 and London Array is now celebrating the completion and full operation of the site, which could supply around 500,000 UK homes with electricity each year. Construction began in July 2009 when work started to build a new onshore substa-
tion on the north Kent coast to flow the energy generated by London Array straight into the national grid. Offshore the first foundation was installed in March 2011; the 175th and final Siemens 3.6MW turbine was installed on time in December 2012. Over 75 organisations have helped to build London Array with over 6,700 individuals involved. Speaking at the launch event, Prime Minister, David Cameron said: “This is a great day for Kent and a great day for Britain. London Array has been built by some of the bravest seamen, the most talented engineers and hardest workers. It will bring benefits to Kent for years to come.”
Brent Cheshire, UK Country Chairman, DONG Energy said: “With the addition of London Array, DONG Energy has now installed enough offshore wind in the UK to power one million homes. This project is also a real milestone on the path to cutting the cost of offshore wind. As projects get even bigger and move further offshore, we must continue to harvest the advantages of scale to bring down the costs.” Tony Cocker, Chief Executive Officer of E.ON UK, said: “London Array is a major landmark for global renewable investment and I’d like to thank all those involved in making it a reality. We firmly believe that electricity from renewable sources has a vital part to play in helping us deliver energy in a way that is sustainable, affordable and secure. That’s why, as we learn and improve from each wind farm that we build, we’re aiming to reduce the cost of offshore wind by 40% by 2015.” Dr Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, Chief Executive Officer of Masdar, said: “This inauguration is a historic milestone for the United Kingdom and the development of renewable energy. Projects like London Array demonstrate the economic opportunity of large-scale renewable energy projects – from the direct investment they attract to the industries they strengthen. London Array also exemplifies what can be achieved through smart policies and strong partnerships,” continued Al Jaber. “Masdar is a committed partner in addressing the world’s growing need for clean energy. We look forward to extending our portfolio and finding ways to integrate renewable energy that delivers a lasting impact.” The project consortium partners have the following shareholdings: DONG Energy owns 50%, E.ON has 30% and Masdar has a 20% stake.
On Site Page 62 H.E. Edward Davey, UK Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change; H.H. Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, UAE Minister of Foreign Affairs; H.E. David Cameron, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom; H.E. Gregory Barker, UK Minister of State for Energy and Climate Change; H.E. Dr Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, UAE Minister of State and CEO of Masdar. POWER & WATER MIDDLE EAST / AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2013
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AT LARGE
Toshiba acquires cyber GRID
The acquisition will enhance Toshiba Group’s smart community business in Europe by offering an integrated platform for smart meters and Virtual Power Plant (VPP).
Virtual Power Plant (VPP) matches electricity consumption with a variety of distributed generation
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tilities must constantly balance power supply and demand across the grid, from generation through to consumption. Among the methods for doing this are demand response, which uses pricing mechanisms, including incentives, to encourage consumers, particularly in industry, to change usual consumption patterns during times of high demand. Another approach is the virtual power plant, which brings distributed generation facilities, such as industrial generation clusters including photovoltaic generators, into the grid at times of high demand. This brings greater flexibility into the supply, but adds to complexity in management and control, and also requires more complex communications. Toshiba’s acquisition of a 76% stake in cyberGRID, an Austrian developer and provider of intelligent energy management solutions, last month, equips the Japanese major to provide solutions in both areas and enhance its smart community business in Europe, where progress in introducing renewable energy is driving a need for optimal power management technology that delivers a stabile power supply. cyberGRID’s Virtual Power Plant (VPP) matches electricity
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POWER & WATER MIDDLE EAST / AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2013
consumption with a variety of distributed generation. It offers customers a significantly lower cost alternative than conventional peaking power plants, and is environmentally friendly and CO2 neutral. Once VPP is deployed, utilities can deploy new capacity within months without any major infrastructure investments. There are excellent synergies between cyberGRID and Landis+Gyr, another acquisition of Toshiba, whose products and solutions are currently being used in advanced metering infrastructure initiatives on every continent. Ryuji Maruyama, General Manager of Toshiba’s Smart Community Division, said: “cyberGRID’s cutting edge VPP business and technology will be a key solution for Toshiba’s smart community. It overarches energy efficiency facilities on the demand side and smart grid components on the supply side.When integrated with Landis+Gyr’s smart metering solution, it gives utilities the ability to develop advanced services for consumers. Smart community is a high level concept for integrated solution package of social infrastructures, and Toshiba Group is accelerating its Smart Community business at the global level and this acquisition will contribute to that.”
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INDUSTRY NOTES
Voice of industry
ICAS Member Logo
A new global cable industry association aims to bring together all interests within the industry supply chain under a seamless communication framework.
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he purpose of our association is to promote cable quality and safety, to assist members in technical matters and to voice their views,” says Graham R O’Geran, Secretary-General, International Cable Association (ICAS) providing a concise answer to the query on what the new organisation is all about. What makes ICAS different from similar associations around the globe is that its membership is not limited to a select few or segment; rather, it is open any organisation which has an interest in cable quality and safety, irrespective of location or size, or where they sit in the supply chain. “This includes material suppliers, equipment suppliers, manufacturers, distributors, end users, specifiers and testers,” says O’Geran who brings to the table nine years of experience as Operations Manager for British Approval Service for Cables (BASEC) and 25 years of experience in cable certification and testing. In an egalitarian twist, the annual membership fee of ICAS is the same for all organisations, irrespective of size or location which ensures they are treated the same and enjoy the same voting power. Apart from an Executive Committee which is open to all members, ICAS also has sub-committees for segments like manufacturers or distributors, and a Technical Committee which is open to all members. Discussing the benefits of becoming a
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POWER & WATER MIDDLE EAST / AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2013
INDUSTRY NOTES
member, O’Geran underlined the fact that through ICAS, members can have a say in determining policy, which includes changes to cable standards, test methods and transition times. Members will have early access to information on changes to standards, but more importantly be involved with amendments of the same. Recently, ICAS has become a member of GEL 20/17 and GEL 20/18 committees where it attends the various meetings for cable standards, test methods, and circulates the proposed changes to its members, who can then suggest other changes or vote against the changes. How does this help companies? O’Geran explained: “Most manufacturers are not privileged to the changes until they have been released which puts them at a disadvantage to their competitors who may have seen the changes prior to the release, enabling the latter to change their designs to comply, perform type tests and get into the position to immediately supply the demand for new cable types as soon as they are released.” The fact that British cable standards are widely used by cable manufacturers in the Middle East and other parts of the world means the impact of these extend beyond the UK. O’Geran continued: “For example, changes we have seen recently included the removal of inkjet printing on certain cable types. These cables have to be embossed or indented which in turn slows production dramatically. I am sure if local manufacturers in the Middle East had the chance they would have voted against this change. We can also see that some cable standards do not keep up with technology. For example, there are different types of spark testers in the market that work more accurately at high speeds; however, these are not al-
lowed under various standards and again, this needs to be considered.” While these are manufacturing-related issues, ICAS will also be taking up cudgels on behalf of other constituents in the supply chain. “For example, material suppliers have better performing products but these cannot be used in certain standards. ICAS can assist in getting these products accepted into the standards and in the market,” said O’Geran. Utilities too stand to benefit from membership of ICAS as they will be consulted on changes and their requirements can be put forward. O’Geran recalled that the transition with regard to change of core colours, which was initiated a few years ago, would have been smoother if all regions were consulted. He continued: “Also, the reporting of substandard cables will be done in a very transparent way as ICAS is impartial and has no hidden agenda.” The association has also developed a platform that detects trends contributing to cable failure at early stages. “In the 25 years I worked in certification and testing, I have seen trends of failures but there was no platform to identify these at an early stage,” explained the ICAS Secretary General. “It is important to remember that not all reported failures are true. We have seen numerous accounts of third party test houses failing cables, causing huge problems to utilities, distributors and manufacturers. Upon further investigation, we have established the test house performed the test incorrectly. However, when this happens, the market is not made aware of the same. More worryingly, incorrect testing means they may have passed products that should have, in fact, failed which means unsafe cables could be in the market.”
So what would ICAS do in such a situation? “It is important to communicate this in a professional manner and work with the problem instead of just ignoring it or hiding it,” noted O’Geran. “We have also seen situations where various manufacturers have been experiencing quality problems. By sharing information in a confidential manner amongst our members we can identify, for example, if there is a material problem from a particular supplier. This information can prevent faulty cable from being produced and entering the market.” In the long term, O’Geran hopes to set up in-house testing facility. “In due course, this is an avenue we will explore,” he said. “We will be assisting our members in sourcing testing and introducing correlation testing. We will be able to cross check our members testing accuracy which will give them even greater confidence in their own results.” In the meantime, ICAS intends promote and support certification from reputable organisations that are accredited by a member of the ILAC Mutual Recognition Arrangement. “At the same time, we will question test houses about their results if we notice any trends; also, we will ensure our members are being treated and supported fairly, impartially and without any discrimination.” In the near term, ICAS is planning to start offering accreditation services which will allow it to issue ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001 certificates, becoming the only cable industry organisation specialising in certification of the complete supply chain. ICAS membership currently entitles members to use the logo on their marketing material, websites, and business cards apart from receiving a certificate of membership. On anvil are Codes of Practice for members to ensure that the association and its members do not have their reputations tarnished by unscrupulous organisations. Of course, nonadherence to codes of practice would result cancellation of membership. O’Geran advises that to get maximum benefit from membership, members should put in time to review various documents. He continued: “Obviously they only need to review documents that are appropriate to them; for the association to flourish, we need members to partake in correlation tests and report concerns.”
POWER & WATER MIDDLE EAST / AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2013
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SECTOR REPORT
Filtering
trends
Advanced filtration offers emerging markets a costeffective alternative to water recycling
S
tringent water and wastewater regulations, expanding population, and receding water tables have made a strong case for water and wastewater filtration systems all over the world. Emerging economies such as China, India, Indonesia, and the GCC (Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf) countries are especially fertile markets for filtration systems due to their rapid pace of industrialisation. New analysis from Frost & Sullivan (http:// www.environmental.frost.com), Global Water and Wastewater Filtration Systems Market, finds that the market earned revenues of USD6.11 billion in 2012 and estimates this to reach USD9.18 billion in 2019. It covers the segments of single and dual filter media (sand, gravel, and activated carbon), multimedia filter (sand, garnet, anthracite, and magnetite), cartridge filter media, and others (cloth, ceramic, stainless-steel and novel). The single and dual media filters segment will continue to dominate the market with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.1 per cent, due to the escalating and ever prevailing requirement for potable water. The multimedia filters segment will remain stable at a CAGR of 6.3 per cent, as it is the filtration solution of choice in wastewater treatment. The expanding practice of wastewater
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treatment, especially across the developing nations in Asia-Pacific, will also considerably bolster this segment. Cartridge media will experience sustained demand with a CAGR of 5.5 per cent due to the high demand for process water in industrial applications. However, the high frequency of cartridge replacement will muzzle its growth to some extent. Media filtration has the largest installed base globally and will continue its strong growth. Among regions, Asia shows abundant potential due to the evolving wastewater treatment practices and unmet drinking water needs in India and China. On the other hand, the European market appears to be sluggish because of the recent economic slowdown. Apart from adverse market conditions, the lax supervision and enforcement of the regulations have hindered the market. Nevertheless, system manufacturers will feel optimistic due to the frenzied industrialization and consequent demand for high-quality process water. Further, the depletion of ground-water resources stresses the need for preventive measures. “An increasing number of industries are operating on the basis of zero liquid discharge with an aim to treat wastewater and reuse it for process water applications and other miscellaneous activities,” said Frost & Sullivan Energy & Environmental Research Analyst Vandhana Ravi. Rapidly expanding wastewater consciousness will widen the market for multimedia filtration, especially as novel variants in the grades of media enter the market. The increasing competition from membrane filtration solutions will raise the profile of media filtration as a key technology and eventually, lead to notable
POWER & WATER MIDDLE EAST / AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2013
company mergers and acquisitions. Membrane filtration practices will not act as an entirely disruptive technology, but will cause a surge in the demand for media filtration pretreatment solutions. “Technological and competitive perspectives are key factors affecting the market attractiveness for media filtration solutions,” noted Ravi. “Mega Trends of water reuse and recycling, and carbon footprint reduction will create attractive market opportunities and stoke future growth.”
ON THE RECORD
Unlocking
the grid’s potential
Marc Lamey has been Vice-President Smart Grid Sales and Business Development of Alstom Grid since April 2011. In his role, Lamey is responsible for developing Alstom Grid’s leadership in Smart Grid-ready management solutions. He spoke to Anoop K Menon on the technology enablers and trends within the smart grid market and the scenario in the Middle East
What are some of the key success factors behind smart grid projects? Information Technology (IT) and telecommunications are the two mandatory technology enablers for the smart grid. But they are insufficient if you don’t know how to manage your electricity flow. Smart grid, in essence, is proper knowledge and management of electricity flows using information and communication technologies. One piece alone cannot deliver, so you see ecosystems of companies in this sector. Also, one solution solving everything doesn’t exist; that’s why some of the early smart metering projects failed because
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they were not being used in a ‘smart’ way. While smart meters are a core component of the smart grid, it is important to have a clear idea on what you will do with the system. In fact, a long term road map for smart grid implementation is critical to its success. What are Alstom Grid’s strengths in the smart grid arena? How is smart grid changing the traditional approach to T&D? Alstom Grid is number one worldwide in all activities relevant to the smart grid. We are leaders in control room IT for T&D utilities or what we call Energy Management Systems
POWER & WATER MIDDLE EAST / AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2013
(EMS), Distribution Management Systems (DMS) and Market Management Systems (MMS). We are very strong in digital substation solutions which includes all intelligent systems (automated solutions and digital sensors) at substation level. We are also the largest player in High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) transmission systems. In the Gulf region, the GCC Grid which uses HVDC technology was built by Alstom Grid. There are many important angles to the smart grid. From the region’s standpoint, a significant driver would be integrating renewable energy on the transmission side whereas
ON THE RECORD
in Europe, the focus is tilted towards the distribution side. The transmission network should be able to cope with the fluctuating nature of renewable energy. The second angle is demand response where the objective is to incentivise consumers to adapt their energy consumption patterns to the utility’s peaks. With demand response, we are limiting consumption with peak shaving and peak shifting which is the reverse of existing practice of generating more to meet spurts in demand. Utilities benefit from improved economies of scale and reduction in capex. Today, the biggest market for demand response is the US where we are the market leader. However, Europe and Middle East too are starting to adopt demand response. Of course, regulation is the key driver in the former while in the latter, it is mainly ambition. The third angle is substation automation led by numerical technology which is making inroads into primary electromechanical equipment after establishing itself in the secondary equipment. The use of optical fibre inside the primary equipment reduces the use of copper wiring which has a huge capex impact. At the same time, substation automation has a huge opex impact because you are able to monitor your equipment in real time and stretch them to the maximum of their design limits at a given point in time. It plays an important role in opex through optimisation of load capacity and management of the flows. The fourth angle is distribution automation which has moved from the classical SCADA to very sophisticated applications like outage management, workforce management and technical applications like voltage control that are of added value for end-users when the distribution network gets constrained and when renewables are injected into the network. Why has distribution automation become a key focus within the smart grid? This topic has become important for different reasons. In Europe, the distribution system was less equipped compared to the transmission system and the network wasn’t very constrained. However, the situation turned full circle due to massive injection of renewables into the distribution network triggering voltage issues and reverse flows on the
transformers. Instead of usual top down flow, you had a real dynamic movement of electricity and if you don’t control that, you just spoil your equipment and get a lot of reduction of KPIs like System Average Interruption Frequency Index (SAIFI) and System Average Interruption Duration Index (SAIDI. While the driving force was renewables in Europe, in the US, it is aging of the distribution network and increasing frequency of bad weathers. It is not possible to revamp or renew their aging distribution network in a few years given that it took 60 years to reach the current level. There are three other points to consider: One, control the distribution networks to their maximum limits; two, restore the networks after a big weather incident like storms or hurricanes and, last, the impact of demand response. To do demand response, you need to have certain level of equipment starting with smart meters and smart appliances. These act as sensors inside the network measuring the voltage, finding out whether the customer is load shedding or not and more. In the US, renewable energy is a lesser factor than in Europe because in the former, it is more about massive generation than distributed generation. In your opinion, what is the scope for demand response in the region? I believe that demand response has tremendous scope in the region from both commercial and retail perspectives. The first driver is the movement towards green energy in several countries in the Middle East; the second driver is the difficulty for some countries to achieve on their peak generation capacity over generation capacity for just a given point of time in their peak. Instead of burning oil and gas that could be exported you have a trade-off between what you are going to potentially burn versus what you could economise. The third driver is the capacity of storage to make peak shifting and reduce consumption. An example is water or ice-based thermal energy storage to provide cooling in green buildings. In fact, we are working on several energy storage technologies. We have converters for very large battery systems in the network, similar to technology used in HVDC transmission networks. We are also working on Compressed Air Energy Storage and fly-wheel based storage.
You have been actively promoting Smart Grids in the region for the past few years. How would you rate the awareness quotient today? Awareness has certainly improved and projects on the ground back that. We have carried out a smart grid pilot project in Kuwait for the Ministry of Electricity & Water and are in discussions with Abu Dhabi for a pilot; in Qatar, we have worked with KAHRAMAA to prepare their smart grid road map. To ensure network stability for transmission, we have developed and deployed Wide Area Monitoring System (WAMS) for the GCC Grid and for Bahrain as well, where we have also implemented an Integrated Distribution Management System (IDMS). A key challenge for the region, going forward, is developing a regulatory framework to move from a pilot to a large scale project whether it is integrating renewable energy or implementing demand response. For example, in the case of demand response, incentive schemes will need to be in place. However, even in an advanced market like Europe, you still have regulatory issues. Without proper regulation and political guarantees, massive roll outs will always be constrained. Moreover, each country is different. In Qatar, for example, they are going for full scale implementation of asset management and condition monitoring of equipment. With construction growing, T&D networks are also growing and optimisation is the need of the hour. Looking outside the Middle East, how would you see the evolution of smart grid markets in North America and Europe? The North American market is driven more by economic incentives than by regulation. Alstom Grid manages over 10GW of active demand response in North America which effectively substitutes 10GW of new capacity addition. Europe, as I said earlier, regulation is the main driver. The regulatory framework is not yet fully set up but that is going to change soon as the region has a much higher percentage of renewables hooked up to the T&D network compared to the US. We have done pilots with EDF and several other large utilities in Europe. In Denmark, we handle 50% of renewable generation mix while in Ireland, it is 35%.
POWER & WATER MIDDLE EAST / AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2013
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POWER AND WATER
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POWER & WATER MIDDLE EAST / AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2013
COVER STORY
Data to the rescue
Utilities are turning to data to deal with predictable as well as unforeseen events that impact their business. By Anoop K Menon
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he Big Data panel session at Ventyx World 2013, the global customer and partner conference of Ventyx, an ABB company, held in San Francisco in June, provided an enticing glimpse of how utilities are applying data analysis to deal with business challenges. Panel host Nate Silver, Founder, FiveThirtyEight.com (who established his reputation as a ‘spread sheet psychic’ by accurately forecasting the results of 2008 presidential election primaries)
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directed questions to Vincent G Dow, VP and Chief Engineer, Distribution, DTE Energy and Rick Nicholson, VP, Transmission & Distribution Solutions, Ventyx. Growing frequency of extreme weather events in the United States has DTE Energy analysing 1,500 data feeds on weather coming from public and private analysers. Dow revealed that DTE Energy has initiated a project to determine the weather conditions in a six mile square (or over 15 square
POWER & WATER MIDDLE EAST / AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2013
kilometres) area. He said: “It is not only about understanding the weather and when it is coming but also taking the information about the electrical system and the resources available to be able to predict what type of damages can occur on the electrical system with that weather. At present, we have people looking at weather forecasts and calling crews to various areas.” Rick Nicholson underlined the importance of weather prediction in relation to
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COVER STORY
integrating renewable energy resources into the generation mix given that renewable energy–based power generation doesn’t behave like traditional power plants. They ramp up and down pretty fast depending on whether the wind is blowing or whether the cloud cover is coming over. In fact, predicting the output of renewable energy generation facilities on the basis of weather conditions is going to play a critical role as more and more renewables are added into the generation mix. “Cloud covers are a bit more challenging but wind forecasting on a micro geographic level using sensors on wind turbines or even LIDAR is coming along very quickly,” said Nicholson. Dow noted that DTE Energy devotes a lot of time to try and predict the weather accurately using a variety of products. “Apart from two meteorologists on staff; we use national weather service data, thunderstorm data, wind data, radar data - as much as we can get to determine what is happening,” he said adding that that spikes or changes in energy demand based on weather forecast as opposed to actual weather makes load forecasting difficult. Silver observed that the universal key to making good predictive decisions is taking a consensus of data than relying on a single data service, provided the former is independent and coming from different sources. However, weather is only one of the major components employed in anticipating consumer demand for energy. Nicholson pointed out that the UK’s National Grid has been doing short-term load forecasting for a while, using historical data to understand what the load pattern looked like on the same day in past years and adjust for the weather. Another important component is human behaviour. Nicholson continued: “They gave me the example of a popular TV show The Eastenders watched by a large part of the population. As soon as the show ended, everybody would turn on their electric kettles and make tea, and this was actually significant enough for them to take into consideration in their load planning.” Hedging against disruptive demand Silver’s follow up questions to the panellists were: How do you weigh a particular event that might be taking place in a certain part
of the city to the regional weather demand and how much are you able to hedge? What happens when you have a national crisis? How robust is the system to very prolonged periods of unusual weather? “An interconnected grid makes sure that the demand is there and the generation is there at the same time,” said Dow. “We look at the load from the macro to the micro levels as all of these impact how you manage your electrical grid. If you have loading on a circuit in a particular neighbourhood and you want to look at the loads just for that circuit, we can use, for example, intentional air conditioning load to vary air conditioning to monitor just for that circuit or neighbourhood.” Silver contended that existing electricity distribution networks aren’t designed to handle localisation of energy demand and supply. So if a quarter of the population, 15 to 20 years from now, had electrically powered cars, how much more electricity would that require relative to what is being consumed on every day basis now? Dow’s response was that today’s generation systems are built to the peak so the ideal charging time for electric vehicles would be non-peak hours when generation is available. The moot question, he continued, was whether local transformers in the neighbourhood are equipped to handle the load when these cars start charging? Referring to a period in the 1970s when the trend of whole house air conditioning forced utilities to replace/redesign large parts of their electrical systems to accommodate this extra load throughout the system, Dow noted that the past may repeat itself if there is large scale switch to electric vehicles. Utilities will have to upgrade and strengthen their distribution system and transformers as they may not be able to handle the load created by a number of cars drawing large amounts of power from the grid at the same time. Silver noted that apart from trying to forecast consumer behaviour on how fast people will start buying electrical vehicles, utilities will also have to factor the tendency towards high concentration or clustering of electrical cars (seen with hybrid cars) as opposed to an even distribution. He then asked whether life style will become a major factor in anticipating consumer demand for
energy. Dow said that since the 1990s, DTE Energy has been giving customers different information about the price but how they react to that depends on many things. He continued: “If you price something so that the change in pricing is too low, equivalent to the prize of a pizza a month, would the customer really change his or her behaviour? Probably not. But if the price is too high, then the chatter is about how the big utility gouging them. Therefore, the challenge is how to package the pricing message attractively in order to persuade consumers to change their behaviour.” However, even with variable pricing, the initial stimulus mostly induces a temporary behavioural change which tends to lapse once the customer gets over the novelty of, for example, monitoring his energy consumption over a laptop or a smart phone. Nicholson felt that key is to let technology take charge and manage energy consumption. “Set the profile for maximum savings or maximum comfort and then don’t worry about it,” he said. In the concluding part of the discussion, Silver asked the two panelists to attempttechnology forecasts five years into the future for Ventyx World. Dow pointed out that a big dilemma today is getting the information to the right point. He said: “When I started out, I had SCADA data and some customer data; now I can give you both as well as distribution network data, AMI data, renewable energy data and even data coming from vehicles. You would be asking for the impossible if you expect the control room operator to operate on nine different screens to make sense of the data and manage our electricity. What I am looking forward to in the future is technology that will let us control this vast new distributed network in a much easier fashion.” Nicholson drew an analogy between the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) trend in the work place and generating energy. He said: “BYOD is essentially about empowering users. I think you are going to see to an analogy to that develop in energy too, akin to Generate Your Own Energy. Consumers are going to take more and more control over this aspect which is going to force utilities to once again re-think that whole idea of central command and control.”
POWER & WATER MIDDLE EAST / AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2013
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COVER STORY
Network automation to the fore By Tim Spearing
In a smart grid environment, automation ready equipment provides an efficient way of delivering the data utilities require
A
cross the world utilities are facing growing challenges to secure a stable, reliable and high performance distribution network to meet their customer’s future needs. For example, the increasing demand for electrical power and the growth of distributed generation from renewable resources is placing significant pressure on utilities and their management of existing distribution networks. According to a report by the International Atomic Energy Authority (IAEA), world electricity demand is projected to double between 2000 and 2030, growing at an annual rate of 2.4%. This is faster than any other final energy source, with demand growth strongest in developing countries, where it will climb by
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over four per cent per year over the projection period, more than tripling by 2030. Renewable distributed energy generation is also forecast to grow, according to Pike Research, with an almost three-fold increase predicted globally by 2017 led by Europe, North America and Asia Pacific backed by strong growth in Africa and the Middle East. Charged with the task of meeting performance measures and improving the network infrastructure to meet distribution requirements, utilities must balance these obligations against tough cost down pressures. Meeting performance expectations Managing this balance is a tough job, as performance is always a driver for utilities. The
POWER & WATER MIDDLE EAST / AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2013
two common global performance measures are SAIFI (system average interruption frequency index), which measures the number of customer interruptions against the total number of customers, and SAIDI (system average interruption duration index), which measures the total time lost in customer interruptions against the number of customers served by the system. In the UK these are more commonly known as Customer Interruptions (CI) and Customer Minutes Lost (CML). By improving the SAIFI index, i.e. reducing the frequency of customer interruptions, utilities can reduce the risk of a fault occurring. The installation of fuses or circuit breakers at medium voltage and low voltage transformers is a starting point, but a more effective
COVER STORY
solution is to install mid-section points, or splitting feeders and introducing new normally open points (NOPs) in combination with automation techniques. This will significantly reduce the duration of unplanned outages and improve SAIDI figures. Once a power system fault or disturbance has occurred on the network, utilities then need to reduce the consequences of that event, i.e. the number of customer minutes lost (SAIDI). This is achieved through effective isolation of the network in order to restore power to as many customers as quickly as possible. Achieving improvements in both of these performance measures requires better asset management, fast fault finding and resolution, condition-based maintenance, and accurate and effective data on network operation. These are all areas which network automation techniques can address, balanced against the cost of the capital investment. An incremental approach to developing automation for an electrical distribution network, as offered by Lucy Switchgear’s modular automation solutions and automation-ready switchgear, can rapidly improve quality and reliability in a very cost effective way. By using a process of monitoring and making incremental investments, utilities can realise cost savings in both the planning and implementation of networks, whilst still achieving an efficient solution. The challenge of reliability As well as operations and maintenance, network performance is dependent on design and topology. Utilities have always had a strong emphasis on physical infrastructure failures, but this is made more difficult by insufficient monitoring and data to effectively plan proactive maintenance and management of the network. Achieving this, however, requires more timely information from the field. Using “automation ready” switchgear and modular automation solutions provides an efficient way of delivering the data utilities require, while minimising capital investment costs. Managing an active distribution network The advent of renewable energy feeds, and their increasing importance in the energy mix,
presents a different set of challenges. In the past the distribution network was passive with a single direction current flow. The development of embedded renewable generation sources means that the network must be capable of managing lower voltage generation, changes in power flow, and storage to be able to respond to changes in supply and demand. This can add instability to the network, increasing the risk of distribution interruptions and failures which need to be managed. Utilities need greater adaptability in the network and fast accurate network information to be able to manage and proactively respond to the supply and demand peaks in real time. Many Smart Grid initiatives are designed to do just this, providing data on the status of the network so that operators have a clear situational awareness at all times. This allows for pre-emptive action and fast fault identification and resolution. But changing the network infrastructure overnight is neither cost effective nor practical for distribution companies. Effective capital investment strategies An effective investment strategy is required which maximises the asset life of the installed equipment base, adding automation control in a staged approach. This allows utilities to both extend the parts of the network being monitored and add more granularity to the monitoring processes. Lucy Switchgear’s automation solutions are specifically designed so that can be deployed incrementally following a number of stages. The first stage is to establish data gathering points to allow quicker fault location. Modular remote terminal units (RTUs), such as Lucy Switchgear’s Gemini RTU, can be installed on switching points and configured to transmit fault passage indicator (FPI) information to the utility’s control centre in order to allow more rapid fault location than manual inspection. This also provides improved network data to give a more in-depth understanding of the dynamics of the network. The next step, once a clear understanding of the network dynamics has been established, is to introduce remote control at selected switching points. This process can be
achieved using both the existing and new installations of ring main units (RMUs), thus maximising the asset life of the existing network. Lucy Switchgear’s ‘automation ready’ RMUs have all the necessary wiring looms for control of ring switches pre-installed, providing a first stage investment in automation for utilities looking for fast and effective upgrade paths. The final stage of the process is the addition of retrofit actuators and control modules to the RTUs. These allow for remote control of the ring switch and can be installed with minimal incremental investment. Lucy Switchgear provides non-intrusive retrofit actuator solutions which can be fitted to a common range of RMUs. Using this staged approach ensures that utilities are able to selectively introduce control points on the most appropriate parts of the network. This, in turn, allows normally open points (NOPs) to be moved to the most suitable part of the network, maximising the network dynamics. The incremental approach is an efficient way of implementing automation projects where monitoring is required at the majority of sites but the location of switching sites is unknown. It delivers cost savings in both planning and implementation, plus all the benefits of automation solutions, while balancing cost pressures and extending existing asset life. The evolution of the Smart Grid presents utilities with challenges and opportunities in equal measure. Automation solutions from Lucy Switchgear can help utilities deliver Smart Grid projects in the most efficient and cost effective way possible providing flexibility for future upgrades in line with overall business objectives and an effective investment strategy. 1. http://www.iaea.org/Publications/Magazines/Bulletin/Bull461/power_to_the_people. html 2. http://www.tiogaenergy.com/industrynews/distributed-generation-set-to-boom-innext-five-years (The author is Business Development Manager, Automation, Lucy Switchgear)
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INDUSTRIAL AUTOMATION
SAFE wireless Wireless is the next inflection point in process industries
W
ireless technologies have changed the way people live, providing a means for everyone to get in touch with anyone when and where. In the process industries, the same technologies are used by organisations to improve their operations, particularly in the areas of maintenance, security, and health safety, and environmental (HSE) performance. Wireless is now implemented in thousands of industrial facilities in more than 120 countries around the world. An important event that
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caused this widespread adoption was the creation of a multi-vendor, interoperable industry standard. The international standard IEC62591 or WirelessHART is the first standard developed specifically to meet the needs of the process industries. It was established by the HART Communication Foundation (HCF) in collaboration with end-users, process equipment vendors, and engineering and communication experts. WirelessHART was ratified in September 2007 by the HCF and approved by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) in 2010. Having achieved the benefits of wireless technologies in the past few years, organisations are quickly moving forward to wider and more complex wireless implementation. In the oil and gas sector, for instance, pump and steam trap monitoring used to be a lengthy and expensive process involving physical inspection and laborious data collection in distant field and plant locations. With wireless technologies, these issues are gone. Operators can now ob-
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tain a wealth of equipment health information remotely and anywhere. Numerous organisations have also started to implement plant-wide tracking applications to address workforce productivity, security, and HSE performance. These tracking applications offer varying degrees of location accuracy depending on budget and business needs. For standard tracking, plant operators use Wi-Fi Active Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) access badges to ensure that people are allowed or restricted to enter specific plant areas according to their roles, and that the movement of assets from one plant area to another is monitored in real time. For hazardous plant areas where tracking people is more critical, operators build a stronger Wi-Fi network infrastructure and deploy numerous sensing points to obtain more accurate information and quickly address safety incidents should these occur. Security is a concern in using wireless, and this is why vendors like Emerson design their technologies with robust, multi-tiered, always-on security that uses the most advanced techniques. Wireless is the next inflection point in the process industries, and hesitant adopters should realise that they should leverage this innovation now if they don’t want to fall further behind the curve. (Courtesy: Emerson Process Management MEA)
INDUSTRIAL AUTOMATION
Advanced
Process control
Rob Howard, Director of Business Consulting, AspenTech on how Adaptive Process Control (APC) technology delivers greater profit
T
he refining and petrochemical industry is reliant on improving return on assets and lowering operating costs to be competitive. In these challenging times, doing more with less is essential to driving better results. To deliver sustained economic benefits, refiners have adopted Advanced Process Control (APC) technologies to improve product yield, reduce energy consumption, increase capacity, improve product quality, deliver consistent process safety and reduce environmental emissions. Essentially, APC allows companies to do more, save more and make more. In the last decade, model-based predictive control techniques have become a pragmatic choice in the industrial world and especially the oil refining and petrochemical industries. Many companies have recently reported that advanced control delivers benefits ranging
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from two per cent to six per cent of increased profit by reducing process variability and allowing plants to be operated closer to their true constraints. However, as the physical plant changes over time, APC models need to be maintained and updated or adapted or they no longer represent true plant behaviour. Whilst there have been significant benefits over the last 10 years with sustained value tools, they have not been able to solve the whole problem in an integrated, systematic way. Adaptive Process Control versus traditional sustained value Adaptive Process Control developed by AspenTech is a break-through in technology for maintaining controllers, such as Aspen DMCplus, and it allows engineers to perform maintenance on the controller while it is still on-line and continuing to optimise the plant. There is a significant difference between the traditional approach to controller maintenance (sustained value) and Adaptive Process Control. With sustained value, revamping the controller was done as a project. Under Adaptive Process Control, however, the controller is modified over time in more of a continuous process. This update of the model occurs without the need to take the controller off-line and enables a company to reap the benefits of control and optimisation while the model is under maintenance. Model quality analysis, which continually runs and assesses the accuracy of the model, can detect when degradation of performance occurs. This same model quality analysis can pinpoint a specific part of a controller and compare it with the original model, thereby determining the underlying cause of the degradation in performance.
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First generation APC tools delivered a lot of benefits, but they did not solve the biggest cost issues. With aggressive step-testing the cycles are much shorter, but they are more disruptive. Of course, when the controllers are off-line this results in lost capacity and benefit related to quality that normally accompanies an APC implementation. This type of testing requires constant supervision on the part of plant operators and engineers. The fundamental problem in the past was that the controller needed to be turned off to collect open-loop data suitable for the model identification technologies. Revamping a controller often required up to 80% of the original effort and cost. There is also the latent cost of the loss of capacity and quality. The lack of precision is also an issue in identifying problem areas of the models. Co-linearity detection and repair were not integrated with the other modelling workflows, preparing for model identification was manually intensive and generating candidate models required a lot of activity by the control engineer. Another core issue that companies face
INDUSTRIAL AUTOMATION
is that APC maintenance was performed infrequently and the methodology used mirrored that of the initial project. That would produce some undesirable side-effects. For example, maintenance was commonly deferred until turnarounds and the interim controller performance was allowed to degrade over time. Sometimes, operators would lose faith in the application and turn off the controller. The economic impact with APC maintenance is also a significant problem. The controller downtime, including revamp and turnaround in addition to normal downtime, can reduce total benefit by 35% across a five year cycle. By reducing some of these downtime periods and decreasing the amount of underutilisation that is sub-optimal performance, a company can substantially increase the benefits of APC. Making the difference Today, with Adaptive Process Control engineers can do everything required to update the models without the need to turn off the controller. They can also ensure
The Costs of Controller Downtime For a typical unit, annual benefits of USD2.5m (low end) can be achieved, amounting to a loss of USD875,000 per APC application. When this is multiplied across an average of nine major units under APC control per refinery, this totals almost USD8 million over the five year period that is potentially lost in benefits from reducing the downtime of the controller. So, 60% of this downtime is spent in revamp, 30% is the underutilisation period of the controller when it is not operating at peak performance and, therefore, not generating maximum benefits and the final 10% is unavoidable where the unit is in turnaround.
that the controller exhibits robust behaviour during the periods between model updates, make maintenance a built-in and continuous part of the process and eliminate the need to wait for turnarounds to revamp controllers. Crucially, the software permits the engineer to always be in the loop in terms of making decisions when new models would replace existing ones in on-line applications. For more than 20 years, Aspen DMCplus has been the industry standard for advanced process control software. The application has been successfully applied on large and small units and is the most scalable commercial technology in the industry. Today, with a completely re-designed modelling environment and the introduction of Adaptive Process Control, companies can identify poorly performing aspects of the APC model and pinpoint the areas of the model needing attention. The additional benefits of Adaptive Process Control are to squeeze out costs by making improvements to existing solutions and adopting new technologies: • Reduce controller maintenance labour costs • Minimise erosion of benefits • Return controllers to service faster after turnarounds • Reduce Controller Maintenance Costs by 25% • Increase benefits by continually improving performance • 10% increase in total APC benefits over four years One of the most significant differences with Adaptive Process Control is that companies now have the ability to collect new model identification data using small perturbation background testing as opposed to the aggressive step-testing methods traditionally used. As the new data are collected, they are monitored in real-time and using AspenTech’s new automated slicing technology bad data are automatically removed producing a clean data set for model identification. Adaptive modelling creates candidate models and those are automatically presented to the engineer for review. This entire process is monitored by an automated test agent and the engineer is notified in real-time of any problems that occur within the workflow.
Delivering success APC increases stability and allows the process to operate much more closely to its maximum performance and economic constraints. The technology is designed to operate above regulatory controls and adjust the set points of the basic PID loops to achieve better control of the higher level variables. Across the plant, APC technologies improve plant stability by reducing the effects of disturbances on plant. The plant, therefore, runs more smoothly than with regulatory controls alone. Adaptive Process Control from AspenTech eliminates the need to approach APC maintenance as a project. It creates a continuous process of collecting process data, assessing model quality and generating new models as the behaviour of the plant changes over time. With greater control, refineries and petrochemical plants can increase overall operational efficiency while keeping the process between safe limits of reliable operation and ultimately deliver greater profit.
Jack Adair, Advanced Process Control Engineer, Valero Corporation, on Adaptive Process Control: “The technology works. We achieved the objective of obtaining quality data without unduly disturbing the process or sacrificing economic objectives. The operators hardly noticed a step test was going on.”
• APC technologies help refining and petrochemical companies to reduce energy consumption and environmental emissions while improving productivity • Companies using APC technologies have noticed an increase in profit between 2-6% • APC improves plant stability by reducing the effects of disturbances • APC can reduce controller maintenance costs by 25% • Companies can experience 10% increase in total APC benefits over four years
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ROUNDTABLE
Sustainability in Hospitality W
orldwide, the energy and environmental impact of the hospitality sector is huge as it relies heavily on built assets, is a major consumer of energy and water and generates considerable volumes of waste. The sector is thus greatly vulnerable to sustainability issues. Recently, BGREEN and Emirates Green Building Council (EGBC) chaired a round table discussion on sustainability trends in the hospitality sector in the Middle East, the sixth in our collaborative series Sustainable Solutions. The round table participants were Philippe Torrin, Vice President - Technical Services Hospitality, Majid Al Futtaim (MAF) Group; Ashroff Shakoor, Director of Engineering, Grand Hyatt Dubai; Srilal Palihakkara, Director of Engineering, Mövenpick Hotel Ibn Battuta Gate Dubai & Technical Coordinator – Middle East, India and Sri Lanka and Dubai Tourism’s Said Ishaq Abugharbieh as observer. The discussion was moderated by Anoop K Menon.
Text by: Lorraine Bangera BGREEN: How would each one of you relate sustainability to the hospitality sector? Philippe: I feel that even today sustainability is neither well understood nor well presented. You have a lot of public relations and marketing with the need to look good superseding everything else. So you have expensive propositions presented as sustainable actions. When it comes to sustainability in the hospitality sector, I feel that we need to concentrate on low hanging fruits, make a credible success out of them and see where we can go from there. Ashroff: Around 15 years ago, we started collecting condensed water from the AC coils at the Hyatt Regency. Today, we collect over 10,000
gallons of water, and on a hot humid day, it goes up to 15,000 gallons. At that time, the objective as quite simple - reduce the bills. Sustainability, on its own, became an important driver for us seven years ago when we invested nearly AED 3.5 million to put up a solar water heater system on the Grand Hyatt. In fact, I have come across older hotels implementing simple energy efficiency measures, carrying out energy audits and operational reviews compared to newer properties. I went to a recently opened five star hotel in Dubai and was shocked to not find even a single LED lamp. Sustainability in the region’s hotel sector is really a mixed bag. Srilal: In my opinion, sustainability has a
wider perspective beyond technical gains. At Movenpick, we started our sustainability journey in 2009 with energy monitoring programme in 12 hotels. Today, 98% of our properties in the Middle East are implementing this programme. In fact, all our Middle East hotels have Green Globe Certification (GGC), which is a worldwide sustainability system. GGC has over 337 action points all the way from energy and water conservation to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). For example, we buy fair trade coffee which guarantees that the product is produced in a sustainable manner and doesn’t involve child labour which, at the end of the day, is a sustainable way of doing business.
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ROUNDTABLE
BGREEN: Why isn’t sustainability a widespread trend in the region’s hotel sector despite its obvious importance? What are the challenges in its way? Philippe: We are living in a society driven by revenue. Before taking up high cost actions like food waste composting and the like, we should start with actions that have a huge impact on costs with minimum investment. Unfortunately, these no-brainers are often side-lined for public relations gimmicks despite proven results. In fact, we should go in for more subjective actions only after harvesting the low hanging fruits. The need of the hour is sharing best practices, and developing a proper, independent tool to measure the results and prove that a particular action gives a particular set of results. This would be useful to engineers who want to convince their management. Today, there is little or no dissemination of sustainability actions taken and results achieved. Moreover, Return on Investments (ROI) promised by vendors are based on inflated or incorrect values that don’t consider ground reality. Ashroff: There is a lot of value if you go to someone who has experience in implementing sustainability initiatives. As a 30-year old group operating different properties, we have that experience. We started installing LED lamps three to four years ago and achieved ROI in five months despite the fact that we didn’t consider heat dissipation from the halogen lamps. Buoyed by that success, we started implementing LED lighting in other properties. Philippe: What we need now is a platform to share such success stories. Ashroff: In fact, there should be networking events where hotel engineers can gather and share their knowledge and experiences. BGREEN: How important is water and waste from a sustainability standpoint? Ashroff: At the Hyatt Regency, we took Treated Sewage effluent (TSE) supplied for irrigation, treated it in a reverse osmosis (RO) plant installed at a cost of AED 1.3 million and used this water in our cooling towers. I had calculated 12 months as the payoff period but it took only nine months. We replicated that success in the Park Hyatt and two months ago, we installed a similar system in the Grand Hyatt as well. Water conservation can play an
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important role in your sustainability plan. Srilal: The energy monitoring programme that we launched in 2009 motivated our hotels to save on water and other utilities. We have saved 78,000 cubic metres of water in the 12 hotels which equates to 31 Olympic sized swimming pools or 52 million 1.5 litrebottles. We achieved these savings through small actions like installation of water savers, water bottles in the toilet tanks and also guest education. We only spent money on water savers which paid off in six to nine months. While we started with 12 hotels, other group hotels too have been implementing these measures. When you talk about waste in this part of the world, it is enormous. There are five countries in the Middle East that figure among the top 10 in the world when it comes to waste generation. Apart from food waste, hotels also generate general waste. We have been segregating waste and recycling it for the past one and a half years but I started measuring it only recently. In just 15 days, we diverted six per cent of our waste which was going to landfill to recycling. Our target is eight per cent by the end of the year. Philippe: Even with water, we need an independent tool to measure the savings. We need to go with Genuine Performance. At MAF, we are audited by an internationally recognised third party, which verifies that the numbers in our annual reports and the method of calculation is correct. In three years, we saved 24% in electricity and 18% in water and diverted 30% of waste from landfill through recycling. In fact, we are receiving money for the recycled waste while earlier, we had to pay money for waste to be taken away. BGREEN: Clearly, lack of awareness about sustainability isn’t a significant challenge… Srilal: Compared to what existed 10 years ago, I feel the UAE has definitely progressed ahead on the sustainability curve. A great example is MASDAR City. I remember that a few years ago, the county stood at 152nd position in the environment index but now it occupies the 77th position. Can we move faster? I definitely feel so. Ashroff: I agree that things are changing albeit slowly. Earlier, people were turned back by the costs, but with prices coming down, they are keen to invest. Today, you can buy
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branded LED bulbs for AED40 which used to be AED60. I feel things are moving in the right direction. Philippe: In my opinion, this change was induced by the economic crisis. Before the crisis, business was so good that hotels were not hard-pressed to cut costs. Post-crisis, the focus on bottom line pushed them to cut their energy and water costs. We made investments worth over millions in heat pumps, LED bulbs and recycling in our properties with positive results. We were doing it for the first time so there were risks. We had to prepare a
ROUNDTABLE
(Left to Right Bottom Clockwise): Srilal Palihakkara, Director of Engineering, MÜvenpick Hotel Ibn Battuta Gate Dubai & Technical Coordinator – Middle East, India and Sri Lanka; Ashroff Shakoor, Director of Engineering, Grand Hyatt Dubai; EGBC Representative; DTCM Representative; Philippe Torrin, Vice President - Technical Services Hospitality, Majid Al Futtaim (MAF) Group; Moderator
proper case study and sent that to our business analyst, make IRR and NPV of 10 years which also included increase in maintenance costs to prove that the investment is worthwhile. But how many are really willing to do all that or even bear the risk? At the same time, most of the suppliers here are not really capable of helping you on the implementation side. The bigger five star hotels will have good chief engineers but the same may not be the case for smaller hotels. If you do not have good local resources, things can get very complicated. In fact, pro-
curement and support for implementation is very important. I feel there is opportunity for specialised companies in these areas. Srilal: Product evaluation is also an issue. For example, while there are many LED products in the market, sometimes they will not last the years stated in the guarantee. There are a lot of technicalities involved in selecting products. Philippe: We, as an industry, should share our success stories through proper case studies that describe the technology and list the suppliers who helped with the implementa-
tion. At their core, systems are more or less the same irrespective of the supplier, the only differentiating factor being after-sales service. In fact, we have done optimisation across our properties and saved a lot of money in the process. You cannot rely on the contractors or suppliers to do that for you. Ashroff: You must study the technologies and calculate the ROI. Shorter the duration of ROI, the better. Also, our engineering team carries out most of the implementations. Why invest so much money and then rely on outside contractors to do things? Even otherwise,
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ROUNDTABLE
if you are clear about what you want and how to get it, you can get the contractor or supplier to do it for you. BGREEN: How do you get your customers to buy into sustainability? Srilal: Corporates who are passionate about sustainability prefer to do business with suppliers who share that ethos, and this applies to their choice of hotels too. In this case, sustainability becomes an important driver of business. Business apart, sustainability is also a moral obligation to save the world for the future. I believe that it is easier to take sustainable measures today because there is so much of waste. Most of the actions we have implemented so far required little by way of investment. But now we are ready to go to the next stage of investing money and getting returns. BGREEN: How do you ensure that the workforce don’t lose sight of the sustainability agenda? Philippe: We have linked bonus to performance to make the workforce accountable. We have given our engineers tools to measure performance. We are also pushing this accountability further down to other departments as well. Ashroff: We have appointed a company to prepare reports on consumption figures which we get at the end of every month. These reports tells us how we have performed compared to the previous months. In 2006, we were given a target to achieve reductions of 25% in electricity and 20% in water consumption by 2015. With this system and past records and looking at the other properties, we are doing very well. I agree that it is important to give people targets and tools to measure the progress. Srilal: We too have contracted a company to audit our energy and water consumption. They don’t simply look at percentages or savings; rather, they have a tool which measures genuine performance taking into consideration aspects like occupancy, outdoor temperature and the like. Philippe: We should work towards developing common reference points for the hospitality sector. For example, we could look at a rating system linked to genuine performance. Otherwise, comparisons will be difficult. Met-
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rics like per room occupancy or square meter assessment are not sufficient. EGBC representative: Hospitality is one of the sectors that we are focussing on as part of our sector-based sustainability programme. I would like to know how EGBC can be platform for collaboration between the government and hotel sector. Philippe: EGBC should develop a proper tool and establish a common platform to share success stories, data or results so that the entire sector benefits. Competition between hotels is determined by service and not by how green they are. However, a ‘greener’ Dubai will certainly attract more people and everybody benefits. Ashroff: Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM) has carried out many awareness drives. In fact, DTCM should encourage all hotels to carry out energy audits as these audits will tell the management where the ‘leaking buckets’ are. There are so many simple measures that hotels can take provided the management knows about it. EGBC can play a co-ordinating role here. Srilal: I would like to share a few statistics from the World Travel & Tourism Council. The tourism industry is the second highest employer in the Middle East. We have 3,000 operational hotels with 300,000 rooms in the UAE. If every hotel launches an environmental training programme for their staff, 1.7 million people could be trained in a single year in the UAE alone. This could boost the sustainability awareness within the country. In fact, in Movenpick, staff training is an integral part of our sustainability agenda. BGREEN: Do you have suggestions for the authorities that can provide greater impetus to sustainability in the hospitality sector? Philippe: The regulatory authorities should factor in the higher efficiencies possible with modern equipment into their regulations and specifications. This will spare the hotel sector the cost associated with oversized equipment and systems and cut down their capital expenditure. Ashroff: Consultants should be induced to consider energy saving technologies. The authorities can also put curbs on the import and use of low efficiency products when it comes to big users like hotels.
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Srilal: While energy is a pet topic for the hotel industry, I believe that waste - food and nonfood - also merits serious attention. Philippe: Two years ago, we put in place for all our hotels a common way of reporting the waste. We reduced non-food waste sent to landfills by 30% in kilo terms and over 60% in terms of volume. When it comes to food waste, my experience is that economics of food waste composting isn’t favourable. Disposing the compost is also difficult as nobody wants it. If a hotel produces on average 300 kilos of compost every day, then 3,000 hotels would produce 300,000 kilos of compost. What do you do with all that compost? Ashroff: Energy is a priority for us because it accounts for 60% of our expenses; 20% is water, gas and diesel and the rest goes into waste disposal. In fact, for hotels that practice waste segregation, costs of waste disposal have come down. Hotels should also be encouraged to get certifications like ISO 140001 which encourages them to adopt environmentally responsible practices. Srilal: All said and done, it is important that one is passionate about sustainability. If the chief engineer is passionate about sustainability, he will make sure that his property adopts it. BGREEN: What would be your wish list for next year? Philippe: I feel that authorities should make it mandatory for all hotels to incorporate solar energy in their operations and recycle grey water. They could also lay down a minimum percentage of lighting to be LEDs. Property owners who invest in sustainability should be recognised. Most of the time, the spotlight is on the operators. Srilal: My wish list would include regulations that encourages sustainability and a platform for sharing of knowledge, experiences and success stories. Investors should be forced to factor sustainability into their projects during the design stage itself. For example, you can incorporate condensate recovery and re-use at the design stage rather than as a retrofit. Ashroff: A platform where hotel engineers can meet and exchange their experiences and knowledge can create greater awareness. We should also get the consultants to listen more to the end-users.
Test & Measurement
Localisation made easy A new measurement system makes PD localisation in power transformers easier due to the combination of electrical PD measurement technique and intuitive 3D visualisation of the test object.
By Dr. Alexander Kraetge & Stefan Hoek
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P
artial discharges are locally restricted discharge phenomena that can occur at fault locations in insulation systems. As a result of the energy turnover at the location of the PD, degradation of the insulation material may come about. This can lead to a reduction in the service life of the entire piece of equipment, which is linked with the risk of unexpected failure. In transformers in particular, there is a risk of ignition of the insulating oil in this event, which must be avoided at all costs. Early detection of PD phenomena and prompt completion of repairs is therefore extremely important. Quantifying partial discharge measurements in accordance with IEC 60270 is a procedure established throughout the world for quality assurance of transformers and is
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completed as part of the routine measurements in the manufacturer’s factory. If, during such a measurement, it is established that PD is present in the transformer, it must be localised as quickly and accurately as possible. The same applies to transformers in the field. Here PD detection and localisation procedures are generally initiated as a result of corresponding indications in the gas-in-oil analysis. An established procedure for localisation of PD faults in transformers involves acoustic localisation of the PD signals using several piezoelectric sensors that operate in the range from multiples of ten to several hundred kilohertz and are attached to the tank wall from outside [1]. The application of this procedure is described below by examining some practical examples.
Test & Measurement
The propagation of acoustic signals in transformers Partial discharges inside or on the surface of an insulation medium emit part of the energy they release as a spherical sound wave. This is initially propagated evenly in all directions. The propagation speed depends on the transmission medium, its temperature and the frequency of the sound. The amount of the acoustic signal energy that is able to reach the tank wall is determined to a large extent by the propagation path that the wave takes. The design structures inside the transformer attenuate the sound (low pass). The extent of the attenuation varies considerably between various materials (pressboard, wood, paper, steel, oil, etc.) The sound signal may reach the sensor from the PD source along various paths – of different speeds – as a result of reflection and refraction phenomena. Since, however, the precise propagation path of the signals is unknown, no direct conclusions can be drawn from the amplitude and shape of the recorded signals about the type and extent of the fault or the intensity of the partial discharge events at the fault location. It is therefore also impossible to define limit values – as for the apparent charge permitted for electrical PD measurements.
Noise
Figure 1: Possible propagation paths of the sound signal As a result, a PD event can be detected several times by the same sensor. Figure 2 shows a superimposition of this sort, based on the propagation paths shown in Figure 1.
Steel Part
Direct Oil Part
Reflection (and others) Part
Figure 2: Signal shape at the sensor as a result of superimposition of signals from various propagation paths
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Test & Measurement
Runtime-based localisation of PD sources OMICRON’s new PDL 650 localisation system measures acoustic signals using multiple sensors spread out over the transformer. The PD source(s) is/ are localised by means of the differences in runtime of the acoustic signal between the fault location and the sensors. Possible fault locations are calculated from the signal runtimes measured, using the sound speed and the known geometrical positions of the sensors on the tank wall. These coordinates are entered into a 3D model of the transformer in the PDL 650 software, in which they are displayed clearly [2].
Figure 3: Principle of acoustic PD localisation with external sensors and measurement setup in practice using the PDL 650
However, since the propagation speed depends heavily on the internal structure of the transformer and may vary depending on the sensor position, an average propagation speed must be used. In practice, a value for test bay measurements of about 1400 m/s has become established, which is based on the speed of sound in oil at 25°C. Depending on the current temperature of the oil, a lower value may be used for measurements in the field (e.g. 1200 m/s at 80°C). Exact determination of the signal start time is particularly important. The shape of the detected signal must be analysed for this purpose. Reliable determination of the starting point of the signal is usually only possible with adequate signal quality. Positioning of the sensors with good contact is therefore very important in choosing locations on the wall at which measurements can be taken with a good signal-to-noise ratio and low signal attenuation. Familiarity with the internal structure of the transformer is an advantage and the involvement of the transformer manufacturer in PD localisation is recommended.
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(To be continued) REFERENCES [1] C57.127 (2007) “IEEE Guide for the Detection and Location of Acoustic Emissions from Partial Discharges in Oil-Immersed Power Transformers and Reactors”, The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. New York, USA, 2007 (Authors: Dr. Alexander Kraetge, High Voltage Equipment Diagnostics Manager, OMICRON electronics GmbH Stefan Hoek (Graduate in Engineering), Product Manager, OMICRON electronics GmbH)
Delivering Saudi Arabia’s mega infrastructure projects, expanding capacity and creating jobs in the Kingdom’s construction sector
SAUDI MEGA
TRA NSPO RT & INF R ASTR UCTURE 1 5 - 1 7 SeSePTeMBer pt e mbe r 201 32013 RI YA|DHrIyAdH MARRIO TT HO TEL, SA U D I A RASAudI BIA 16-18 MArrIoTT HoTel, ArABIA
OPENiNg KEyNOTE ADDRESS: H.E. Dr Muhammad al-Jasser Minister of Economy and Planning, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
SPEAKERS Eng. Tariq Teheni Generation Engineering and Projects Executive Director Saudi Electricity Company
Dr. Fareed Al Yagout
Adnan Alnfaiai
Mohammed Fayez
Project Business Manager, King Abdullah North Promise Industrial City
Senior Vice President
President
National Power Company
Dr. Fahad Alturki Senior Economist
Jadwa Investment Christopher Nixon
Zuhair Fayez Partnership
Assistant General Manager, Corporate Finance
Board Member
Samba Capital
Ma’aden
Jeddah Governorate
Ayed Awadh Alqahtani
Shamim Syed
Ivan Hopkins
Vice President, Powerplant Development
Head of Project and Structured Finance, Corporate Bank
Programme Director, King Fahad Medical City
Ministry of Health
Samsung C&T
Arab National Bank
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EXPERT COLUMN
The time is now The Arabian Gulf countries’ economic success is undeniably founded on oil & gas exports, energy intensive industries and lifestyles. Yet, the time is right to take a closer look at energy efficiency. By Samuel Merkli, Business Development Manager - Energy Efficiency, India, Middle East and Africa (IMA), ABB
A
s the summer heat kicks off in the Middle East, cooling loads in buildings reach their annual peak levels once again. As 70% of energy demand in GCC countries typically comes from commercial and residential sectors, this puts a heavy burden on utilities, grid infrastructure and government budgets. The reality is that the whole region needs to implement energy-efficiency improvements now. Here are five main reasons, which explain how energy efficiency is gaining market acceptance in the Middle East: Energy price increases are inevitable The Gulf countries’ heavily subsidised energy prices are starting to impact government budgets, while record-high energy intensity threatens economic competitiveness. Take for example, Abu Dhabi, where an estimated US$4 billion was spent last year alone to support low energy prices. The direct subsidy makes up for more than 50% of true electricity costs of end consumers. Next to subsidies, the necessary high investments in generation capacity and grid extensions in order to meet demand are taking their toll. To escape this Catch-22 situation, governments are looking into price increases for commercial and residential users. Dubai, for example, introduced a slab tariff with surcharges, while Abu Dhabi is piloting a peak-demand pricing scheme. Similarly, energy intensive industrial facilities are exposed to increasing feedstock, electricity and fuel charge mark-ups. Decision makers recognise energy-efficiency benefits As supply constraints and price incentives turn into reality, productivity improvements become attractive. Apart from reducing
their operational costs and enhancing asset life, major players in many sectors embrace efficiency measures because of reputational benefits: Energy efficiency is ‘en vogue’ in the Middle East. Leaders are keen to rebrand their cities as modern commercial hubs with the focus on tourism, trade, transportation and real estate. Not least since mega-events such as the Qatar FIFA World Cup in 2022 and the Dubai World Expo 2020 are attracting international spotlights in order to observe the progress on the green agenda. Aside from operational excellence and green marketing, energy-efficiency is a bare necessity for the region’s less hydrocarbonrich countries like Jordan, Lebanon, Pakistan and Egypt. These countries are examples where high energy costs and supply shortages are major drivers. Here, efficiency enhancements are an imperative to avoid power cuts during peak hours due to over-stressed grids. The policy framework is changing The tendency for early policy roadmaps and pledges to be more vivid on glossy paper than in reality is changing. Research institutes, energy councils and associations are increasingly following through on policy development: Saudi Arabia implemented a national competence centre to revise regulations and market mechanisms. Dubai is looking into demand-side programmes and energy performance contracts (ESCO) for buildings, while Abu Dhabi has an integrated energy-efficiency strategy under development. Green building codes have become mandatory for new constructions in various Gulf markets, while efficiency regulations are also tightened for existing buildings. Minimum efficiency performance standards (MEPS) are being discussed for electrical equipment and are already in place for household air
conditioning units. Also, we should not forget that the UAE already ranks third worldwide (behind the US and China) with more than 800 registered or certified buildings under the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) benchmark. Massive efficiency potential Since Gulf economies experience some of the world’s highest energy and carbon intensity ratios, saving potentials are evidently substantial. Calculations claim possible reductions of almost 30% in total primary energy consumption compared to the baseline for Gulf countries by 2030 – and this is a scenario where only moderate policies and efficiency measures are adopted. Even though the macroeconomic rationale for energy-efficiency is inherent to enhance competitiveness and free up hydrocarbon exports, various barriers preventing a quick adoption still persist. As long as regulation and price incentives are not implemented on all levels, purchasing managers might refrain from opting in on efficient products and systems, as long as there is an alternative with lower upfront costs. Energy-efficiency becomes a purchasing criterion Times have changed in the design and purchasing departments of Middle Eastern utilities, industrials and developers. As operational cost savings gain importance, customers are developing a deeper understanding of efficiency best practices and are doing their homework on benchmarking. Progressively, system efficiency turns out to be an important criterion in tender evaluations. Customers also require more advanced commercial terms, such as energy performance contracting with guaranteed savings and shared risks. Energy management systems are being applied gradually and early adopters have already certified some of their operations with the new ISO 50001 standard. Increasing investments are seen in efficient district cooling, waste heat recovery, flaring reduction, gas turbine and boiler optimisation. Efficient variable-speed drive power for pumping applications, fans and compressors is now a standard upgrade with attractive payback times. There is no doubt that the Middle East has started to move up the efficiency curve.
POWER & WATER MIDDLE EAST / AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2013
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POWER AND WATER
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POWER & WATER MIDDLE EAST / AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2013
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POWER & WATER MIDDLE EAST / AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2013
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PROJECTS THAT MATTER
Hassyan Coal-Fired Power Plant Project Construction of a coal-fired power plant with capacity of 3,000 MW in Hassyan. COUNTRY: Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE) BUDGET: Not Available CLIENT: Dubai Electricity & Water Authority (DEWA) CONTRACTORS: NOT APPLICABLE REMARKS: Hassyan Coal-Fired Power Plant Project is located on the Arabian Gulf Coast at a fully prepared site in Hassyan, approximately 50 kilometres from Dubai and adjacent to the border with the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. DEWA has invited specialised firms to submit bids by October 8, 2013 for a contract to provide Independent Power Producer (IPP) advisory services on this scheme. The power plant is expected to be built in two phases to generate 600 MW each when completed in 2020 and 2021 respectively. MET REFERENCE NUMBER: OPP342-U
Noor 1 Photovoltaic Solar Power Plant Project Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contract to build Noor 1 photovoltaic solar power plant with capacity of 100 MW COUNTRY: Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE) BUDGET: 600,000,000 CLIENT: Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company (MASDAR) CONTRACTORS: NOT APPLICABLE CONSULTANTS: Lahmeyer International has been appointed technical consultant REMARKS: Noor 1 will be located to the east of Al Ain city in Al-Aflaj. Unlike concentrated solar power technology (used in Shams 1) which generates electricity from the heat of the sun, the Noor 1 project will use the photovoltaic (PV) solar technology which can directly convert the sunlight into electricity. Bids are currently under evaluation for the EPC contract on this scheme and an award is expected in the second half of 2013. Construction of the plant is expected to commence in the fourth quarter of 2013. Project completion is expected in 2014. MET REFERENCE NUMBER: OPP332-U
Photovoltaic Solar Power Plant Project Supply and installation of a rooftop photovoltaic solar power plant with capacity of 1MW in Al Assimah COUNTRY: Kuwait BUDGET: 3,100,000 CLIENT: Ministry of Electricity & Water (Kuwait) CONTRACTORS: The main contractor is Al Amer Electrical Company (Kuwait) CONSULTANTS: Not Available REMARKS: The project involves installation of solar panels on the rooftops of the Ministry of Electricity and the adjacent Ministry of Public Works building, with combined rooftops area of 8,400 square metres. The tender was open to local construction entities only with each company allowed to select their own technology provider (international or otherwise), as long as that firm has been in operation for at least 15 years. Construction work is in progress on this scheme and the project is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2013. MET REFERENCE NUMBER: MPP2508-K
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PROJECTS THAT MATTER
Kirkuk Refinery Project
Construction of a refinery in Kirkuk with capacity of 150,000 barrels a day (b/d) of oil, including a 400-megawatt (MW) power plant. COUNTRY: Iraq BUDGET: 5,000,000,000 CLIENT: Iraq North Refineries Company CONTRACTORS: Not Applicable CONSULTANTS: US’ Shaw Group has been awarded a contract to carry out the feasibility study and front-end engineering and design (FEED). REMARKS: Client is currently waiting for international developers to submit their proposals for the BOO contract. No deadline has been assigned for the bids submission. This project will be located about 300 kilometres north of Baghdad. It will use Kirkuk blend crude oil. Proposed units include: • 150,000 barrel-a-day (b/d) atmospheric distillation unit • 60,000 b/d vacuum distillation unit • 42,900 b/d naphtha hydro-treater • 29,600 b/d reformer • 13,200 b/d isomerisation unit • 23,900 b/d fluid catalytic cracker. The refinery will produce about 225 tonnes a day (t/d) of liquid petroleum gas (LPG) along with 85,000 b/d of gasoline, 28,000 b/d of kerosene, 51,000 b/d of gas-oil and 2,000 b/d of fuel. It will also produce 490 t/d of asphalt and 292 t/d of sulphur. MET REFERENCE NUMBER: ZPR263-IQ POWER & WATER MIDDLE EAST / AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2013
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PROJECTS THAT MATTER
Submarine Connecting Cables Construction Project Das Island, Umm Shaif & Nasr Engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract to build 132kV submarine connecting cables linking Das Island, Umm Shaif and Nasr. COUNTRY: Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE) BUDGET: 5,000,000,000 CLIENT: Abu Dhabi Marine Operating Company (ADMA-OPCO) CONTRACTORS: Not Applicable CONSULTANTS: WorleyParsons (Abu Dhabi) has been awarded the contract to carry out the feasibility study and front-end engineering and design (FEED). REMARKS: Tendering and bidding process for the EPC contract is expected to be launched in the second quarter of 2013. EPC contract is expected to be awarded in the first quarter of 2014. Project completion is expected in the first half of 2016. MET REFERENCE NUMBER: ZPR759-U
Gas Turbine Power Plant Project - West Qurna 2 Oilfield Engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) to build a gas turbine power plant at West Qurna 2 Oilfield.
COUNTRY: Iraq BUDGET: Not Available CLIENT: LUKOIL Overseas Service B.V (Russia) CONTRACTORS: Enka (Turkey) CONSULTANTS: Enka (Turkey). REMARKS: This project is at the North of Al Basra in Iraq. Scope of work involves the construction of gas turbine power plant which includes: • 3 dual-fuel industrial turbines of 42MW each • A gas treatment unit with gas compressors • A diesel fuel loading, storage and distribution system with two tanks 2,500 cubic meters each • A power distribution system with step-up, step-down and auxiliary transformers and switch gears • A diesel generator, a control room, utility and infrastructure installations. It is being implemented in joint venture of Russia’s Lukoil Holdings and Local South Oil Company. The construction of the plant is under progress and project completion is anticipated in the fourth quarter of 2013. MET REFERENCE NUMBER: ZPR1199-IQ
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PROJECTS THAT MATTER
Al Dhafarat Power Station Upgrade Project Construction of a 1x500 KW power plant, including DG set with all required mechanical, electrical & civil works in Al Dhafarat. COUNTRY: Oman BUDGET: Not Available CLIENT: Rural Areas Electricity Company (Oman) CONTRACTORS: Not Applicable CONSULTANTS: Not Applicable REMARKS: This project is at Al Wusta in Oman. Purpose of the project is to meet the increasing national demand for electricity. The project is still under planning. Tendering and bidding process for the construction contract is expected to be launched in the second half of 2013. MET REFERENCE NUMBER: ZPR739-O
Transformer Plants Installation Project - Jaber Al-Ahmad Supply and installation of (7 Nos.) 132/11 kV transformer plants for a ministry. COUNTRY: Kuwait BUDGET: Not Available CLIENT: Ministry of Electricity & Water (Kuwait) CONTRACTORS: Not Applicable CONSULTANTS: Not Applicable REMARKS: This project is at Jabber Al-Ahmed Area (X7, X6, X5, X4, X3, X2 and X2 JBAH) in Kuwait. Central Tenders Committee (CTC) has received bids from four companies for the main contract on this scheme. India’s Larsen Toubro Ltd. has submitted a lowest bid of $82 million; Local Al Ahlia submitted a price of $82 million; Local Kharafi National submitted $85 million and Switzerland’s ABB submitted $107 million for the scheme. MET REFERENCE NUMBER: MEW/75/2012/2013-K
AHRF & W MARF Plant Project Supply and installation of CKV123 AHRF plant and W MARF 132/300kV plant at two refineries COUNTRY: Kuwait BUDGET: 265000000 CLIENT: Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC) CONTRACTORS Siemens Electrical & Electronics Services CONSULTANTS: Not Applicable REMARKS: This project involves supply and installation of KV123 AHRF-C plant at Mina Al-Ahmadi Refinery and installation of MARF-W 132/33kV plant at Mina Abdullah Refinery in Kuwait. Official signing of the contract with Germany’s Siemens Electrical & Electronics Services is expected soon. Project completion is expected in the first half of 2015. MET REFERENCE NUMBER: CFP-B/EPC/0019-K
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POWER & WATER MIDDLE EAST / AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2013
RegisteR befoRe
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MENA MENA
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Beach Rotana Hotel, Abu Dhabi, UAE REGIONAL OPERATORS TO SPEAK AT THE EVENT Eng. Ramadan Abdullah Mohammed Director of Rail Operations Department – Rail Agency, Roads and transport Authority (RtA) (UAe)
Eng. Ali Abdelfattah Chief Technical Officer, Makkah Mass Rail transit (MMRt) (KsA)
Eng. Ibrahim K. Kutubkhanah Chief Executive Officer, Metro Jeddah Company (KsA)
Eng. Gassim S. Al-Gassim Deputy CEO, Projects, saudi Railway Company (sAR) (KsA)
Abdulrahman Al Janahi Senior Development Manager,etihad Rail (UAe)
Eng. Abdurahman Bin Salim ALhatmi Oman Railway Project Manager, oman National Railway Company (oMAN)
Nino Cingolani Co-Chairman ENR Transformation and Restructuring Program, egyptian National Railways (eNR) (egYPt)
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• foCUs DAY - operator Case study series dedicated to metro, light rail and tramways • The gulf-general secretariat analysis on strategic Railway Developments for gCC Rail
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EXPERT COLUMN
Betting on control
Building control systems shouldn’t be allowed to become obsolete, argues Moheet Vishwas. By Moheet Vishwas
C
onsider it a rewind or flashback of sorts - you are back in the glory days of the construction boom, the economy is on the upswing, you are a visionary real estate developer, you make tough yet smart decisions - an approach you believe will reap its rewards in due course. Among the technologies you have invested in for your buildings is a controls system. Fast forward to the present day - your investment has performed well, extended the life span of your buildings and saved you heaps of money. The choice you made proved itself to be worthwhile but the moot question is - is that system still ‘valuable’ as passage of time and advances in technology rings in obsolescence? Old is definitely gold if we are talking about your vintage wine collection or the solid Volvo in your garage which you are very proud to own. But what if it’s an old VCR (Video Cassette Recorder) that you just don’t want to part with? Would you scramble around searching for video cassettes or would you simply purchase the latest DVD/ Blu-ray player? Let’s apply this analogy to a Building Automation System (BAS). Do you often find yourself chasing suppliers for control circuits that aren’t manufactured anymore? Are there compatibility issues with the new temperature sensor you just replaced? Does the failure of a simple component render the whole system inoperable and cause loss of productivity? Is your BAS now digging a hole in your wallet? Is it worth the time, effort and money?
If your answers are Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes and No respectively, the chances are that your BAS system has outlived its purpose. So where do we go from here? Your first task is to bring in a specialist to identify prevalent issues. If your system is obsolete and critical to the ability to maintain building conditions then it’s time to make an upgrade. A big part of a controls specialist’s strategy is to take in a holistic view of the facility or building while determining and stretching the useful line of controls. This approach is two pronged: Helping the customer retain the existing investment. Retain the field hardware while bringing its data into a more functional, newer front end and get in more equipment for better monitoring and control. A backward compatibility is maintained at all times. Helping the customer get returns on the new investment. This is quintessential to make any business sense while marketing the control system. A good BAS will benefit the customer monetarily through new savings on energy consumption, maintenance and repairs. Control systems retrofits don’t have to be expensive. Remember, less is more. The proposed control system should be simple, robust and easy to use. Bringing in new equipment while preserving the fidelity of the older controls will give you a hybrid control system. This is often a less costly way to achieve some of the benefits of a full
replacement. In case of hybrids, interoperable controls are preferred as they are likely to have more longevity than their proprietary counterparts, provided they have been maintained effectively. Flexibility adds another five years to the lifespan of the control system until they are out of date. I believe that BAS could play a key role in mitigating the carbon footprint of the UAE’s ever-expanding building sector by potentially reducing the energy consumption of buildings upwards of 30%. In the current economic scenario, a complete overhaul or upgrade may not be a feasible solution for majority of infrastructure owners. But upgrades or overhauls carried out in phases may be more affordable. This option works well in multibuilding campuses, such as government institutions, universities and hospitals. When implemented on a wide scale, BAS will enable us to develop even more intelligent controls. For example, if building automation systems are integrated into a smart grid, they can respond to the grid’s status by altering consumption during periods of high demand. Such an innovation can help the region make massive strides in cutting down its already high carbon footprint, and eventually offer another set of reasons for building controls upgrades. So go ahead and make the upgrade. (The author is Lead Systems Specialist, Infratech Controls)
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ON SITE
World’s largest offshore wind farm
On 4th of July, 2013, London Array, the world’s largest operational offshore wind power plant to date, was officially inaugurated. Rated at 630 MW, phase One of London Array generates enough energy to power around 500,000 British homes and displaces over 900,000 tonnes of CO2 a year – equivalent to taking nearly 300,000 cars off the road each year. Siemens was responsible for the supply of 175 wind turbines, the grid connections and will provide service under a long-term agreement together with Dong Energy. The wind power plant is owned by a consortium consisting of Dong Energy, E.ON and Masdar. “London Array is the world’s largest offshore wind power plant and marks a milestone in the development of offshore wind power. This project underscores the leading position of Siemens in this attractive growth market”, declared the press release by Siemens on the opening ceremony in Margate, Great Britain.
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POWER & WATER MIDDLE EAST / AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2013
1. Lessons learnt During the execution of the London Array project, Siemens was able to further standardise offshore processes covering manufacturing, transport and logistics as well as installation of wind turbines offshore. The London Array Project is a case study of the methods Siemens implemented throughout the construction phase to improve efficiencies, ensure the highest quality standards, and ensure safety. Thus, the offshore commissioning time of the wind power plant was reduced considerably.
2. 175 wind turbines Siemens has supplied, installed and commissioned 175 wind turbines with a capacity of 3.6 MW and a rotor diameter of 120 meters safely and on time. Components such as nacelles and towers as pictured have been shipped with a special designed vessel from the Danish Port of Esbjerg to the British Port of Harwich and directly to the wind farm site.
ON SITE
3. Doing things differently A project of this size enabled Siemens to improve efficiencies and reduce costs by industrialising and optimising the pre-assembly and commissioning works. Considerable achievements were made in the ‘reallocation’ of work from the hazardous offshore environment to onshore.
4. The last one up! The unique difference between London Array and other offshore projects, apart from its size, is the site. The wind farm is located 20 kilometres from the Kent and Essex coasts in the Outer Thames Estuary and near to main shipping lanes. The site is located in two very distinct areas – one in deep water up to 25 metres, while the other dries out during low tide. This has an impact on how to organise installation vessels. The picture shows the installation of the last turbine in December 2012.
5. Getting connected onshore Siemens supplied the mechanical and electrical equipment for the two offshore substations as well as the onshore substation in Cleve Hill. The energy generated by the wind turbines is bundled and transported via high-voltage submarine cables to the coast. Each of the four export cables have a length over 50 km. Over 200 km of inter-array cabling connect the turbines to each other and to the offshore substations. One of the offshore substations is shown in the picture. Including London Array, Siemens has implemented five grid connections in Great Britain.
6. Offshore wind service A joint team comprising technicians and staff from DONG Energy and Siemens, managed by London Array, will be maintaining London Array’s 175 wind turbines and associated plant. London Array’s purpose built, eco-friendly operation and maintenance based in Ramsgate is home to around 70 wind turbine technicians and 20 support staff which includes 35 Siemens service employees and six maintenance vessels The picture shows a service vessel at the transition piece at a turbine at London Array.
7. Vast offshore area London Array is the world’s largest operational offshore wind farm. The total offshore area occupied by Phase One of London Array is around 100 km2. All the turbines for London Array are controlled and monitored from the operation and maintenance base at the port of Ramsgate, Kent.
8. Offshore wind power Siemens is at the front of the market for offshore wind power plants, grid connections and offshore wind service. The company has already installed more than 1,100 wind turbines at sea with a total capacity of 3.4 GW, over two thirds of which are in Great Britain. In total, it has 4.6 GW of offshore capacity in its order books.
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EVENTS
September Power + Water Middle East 23-25, 2013 Abu Dhabi
The sixth edition of Power + Water Middle East will bring together developers, manufacturers, buyers and service providers from a range of sectors in power and water to meet, discuss and invest in current products and technologies in the related industries. The event, which will be take place at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre, is held in strategic partnership with the Abu Dhabi Water & Electricity Authority (ADWEA) and will play a regional role in celebrations of the International Year of Water 2013. His Excellency Abdulla Saif Al Nuaimi, Director General of Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Authority (ADWEA), said: “Economic diversification and demographics are driving the development of the power and water sectors in Abu Dhabi and the GCC, underlining the fact that the region is not only one of the fastest growing but also holds the most potential of global electricity markets.” The event returns with the Power + Water Leader’s Forum taking place alongside the exhibition on 23rd September, providing an opportunity for senior level professionals in the power and water industries to network with key industry players not only from the region but across the world to discuss and debate core topics affecting the power and water sectors across the GCC. Power + Water Middle East is supported by the Society of Engineers – UAE and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). Contact: The organiser Tel: +971 4 336 5161 URL: www.powerandwaterme.com
September Arabian Water & Power Forum 23-25, 2013, Dubai
The Arabian Water & Power Forum, under the patronage of H.H. Sheikh Mohammed Bin Maktoum Bin Juma Al Maktoum and in partnership with the Dubai Supreme Council of Energy, will take place 23-25 September 2013 at The Address Dubai Marina, UAE. The event will explore the balance between ‘Optimising Supply and Managing Demand’ with a renewed focus on innovative technologies and projects across the Middle East. It will bring together central policy makers, government figures and international investors to determine the next steps essential to matching water and power supply with demand across the Middle East. Innovations in sustainability will be at the core of discussions and companies excelling in this area will be recognised at the prestigious AWPF Awards Ceremony held on Day One of the Forum.
Desalination industry stalwarts at AWPF Contact: Kyle Wetselaar, CWC Group Limited Tel: +44 20 7978 0336 | Fax: +44 20 7978 0099 E-mail: kwetselaar@thecwcgroup.com | URL: www.cwcawpf.com
November ADIPEC 10-13, 2013 Abu Dhabi
ADIPEC TROPHY
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ADIPEC - the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference - is the largest gas and oil event in the Middle East. Supported by Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) and the UAE’s Ministry of Energy, it hosts more than 1,600 exhibitors and attracts more than 50,000 attendees This year’s re-worked ADIPEC Awards – Excellence in Energy 2013 aims to recognise excellence in individual projects and departments of gas and oil companies in the Middle East and North Africa region; and to support development of a stronger, even more successful gas and oil business community throughout the region. ADIPEC’s technical gas and oil conference will take place alongside the exhibition at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (ADNEC). Contact: Mike Hughes, Marketing Manager Tel: +971 2 406 4477 E-mail: mikehughes@dmgeventsme.com | URL: www.adipec.com
FLIP SIDE WaterBee Project project promises better irrigation scheduling using apps
An app to save
irrigation water A smart phone app which ensures sustainable farming and conserves irrigation water – read on…
A
n EU funded project called WaterBee is testing a smart phone app which will supply agricultural crops with right amounts of water at right times. The app gathers data remotely via sensors in the farmer’s field. The state of play is then crunched by math equations that relay back to the app how much water should be released by the sprinkler systems. “About 70% of the water withdrawn from rivers and ground water by humans is for agriculture,” said Andrew Thompson, a plant scientist at Cranfield University, UK. Thompson is working to save water using math, technology and farming intelligence. The plan is to achieve water savings of 40% while improving crop quality too. “The goal is to add just the right amount of water using mathematical models. Too much water and it is going to drain out from the soil; too little and your crop yields go down and you have problems with crop quality,” said Thompson. The model divides up the soil into layers and then uses calculations for the transfer of water between layers. It takes into account details of the soil, irrigation system, crop, roots and likely yields. The system makes irrigation recommendations based upon
soil-moisture and weather data delivered via wireless technology to a computer server. It checks how well the simulated field matches reality and makes adjustments to bring the virtual closer to farm reality. This is “not the first such system in terms of Internet irrigation management data and tools, but it does appear that it also integrates system control, which tends to be the last piece of the puzzle,” said Garry Grabo, irrigation engineer, North Carolina State University. “Systems such as these hold promise to apply emerging technologies for the purpose of more accurate irrigation scheduling. Additional benefits may include reduced irrigation, labour and energy savings.” “Irrigation scheduling is very important,” agrees John Norman, soil scientist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. “But if such scheduling requires much from the farm manager, it is not likely to be sustained. Sensors in the ground are not viewed positively by farmers because they represent obstructions in the field, have questionable accuracy and require maintenance.” But Norman also believes “the greatest impediment to implementing these models is inadequate soil information,” which require maps of soil properties such as texture,
structure, organic matter and bed rock. He has “serious reservations that the high-tech WaterBee approach does not adequately address inherent soil heterogeneity issues.” These soil complications can impact accuracy and reliability when you are making predictions. Detailed soil maps help, but they are expensive. “Soil mapping would improve the placement of sensors and would inform the irrigation recommendation,” concurs Thompson. “However, use of many sensors in a network followed by data averaging also addresses this difficult issue.” (Source: www.youris.com)
laugh out loud!
What did Godzilla say when he ate the nuclear power plant?
“Shocking!”
POWER & WATER MIDDLE EAST / AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2013
65
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