Middle East

VOL 12.
ISSUE 8
AUGUST
2018

ESSENTIAL
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TRANSFORMER
your mobile devices. TESTING
A look at optimised
wiring testing from
the transformers to
the relays, meters and
A CASE control room
FOR COAL p36
What the future
holds for coal fired
generation in the GCC
p27

MIRFA
IWPP
Boosting Abu Dhabi’s
power and water
output
p44

COVER FEATURE

BEYOND
THE SPIN
UME talks with Scott Strazik, president & CEO, power
services business, GE Power, about the future of gas
turbines in the region as momentum shifts to renewables

UPDATE P5 | ANALYSIS P12 | COVER FEATURE P20 | SPECIAL REPORT P31 | PRODUCTS P48
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 CONTENTS

Contents August 2018

Volume 12 | Issue 08

View point
Baset Asaba, Editor
Email: baset.asaba@itp.com

BEYOND
Burning to THE SPIN
the ground
Installing and servicing gas turbines in power stations to make
electricity used to be a $50bn global industry, with the Middle
East taking up more than 30% market share. Until a few months
ago, the three international conglomerates that dominate
this business said they were confident of continued demand.
Although recognising that the region and the entire world
is switching to renewable energy, they thought that gas will
always be needed as a backup fuel for generating electricity.
So even as late as July 2017, Mitsubishi Heavy Indus-
tries (MHI) was predicting that orders in its gas turbine divi-
sion would be up 15% in the current financial year. Operating
profit would rise 31%. GE reported that revenues from its tur-
bine activities were up 5%, surmising that it was gaining share
because of its advanced technology. Contractions of sales and
profits were presented as temporary or cyclical.
But by the end of September 2017, a very much sharper fall
had set in and the earlier optimism suddenly disappeared.
Over a period of a few weeks in October and November a slew of
announcements from all three companies came out, admitting
to serious deteriorations in financial performance.
Janina Kugel, a Siemens management board member, said
‘the market is burning to the ground’ and that the world was
switching ‘extremely quickly from conventional to renewable
energies’. GE went further and fired 12,000 people around the
world, almost 20% of the staff in its turbine business.
MHI sharply cut its projections for orders, sales and profits.
It had shipped only 4 large gas turbines from April to Septem-
ber 2017, half what it had sold a year earlier.
It may be that the global gas turbine business will eventu-
A llook
ook aatt tthe
he ffuture
uture o off
ally recover. But the head of the Siemens power generation tthe
he ggas
as tturbines
urbines m market
arket
division, Jurgen Brandes, spoke eloquently in a conference
call with journalists on 16th November 2017 to suggest that his amidst
a midst ccontracting
ontracting
company has now accepted that many of its factories, skilled
people and technical expertise will not be needed in the future.
global
global ssales.
ales. IIss iitt
In this issue’s cover feature, Scott Strazik, president & CEO, sspinning
pinning o out off ccontrol?
ut o ontrol?
Power Services Business, GE Power, remains optimistic about
the future, insisting that this is a cyclical event that GE will
overcome through a “back to basics” approach.

www.utilities-me.com August 2018 / Utilities Middle East 3

CONTENTS
05
ACWA Power, a leading developer, owner,
and operator of power generation and
water desalination plants, announced
last month that China’s Silk Road Fund
will acquire a 24.01% equity interest in
the 700MW DEWA CSP project in Dubai
ALSO THIS MONTH
12 MEMBRANE FUTURE
The modern market
for membrane filtra-
tion in water treatment
celebrates its 20th
anniversary this year. We
take a look at the latest
technical and market
developments.
20 BEYOND THE SPIN
The future of the global 12
gas turbines market
remains largely uncertain
with revenues sliding
further. Despite dim
forecasts by most ana-
lysts, GE’s Scott Strazik
remains optimistic.
27 A CASE FOR COAL
The power industry is
starting to take another
look at how coal can be
run more efficiently and
flexibly in future, as the 27
Middle East gets increas-
ingly drawn to the fuel.
34 TESTING TRENDS
The electric power indus-
try today realises that
building a test system
requires evaluation of ex-
panding test requirements
and an architecture that
can last over time. 34
4 Utilities Middle East / August 2018
Most popular
news stories on www.
itties-
Utilities-me.com
41
01
Acciona Agua wins
$232mn desalination
contract in Saudi Arabia
The Al Khobar desalination plant will
supply desalinated water to SWCC
02
44
41 SKY’S THE LIMIT UAE’s FEWA Invites EOI
For Desalination Projects
Drone technology is delivering new
efficiencies and intelligence to util-
ities by augmenting the inspection FEWA, the utility provider for the
UAE’s Northern Emirates, has invited
workflow. Could this be the answer
to growing calls for zero downtime companies to submit expressions
in critical power infrastructure? of interest (EOI) for design and
construction of two sea water reverse
44 MIRFA IWPP: THE osmosis (SWRO) desalination projects
CAPITAL’S HOPE
03
The Mirfa Independent Water and
Power Plant, has a power capacity
of 1.6GW and produces 52.5 million
gallons of water per day
SPECIAL EDITION
3.2MW Solar Photovoltaic
05 UPDATES Plant Launch At Aramex
12 ANALYSIS Facility In Dubai
20 COVER FEATURE Aramex partnered with IMG Solar FZE,
a subsidiary of Jordan-based Izzat
44 INDUSTRY FEATURE Marji Group, to install the 3.2MW solar
48 PRODUCTS photovoltaic plant on the roof of its new
logistics facility in Dubai
50 FINAL WORD
www.utilities-me.com
 REGIONAL UPDATE // ESSENTIAL INSIGHTS FOR MIDDLE EAST WATER, GAS AND ELECTRICITY PROFESSIONALS
Dubai CSP
Silk Road Fund buys stake in Dubai CSP
The DEWA CSP project, which was awarded to an ACWA Power led consortium in 2017, is
the 4th phase of the Mohamed bin Rashid Solar Park
A
CWA Power, a leading developer,
owner, and operator of power gen-
eration and water desalination
plants, announced last month that
China’s Silk Road Fund will acquire a 24.01%
equity interest in the 700MW DEWA Con-
centrated Solar Power (“CSP”) project in the
United Arab Emirates.
The DEWA CSP project, which was awarded to
an ACWA Power led consortium in 2017, is the 4th
phase of the Mohamed bin Rashid Solar Park, the
largest single-site concentrated solar power plant
in the world.
The move follows an agreement signed last
month between Yanzhi Wang, President of the
Silk Road Fund and Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer,
MD & CEO of Dubai Electricity and Water Author-
ity (DEWA. Consequently, the CSP project will
now be jointly invested and developed by DEWA,
Silk Road Fund, and ACWA Power.
The project uses a state-of-the-art combina-
www.utilities-me.com
tion of a central tower and parabolic trough tech-
nologies to collect energy from the sun, store it in
molten salt and produce steam as required to gen-
erate electricity during the day and throughout
the night.
The project is projected to deliver electricity
at a levelised tariff of US $7.30 cents per kilowatt-
hour 24 hours a day; a cost level that competes
with fossil fuel generated electricity without sub-
sidy for reliable and dispatchable solar energy
around the clock.
The plant will support the Dubai Clean Energy
strategy 2050 to increase the share of clean
energy in Dubai to 25% by 2030, and is expected
to provide anannual saving of 2.4 Million tonnes of
carbon dioxide (CO2).
Silk Road Fund is a market-oriented, interna-
tional and professional medium to long-term
development and investment institution. It
invests in a broad spectrum of sectors under the
framework of the “Belt and Road” initiative includ-
News
CSP Future
Dubai’s CSP
project will provide
dispatchable power
from the MBR
solar park
ing infrastructure, energy resources, industrial
capacity cooperation and financial cooperation.
“The introduction of a new investor into the
DEWA CSP is absolutely in line with ACWA Pow-
er’s established strategy of sharing investments
with value adding partners who will in turn bol-
ster our projects,” said Paddy Padmanathan, Chief
Executive Officer of ACWA Power.
“We could not have found a more capable part-
ner than China’s Silk Road Fund to complement
DEWA and us on what is now known to be the larg-
est single renewable energy project underway in
the world today.
“This co-investment also is in keeping with our
investment strategy of efficiently deploying our
own capital to retain a meaningful level of equity
interest in each project that is sufficient to permit
us to be the long-term investor with de facto con-
trol over the investment and for us to remain
focused on reliably delivering electricity and
desalinated water at low cost,” he added.
August 2018 / Utilities Middle East 5
NEWS
Saudi Arabia’s PIF
Takes 15.2% Stake
In ACWA Power
Saudi Arabia’s sovereign
wealth fund, the Public Invest-
ment Fund (PIF), has taken
a 15.2 percent direct stake in
Riyadh-based ACWA Power,
a developer and operator of
power and water plants, the
two announced in a joint state-
ment recently.
The PIF already owns a 9.8
percent stake in ACWA through
a subsidiary, Sanabil Direct
Investments Company, bring-
ing its total shareholding in the
company to 25 percent, the
statement said.
The investment will be in the
form of a capital increase and
proceeds will be used to “sup-
port ACWA’s growth strategy
and investment plan,” it said.
Plans for the stake sale have
been in the works since 2016,
when the PIF hired HSBC to
advise it on the purchase.
ACWA has also been plan-
ning to sell a 30 percent stake
in an initial public offering in
Riyadh by the end of the year
and has hired JP Morgan, Citi-
group, Natixis and Riyad Capi-
tal to advise on that process.
Saudi Arabia aims to expand
the PIF into the world’s largest
sovereign wealth fund, while
also deploying its investments
to boost strategic companies
inside the kingdom in a bid to
grow and diversify the econ-
omy.
6 Utilities Middle East / August 2018
Renewables
Masdar adds battery to floating windfarm
The battery system known as Batwind has a storage capacity of 1.2 MW
Abu Dhabi energy company
Masdar and Norwegian multina-
tional Equinor (formerly Statoil)
have unveiled the world’s first
energy storage battery attached
to a floating windfarm.
The 1 MW system, designed
and supplied by battery storage
integrator Younicos, will balance
power from the offshore Hywind
project in Scotland, the world’s
first commercial-scale float-
ing windfarm which is owned by
Equinor and Masdar.
The project is designed to
evaluate the capabilities of
advanced storage technologies
to optimise the release of elec-
tricity from renewable energy
plants to transmission grids –
from both a technical and com-
mercial perspective.
Gas Turbines
First Saudi-made gas turbine goes into action
The plant has a total capacity of 1,390MW electricity, 50MW is from a solar
The Saudi Electricity Company
(SEC) has started operating a com-
bined cycle power plant in Waad
al-Shamal Mining City, located
south of Turaif in the Northern
Border Region.
The plant includes also a gas tur-
bine, first locally-manufactured by
General Electric which helps bring-
ing modern technology into Saudi
Arabia.
The plant, costing over SR3.75 bil-
lion, has a total capacity of 1,390
megawatt (MW) electricity, of which
50 MW will come from a solar com-
ponent.
The Company’s CEO Ziyad al-
Shiha explained the plant works
on natural gas as a main fuel and is
part of SEC’s integrated strategy for
Deployed at an onshore sub-
station, the battery system
known as Batwind has a storage
capacity of 1.2 MW. By helping
to mitigate peaks and troughs in
production, the project aims to
maximise the commercial value
of Hywind Scotland’s electric-
ity output.
Following the successful
installation of Batwind, Masdar
and Equinor will now explore
how the new storage solution
can be utilized to improve the
operational and cost efficiency
of other wind farms to open up variable nature of wind and solar
new commercial opportuni- power,” said Bader Al Lamki,
ties in an expanding global wind Masdar’s executive director for
power market. clean energy.
“Energy storage is vital to “Batwind will help us under-
unlocking the full potential of stand how we can deploy this new
renewables by mitigating the technology in future projects.”
implementing advanced electric cated that SEC has invested more
projects that takes into account than SR3.75 billion in the solar power
environmental conditions of the generating plant with solar pow-
region as well as reduction of ther- ered mirrors. It has also invested in
mal emissions with providing fuel the construction of transmission
while meeting the energy needs of stations and transmission lines to
the industrial city. supply the mining city and its indus-
In a statement issued, Shiha indi- trial projects with electricity.
www.utilities-me.com

M-Station
DEWA tests turbines at M-Station project
Tests are scheduled to continue until the completion of the project in Q4 of 2018
Dubai Electricity and Water
Authority (DEWA) has started
testing of the turbines in the
M-Station expansion proj-
ect in Jebel Ali. M-Station is the
newest and largest electricity
generation and water desalina-
tion plant in the UAE.
The cost of the expansion
project is $400mn. Testing
includes initial operation of tur-
bines and power generators and
connecting them to the grid.
Tests will ensure the quality and
reliability of the units while con-
nected to the grid.
Tests are scheduled to con-
tinue until the completion of the
project in Q4 of 2018. The proj-
ect supports DEWA’s vision to
become a sustainable innova-
tive world class utility.
Hydropower
Dubai makes progress on hydro project
The 250MW hydroelectric plant is planned to use water stored in the Hatta Dam
Engineering studies have been
completed for Dubai’s $523m
(AED1.92bn) Hatta hydroelectric
plant.
Dubai Electricity and Water
Authority (DEWA) is developing the
250MW power station, which will
use water stored in the Hatta Dam.
The engineering studies form
part of a $16m (AED58m) consul-
tancy contract handed to France-
headquartered EDF Group by
DEWA in June 2017.
Its scope includes design, hydro-
geological, geological, environmen-
tal, geotechnical, and deep excava-
tion studies.
The contract covers consultancy
services for deep-water tunnel
designs, the upper reservoir and
www.utilities-me.com
The project’s team currently
focuses on preparations and
operational readiness to assess
the station’s readiness. After the
completion of the initial tests,
DEWA will start testing the pilot
operation of the plant.
A plan has been devised to
conduct these tests according
hydroelectric power station, ten-
ders for material supply, super-
vision of construction work, site
installation, on-site testing, and
commissioning.
to the best practices, and based
on accumulated experience in
this field, to achieve maximum
reliability, efficiency and safety.
The plan aims to reduce com-
missioning costs in three areas:
rationalising fuel consumption,
regulating interruptions, and
reducing heat rate.
The Hatta project will generate elec-
tricity by using the dam’s water, which
can total up to 1.7bn gallons. An upper
reservoir will also be built 330m above
the dam-level in the mountains, which
will offer additional storage capacity
of 880mn gallons.
Turbines using clean and inex-
pensive solar energy will pump
water from the lower dam to the
upper reservoir during off-peak
hours, whereas during peak hours,
turbines will be operated using the
upper reservoir’s waterfall speed to
generate electricity.
This electricity will be linked to
DEWA’s grid, with overall power pro-
duction efficiency expected to reach
90% through the plant’s operations,
which can span 80 years.
August 2018 / Utilities Middle East
NEWS
Kuwait affirms
commitment to
common Arab
electricity market
Kuwait has affirmed its com-
mitment to the common Arab
electricity market.
A Kuwaiti official last month
affirmed the Gulf state’s full
obligation to terms for launch-
ing the common Arab electric-
ity market.
Metleg Al-Otaibi, in charge
of main power relay stations at
the Kuwait Ministry of Electric-
ity and Water, says an agree-
ment with Iraq to establish a
joint power grid will be worked
out soon.
The project envisages, in the
first phase, production of 200
MW of power, said Al-Otaibi.
Kuwait will eventually link
up, via Iraq, with other coun-
tries in the region, he said.
Experts are trying to form
the Arab power grid authority
to link up all Arab states’ power
networks.
Al-Otaibi indicated that a
planned fourth grid would link
up all Arab states.
Currently, there are three
joint power grids’ authorities in
the Arab world; the GCC grid,
the “eight network” and the Al-
Maghreb one.
The second topic in the
experts’ meeting agenda is
establishing the joint Arab
power market, the treaty of
which has been inked by 13
Arab states including Kuwait.
7
NEWS

Substations

New substations commissioned in Dubai

Dubai sets stage
for Phase 5 of
MBR Solar Park
The Dubai Water and Elec-
tricity Authority (DEWA)
has announced initial steps
towards the execution of
phase 5 of the Mohammed Bin
Rashid Al Maktoum (MBR)
solar park.
The move follows the launch
of the first four phases, which
are set to reach a combined
capacity of 1 GW, the emirate
is now assessing how to reach
the 5 GW target set for the proj-
ect by 2030
DEWA is seeking IPP advi-
sory services through a spe-
cific tender, to assess how to
reach the 5GW target set for
the project by 2030 – inter-
ested parties were asked to
submit their bids by July 22.
The MBR Solar Park is cur-
rently the largest solar proj-
ect in the United Arab Emirates
and Middle East.
It consists of two opera-
tional PV plants – phase I, of
13 MW, and the 200MW Phase
II as well as an 800MW facility
and a 200MW CSP plant, both
under development.
The first phase of the project
was completed by First Solar in
late 2013 and phase II was built
by Saudi Arabian group Acwa
Power and Spanish engineer-
ing services provider TSK.
Work on phase III began in
2017, with completion sched-
uled for the end of this year.
DEWA’s generation capacity is 10,413MW, with clean energy making 413MW
The Dubai Electricity and Water
Authority (DEWA) has commis-
sioned 15 132/11kV substations.
The substations are located
in Salal, Saih Al Shuaib, Expo
2020, Warsan 1, Sheikh Moham-
med bin Rashid Gardens, Palm
Jumeirah, Al Markad, Nad Al
Hammar, Business Bay and
Zabeel 2 and cost a total of
$471m.
At the end of 2017, DEWA had
a total of 236 132/11kV substa-
tions, 15 of which were commis-
sioned in 2017.
“DEWA is providing advanced
infrastructure to meet the
increasing demand for energy
and water use in Dubai and to
provide energy and water sup-
plies at the highest levels of
availability, reliability and effi-
ACWA Power
ACWA wants an IPO ‘sooner than later’
Saudi Arabia’s largest IPP developer wants to help feed its growing need for cash
ACWA sold $814m of bonds last
year and sees an IPO as a way to
‘add a new currency’ to its efforts
to finance the business
Its President & CEO, Paddy Pad-
manathan estimated ACWA Power
International needs about $800mn
a year in cash to help fund its goals
for developing $6bn to $8bn a year
of electricity generation plants.
Saudi Arabia’s largest indepen-
dent power plant developer is con-
sidering an initial public offer-
ing “sooner rather than later” to
help feed its growing need for cash,
according to the company’s chief
executive officer.
Additional funds could come
from partners taking equity stakes in
projects, from additional debt and a
ciency. The commissioning of 15 Al Tayer said that DEWA is
132/11kV substations reflects committed to continuing its
the unique approach adopted by development plans and proj-
DEWA to improve the services ects with the aim of outper-
we provide to our customers,” forming European and Ameri-
said Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, can companies, and achieving
MD & CEO of Dewa. competitive global results.
revolving credit line ACWA has. He
declined to put a date on when the
IPO might go forward.
ACWA sold $814mn of bonds last
year and sees an IPO as a way to
“add a new currency” to its efforts
to finance the business.
The move would also increase
the transparency of the closely-
held company, which is based in
Paddy
Riyadh, and has some 37 operating
Padmanathan,
power plants across eight nations. President & CEO,
“An IPO is an option we will defi- ACWA Power
nitely utilise,” said Padmanathan.
“We want to bring the public into
this business. We have a very capital tract” to be transparent in the way it
hungry company.” works to communities it serves.
Padmanathan said that since Filing regular accounts required
ACWA delivers electricity and by stock exchanges would further
water, there’s an “implicit con- that goal, he said.

8 Utilities Middle East / August 2018 www.utilities-me.com


AI-Monitoring
New AI-monitored command centre in Dubai
Control centre will monitor all of DEWA’s service channels and smart grid systems
DEWA has officially opened its
new Digital Command Centre,
which monitors and manages all
of the utility’s digital infrastruc-
ture and service channels.
The centre was inaugurated
by Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer,
MD & CEO of Dubai Electricity
and Water Authority (DEWA).
The centre, which is sup-
ported by AI, will monitor all
of DEWA’s service channels,
including the services of the
Future Centres for Customer
Happiness, DEWA’s website,
and smart app. It also monitors
infrastructure such as SAP and
smart grid meter systems.
“The inauguration of this
centre, which depends on AI
technology, supports our vision
to anticipate the future, and
Storage
Tesla in first wind-solar-battery project
Phase I of the Kennedy Energy Hub will comprise 43.5MW of wind and 15MW of solar
The first Tesla Powerpack batter-
ies have arrived on site in north
Queensland, Australia, ready to
be installed at what will be the
world’s first grid-connected proj-
ect combining large scale wind,
solar and battery storage.
The first stage of the Kennedy
Energy Hub will comprise 43.5MW of
wind, 15MW of solar and 4MWh of the
Tesla Powerpack 100kWh batteries.
Construction is due to be com-
pleted later this year, and will be the
second leading battery storage proj-
ect in Queensland, following the
connection late last year of the Lake-
land solar and battery project – the
first to connect to a grid in Australia
– at Cooktown further to the north,
according to RenewEconomy.
www.utilities-me.com
innovate and employ new tech-
nologies to achieve the best
results,” said Al Tayer.
“Our strategies and initiatives
are in line with national plans
and strategies. These include
the UAE Centennial 2071 and
the UAE AI Strategy. The centre
will measure customer satis-
For Tesla, it is the third major big
battery storage project in Austra-
lia, following the ground-breaking
and world’s largest battery at what
is known as the Hornsdale Power
faction by analysing customer
interaction with smart services,
carrying out pre-emptive capac-
ity analysis, identifying future
infrastructure needs, and anal-
yse the performance of different
infrastructure components to
detect any change in infrastruc-
ture performance.”
Reserve, next to the Hornsdale
wind farm, and the 20MW/50MWh
battery now being installed at the
Ganawarra solar farm in Victoria.
Windlab CEO Roger Price says
the Kennedy Energy Hub – located
between Townsville and Mt Isa –
will demonstrate the effectiveness
of wind and solar working together,
and how battery storage can play a
critical role in smoothing out and
shifting supply.
Price said the wind and solar at
Kennedy are highly complementary.
“Of course, you get solar in the
middle of the day, the wind resource
picks up as the sun starts to set,
blows through night, then then con-
tinues until after the sun rises, where
it drops off,” he said.
August 2018 / Utilities Middle East
NEWS
Empower
awards $47.6mn
contracts for
piping projects in
Dubait
Emirates Central Cooling Sys-
tems Corporation (Empower),
the world’s largest district
cooling services provider,
announced awarding con-
tracts worth AED 175 million
for the extension of its district
cooling pipe networks. This
supports the steady growth of
its major projects in Dubai.
Empower will extend its Dis-
trict Cooling pipe network on
Sheikh Zayed Road to serve
the Dubai Arena and Al Wasl
Tower with 3 km from Empow-
er’s district cooling plant in
Business Bay. Unique tech-
nologies will be used to con-
nect the pipes in a way that
does not disturb the road traf-
fic system, by digging a tunnel
under Sheikh Zayed Road, with
a depth of 15 meters. Another
pipe network will be extended
to Al Batha Tower.
The extension will also
include other projects at
Dubai Healthcare City (Phase
2 Jumeirah Village South,
Dubailand, Cityland, and Dubai
Science Park (Phase 2) which
is having a total length of 8
kms.
Ahmad Bin Shafar, CEO of
Empower, confirmed that an
advanced infrastructure con-
tributes to providing world-
class district cooling services.
9
NEWS

Desalination

ACWA preferred for UAE desalination plant

Work remains to
be done’ on UAE
nuclear energy
project, says IAEA
A team of experts from the
International Atomic Energy
Agency (IAEA) has concluded
an eight-day mission to the
UAE to review its development
of infrastructure for its nuclear
power programme, it was
announced last month.
The UAE is currently build-
ing its first nuclear power
plant at the Barakah site in
Abu Dhabi, where it has com-
missioned the Korea Electric
Power Company to construct
and commission for 1400 MW
pressurized water reactors.
The IAEA’s ‘integrated
nuclear infrastructure review’
(INIR) was the first the entity
has conducted in the UAE in
the final phase of its ‘Mile-
stones Approach’, which pro-
vides guidance for developing
nuclear power infrastructure.
A previous INIR phase 2 mis-
sion was conducted in 2011.
The visit was hosted by the
UAE’s Federal Authority for
Nuclear Regulation (FANR).
“This INIR phase 3 mission is
the first of its kind, marking an
important milestone for both
the UAE and the IAEA,” team
leader Milko Kovachev said.
“We met with highly motivated
and competent professionals
from the UAE and the mission
was conducted in a coopera-
tive and open atmosphere.”
The Umm Al Quwain plant is expected to process about 45mn gallons of seawater a day
The United Arab Emirates’
Federal Electricity and Water
Authority (FEWA) has selected
a consortium led by ACWA
Power and Tecton Engineer-
ing and Construction for a sea
water reverse osmosis (SWRO)
desalination project in Umm Al
Quwain.
The consortium was
announced as the preferred
bidder following a tender and
evaluation of bids by the Federal
Electricity and Water Author-
ity (FEWA). FEWA oversees util-
ities across all the emirates in
the UAE.
Once completed, the plant
in Umm Al Quwain is expected
to process about 45mn gallons
of seawater a day into potable
water.
Battery Storage
Dubai to trial large scale battery storage
The NAS battery will be used to stabilise fluctuations in solar power output
Dubai is preparing to trial the
use of battery storage that will be
linked to its massive solar park
located in the desert.
Japanese ceramics company and
NAS storage provider, NGK Insula-
tors Ltd has supplied 1.2 MW of its
large-scale NAS (Network Attached
Storage) battery systems for a dem-
onstration project at Phase I of the
Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum
Solar Park.
NGK said that the batteries, which
are now being installed at the solar
facility, have an aggregate storage
capacity of 7.2 MWh.
The devices will be tested at the
first section of the solar park, a 13MW
plant built by U.S. thin film module
maker, First Solar in late 2013.
“This is the first FEWA desal- Mohammed Salah, director
ination plant in co-operation general, FEWA.
with the private sector and the “As per a study, the loca-
authority intends to commence tions and capacity of the other
three other desalination plants three plants are defined. As per
following the same model, our strategic plan, FEWA will be
which will be tendered before totally independent and secur-
the end of the current year,” said ing its water demand by 2022.”
The NAS battery will be used to
stabilise fluctuations in solar power
output, plus other grid applica-
tions, including energy time-shift-
ing and frequency control, NGK
said in its statement.
The Japanese provider also
claims that its NAS battery is the
only storage technology that has
proven operational success in the
Middle East.
“The NAS battery is a high-tem-
perature battery and thus uniquely
suited for operation in locations
with extreme ambient tempera-
tures, such as the heat of the Middle Electricity and Water Authority
East,” it said. (DEWA), which owns the solar park,
In a recent interview with Util- said that battery storage needed
ities Middle East, Saeed Moham- to be tested before being fully
med Al Tayer, CEO & MD of Dubai embraced.

10 Utilities Middle East / August 2018 www.utilities-me.com

 WEDNESDAY 12th SEPTEMBER 2018
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NEWS ANALYSIS

IS THE WATER MEMBRANE

MARKET IN A STATE OF FLUX?
The modern market for membrane filtration in water treatment celebrates its
20th anniversary this year. We take a look at the latest technical and market
developments, including the ‘Open Platform’ concept.
By Dr. Graeme K Pearce
12 Utilities Middle East / August 2018 www.utilities-me.com

T
he membrane market really took
off in the mid 1990s, due to the driv-
ers for microbial barriers in drink-
ing water applications but exist-
ing for industrial niches for much longer. Ini-
tially, membrane prices were high, which
restricted their potential use for duties
where a barrier technology was mandated.
However, new players rapidly entered the
market and as manufacturing volumes
increased, prices drop sharply. This enabled
a broader uptake in the municipal sector and
www.utilities-me.com
UPWARD TREND
The market for
membrane technology
is fast rising in RO
applications
resulted in additional applications in waste-
water and seawater reverse osmosis (RO) pre-
treatment.
MARKET GROWTH
Drinking water applications drove a sharp uptake
in the early 2000s reaching an impressive peak in
2007. The financial crisis then caused a significant
drop, but over the next decade, this was partially
off-set by the growth in desalination pre-treat-
ment. Current results show that long term growth
trends have now been re-established.
NEWS ANALYSIS
Several different polymers
were used in the early mem-
brane filtration market, but the
modern market has been domi-
nated by polymeric offerings of
polyethersulfone (PES).”
Dr. Graeme K Pearce
The total cumulative installed capacity is now
estimated at 80,000 mld. Though still lagging
behind the RO market, growth remains high,
particularly for RO pre-treatment which now
accounts for 70 percent of UF/MF sales.
MATERIAL DEVELOPMENT
Several different polymers were used in the early
membrane filtration market, but the modern
market has been dominated by polymeric offer-
ings of polyethersulfone (PES) in an inside feed
format and PVDF in an outside feed format. PES
fibres from different suppliers are fairly similar
in chemistry and characteristics, but PVDF varies
according to whether made by a NIPS or ther-
mally induced phase separation (TIPS) process,
and if TIPS, whether modified or not. PES and
the different versions or PVDF all vie closely for
market share.
SUPPLIER TRENDS
Membrane filtration suppliers quickly opti-
mised their offerings in the early 2000s with dif-
ferentiated products that were not interchange-
able. Though there were many players, typi-
cally at least 10 in each regional market, four
leading players have dominated market share,
namely; Asahi (in partnership with Pall outside
Asia), Evoqua (Memcor), Pentair-Xflow and Suez
(formely GE-Zenon).
Each of these companies individually has had a
t10 % share. As a result of this monopoly, module
development was limited, but most companies
did improve their fibres in this period to pro-
vide better strength and integrity and/or higher
permeability. However, surprisingly the market
became less consolidated over time. New players
have emerged to challenge the dominance of the
original market leaders exploiting new trends in
the market.
PES OFFERINGS
PES has the key attribute of high permeability.
Unfortunately, it is not possible to take advantage
of this fact by using high design flux which would
August 2018 / Utilities Middle East 13
NEWS ANALYSIS

Bright future
The dominant
1,000mld
Annual installed capacity for new
polymeric materials
are PES and PVDF, with
projects using membranes
PVDF slightly increas-
ing share over time
reduce capex, since this would risk membrane
integrity. Instead, PES products normally oper-
ate at a moderate flux and take the advantage of
high permeability by having low energy cost and
stable performance with minimal variation of
pressure over time.
A key development for PES was the multi-
bore fibre since this addressed concerns about
membrane integrity in the event of excessive
flux or unexpected fouling. In this concept, sev-
eral lumens are contained in one larger diame-
ter fibre creating a monolith structure. The con-
cept was originally introduced by inge in the
early 2000s, but significant share growth did not
occur until the BASF acquisition in 2011. Suez has
now joined inge with a multi-bore offering, and
it is now more likely that the traction of this con-
cept will increase.
Research has shown that it is possible to
improve PES with different additives or modi-
fied polymers, but so far none of these develop-
ments have been commercialised. Instead, the
main development by PES module suppliers is to
increase the membrane surface area per module.
For example, 10 years ago most module offer-
ings fell in the range of 40 to 60 m2, but recently
this has increased with one offering of 80 m2. The
increase in module size reduces the system cost
by 20-25% and so the trend has had a marked
effect on sales and market share.

PVDF OFFERINGS
A similar trend has occurred for Polyvinylidene
difluoride (PVDF) with the average module size
increasing from 50 m2 in 2007 to 75 m2 in 2017. It
is notable for both PES and PVDF that the newer
entrants have led the development of larger
module size and this trend largely accounts for
their increasing market share.
Overall, PVDF has gained share relative to PES,
though preferences are application and region
specific. For example, PVDF is preferred in North
America and PES is preferred for SWRO pre-
treatment.
Whereas PES is similar from different sup-
pliers, PVDF varies. The original products were
based on the NIPS manufacturing process, and
this forms products with similar characteris-
tics. The other manufacturing process, thermally

14 Utilities Middle East / August 2018 www.utilities-me.com


induced phase separate (TIPS), produces a fibre
with significantly different characteristics, but
these can be modified by coating or post-treat-
ment.
The robustness of the TIPS fibre has made it
popular in North America. Although initially
only offered by Asahi (via Pall in the US), there
are now several new entrants offering similar
products. In response, all of the PVDF NIPS sup-
pliers have introduced improved fibres in the
last few years to address perceived shortcom-
ings.
CERAMIC OFFERINGS
Ceramics have been available throughout the
development of the modern membrane filtra-
tion market, but until recently, failed to gain
traction. The major disadvantage of ceramics is
capital cost since the membrane price is high.
However, this is balanced by the fact that
a high design flux can be used. Furthermore,
ceramic membranes have a long life and
www.utilities-me.com
A key development for PES
was the multi-bore fibre since
this addressed concerns about
membrane integrity in the
event of excessive flux or unex-
pected fouling.”
Dr. Graeme K Pearce
Opportunities
Four market leaders
account for about
70% of the market
excellent integrity, both of which reduce OPEX,
as well as good fouling resistance and the ability
to withstand aggressive cleaning.
Recent developments have seen ceramics
address the cost issue by using multi-element
vessels. PWNT has several large scale drinking
water projects using up to 200 Metawater ele-
ments in a single vessel. Other ceramic man-
ufacturers are also targeting drinking water
opportunities such as Nanostone and large
SWRO pre-treatment duties such as ItN.
It is likely that in the next decade, ceramics
will emerge as a legitimate alternative in the
water market, and products will be optimised
in terms of channel dimensions and membrane
area to make then competitive for a wide range
of water duties.
THE ‘OPEN PLATFORM’
An important new trend in the market is to
push for a degree of commoditisation in the
membrane filtration market through the
August 2018 / Utilities Middle East 15
NEWS ANALYSIS

development of the ‘Open Platform’ concept.

Two options exist. Firstly, the universal rack
development which introduces the potential for
interchangeable modules.
Secondly, the integrated header concept in
which special end caps are used on modules
allowing them to be connected directly, elimi-
nating the need for pipework manifolds. For this
concept, the potential for interchangeability
would be at the rack level.
The integrated header is slightly less appeal-
ing than interchangeable modules to a user want-
ing complete control since equipment is still sup-
plier specific. However, the concept has the great
benefit of significant cost saving at medium flow-
rates, and a significant footprint advantage.
In deciding on an approach for system design,
a user requires a combination of cost efficiency
and stable performance. Also, the user wants to SMART USER
ensure that the module selected for the initial The membrane
filtration market has
system will keep up with market developments
continued to grow
in terms of product improvement, cost, and avail- consistently
ability.
The Universal Rack concept provides the
opportunity of switching from one module to
another supplier at the next change. Alterna-
tively, some suppliers provide an integrated
header system in which the rack design is opti-
mised for a specific module. It may be feasible for
the rack to be switched to another supplier’s rack
at the next module change, though such a change
is unusual.
The universal rack can accommodate a vari-
ety of different modules. The concept has been
warmly welcomed in the US partly due to the

75m2
Average PVDF module
strong RO heritage that it imitates, but also due
to the route to market influence of engineering
size in 2017
firms as project specifiers. Indeed, the universal
rack has assisted growth in share of UF products
from several of the RO suppliers such as Dow,
Hydranautics and Toray.
The bonus of the universal rack is that a
module selection could potentially be changed
at some point, adding further downward price
pressure and protecting the end user from being
tied in to a single source of supply.
The universal rack has also resulted in a con-
vergence of membrane module size in the range
of 70-80 m2 (since modules outside of this range
would be incompatible or uncompetitive for the
concept).
It has also spurred the development of the
replacement market, which is aggressively pur-
sued by new entrants such as Scinor. Replace-
ments are now estimated to account for 30 per-
cent of UF/MF membrane sales.
However, the universal rack has some clear
downsides, since the design has to accommo-
date the most demanding option in terms of
width and height and will therefore be inefficient
for any other choice. Furthermore, the porting
arrangement is different for nearly all choices,
which would necessitate the use of adaptors. Last
but not least, the difference in membrane chem-
istry and the performance profile of each prod-
uct as well as variation in the process sequence
will mean that it will not be easy or cheap to actu-
ally change module suppliers. The universal rack
therefore has an associated cost penalty.

16 Utilities Middle East / August 2018 www.utilities-me.com


Although originally intended for PVDF mod-
ules in a vertical orientation, there is potential for
the universal rack concept to also apply to PES in
multi-element horizontal vessels, since there are
now at least three suppliers of compatible prod-
ucts, ie Pentiar-Xflow, inge and Suez.
In the integrated header development, end
caps of modules can be directly linked to form
the manifold. This trend was first introduced
more than a decade ago by among others Omex-
ell of China prior to the acquisition by Dow.
Since then, other companies have introduced
their own versions of this concept, and in the
last few years, the integrated header option has
become ubiquitous with many suppliers offering
either standard end caps or end caps that can be
linked to eliminate manifolds.
www.utilities-me.com
NEWS ANALYSIS
Driving efficiency
Solar desalination
pilot plant in Abu Dhabi
using reverse osmosis
The membrane filtration market has continued to grow consistently and currently has
an annual installed capacity for new projects of 10,000 mld.
Four market leaders account for about 70% of the market, but there has been a steady
increase in share of new entrants.
The dominant polymeric materials are PES and PVDF, with PVDF slightly increasing
share over time; the different products compete closely, but there are some regions and
applications where there is a preference for one alternative, e.g PVDF in North America
and PES for SWRO pre-treatment.
For PES, the multi-bore development has assisted a growth of share, and for PVDF,
increasing module size and development of additional TIPS fibre options has resulted in a
growth of share.
Ceramics are beginning to gain a foothold in the market and can be found to be cost
effective, but further module optimisation will be required before the technology has a
broad uptake.
Open platform solutions based on the universal rack and integrated headers have
become an important development; some degree of commoditisation will result from the
universal rack and the growth of the replacement market.
August 2018 / Utilities Middle East 17
Contracts
THE LATEST NEWS YOU NEED TO KNOW ON THE GCC & IRAQ TENDERS, CONTRACT WINS AND PROJECTS UNDERWAY
ABB
ABB completes
acquisition of
GE Industrial
Solutions
Expected annual cost synergies of
approximately $200mn in year five
A
BB announced it has completed its
acquisition of GE Industrial Solutions
(GEIS), GE’s global electrification
solutions business on June 30, 2018.
The transaction was announced on September
25, 2017, and is expected to be accretive to opera-
tional EPS in the first year.
The $2.6bn transaction offers substantial value
creation potential within ABB, including growth
opportunities to be leveraged from coupling ABB’s
digital offering, ABB Ability™, with the extensive
GEIS installed base. ABB expects to realize approx-
VEOLIA
Veolia bags water deal in Egypt
Company to build water and wastewater treatment plants in cairo
Veolia, through its subsidiary Veolia Water
Technologies, has been awarded a contract by
Egyptian Electricity Holding Company to con-
struct and set up water and wastewater treat-
ment plants for Assiut Supercritical Power
Plant and Cairo West Power Plant.
Supporting Egypt Vision 2030 to drive sustain-
able urban development and economic growth,
the State-owned Egyptian Electricity Holding
Company said that it chose Veolia Water Technol-
ogies due to its extensive experience in the power
generation market both in Egypt and across the
wider Middle East region, and for its technical
expertise in the process and design of wastewater
treatment systems for supercritical power plants.
“We are committed to our promise of resourc-
ing the world and continue to bring this commit-
ment to Egypt, as seen with our partnership with
18 Utilities Middle East / August 2018
ABB expects
about $200mn
of annual cost
synergies
imately $200mn of annual cost synergies in year
five, which will be key in bringing GEIS to peer per-
formance.
“We are very pleased to welcome GE Industrial
Solutions to ABB,” said ABB CEO Ulrich Spiesshofer.
“The combination reinforces ABB’s position as a
worldwide leader in electrification and accelerates
our growth and competitiveness in key markets,
particularly North America. As one of Thomas Edi-
son’s original businesses, GEIS is the cradle of elec-
trification – a legacy that we will preserve and build
on, now that GEIS is part of ABB.”
Egyptian Electricity Holding Company,” said Thi-
erry Froment, Chief Operating Officer, Veolia
Water Technologies Middle East.
“Through Veolia Water Technologies’ custom-
ized design, build and operational services and
treatment facilities we are able to cater to the
Egyptian market’s needs. We are proud to be part
of the solution of addressing the water scarcity
and power outages in the country.”
GEIS will be integrated into ABB’s Electrification
Products (EP) division, led by EP President Tarak
Mehta, as a new business unit called Electrification
Products Industrial Solutions (EPIS).
Stephanie Mains, who was previously the Pres-
ident and CEO of the GE Industrial Solutions busi-
ness, will lead the new business unit as Managing
Director.
As part of the transaction, ABB has established
a long-term strategic supply relationship with GE
to supply them with products and solutions from
across the ABB portfolio.
SAUDI ARABIA
$2.6mn plant upgrade
Marafiq contracts Bluewater Bio
for water treatment plant upgrade
U K-based Bluewater Bio has won a
$2.6mn contract from Marafiq to
upgrade a water treatment plant in Jubail
Industrial City called IWTP-8.
Bluewater Bio will install its modular construc-
tion wastewater treatment system, Hybacs, to help
Saudi utility firm Marafiq increase IWTP-8’s treat-
ment capacity by 150%.
It is the company’s first contract to install its pat-
ented Hybacs system in Saudi Arabia. Marafiq claims
it will be able to treat up to 50mn litres per day (MLD)
of industrial wastewater after the upgrade.
Tunisian EPC contractor EPPM was picked to
manage enabling and civil construction work for
the upgrade of the Saudi Arabian plant. IWTP-
8’s upgrade will see 16 bioreactors installed and
capacity enhancements to the plant’s tertiary
treatment system made.
www.utilities-me.com

TAWEELAH
25 firms shortlisted for Abu Dhabi’s
Taweelah desalination plant
The Taweelah desalination complex will be powered by the electric grid Open cycle conversion to add 700
Abu Dhabi
currently has
ten desal plants
Abu Dhabi has shortlisted 25 bidders, in-
cluding Japanese and French firms, to build
its first independent water desalination
plant, the emirate’s department of energy.
The Taweelah desalination complex will be
powered by the electrical grid, according to Mo-
hamed bin Jarsh al-Falasi, under-secretary.
More than 40 companies had expressed inter-
est in the tender for the development, fi nancing
and operation of the water and power complex,
which will supply 900,000m3 of fresh water a day.
Among those shortlisted are Marubeni Corpo-
ACWA
ACWA to build CSP plant in SA
KSA announced a $10bn investment in South Africa’s energy sector
Saudi Arabian renewable energy developer
Acwa Power has said it will begin construc-
tion this year on a 100MW solar energy plant
in South Africa following initial delays.
The announcement follows the visit of the
South African president Cyril Ramaphosa to
Saudi last week where he secured a commitment
to $10bn of investment from Saudi Arabia for
South Africa’s ailing energy sector.
The 100MW Redstone concentrated solar ther-
mal power (CSP) plant, whose construction had
initially been scheduled to commence in 2017, will
be located in the country’s Northern Cape Prov-
ince and will be capable of supplying power to
210,000 homes once operational.
Under the terms of the agreement the Central
Energy Fund of South Africa and ACWA Power,
a leading Saudi Arabian developer, owner, and
www.utilities-me.com
ration, Mitsubishi Corp, Sumitomo Corp JGC Corp
as well as Engie, Veolia, Suez and Acwa Power. Lo-
cal firms shortlisted include PAL Group and Utico.
Abu Dhabi’s current water production capacity
stands at around 960 million gallons per day
from 10 water desalination plants, enough to
meet demand. It is building more plants to ensure
security of supply to meet future demand.
Taweelah is the first complex that will separate
fresh water production and power production.
Its two desalination plants will run on reverse
osmosis, which does not require integration with
a power plant.
The capital of the United Arab Emirates has
traditionally built water and power generation
plants side by side, but is building the 200 million
gallons per day (GPD) project independent of a
power plant.
A developer or developer consortium will be
selected from the shortlist and a water purchase
and shareholder agreement will be signed in
2019, Falasi said.
Construction is scheduled for 2020-21 and
commercial operations are due to start in 2022.
operator of power generation and water desalina-
tion plants will cooperate on the project.
“We are pleased to enter into this agreement,
which further strengthens our efforts support-
ing South Africa’s renewable energy program.
We are committed to providing the country with
the most advanced and versatile solar technology
solutions which can efficiently and reliably pro-
duce clean energy throughout the 24 hour period
if called upon to do so,” said Mohammad Abu-
nayyan, chairman of ACWA Power.
This will be ACWA Power’s second CSP invest-
ment in South Africa. In 2016, the group launched
the 50MW Bokpoort CSP plant in the Northern
Cape to boost power supply.
ACWA Power operates the CSP plant which is
boosted by its 1300MWh molten salt energy stor-
age facility that provides 9.3 hours of thermal stor-
CONTRACTS
SIEMENS
Siemens to supply three
large gas turbines for
Dubai power plant
megawatts of power generation
Siemens has received an order for three
SGT5-4000F gas turbines from United Arab
Emirates (UAE). The turbines will be used in
Unit H Phase 4 of the Al Aweer power plant
complex.
DEWA awarded the project EPC contract to
Siemens in a consortium led by the Egypt-based
company El Sewedy Electric Co SAE (SWDY.CA)
through its subsidiary Elsewedy Power.
With an electrical generating capacity of
about 815 megawatts (MW), the turbines will
increase the total output of the power plant
complex to more than 2.8 gigawatts (GW).
The commercial commissioning of the three
gas turbine trains is scheduled for spring 2020.
Siemens’ scope of supply encompasses three
SGT5-4000F gas turbines, three SGen5-1200A
generators and the control system SPPA-T3000
as well as assembly and commissioning on site.
As a peak load power plant, the new Unit
H Phase 4 with its latest F-class gas turbine
technology is being planned mainly to cover a
particularly high energy demand in summer.
age, the highest on the African continent.
South Africa currently derives much of its
power-generation from coal but is also dependent
on imported oil. Saudi Arabia is its biggest sup-
plier of crude.
Industry experts have observed that the suc-
cess of the Bokpoort operation has proved that
commercial scale CSP plants with adequate stor-
age are a valuable and efficient contributor to the
future energy needs of South Africa under the
Renewable Energy Independent Power Produc-
ers Procurement Programme.
August 2018 / Utilities Middle East 19
COVER FEATURE

20 Utilities Middle East / August 2018 www.utilities-me.com

 COVER FEATURE

BEYOND
THE SPIN
Is the gas turbine spinning away from its control of the global
power generation market share? As momentum quickly shifts
from fossil-fuel fired power plants to renewable energy sources
for electric power generation, the future of the multi-billion dollar
gas turbines industry remains uncertain as revenues plummet.
By Baset Asaba

www.utilities-me.com August 2018 / Utilities Middle East 21

COVER FEATURE

T
he golden age of gas for power
generation as predicted by the
International Energy Agency
(IEA) doesn’t seem to be really The smart
city vision in
materialising for the world’s biggest gas
the GCC is a key
turbine makers. While, overall, global driver for smart
electricity generation should con- meter technol-
tinue to rise between 2 to 3% annually ogy adoption
through 2020, the short-term outlook
appears to be quite difficult for suppli-
ers of gas turbines.
Sales for gas turbines in the Middle East,
with a global revenue market share of nearly
31.8% in 2017, have slowed as low oil prices
have reduced oil revenues and caused delays
to capital investment in the region.
But in the face of growing competition
from renewable, energy efficiency demands
and the expanding adoption of battery stor-
age, the market for gas-fired turbines for
power generation is expected to weaken fur-
ther over the next couple of years.
Gas turbine revenues declined by 8.1% in
2017 and are forecast to peak in 2018, before
falling to a low of $12.3bn in 2020, according
to MarketResearchNest. Yet in the same year CSP
PLANT
2017, the world added 98 gigawatts (GW) of Enabling night
solar PV capacity, more than fossil fuels and solar power
nuclear capacity together. That’s an increase
of about 29% compared to 2016.
This is a trend that continues to cause
both anxiety and uncertainty for some of the
world’s largest turbine makers, with dras-
tic measures, including liquidation of the gas
turbines business, being mooted in response.
But the man who directly oversees gas
turbines at General Electric (GE) is not ready
to yield to the panic. Speaking to Utilities
Middle East recently, Scott Strazik, president
& CEO, power services business, GE Power, more optimistic side of things, fortified by different solutions. The team that I have is
chooses instead to look at the brighter and the company’s capability built over 125 years the right team to offer the right solutions.”
of its existence. Strazik says that as a company, GE has
“It is true that the gas turbine market evolved over time through various chap-
is having a cyclical downturn right now as ters in which the markets have had ups and
It is true that the gas tur-
regards to new demand relative to where we downs, and that the current state of the gas
bine market is having a cycli- were. But at the same time, for me in leading turbines market is no exception.
cal downturn right now. But at the services business I see a fleet that is very But GE’s overall performance in 2017
stable and that is running at a very stable basis was far below expectation. Questions had
the same time, for me in leading
in which our customers need us,” says Strazik. started making the rounds when the com-
the services business I see a fleet “Our customers are in need of our solu- pany announced the departure of Jeff
that is very stable and that is tions, and that is increasingly motivating for Immelt, chief executive since 2001. Answers
running at a very stable basis in me, it gives me an immense amount of opti- arrived in October, when GE reported a fall
mism about where we are going as a busi- in earnings for the third quarter and sharply
which our customers need us.” ness, because we have a market that needs reduced its guidance for the full year.
Scott Strazik, GE Power us, with customers that need new and John Flannery, who took over in August,

22 Utilities Middle East / August 2018 www.utilities-me.com

 COVER FEATURE

Both GE and Siemens are now sig-

nificantly boosting their invest-
ment in renewable energy, with
officials from both firms saying
that they were going ahead
to explore the best synergies
between their renewables and
gas turbines businesses.

described those results as “unacceptable,

to say the least”, and said the company
needed “to make some major changes with
urgency”.
Management’s expectations for the third
quarter turned out to be wildly optimistic.
Sales of aeroderivative gas turbines, used to
support grids at times of peak load, were half
the planned numbers, while sales of pack-
ages for improving the performance of gas-
fired plants were just a third of projections.
In 2010, market forecasters were assum-
ing there would be about 300 large gas tur-
bines sold each year, but in 2013 just 212
were ordered worldwide. This year, there
were 122.
In the first quarter of 2018, GE sold 12 gas
turbines, down from 20 in the equivalent
period of 2017, and profits from the division
GE has enhanced
efficiency with its dropped 38% to $238mn.
HA-class gas turbine. For the year as a whole, GE planned for
But will it meet sales the worldwide market for large gas tur-
expectations?
bines to be about 30-34 gigawatts of genera-
tion capacity. The company had calculated
detailed projections for 2019-20, and con-
cluded the market would be 30 gigawatts or
less in each of those years.
“I don’t see a short-term fix here, we are not
trying to project this as a V-shaped rebound
for the power division,” says Flannery.
For the foreseeable future, the gas tur-
bine market is likely to remain difficult,
according to Jeff Sprague, an analyst at Ver-
tical Research Partners. “I don’t see light at
the end of the tunnel in 2019, and there is no
particular reason to think it will be better in
2020,” he says. “The question is whether this
is just a cyclical problem, or whether there is
something structural in the industry that is
really starting to cause problems.”
GE’s response has included a decision
to cut 12,000 employees from GE Power’s

www.utilities-me.com August 2018 / Utilities Middle East 23

COVER FEATURE

worldwide workforce, about 18% of the total,

and $1bn from the division’s costs in 2018.
It plans to improve the performance of the
division centred on its ability to win business
servicing existing plants.
Jamie Miller, GE’s chief financial officer, in
an April 20 conference call with analysts said
the gas market has not kept pace with the com-
pany expectations. He added, though, that GE
expects business will improve in the second
half of 2018, with more turbine shipments.
Other gas turbine makers such as Sie-
mens and Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems
(MHPS) are facing similar challenges, with
Bloomberg reporting recently that Siemens
was considering a departure from its gas tur-
NEW SOURCES
bines business, following its announcement More smart
last year to cut about 6900 jobs, or close to meters as the GCC
2% of its global workforce. embraces renew-
able energy
Siemens Chief Executive Officer Joe
Kaeser has previously said in interviews that
the turbine activity isn’t part of the compa-
ny’s future “industrial core.” The unit, which
produces giant turbines in Berlin, Charlot-
tesville, Virginia and Finspong, Sweden, has
suffered from a collapse in orders.
Both GE and Siemens are now signifi-
cantly boosting their investment in renew-
able energy, with officials from both com-
panies saying that they were going ahead
to explore the best synergies between their
renewables and gas turbines businesses.
But despite the growing appetite for
renewable energy in the Middle East,
regional utilities have said it categorically
that they have no intentions of scaling back
on current or future fossil fuel powered elec-
tric generation.
“We want the best of all possible power
generation sources. We do not intend to
play one against the other,” says Khalid A.

We do not intend to play

one against the other. To
cope with the fast rising
demand of electricity, we will
Scott Strazik,
need renewable energy to president & CEO,
Power Services
complement other sources of Business,
power generation .” GE Power.

Khalid Al Falih, Saudi Arabia.

24 Utilities Middle East / August 2018 www.utilities-me.com


Al-Falih, Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Energy,
Industry and Mineral resources. “To cope
with the fast rising demand of electricity, we
will need renewable energy to complement
other sources of power generation.”
It is this decisiveness that fires up Stra-
zik’s optimism about the future of gas tur-
bines in the Middle East. “In trying to navi-
gate the changing landscape, even when I
look at places like the Middle East where the
renewables momentum is high, I look at our
business and the fit we have within the grid
and I feel good about it,” says Strazik.
But survival in the evolving energy land-
The GCC is in- scape will mean radical changes in business
vesting heavily in
strategy, as well as scaling up innovations
renewable energy as
it scales down fossil- geared towards improved performance for
fuel fired power gas turbines, and this is what Strazik is firmly
generation. setting out to do.
“A lot of what we are investing in right
now is around efficiency gains. You want
to continue to be economically advanta-
geous for the customers that you are serving,
so how do you create the same amount of
power consuming less fuel? How do you pro-
duce more power taking up less space? Our
solutions have become increasingly power
dense over the last half decade,” says Strazik.
“Then there is the element of flexibil-
ity that enables one to quickly ramp the
machines up and down to support some
of the other power generation sources.
So, through efficiency gains, power den-
sity gains, flexibility gains, we are giving
options to our customers at a time in which
optionality and flexibility is incredibly
important. As the grids become complex,
the problems they are trying to solve too
www.utilities-me.com
COVER FEATURE
become complex.”
Over the past years, GE’s Advanced Gas
Path (AGP) technology has been installed on
435 units across four of its gas turbine fleets,
generating $775mn a year in benefits to
power producers and the markets they serve
in 39 countries on five continents.
“It is time consuming and expensive to
build new plants, but if you can upgrade the
gas turbine and get an incremental 5%, 10%
or 15% output out of an existing plant, that is
very attractive to the customers, not only for
the timeliness of it, but the economics of it
also,” says Strazik.
“So this is a priority. In the Middle
East, the biggest demand factor is output
because they are craving demand. There
is an immense demand for these solutions
because there is an immense demand for
power.”
GE’s AGP solution has delivered signif-
icant market-based benefits around the
globe, including providing about 7 gigawatts
of additional power capacity. AGP is gener-
ating nearly 19.4 million additional mega-
watt-hours (MWh) of power a year, which is
Both GE and Siemens are now sig-
nificantly boosting their invest-
ment in renewable energy, with
officials from both compa-
nies saying that they were going
ahead to explore the best syner-
gies between their renewables
and gas turbines businesses.
August 2018 / Utilities Middle East 25
COVER FEATURE
enough to power approximately 2 million
homes.
With AGP upgrades, GE 9F gas turbines
can achieve up to an 8% output increase
and up to a 2% efficiency increase, whereas
GE 6F gas turbines can realise up to a 4.2%
output increase and up to a 1.2% efficiency
increase. GE’s 9E gas turbine operations with
AGP upgrades have achieved up to a 6.2%
output increase and up to a 1.7% efficiency
increase.
In May, Dubai Electricity and Water
Authority (DEWA) announced that it had
signed an agreement valued at $52.4mn
with GE Power for an advanced technol-
ogy upgrade of the GE 9E gas turbines at the
Jebel Ali Power & Desalination E Station.
Work on the AGP upgrade will commence in
the first quarter of 2019 and is scheduled for
completion in the first quarter of 2021.
Similar upgrades have been made for the
Najibiya power plant, one of the eight sites
where GE is installing a total of 36 AGP units
as part of the Iraq Power Up Plan II, as well as
Dubai Aluminium and Aluminium Bahrain
for their respective captive power plants.
GE announced also in May that it was
expanding its cross-fleet service offerings
to a broader portion of the F-class market,
including Siemens’ SGT6-5000F and SGT-
800 models, and Mitsubishi Hitachi Power
Systems’ (MHPS’s) 501F technology.
“Cross-fleet solutions offer the ability to
take Siemens and Mitsubishi technology and
“fit it out with AGP hardware, particularly
combustion and hot gas path through the
turbine—new blades, new coatings, modified
components, modified airfoil geometry, also
addressing some known reliability issues,
particularly on the 5000F with two-stage
exhausts, bearing sag, and a number of other
A lot of what we are invest-
ing in right now is around effi-
ciency gains. You want to con-
tinue to be economically advan-
tageous for the customers that
you are serving, so how do you
create the same amount of
power consuming less fuel?
Scott Strazik, GE Power
26 Utilities Middle East / August 2018
GE plans to
start manufac-
turing HA-class gas
turbines in Saudi
Arabia for the
GCC market.
technical remedies,” says Strazik.
And in June, GE’s Power Services busi-
ness announced the world’s first upgrade
with additive manufactured components
for GT13E2 gas turbines, the new MXL2 with
Additive Manufactured Performance (AMP).
The technology helps gas plant power pro-
ducers save up to $2mn in fuel annually,
while opening up the potential for addi-
tional revenue of up to $3mn annually in
new power capacity.
“We are continuing to invest in new tech-
nologies to keep our installed base compet-
itive. We are providing more optionality
to our customers to operate the machines
in different ways and to use the data that is
available from those machines to extrapo-
late it into a better performing and predic-
tive machine that supports better opera-
tions,” says Strazik.
As the flagship of the GE Power division,
the HA units are the company’s most power-
ful, technologically advanced and efficient
turbine generators. They are the latest in
GE’s array of 7,000 turbines sold to 140 coun-
tries that, along with GE’s other power gen-
eration equipment, together produce one-
third of the planet’s electric power.
GE has sold 70 HA turbines, has shipped
40 of these and has 23 in operation. Its sales
of large gas turbines over 2015-17, including
the HA series, beat closest rival Siemens by
21% and nearly tripled the sales of Mitsubi-
shi Hitachi Power Systems, according to the
McCoy Power Reports survey.
The company spent $2bn to develop the
HA units, which went on sale in 2014. GE
does not reveal its price list, but sales of the
first 15 HA units produced $1bn in revenue,
according to GE, which equates to about
$60 million for each HA-based power plant.
Some sales include long-lived support con-
tracts as part of the price, GE says.
In 2016, GE added 9,000 sqm of manufac-
turing space to the GE Manufacturing Tech-
nology Centre (GEMTEC) gas turbine assem-
bling facility in Dammam, Saudi Arabia,
taking the total area to 26,000 sqm. The
centre has already completed and delivered
its first 7F turbine to Saudi Electricity Com-
pany’s (SEC) Waad Al Shamal combined-
cycle power plant.
Following the expansion, the facil-
ity serves as a manufacturing, repair and
research hub, with capabilities to build GE’s
advanced gas turbines such as the HA, which
GE says will soon be manufactured from
Saudi Arabia as part of its localisation agenda.
As part of GE’s $1bn investment in the
Kingdom, GEMTEC has intensified its com-
puterised numerical control (CNC) machin-
ing capabilities, coding and analytic services
and robotics.
With over 500 skilled workers, 70% of
them Saudis, GEMTEC today serves more
than 70 customers from 40 countries
around the world, servicing components
from more than 600 turbines.
www.utilities-me.com
 INDUSTRY TRENDS

A CASE FOR COAL

The power industry is starting to take another look at how coal can be run more efficiently
and flexibly in future, as the Middle East gets increasingly drawn to the fuel as a viable
energy source for its power hungry economies. But just how sustainable is clean coal power
generation in the long run?

POWERING UP:
Several utilities
projects are coming
up in Kuwait

R
ecent policy progress concerning emis-
sions and pollution has forced coun-
tries in the Middle East to reassess the
role of coal in their energy develop-
ment strategies. While this is paving the way for
more renewable-energy power generation, the
pressure to add energy capacity quickly has been
driving regional governments to look at coal as
part of their efforts to diversify the energy mix
and enhance energy security.
A closer look at the developments in the
region reveals that coal is far from being phased
out, despite the ongoing war against it under
the weight of a broad range of regulations, and
under competitive pressure from natural gas and
renewables.
The GCC, endowed with vast oil and gas
resources is charging ahead with plans to intro-
duce coal into its future energy mix along high
renewable energy targets.
Dubai Electricity and Water Authority
(DEWA) has said that it is planning to launch two
additional projects that will bring the total capac-
ity of clean coal to 3600 MW by 2030. By that
time clean coal will account for 7% of the energy
mix, with another 7% coming from nuclear
power imported from Abu Dhabi’s 5600-MW
Barakah Nuclear Power Plant complex. A further
15% is due to be supplied by solar energy, with the
contribution of gas falling from 100% in 2013 to
71% in 2030.
In October 2015 Dubai Electricity and Water
Authority (DEWA) announced the preferred bid-
ders for the Hassyan clean coal generation facil-
ity, the first phase of which will have a generation
capacity of 2400 MW. The plant will be the first
coal-fired power station of its kind in the Middle
East.
Some countries in the Arabian Peninsula
already import coal for industrial production,
motivated by the limited gas supply and the need
to provide reliable supply of fuel for electricity
generation. In the UAE, Fujairah Cement oper-
ates a 40-MW coal-fired power plant to support
its production, and other cement plants cur-
rently use imported coal to produce clinker, as
reported in McCloskey Newswire (2015). Yemen
and Kuwait also use small quantities of imported

www.utilities-me.com August 2018 / Utilities Middle East 27

INDUSTRY TRENDS

coal for cement production.

Coal has so far been mainly imported from
South Africa and Indonesia, with small quanti-
ties of the fuel also sourced from Australia.
Some industry analysts have argued that it
is not economically viable for local utilities to
invest in coal-fired steam capacity and to import
coal when the domestic prices of other fuels
remain fixed at today’s levels.
They also argue that global environmen-
tal concerns have diminished coal’s appeal as a
source of energy, citing its gradual decline in the
global energy mix.
But this argument doesn’t seem to sit well
with proponents of coal, most of them renowned
solutions providers, who believe that coal still
holds an indispensable position in the power
generation industry.
“In the wake of COP21, all signatory govern-
ments are making efforts to lower the environ-
mental footprint of their power generation,” says
Sacha Parneix, regional sale managing direc-
tor for Middle East North African and Turkey
(MENAT), GE Power.
“The call for energy source diversification
is also growing louder every other day. There is
need for GCC countries to lessen their depen-
dence on oil and natural gas to guarantee sus-
tainable development. I think adding coal to
their energy mix is a very important step. facilities will be managed by Louis Dreyfus, a energy consumption, its highest share since
“The move may not deliver immediate results major European specialist company. 1970, and provides 40% of the world’s electricity.
given the competitiveness of other fossil fuels France’s EDF Trading, one of the world’s larg- While this number is expected to drop to 30% by
that are cheaply and readily available in the est coal traders, will manage the coal supply 2040 (34% in America), coal will remain the back-
region, and also due to the heavy investments to the plant. By 2030, clean coal is expected to bone of the power systems in many countries,
in renewable energy. But I am certain that in the account for 7% of the energy mix. despite new capacity coming from natural gas
long run, this will deliver the desired results,” Detractors of coal are sceptical about its and renewables.
Parneix points out. future, more so in a region that is increasingly In Southeast Asia, for example, where energy
Hassyan will be operated and maintained by inclined towards renewable energy, and ques- demand is projected to spike by 80%, coal will
ACWA and Harbin in partnership with Alstom tion the logic behind investing in an energy become the single largest energy source in the
Power, recently acquired by GE and NRG Energy source that is gradually falling out of favour with region’s energy mix, owing to its abundance and
of the US. The coal-handling and trans-shipment many countries. relative affordability.
But Parneix believes that all technologies However, coal as a source of power has over
within the energy mix are not meant to compete the years come under intense reproach as
There is no guaran- against each other, but rather complement one unclean and harmful to the environment, and
teed continuous supply another. “I do not believe that tomorrow there this has to a large extent informed the decision
of wind or water, even the will be one technology winning. Renewable behind the ongoing closure of coal plants around
sun. A crunch in any of energy is becoming competitive and affordable. the world.
these sources affects power But it has some weak points and intermittency is In 2016, JP Morgan joined a growing list of US
output. So there is need to one of them,” says Parneix. financial giants including Bank of America, Citi-
stabilise the grid. So, con- “There is no guaranteed continuous supply group Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo, that have
ventional power supply of wind or water, even the sun. A crunch in any of pledged to stop or scale-back support for coal
has the ability to guarantee these sources affects power output. So there is projects citing environmental concerns.
stable supply and prevent need to stabilise the grid. So, conventional power But new technologies developed over recent
intermittency.” supply has the ability to guarantee stable supply years are already showing results that render
and prevent intermittency.” void this kind of criticism. To be precise, the cur-
Sacha Parneix, GE Power Today, coal supplies nearly 30% of global rent technologies are able to lower the environ-

28 Utilities Middle East / August 2018 www.utilities-me.com


NEW SOURCE
As demand for power
grows so is the adop-
tion of coal as a source
of power
mental footprint of a coal power plant to the level
of gas power plants, widely considered to be
clean enough.
“The flue gas can be captured and cleaned
out completely in a coal power plant. For exam-
ple the Hassyan clean coal plant, where GE is the
EPC contractor, is lower in flue gas than gas tur-
bines that have been running for the past twenty
years,” says Parneix.
The Hassyan clean coal plant is being
designed to use GE’s ultra-supercritical (USC)
technology which has already scored a world
record 47.5% net thermal efficiency while pro-
ducing 912MW at the Rheinhafen-Dampfkraft-
werk (RDK8) electrical generation facility in Ger-
many.
As far as the global pollution and global
warming, the technology being used today pro-
duces 34% less CO2 than the world average. So
there is a big potential in as far as technology and
efficiency is concerned in pushing down CO2
levels, according to GE.
“I am not aware of an operating plant that we
have tested or that of our competition that beats
the RDK 8,” says Martin Boller, General Man-
ager of Rotating Equipment, GE Power. “This is a
benchmark — the highest thermal efficiency we
www.utilities-me.com
have yet seen for a coal plant. It is really sky-high.”
“The Hassyan clean coal power plant will use
the best available technologies and the high-
est global standards in this field. Flue gas emis-
sion targets for the power station will be more
stringent that those imposed in both EU and
International Finance Corporation guidelines,”
says DEWA’s managing director and CEO, Saeed
Mohammed Al Tayer.
The USC technology at Hassyan is being fitted
by GE, and consists of a boiler and steam tur-
bine generator with a dual fuel capability able to
use either sub-bituminous coal or natural gas.
It will also use environmental control systems
such as electrostatic precipitators and seawater
flue gas desulphurisation systems to keep emis-
sions of nitrogen oxides and sulphur oxides at
half the level permitted in the EU, making it one
of the cleanest coal power stations in the world.
In order to meet Dubai’s strict requirements the
plant will also be CO2-capture ready.
GE technology also allows the plant to run
at higher steam pressure and temperature than
regular coal-fired plants, which increases effi-
ciency and reduces stack emissions. At a cost of
$3.4bn, the plant will produce enough electricity
3,600MW
Dubai’s expected power gen-
eration from coal by 2030
INDUSTRY TRENDS
to power 250,000 homes in Dubai.
The GCC is participating in the development
of CCS technologies with the Uthmaniyah proj-
ect in Saudi Arabia and the Abu Dhabi CCS proj-
ect in the UAE. In both of these cases, carbon is
captured and used for enhanced oil recovery.
Successful development of this technol-
ogy can help significantly reduce the impact
of carbon emissions from coal and could help
public acceptance of the construction of coal-
fired power plants in the region.
“What the Hassyan coal plant is using is cut-
ting-edge technology. What is new is the use of
all new technology in a single plant, and this will
make this plant cleaner than what we have seen
before,” says Parneix.
Analysts believe that, in principle, coal-fired
plants could still have a role in meeting residual
demand if they can be made sufficiently flexible
and appropriately compensated. But to do this,
they will need to achieve increased turndowns,
faster and less damaging start-ups, faster load
changes and reserve shutdowns at minimal cost,
as the coal industry board acknowledges.
Much of the current flexibility has come
from older, smaller and less-efficient subcritical
plants. More modern coal plants are designed to
maximise efficiency by making them larger and
employing supercritical and ultra-supercritical
steam cycle systems. But that has also made them
harder to run in a flexible mode.
The proposed new generation of super-effi-
cient and greenhouse-friendly integrated gasifi-
August 2018 / Utilities Middle East 29
INDUSTRY TRENDS
cation and combined cycle (IGCC) and oxy-com-
bustion coal plants fitted with carbon capture
and storage (CCS) are likely to be even less flexi-
ble, if they are ever built.
In IGCC and oxy-combustion plants, gasifi-
ers, boilers, turbines, air separation units and the
carbon capture system must all be made to work
smoothly together. It may not be possible to turn
down one sub-system without disrupting the
efficient operation of the others.
Industry experts also think that new coal
plants may need changes, starting early in the
design phase, to enable them to operate in a
more flexible mode. Currently, the requirement
for flexible operation conflicts with other trends
such as the need for increased efficiency and for
carbon capture to reduce emissions.
Power plant designers and operators need
to focus on flexibility for coal-fired generation to
have a future in a power grid with a large share of
renewables, say analysts.
That perhaps explains why GE is already
treating the existing coal fleet which is big, very
old and emitting high levels of CO2.
“The existing fleet is enormous. If we could
reduce the impact of the existing fleet by even 3%
30 Utilities Middle East / August 2018
EFFICIENT
GE’s Ultra Super-
critical technology
is delivering 47.5%
efficiency
on global warming, the results are much better
than preventing a country to access a viable
source of energy to support the economy,” says
Parneix.
The Gulf region is participating in the devel-
opment of CCS technologies with the Uthman-
iyah project in Saudi Arabia and the Abu Dhabi
CCS project in the UAE. In both of these cases,
carbon is captured and used for enhanced oil
recovery.
Successful development of this technol-
ogy can help significantly reduce the impact
of carbon emissions from coal and could help
public acceptance of the construction of coal-
fired power plants in the region.
However, some analysts are of the view
that coal might not play a significant role in the
Middle East’s energy mix, despite a growing
interest in the fuel. “In fact, coal is likely to only
play a marginal role in the future of the region’s
power sector. Its part in governments’ strate-
gies to tackle demand growth has been mar-
ginal, and, with the exception of Morocco, coal
is not usually relied on for power generation,”
says Ghassan Alakwaa, energy research analyst
at APICORP.
Alakwaa, however, points out coal’s cost effec-
tiveness as an inherent advantage in adopting it
as a power source. He says that while coal proj-
ects, and particularly clean coal, require sub-
stantial upfront capital, they exhibit lower oper-
ational and fuel costs over their lifetime, which
typically is over 40 years.
“In comparison to the upfront capital cost
of nuclear projects, coal is more cost competi-
tive, and is on a level playing field with gas-fired
plants. Investment decisions are therefore heav-
ily dependent on the availability of finance, gov-
ernment support, and coal supplies. Operation-
ally speaking, it is noteworthy that coal can also
be competitive against other sources of baseload
power,” says Alakwaa.
It is clear that rapid economic growth and
urbanisation in the Middle East will continue
to pile more pressure on existing power supply
installations, and governments are investing
heavily to add new capacity, with coal gradually
coming up as a viable option.
The Egyptian government recently
announced preliminary plans for four coal-fired
power projects totalling 15.6GW of generation
capacity to tackle power shortages. These proj-
ects aim to use coal for 20% of the electricity gen-
eration, which would reduce dependence on oil
and gas and lower electricity generation costs.
With its constrained supply of natural gas,
Saudi Arabia is looking to adopt alternative fuels
and technologies to mitigate the growing use
of crude oil and oil products in industrial sec-
tors. Besides its heavy investments on renew-
able energy, the Kingdom is now considering the
addition of coal to its energy mix. Oman has also
renewed its interest in coal.
But how will this growing interest in coal be
justifiably sustained amidst European antipathy
towards the fuel? The answer lies in increased
efficiency, says Parneix. And this can only be
achieved through further technological research
aimed at raising efficiency levels.
He says that the recent development of
Advanced Ultra Supercritical (AUSC) technol-
ogy is already pushing efficiency levels to a new
high. The technology is capable of driving a coal
plant’s efficiency to nearly 50%.
AUSC boilers have been designed and devel-
oped to operate at very high pressures and tem-
peratures to meet both the environmental and
energy efficiency challenges. Steam cycle effi-
ciency has been improved, meaning that for a
given electrical output there will be less con-
sumption of fuel (coal) and less release of carbon
dioxide.
www.utilities-me.com
 Middle East

A SPECIAL REPORT FROM UTILITIES MIDDLE EAST

EMBRACING
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Editor’s leader
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Email: baset.asaba@itp.com
Testing for quality in solar panels
A renewed emphasis on solar module quality raises the question of how quality is evaluated
If you look at the issue of solar panels,
you quickly discover that there are
numerous makes, models, and sources. With
hundreds of manufacturers, many of them
from China and other overseas markets, it’s
probably not surprising that there can be a vast
difference in panel quality – not only among
various brands, but between specific facto-
ries and individual panels. This matters a lot,
as investors are counting on panel perfor-
mance expected to last 25 years or more, and
making sizeable bets, in the hundreds of mil-
lions of dollars. It’s going to matter even more
in the years to come: Navigant recently issued
a report projecting global solar installations of
438,000 MW by 2020, with $134bn in annual
revenues.
Industry players and analysts have recently
noted that panel quality is becoming an issue,
pointing out that executives with companies
that inspect Chinese companies for panel
quality have recently discovered even well-
known companies either substituting cheaper,
untested materials or subcontracting assem-
bly to other manufacturers.
www.utilities-me.com
SPECIAL REPORT
According to some manufacturers, the cost confirm with some statistical accuracy that the
per watt metric that everybody uses is pretty population has no defects. Financiers are start-
flawed. But it’s still used because panel man- ing to ask these questions about quality.
ufacturers are selling watts rather than watt- When you compare solar with other energy
hours. And that’s because energy yields are sources, PV is different in that it is a whole
different for various reasons. Factors include bunch of widgets that are supposed to be the
types of inverters used, whether you have same. So consistency really matters, especially
tracking, and different levels of solar radiation. for utility scale procurement, whether it’s util-
They all affect output. And panels are not cre- ity projects or the big residential suppliers
ated equal. They will perform slightly differ- buying thousands of panels.
ently even in the same location.”
Historically, panels were tested in labs using
light with a specific angle of incidence, which is
very different from the real world, where con-
ditions change. In modern labs, many differ-
ent environments are created so that banks
and others can model energy yield more accu-
rately. Modern labs enable specific forecast-
ing using actual characteristics of panels. Two
specific areas they focus on are vendor qual-
ity and statistical batch testing on a project-by-
project basis. WEDNESDAY 7TH
The vendor quality focus is geared for
buyers and investors to understand whether
NOVEMBER
they are investing in the right module for their DUBAI, UAE
system. Historically, investments have been
based on brand and balance sheet. But the
historical methodologies don’t make sense
any more. #MEPMagAwards
Testing companies now put modules
NOMINATIONS NOW OPEN
through accelerated testing in environmen-
tal chambers and do performance forecast-
ing. They see a pretty good spectrum of perfor-
mance: some over-perform and some under-
perform. Since they are all selling on a dollars-
Visit
per-watt basis, it’s very difficult for buyers to www.constructionweekonline.com/
mepawards
differentiate between brand x and brand y. today to put forward your projects,
company and colleagues for the region’s
Statistical batch testing then focuses on ultimate industry accolade.
volume. If somebody buys 10,000 or 150,000
panels, they perform random spot checks and
August 2018 / Utilities Middle East 33
MARKET FOCUS
EMBR A CING
NEW TRENDS
The industry today realises that building a test system requires
evaluation of expanding test requirements and an architecture
that can last over time
T
he growing focus on production testing
to enable timely defect elimination and
prevent late stage equipment failure, is
benefiting demand for testing & mea-
surement (T&M) instruments.
Key benefits driving the adoption of T&M
instruments in product R&D, production and
maintenance include high product quality, and
lower costs associated with product malfunc-
tions, repairs, replacements, product call backs
and repeat production.
The electronic Test and Measurement Instru-
ments industry in the GCC has blossomed and
continues to expand at a pace never witnessed
before. The GCC market for electrical Test and
Measurement Instruments (T&M) is projected to
grow over the coming years in parallel with global
growth, widely expected to reach $6.8bn by 2020.
With electronic gadgets shrinking in size, fea-
turing advanced wireless capabilities, and gain-
ing in complexity, testing has become a vital pro-
cess in electric power generation, transmission
and distribution.
A new market for test instruments is being cre-
ated by the separation of an instrument’s process-
ing/control and measurement modules. With the
accelerated performance of personal computers,
EVERY
ISSUE !
34 Utilities Middle East / August 2018
it also has proven viable to create PC-driven
instruments that interface through high-speed
and common platform-interface technologies.
To solve many of these limitations with cur-
rent hardware would require a proprietary inter-
face technology and a specialised workhorse of a
computer, mitigating the benefits of a PC-driven
computer.
The world is increasingly software oriented,
and the way people interact with devices is chang-
ing. Smartphones, set top boxes and even auto-
mobiles are now defined by their embedded soft-
ware. With this evolution, the industry is chal-
lenged to keep up with the pace of innovation and
the resulting complexities.
The industry today realises that building a
test system requires evaluation of expanding test
requirements and an architecture that can last
over time. It is important to choose a platform that
can harness the technology curve while enabling
abstraction and integration.
Devices under test (DUTs) are moving away
from single purpose, hardware centric entities
with limited capability to multipurpose, soft-
ware-centric entities with endless capability.
Making the switch from traditional instruments
with vendor defined functionality to a software
defined architecture, allows user defined mea-
surements and analysis in real time.
Communities of developers and integrators,
building on standard software platforms, are
using commercial off the shelf (COTS) technology
to extend the functionality of complex hardware
into applications previously impossible. The level
of productivity and collaboration delivered by
software centric ecosystems will have a profound
effect on test system design over the next three to
five years.
The last 2-3 years have witnessed a growing
trend of T&M on rent which is gaining popular-
ity as a good choice for executing short term proj-
ects. Long term projects continue to attract new
T&M buys. At the same time, support of multiple
technologies like GSM, CDMA, WiMAX, WCDMA,
UME
ANNUAL
REPORTS
2018
www.utilities-me.com

Electrical testing
equipment are in-
creasingly becoming
user-friendly
LTE or WiFion single platform is in demand from
the T&M industry. LTE, Cloud Computing, WiFi off
load, WLAN, Green telecom, M2M, Connected life
style, research toward 5G race are top trends for
the coming years.
Site sharing is another trend which continues
to result into lower CAPEX and OPEX. The all in
one box for production testing helps to save space,
time and cost during production. Field instru-
ment are more rugged now and they support mul-
tiple interface and technology, so that engineer do
not need to carry multiple instrument.
One of the emerging trends in the market is
the miniaturisation of test and measurement
equipment. Miniaturised test and measurement
equipment are flexible and easy to use. The fast
growth in the electronics industry is leading to the
SEPTEMBER
SUBSTATIONS
OCTOBER
EFFICIENCY
www.utilities-me.com
development of small-sized electronic devices for
which miniaturised test and measurement equip-
ment are required. For example, the test and mea-
surement equipment used in consumer electron-
ics and other minute components need to be very
small in size.
The trend to LTE advanced and the use of
smartphones is challenging test-and-measure-
ment (T&M) systems to stay ahead of advance-
ments in RF component performance and inno-
vations. As a result, T&M system designers will be
challenged to provide faster, extremely repeat-
able, rugged, and best-in-class testing environ-
ments. Test equipment will be expected to last
over multiple generations of product introduc-
tions, meaning that the performance require-
ments of the RFICs used in test equipment must
be better than the device under test by a factor of
several generations.
Further to this, next-generation communica-
tion systems that use higher-order modulation
schemes such as Orthogonal Frequency-Division
Multiplexing (OFDM), with high peak to average
ratios, are driving the need for the components
used in the test equipment’s signal chain to have
higher linearity.
Additionally, more frequency bands are
expected to be introduced, driving the need for
broader bandwidths and higher operating fre-
quencies. This new, crowded spectrum will
require additional filtering, so filter-bank switch-
ing is expected to drive the need for lower-loss
components.
Despite the fact that test solutions are grow-
ing in complexity, end customers will continue to
expect lower overall test costs per unit. In order
to accomplish this, test equipment must enable
lower overall test time, which can be accom-
plished by RF components with a fast settling time.
Also, there continues to be an increasing
NOVEMBER
NETWORK
MAINTENANCE
DECEMBER
SOLARS
ESSENTIAL INSIGHTS FOR MIDDLE
EAST WATER, GAS AND ELECTRICITY
PROFESSIONALS
MARKET FOCUS
reliance on software to differentiate and provide
flexibility for future product expansion. This fun-
damental reliance on software drives device and
system manufacturers to look at ways to shorten
the software development lifecycle and reduce
costs, while at the same time increasing func-
tional complexity and improving software qual-
ity. Streamlining the development team and their
development processes through automation,
from requirements engineering and traceability,
down through verification and deployment is a
way to achieve this.
Other factors pushing better automation of
test processes include: greater emphasis on the
safety- and security-critical market segments,
increased focus on software quality and reliabil-
ity; growing requirements for software certifi-
cation and risk mitigation as well as reduction in
development and verification resources.
Device and system manufacturers are now
implementing traceable development processes
where requirements, from concept through to
code, automatically link to development and ver-
ification artefacts, such as development plans,
design documents, verification plans, test proce-
dures, and test results. Manual methods are no
longer adequate to properly test, execute, and
trace the results throughout the development pro-
cess both from a reliability and cost perspective.
According to industry analysts, engineers
must learn different instrument UIs and strug-
gle with limited to no correlation across the ana-
logue, digital and RF signals. An affordable mixed-
domain oscilloscope (MDO) that combines a
mixed signal oscilloscope with a spectrum analy-
ser is greater than sum of its parts. Not only does it
reduce pressure on the equipment budget, it adds
the critical element of a single integrated view
across domains. As embedded RF continues to
grow, so will the market demand for MDOs.
Middle East
August 2018 / Utilities Middle East 35
KNOWLEDGE PARTNER
RELIABLE TESTING OF TRANSFORMER
WIRING - A POOR RELATION?
With the COMPANO 100, OMICRON has developed a test set that is optimised to test the wiring
from the transformers to the relays, meters or control room.
E
very protection system must work
safely, quickly and in a targeted
manner. The aim of this requirement
is to deliver a supply of energy that is
as stable as possible and, most importantly,
to ensure the safety of electrical energy facil-
ities.
In the field of relay testing, various suppli-
ers offering well-proven devices together
with a generally accepted set of methods
regarding how testing is to be carried out
have been around for many years. However,
even the most thoroughly tested protection
relay will not be doing its job if it is unable to
detect an event caused by a one-off wiring
error.
Wiring testing is, therefore, vital - especially
when commissioning a new or modified
installation - and should be a process carried
36 Utilities Middle East / August 2018
out according to a standard that is likewise
broadly accepted.
Operators of electrical energy facilities
have shown there does not appear to be an
established standard for wiring testing. Most
companies rely on an in-house process for
wiring testing that has been developed over
the years from their respective experiences.
The basic idea behind this approach
addresses the question of what errors should
be found (or, ideally, not found) when test-
ing wiring. In this article, the authors propose
a reliable method for wiring testing that has
been developed on the basis of this question
and the findings from the interviews.
It can be carried out with minimal outlay
while providing as high a level of safety as
possible. To keep the length of this article
within bounds, the various steps are listed,
but not all of them are examined in detail.
If we look at the configuration that crops
up most frequently in the field, that is, a
three-phase system with three current and
three voltage transformers, the following
errors might occur. They should, therefore,
be looked for every time a test is carried out;
incorrect polarity in the current transformer,
current transformer installed in wrong
direction, current transformer circuit not
grounded, additional unintentional ground
connections and malfunction of a relay test
plug or relay test connector.
Other elements to be looked for include
break in the secondary wiring of current or
voltage transformers, polarity error in the
secondary wiring, phase reversal in the sec-
ondary wiring and installation direction of
current transformer incorrectly set in relay.
www.utilities-me.com

SUITABLE EQUIPMENT FOR RELIABLE
TESTING
In principle, any test set that can output a cur-
rent and a voltage is suitable for the major-
ity of wiring tests. It should also have at least
two inputs for measuring current and/or volt-
age. However, a closer look at many of the test
sets already available on the market reveals
they have major disadvantages when used
for such tests because some errors - for exam-
ple, auto-reclosing of the testing switch - are
impossible to detect.
Polarity checking with traditional sources
and measuring inputs is of course possible,
but a cable always has to be run from the mea-
suring point in the installation to the source,
something that is expensive. If this is not
done, multiple errors will sometimes not be
detected.
OMICRON has launched the COMPANO
100 a new device that, among other things, is
optimised to test the wiring of transformer
circuits.
What makes the COMPANO 100 useful
for wiring testing is that at 10 kg, it is signifi-
cantly lighter than comparable devices, bat-
tery-powered, therefore highly portable and
allows special DC-free polarity check signal.
It has a special circuit for detecting breaks
in current transformer circuits, for example,
when checking test plugs or test switches,
allows regulated outputs for direct adjust-
ment of set points and it is equipped with an
emergency stop switch for the highest levels
of safety.
The sources and inputs also enable the
device to be employed for numerous other
tests, such as simple relay tests, micro-resis-
tance measurements, and the ground resis-
tance measurements of small grounding sys-
tems.
PROPOSAL FOR A RELIABLE TESTING
METHOD
Once the transformers have been energised
and grounded according to the five safety
rules, a primary injection is used to verify the
grounding of the secondary circuits, followed
by the transformation ratios (if required)
and the polarities of the transformers. The
details will not be set out here, but this step
will detect the errors numbered 1, 3 and 4 in
the previous list.
The remaining tests can be carried out
more easily using a secondary injection. The
test set can remain next to the transformers
www.utilities-me.com
for all these tests.
Polarity checking of the secondary wiring
is performed using the CPOL method familiar
from other OMICRON devices. This involves
injecting a saw-tooth signal into the current
and voltage transformer circuits.
This signal has no DC component, so mag-
netization of the transformer is never a prob-
lem. The small, battery-powered CPOL polar-
ity checker can then be used to carry out mea-
surements anywhere in the installation - both
in the current and voltage circuits - without
requiring a connection to a source. It shows if
the measurement is being carried out in the
right circuit and whether the polarity of the
circuit is correct. This approach will detect
errors 6, 7 and 8 in the list.
TEST SWITCH MALFUNCTIONS POSE
DANGER TO PERSONNEL
Another feature of the COMPANO 100 is its
ability to detect breaks in the current circuit.
It is well known that relay test switches must
short when the current transformer circuit
is activated before they disconnect the relay
from the circuit.
Polarity checking with
traditional sources and
measuring inputs is of
course possible, but a cable
always has to be run from
the measuring point in the
installation to the source.”
KNOWLEDGE PARTNER
This is an area where not all test switches
have proved reliable, a situation that can pose
a danger to personnel. Checking this function
by means of a primary injection is, however,
not advisable (in fact it can be extremely dan-
gerous), as doing so would, if the test switch
were to malfunction during the test, generate
precisely these excessively high voltages.
By detecting breaks in the secondary cir-
cuit, the COMPANO 100 performs this test in
a straightforward manner without exposing
the tester to danger.
If the test switch is some distance away
from the source, the device can be configured
to disconnect the output automatically if a
break is detected in the circuit. The tester can
then operate the relevant test switch a couple
of times in succession without having to be
anywhere near the test set, and, in doing so,
establish whether a break has occurred with-
out having to check the display on his or her
device. The duration of the break will be also
shown on the display.
The remaining sources can now be
checked for possible polarity errors by simul-
taneous injection in the current and voltage
transformers, and reading off the sign of the
active power indicator on the relay display.
This method can reveal the remaining possi-
ble polarity errors (numbers 2 and 9), espe-
cially in the case of primary injection in the
current transformer.
The sources and inputs present in the
COMPANO 100 enable the device to be
employed for a range of other tests, such as
simple relay tests, micro-resistance measure-
ments, and the ground resistance measure-
ments of small grounding systems.
August 2018 / Utilities Middle East 37
 SUB-SECTOR UPDATE

Two KEMA Type Test Certificates for Voltamp Oman

Certificates ensure that the transformers comply with international standards for safety
DNV GL has issued the KEMA Type
Test certificates for a 125 MVA 132 kV
large power transformer and a 315
kVA 33 kV earthing transformer. The
certificates ensure that the trans-
formers comply with international
standards for safety, functional-
ity and quality, to face fast growing
electricity demand and use in tough
power environments.
The tests for Voltamp Oman has
been performed in this one stop
shop assignment, providing the
KEMA Type Test Certifications for
these transformers which are so
important for the reliability of the
system in the region.
DNV GL said that it was proud
that it could provide the confidence
to Voltamp Oman and help them to
be successful in the market place.
With over 35,000 installations
in the Middle East & North Africa
(MENA) region and partnerships
with global leaders, Voltamp Group
has become one of the leading com-
panies in the MENA region in man-
ufacturing and marketing an exten-
sive range of power, distribution
and special transformers, low and
medium voltage switchgears and
packaged substations, with man-
ufacturing facilities in Sohar and
Rusayl, Oman.
The transformers have been cer-
tified according to IEC standards:
the 125 MVA 132 kV power trans-
former, tested in accordance to IEC
60076-5 (2006). transformer to be tested at KEMA ratory in Arnhem, the Netherlands.
The 315 kVA 33 kV three phase Laboratories for both short circuit During this process, the compo-
earthing transformer is tested in and for neutral fault current of mag- nents have been thoroughly tested
accordance to IEC 60076 and as per nitude 60,000% of rated current. to ensure the quality of the prod-
the stringent criteria specified the KEMA Laboratories’ team of expe- uct relating to standards of safety,
Electricity Transmission Company rienced technical experts tested functionality and quality that are
of Oman. the transformers in the recently needed for use in the tough power
This is the first ever earthing expanded KEMA High-Power Labo- environment.

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ōĠŸNjĶŸǣǣŸ¯ƼNjŸƼsNjǼɴŘ_ĶÞ¯s
OŘEsɚŸÞ_s_EɴsĶÞŎÞŘǼÞض
ŘŸŘ˚OsNjǼÞ¯Þs_OEĶsǣʰǣɴǣ
ǣÌÞǣÌNÌǼȖNjɚs_ɴʰ
ōNjĨsǼÞضōضsNjǼ^ȖOE
COMMENT
panies to ensure fire-resistant products are
installed in public places knowing that non-
certified cables can produce poisonous gases
with thick black smoke obscuring visibility and
exit routes in the event of a fire.
Ducab commits to meet and adhere to all
new certification standards as laid down by

I
n today’s market, no product can
expect to sell effectively if it is not
rooted in sound design engineering.
This means ensuring that all techni-
cal staff are always up-to-date with the latest
changes and developments within the indus-
try. Using advanced design technology that
calculates the current rating of cables, Ducab
is able to provide customers with tailored
design recommendations that are both prac-
tical and safe.
Major loss of property and life can be
avoided by eliminating non-certified cables.
To decrease fire incidents in the UAE, the civil
defence authorities have been working closely
with factories and cable manufacturing com-
international authorities, and we are confi-
dent of meeting any new standards in the UAE
as well.
As a respected UAE national company, we
believe that we have a responsibility to elevate
the overall cable standards in the industry and
reduce instances of loss to property and life
due to non-certified and fake cables.
To support these endeavors, Ducab Code of Practice, amongst many other specific
launched its state of the art fire-testing labora- tests.
tory last year to ensure all produced cables are When looking at electricity generation in
subject to extensive testing during each phase particular, the region has also made clear its
of production. support for nuclear energy. At Ducab, the
The testing facility is equipped with the latest IEEE 1202 standard is used for testing Ducab
laboratory, operated by highly-qualified engi- NuBICC range of nuclear grade cables, making
neers, and offers various fire and smoke tests, it the only facility to conduct this safety test in
including the ones in accordance with BS8519 the region.

www.utilities-me.com August 2018 / Utilities Middle East 39

FEATURE
SKY’S
THE LIMIT
Harnessing the power of drones for utility: Could this be the answer to growing calls for
zero downtime in critical power infrastructure?
H
istorically, utility companies con-
ducted analysis of their distribution
assets and equipment on foot. It is not
difficult to imagine how time-con-
suming, inefficient and potentially dangerous
this approach can be. Fortunately, drone tech-
nology is delivering new efficiencies and intel-
ligence to utility companies by augmenting the
inspection workflow.
The GCC’s power lines are linked by tall steel
structures known as transmission towers. If
these Eiffel Tower–shaped edifices are knocked
40 Utilities Middle East / August 2018
down or damaged, several parts of a country
can go dark. The same would apply to the water
supply if a major leak remains undetected along
the water supply network.
Deploying drones equipped with multi-
spectral sensors can help identify vegetation
encroaching equipment for distribution power
lines in a fraction of the time and at a fraction of
the cost.
Even a simple visual sensor can play a criti-
cal role to collect data from different angles that
can be transformed into a 3D model to capture
more detail for line-mile inspection than many
traditional inspection methods.
According to PwC, the global power trans-
mission sector loses some $169bn annually
because of network failures and forced shut-
downs. Drones are touted as helping cut up
to 50% in inspection costs through reduced
manpower expenses and higher detailed 3D
modelling.
Not only does this allow utilities to prevent
future problems by enabling proactive mon-
itoring, it also reduces the risk of employee
www.utilities-me.com
 FEATURE

AERIAL
INSPECTOR
Drones are helping
to cut down inspec-
tion costs

injury by assigning drones to cover high risk
areas.
Most recently, Dubai’s utility, Dubai Elec-
tricity and Water Authority (DEWA), has ven-
tured into the use of drone technology as part
of its Sirb (Arabic for fleet) initiative, to boost
the efficiency of its operations and mainte-
nance services.
DEWA is piloting drones at several utilities
installations around Dubai. It is using fixed-
wing drones, the kind that look like small air-
planes, to inspect power lines across the emir-
ate. Manned by trained staff, a small drone can
cruise along a power line for about 15 miles
before it returns to the person directing it. The
robots capture images to spot, for instance,
vegetation growing too close to the towers or
tall trees that pose a threat to the lines.
“The use of drones is reshaping the way we
manage projects. They are able to monitor large
areas in short periods of time, allowing proj-
ect managers to handle a number of projects
at once,” says Rashid Bin Humaidan, executive
vice president of distribution power, DEWA.
“At the same time, drones are playing a key
role in supporting the expansion of projects in
DEWA’s network and monitoring infrastructure
development, enabling timely monitoring of
development in the infrastructure and a reduc-
tion in the cost of manpower.”
DEWA is now improving its use of the tech-
nology to cover various domains including top-
ographic surveys, improved operational effi-
ciency, thermal inspection, photovoltaic panel
maintenance, and early detection, using ther-
mal imaging, to identify overhead power lines.
This limits risks, reduces costs, enables quick-
response times and ensures accuracy, making
it easier to make informed decisions, says
Humaidan.
The drones being piloted are leveraging
state-of-the-art upgradable technologies such
as high-definition cameras that are equipped
with night-vision, lasers and GPS sensors, and
Drones are playing a
key role in supporting the
expansion of projects in DEWA’s
network and monitoring
infrastructure development,
enabling timely monitoring.”
Rashid Bin Humaidan, DEWA
can measure pressure, height, magnetic fields,
and use ultrasound scanning.
DEWA has started using the unmanned
aerial vehicles (UAVs) to carry out inspections
around the photovoltaic (PV) panels on its sus-
tainable building in Al Quoz.
“A considerable amount of time and effort
can be saved when UAVs are used in scanning
the building’s roof, which has an approximate
area of 100,000 square feet. This can be done in
less than five minutes and allows Ultra HD (4K)
images with a resolution of over 20 megapixels
to be taken,” says Humaidan.
The sustainable building’s rooftop hosts
photovoltaic panels that produce 600kW of
electricity. DEWA uses drones to monitor the
cleaning activities by contractors, which are
essential for the panels to function properly in a
desert environment.
Drones have also been deployed to inspect
the largest single-rooftop arrays in the Middle
East and North Africa, with 1.5-megawatt direct
current (MWdc) photovoltaic generation proj-
ect at DEWA’s Jebel Ali Power Station ( JAPS).
DEWA installed 5,240 photovoltaic panels on
the 23,000 square-meters roof of the water res-
ervoir at M-Station, the latest and largest power
production and desalination plant in the UAE.
DEWA is also using drones to inspect the
water cooling process in evaporators, enabling
utility to operate without fully shutting them
down for maintenance. Regular DEWA project
reviews and progress reports can now be easily
obtained by simply deploying drones to take
panoramic pictures.
“Since this is a pilot project that we intend to
fully implement, we have to adhere to the high-
est safety and security standards by outfitting
the drones with sensors and anti-magnetic field
paint to neutralise their effects on users and on

www.utilities-me.com August 2018 / Utilities Middle East 41

FEATURE
$169bn
Estimated global power
transmission losses
DEWA’s assets,” says Humaidan.
While a drone may be a useful appendage,
it is the software that serves as its brain, open-
ing it up for customisation based on applica-
tion areas. And that is where cloud computing
comes into play.
Solutions providers are now creating stra-
tegic partnerships with UAV manufacturers to
apply the latest software that will eventually
find relevance in the complex networks moni-
toring within the power and water sectors.
For instance, GE has made significant invest-
ments in Airware, a software startup in San
Francisco whose solution is built on the cloud
platform developed by Amazon Web Services
AMZN -0.76% , and makes it possible for a drone
to plot destinations, generate flight paths, and
wirelessly transmit data to a remote data centre
for analysis. In the case of vegetation, GE can
crunch the numbers to assess the growth rates
of foliage in proximity to the lines and see if and
when it might risk damaging them.
Despite their relatively recent introduc-
tion to the public, drones have gained a rapidly
growing fan base that is expected to only multi-
ply in coming years. BI Intelligence predicts that
42 Utilities Middle East / August 2018
RESILIENT
Effective monitoring
of power transmission
lines with the help of
drones
FIXING LEAKS
Drones are being
deployed to monitor the potential for the drone market will top $12
water networks billion by 2021, as recreational drones become
more popular and the regulatory environment
calms down. Sales are expected to reach $15bn
in 2025 as drones find more application areas.
A number of major utilities in the region
have expressed interest in using drones. “With
any new technology, people are very nervous in
the beginning. That is fine. In the end drones are
going to take off,” says Jon Resnick, Policy Lead,
DJI, a Chinese technology company that manu-
factures drones.
“A drone could point to areas, point to
exactly where you need to go, point to what you
might need to take with you to do the repair.
www.utilities-me.com

When you look at the amount of information we
can gain to make accurate decisions about our
systems, and look at the cost and time savings,
there is huge potential,” adds Resnick.
The UAV system that most Utilities around
the world are using starts at about $10,000,
according to resellers. Sensor attachments
range from a few thousand dollars to upward of
$100,000.
“But the cost savings are far greater than
the investment,” says Resnick. “Utilities spend
several hundred thousand dollars a year to
send people out in the field to do mapping and
measuring of their electrical system. A UAV
equipped with “lidar,” the sensor technology
www.utilities-me.com
DIGITAL UTILITY
Drones form part of
the overall digital
drive in utilities
used to develop driverless cars, can collect the
same data and more at a small fraction of the
cost and time.”
“With wind turbines, you will have a couple
of guys hanging off the blades by a rope a couple
of hundred feet in the air to do inspections visu-
ally, at a cost upwards of $10,000 per site,” says
Michael Costa, a renewable energy expert in
the Middle East. “We can get the same results
with a UAV for $300, without putting workers
in danger.”
“The unmanned aerial systems can have
tremendous value for utilities and other com-
panies that must regularly inspect hard-to-
reach equipment. Drones can glide over rugged
FEATURE
terrain, where it’s hard for utility workers to get
around, and send back pictures showing the
condition of power lines and pipelines,” points
out DEWA’s Humaidan. “They can’t inspect
buried pipes, of course, but they can send back
images of vegetation around pipelines that can
flag problems.”
Despite the “sky’s the limit” outlook that
drones bring to the industry, there have been
limitations and restrictions that have prohib-
ited utilities from using drones in their daily
operations—until now. Recent changes in drone
regulations, particularly the permission to per-
form beyond visual line of sight flights, have
opened up new opportunities for the utilities
sector and others, which allow drones to per-
form an increasing number of operations.
As the need for more long-distance trans-
mission lines increases, the resource require-
ment and cost of maintaining these growing
systems does as well. The ability to fly a drone
beyond visual line of sight is the answer to cost
effectively, consistently and efficiently inspect
both transmission and distribution power lines.
Drone operations enable utilities to quickly
capture high-resolution data and facilitate
the identification of problems, such as loose
cables, rust and damaged insulators, before
they become a potential hazard. They can do
all of this without putting their employees in
harm’s way.
One of the greatest benefits of drone opera-
tions to the utility industry is the sheer volume
of data that drones can deliver. As drones are
able to fly further from the pilot’s line of sight,
they are collecting exponentially more data.
Depth in data opens up opportunities in
the industry to use tools such as artificial intel-
ligence to drive a never before seen depth of
insights. Having a cost-effective way to collect
detailed data over longer distances is critical to
firms maintaining a competitive edge.
August 2018 / Utilities Middle East 43
FEATURE

MIRFA IWPP:
THE CAPITAL’S
HOPE
With a capacity of 1,600MW power and 52.5 million gallons (around
200,000 m3) per day (MIGD) of desalinated seawater, the new plant has
the capacity to generate 10% of Abu Dhabi’s power requirements at peak
capacity and over 5% of the emirate’s water generation

44 Utilities Middle East / August 2018 www.utilities-me.com


T
he demand for electric power and water
are inextricably linked in the United
Arab Emirates (UAE). One of its newer
and larger plants, the Mirfa Independent
Water and Power Plant, which has a power capac-
ity of 1.6 GW and produces 52.5 million gallons of
water per day, integrates the newest iterations of
power generation and desalination technologies.
Over the years, the UAE has leveraged its large
oil and natural gas resources to bolster a boom-
ing economy and to support its financial and trad-
ing importance in the Middle East and around the
world.
Despite years of robust economic growth,
demand for both electricity and water continues
to rise sharply as growing population and indus-
trialisation eat into existing supply capacity.
Along with the solid growth of energy-inten-
sive industries like aluminium, cement, fertilis-
ers, and agriculture, the region’s population has
increased 7.7% annually since 2014. According to
the UAE State of Energy Report 2017 released in
June 2017, electricity consumption—already high
owing to a historically installed highly subsidized
electricity tariff structure—is projected to grow by
7% to 10% annually over 2014–2020, about 2,435
GWh per year.
The country depends on natural gas for 98%
of its power generation today. All gas was pro-
duced domestically until 2008, when demand
outstripped supply and forced the UAE to begin
liquefied natural gas imports. Despite efforts to
diversify its power profile, over the short term at
least, thermal technologies will continue to domi-
nate the country’s generation mix.
The reason, many experts say, is because the
UAE is one of the world’s top 10 most water-scarce
countries—and it gets 90% of its water from desal-
ination of seawater, mostly from the highly saline
Arabian Gulf. Of nearly 29 GW of power genera-
tion installed in the UAE today, 24.9 GW is tied to
desalination, the King Abdullah Petroleum Stud-
ies and Research Center suggested in an October
2017 report.
The UAE Ministry of Energy is currently work-
ing to finalise the 2036 Water Security Strat-
egy, but for now, it appears that the country will
remain reliant on efforts to boost investment in
integrated power and water projects, as was pio-
neered by Abu Dhabi nearly three decades ago.
LEVERAGING THE INDEPENDENT
WATER AND POWER PLANT MODEL
Since Abu Dhabi, one of the UAE’s largest emir-
ates, moved to privatise the Taweelah A plant and
set up an independent water and power plant
www.utilities-me.com
FEATURE
1.6GW
Electric power generation ca-
pacity at the Mirfa IWPP
(IWPP) contract to rehabilitate and expand the
existing facility in 1998, several similar projects
have been built in it and other emirates. French
energy giant ENGIE (formerly known as SUEZ
and GDF SUEZ) has been involved in develop-
ment and construction of IWPP projects in the
region since that initial project. The company was
involved in negotiations between engineering
firm Tractabel (which later became an ENGIE sub-
sidiary) and its state-run owner, Abu Dhabi Water
and Electricity Authority (ADWEA), for a part of
Taweelah A1, which came online in 2003.
Today, ENGIE’s total gross portfolio in Gulf
Cooperation Council countries and around the
world has surged to 30 GW of power and more
than 1,200 million imperial gallons per day
(MIGD) of water desalination.
The company was a prequalified bidder for
ADWEA’s request in 2013 for an IWPP project that
would acquire and refurbish the Al Mirfa Power
Co.’s existing 22.5-MIGD, 360-MW project (com-
prising four GE 9E gas turbines) and add a new
1,240-MW greenfield combined cycle generation
plant, as well as an additional 30-MIGD reverse
osmosis (RO) desalination plant to the site.
After ENGIE won the bid, terms of the Mirfa
IWPP were ironed out: ADWEA would hold 60%
of the project, as specified by Abu Dhabi rules;
ENGIE would hold 20%; and Abu Dhabi Financial
Group, the remaining 20%. The IWPP structure
also required a lump-sum, date-certain turnkey
contract with an engineering, procurement, and
construction (EPC) firm or group.
That undertaking was handed to a consor-
tium of Hyundai Engineering & Construction and
Italian firm Ansaldo Energia. Ansaldo also sup-
plied three AE94.3A gas turbines—twin-fuel Class
F turbines that don’t require water injection—two
MT20 steam turbines, five air-cooled turbogene-
rator sets, and auxiliary systems. The consortium
also selected the SUEZ Group (via Degrémont, a
subsidiary of the group at that time), to build the
$144.7 million (in 2014) RO plant.
A TIGHT PROGRAMME
Construction of the $1.5bn project kicked off in
October 2014, and the project began full opera-
tion in November 2017. For ENGIE, the biggest
challenge it faced was integrating—against a tight
August 2018 / Utilities Middle East 45
FEATURE
schedule—the greenfield and brownfield projects
and all associated equipment, all while absorbing
personnel from the plant’s previous owner and
training them to operate the new project.
According to Ansaldo, which acted as techni-
cal field advisor (TFA) in partnership with Hyun-
dai in what it said was an “unusual contractual
arrangement,” the project required intensive
coordination of everyday activities with the con-
sortium leader and specialists in various fields
to tackle issues during the tight commissioning
schedule.
Stefano Bruno, Mirfa TFA coordinator,
52.5mn
Gallons of water produced
by the Mirfa IWPP per day
46 Utilities Middle East / August 2018
pointed out that the massive and complex project
was built over a “very ambitious timetable” with
a multiethnic and multilingual workforce of engi-
neers and workers (representing eight different
nationalities) in extreme atmospheric conditions,
“including peaks of over 50C heat in summer.”
Ansaldo also noted that the materials pro-
curement and handling was an enormous effort.
By the end of work, more than “21,000 [cubic
meters] of materials weighing over 6,600,000
[kilograms of goods] had been shipped” aboard
42 ships under “free-on-board” shipping terms,
which meant Ansaldo accepted responsibility for
the goods being shipped once they left the suppli-
ers’ shipping docks.
The ships plied a route that runs through some
high-risk areas. “It is no coincidence that big cargo
ships navigate with their responders turned off
between Jeddah and the Gulf of Aden,” it noted. “[W]
e could breathe a sigh of relief as each ship arrived.”
29GW
Current installed power
capacity in the UAE
THE PROMISE OF DESALINATION
Building the project also presented challenges to
SUEZ, which erected the greenfield 30-MIGD RO
facility within two years, mainly for cooling pur-
poses. One issue involved site security and acces-
sibility, such as restrictions on taking photo-
graphs, which meant the team had to find creative
solutions to communicate issues to suppliers, as
Jean-Luc Alexandre, deputy CEO of SUEZ Treat-
ment Infrastructure says.
The Mirfa site already had a 22.5-MIGD facil-
ity that uses multi-stage flash (MSF) system tech-
nology. The thermal process, which essentially
www.utilities-me.com
 FEATURE

255
Desal plants built, equipped
and operated by Suez

Mirfa’s RO plant (Figure 1) is equipped with a

distills seawater by flashing it to steam via concur-
rent heat exchangers, is suited to the high salin-
ity of the Arabian Gulf, its temperature, and levels
of organic matter—but it is five times more energy-
intensive than RO.
As Alexandre explained, RO is an advanced
desalination technology that uses a water-per-
meable membrane “as a kind of filter” to separate
dissolved salts in permeate (the liquid flowing
through the membrane) using a pressure differ-
ential between the feedwater and product water.
two-pass system to clarify the characteristically
turbid and algae-rich water from the Arabian Gulf,
Alexandre said. First, it uses SUEZ’s SeaDaf filtra-
tion technology, which is an air flotation system
designed to allow treatment of a large volume of
water.
While SUEZ’s system is more compact than
conventional flotation systems, it offers high cir-
culation velocities and improved coalescence
and adhesion of bubbles and flocs. A patented,
perforated floor system promotes formation of a
bubble blanket.
In the next stage, it employs SUEZ’s SeaClean
dual-media filtration technology (using anthra-
cite and sand), mainly to improve the perfor-
mance, cut water losses, and increase the lifespan
of the RO membranes. “To be sure that the mem-
brane will be reliable, you need to filter as much as
possible,” he said.
SUEZ, which has built, equipped, and oper-
ated 255 made-to-measure desalination plants—
and operates plants that produce 2 million cubic
meters per day of desalinated water—all over the
world, is confident that desalination for power will
thrive. “We’ve seen a tremendous increase in the
market for the last 15 years,” Alexandre said.
One reason is that, owing to increased compe-
tition, costs for desalination have fallen drastically
over the past five to 10 years. Technology, too, has
taken a moderate leap.
“Almost 45% of the cost relates to the energy
you need to desalinate. Where we have seen the
biggest improvement is toward the reduction of
the energy needed toward the membrane and on
the energy recovery.”
For now, the “emphasis remains on water
reliability,” especially at a power plant, but look-
ing forward, research and innovation promises
to make efforts even more efficient, he says. For
example, even as demand for water grows and
more players enter the desalination market, the
conversion rate from saltwater to freshwater has
continued to hover at about 50%, depending on

30GW
While MSF and RO both use about the same
amount of electrical energy per cubic meter of
water desalinated, RO does not require additional
Engie’s gross power port- energy for heat, which is why it is considered far
folio worldwide more energy-efficient.
the water temperature and salinity.
SUEZ is working to boost the conversion rate
to between 75% and 80%, a development that is
certain to change the outlook for water-scarce
regions like the UAE.

www.utilities-me.com August 2018 / Utilities Middle East 47

PRODUCTS
PRODUCTS & TECHNOLOGY
Scot Pump 320-
328 series
The pumps feature Scot’s proven slip-
fit O-ring/flinger design
The weep holes extend seal life by creating fluid
movement in the seal cavity
Scot Pump, A Wilo Company, has expanded
its line of stamped 304 stainless-steel pumps
with NPT connections to include nine new
ANSI flanged centerline discharge models.
The new 320-328 series covers up to 385
gpm and 275 ft of head.
The pumps feature Scot’s proven slip-fit
O-ring/flinger design, which prevents leaks
caused by deformation as a result of over-
tightening.
They are mounted on a JM frame and
incorporate a back pull-out design and weep
holes in the impeller.
The weep holes extend seal life by creating
fluid movement in the seal cavity, which aids
in venting of air at start-up.
For over 50 years, Scot Pump has manufac-
tured pumps from its plant in Cedarburg, WI.
By maintaining a focus on End Suction Single
Stage Centrifugals, the company can offer
pumps ranging from 3/4” through 12” with
1/3 through 125 HP motors in 2 weeks or less.
Scot Pump has earned the trust of its OEM
customers by consistently providing solutions
to their manufacturing needs.
“We understand that our products are just
a part of their systems, and late shipments
and down time are lost money,” says a com-
pany spokesperson.
“That is why excellent customer service,
fast deliveries, and quality products are a Scot
Pump standard that sets us apart from other
pump manufacturers.”
48 Utilities Middle East / August 2018
JinkoSolar releases 410W
Cheetah Series
JinkoSolar 410W Cheetah module is the world’s highest-
performing commercially mass-produced monofacial
module
China headquartered solar panel manu-
facturer, JinkoSolar, has for the first time
revealed its milestone JinkoSolar 410W
Cheetah module that is reinventing the
market standard for high performance.
The new product was revealed at the
SNEC 2018 held in Shanghai, China in May.
JinkoSolar 410 W Cheetah module is the
world’s highest-performing commercially
mass-produced monofacial module, bring-
ing the industry into the new age of PV 4.0
with mainstream module output of over
400 W.
“JinkoSolar Cheetah module is designed
to meet the needs of the ultra-high perfor-
mance market segments, such as the likes
of China’s “Super Top Runner Program”,”
said the statement.
The statement added that all JinkoSolar
Cheetah series modules are produced in
the company’s next-gen ultra-smart P5
super factory and represents the most
cutting-edge technology in solar module
manufacturing.
Utilising an all new wafer and cell design,
the Cheetah series has erected a new
benchmark for ultra-high performing mod-
ules with its industry leading performance
in metrics such as, but not limited to, out-
put, limited degradation, shade tolerance,
and durability.
JinkoSolar 72 Cell Cheetah module’s
410 Wp performance is over 30 Wp higher
than that of comparable products in the in-
dustry. The Cheetah series’ range topping
conversion efficiency of 20.38% makes it
the ideal solution for tender-based large
scale PV projects and projects with ultra-
high technical requirements such as those
in China’s Super Top Runner program.
During the SNEC 2018, JinkoSolar show-
cased six of its products that it believes
are leading the charge towards a new wave
of industry innovations.
One of the products showcased was
PRODUCT OF THE MONTH
JinkoSolar solar panels are supporting pv solar projects
worldwide
JinkoSolar’s 310 W bifacial module, rede-
fining the application boundaries of solar.
The company has also introduced, for
the first time, its gold framed module de-
signed to meet the need for elegant luxury
in the Chinese residential PV market.
In regards to the widely discussed
N-type and P-type bifacial modules, Jinko-
Solar is the only tier 1 module manufactur-
er to offer both types of bifacial modules.
JinkoSolar 380 W 72-cell monocrystalline
bifacial module has expanded the applica-
tion boundaries of PV module installation.
Traditionally, modules were largely
installed in a horizontally flat or near
flat manner. However, bifacial modules
have opened the possibilities of installing
modules in a vertical manner, lowering the
amount of space needed in PV projects.
The ability of the bifacial modules
to generate power on both sides has
increases its practicality, creating new PV
applications such as on highway fencing,
greenhouses, sunrooms, and other build-
ing integrated photovoltaics (BIPV).
Depending on the type of tracker uti-
lized, module installation angles, and the
installation environment, one can expect
an additional 5-25% power generation
from bifacial modules relative to that of
monofacial modules.
JinkoSolar 385 W N-type bifacial module
shares all the unique performance attrib-
utes of the P-type bifacial module.
www.utilities-me.com
 PRODUCTS
PRODUCTS & TECHNOLOGY

FLIR DM166 Thermal Imaging The Champion Pump

Designed to provide faster troubleshooting in 2-HP grinder pump
applications such as electrical distribution, electro-
mechanical systems Provides up to 133’ TDH and
flows up to 42 GPM
FLIR DM166 thermal imaging multimeter users pinpoint issues faster, and then
with Infrared Guided Measurement troubleshoot complex electrical distribu-
(IGM) is an affordable digital multimeter/ tion and electro-mechanical systems more The Champion Pump 2-HP grinder
thermal imager combination. The FLIR effectively and efficiently. pump provides up to 133’ TDH and
DM166 features 80x60 Thermal imaging is a flows up to 42 GPM. The pump fea-
thermal resolution, broad non-contact temperature tures a double-seal configuration with
multimeter test functions, measurement method, a seal-failure alarm option.
and the flexibility for use in allowing the user to more The starting components are
both high and low voltage safely scan for overheat- optional in the pump, eliminating the
applications. ing system components. need for expensive control panels. Also
Designed to provide Additionally, with a rug- available in 3-Phase.
faster troubleshooting in ap- ged, drop-tested design The quick disconnect cord is readily
plications such as electrical and the safety rating available up to 50’. This allows the
distribution, electro-me- electrical and HVAC pro- pump to easily be replaced without
chanical systems, HVAC/R fessionals’ need, the FLIR disturbing the wiring in the panel and
and electronics, the FLIR DM166 is field-ready for conduit.
DM166 features a FLIR Lep- even the most demanding The pump is offered as a packaged
ton thermal microcamera applications. system complete with guide rails built
core that visually guides The FLIR DM166 carries to specifications. It features a high
users to the precise location a 10-year warranty on efficient motor with upper & lower ball
of a problem. The multimeter helps users pinpoint both the product and the bearings. It runs cooler & lasts longer.
The multimeter helps issues faster thermal detector. The CPG1 1HP Single Seal Grinder
Pump is available in single phase. It
can be purchased with the start and
run capacitors in the motor or in the
The Grundopit control panel. The pump is also avail-
able with a seal failure option.
The Grundopit is cited to be an ideal entry-level system for utilities

TT Technologies’ redesigned Grundopit in place. The instant plug-in lock system

pit-launched mini directional drill is well allows new drill stems to be added easily by
suited for difficult fiber-to-the-home and engaging the new drill stem at the rotational
utility service line installations in tight motor. This means that drill stems are only
working conditions. The unit screwed into the lead
is compact—54 in. long, 43 stem and not the
in. wide and 57 in. tall. rotational motor, cut-
The Grundopit delivers ting the time it takes
13,489 lbs. of thrust and to add a stem in half.
pull back, and 553 ft/lbs. of Components
torque with bore length up include a two-part
to 150 ft. The Grundopit is bore rig, patented
cited to be an ideal entry- drill stem plug in, 30
level system for utilities, drill stems, bore head
cable industries or as a sup- with angled steering
plement to larger units. surface, backreamer
The unit features a and swivel coupling,
patented instant plug-in hose package and
The unit is compact and user-friendly Features shut off heads up to 55’ TDH
lock that holds the drill stem power pack.

www.utilities-me.com August 2018 / Utilities Middle East 49

Final Word
POWERING
MOBILITY FOR
SMARTER CITIES
A new approach to electrification of transport is required, says
Jean-Pascal Tricoire, chairman and chief executive officer,
Schneider Electric
Electric mobility is widely seen today as a way
to improve air quality and meet climate goals,
but rarely is it integrated in a comprehensive vision for
smarter cities. EVs continue to be associated to tradi-
tional ownership and use models, and still considered
as just cars: the innovative uses and services associ-
ated to batteries or to the integration with smart build-
ings are ignored or at least not enough explored.
Charging stations are still developed with limited or
no consideration of the energy issues, or not exploit-
ing enough digital technologies, over-complicating the
customer experience. Their location will also inevita-
bly change with the transition to shared and autono-
mous mobility.
“Electric Vehicles for Smarter Cities: The Future of
Energy and Mobility”, a report from The World Eco-
nomic Forum, suggests following three general prin-
ciples:
Any roadmap to electric mobility should be adapted
to three main characteristics of the specific market:
local infrastructure and design; energy system; and
mobility culture and patterns. All relevant stakehold-
ers should be engaged to collectively define a new par-
adigm for cities that go beyond the today’s industry
divisions, in search for complementary municipal,
regional, and national policies.
Electric taxis and public transportation will have
a great impact in reducing carbon emissions. These
types of vehicles are driven far more than personal-use
vehicles, so commercial and public EV fleet develop-
ment should be encouraged.
For example, Schneider Electric and BMW are part
of a consortium of companies in Bangkok that is part-
nering with King Mongkut’s University of Technology
Thonburi to spur the use of electric vehicles across
Thailand, initially through car sharing and a campus-
based electric bus.
EV charging infrastructure should be developed
along highways, at destination points, and close to
50 Utilities Middle East / August 2018
public transportation nodes. This is critical for three rea-
sons: first, to keep pace with current demand. Second, to
address range anxiety issues by making charging stations
accessible, convenient, and easy to locate. And, lastly, to
promote the adoption of EVs in commercial and private
markets.
In Hong Kong, the local government incentivises EV
infrastructure developers by allowing them to integrate
Octopus, a popular smart payment system also used to
access public transportation. This gives EV drivers a con-
venient and familiar way to purchase energy, and aims
to encourage more people to drive EVs by ensuring the
availability of a network of public charging stations.
The infrastructure should be deployed in combination
with grid edge technologies — such as decentralized gen-
eration, storage, and smart buildings — and integrated in
smart grids, while at the same time offering a digital end-
to-end customer experience.
This will magnify the benefits of grid edge technol-
ogies: increasing reliability, resilience, efficiency, and
asset utilization of the overall system; reducing CO2 emis-
sions; creating new services for customers; and creat-
ing new jobs.
EVs can be used as a decentralised energy resource
and provide new, controllable storage capacity and elec-
tricity supply that is useful for the stability of the energy
system. In markets where regulation allows EVs to be
used as a source of flexibility, energy players start betting
on this vision, with cars working as “batteries on wheels.”
For example, in a pilot project in Denmark, Enel and
Nissan set up the first vehicle-to-grid (V2G) commercial
hub: by selling frequency regulation services for system
balancing purposes to the Danish transmission system
operator (TSO), a car can generate around €1,500 in
annual revenue.
New business models are possible, where the drivers
and fleet operators of EVs could play as producer-con-
sumers of energy services, such as vehicle-to-everything
(V2x) and smart charging.
Middle East
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Let’s write the future
with robots that have what it takes
to collaborate.

More than 300,000 ABB robots operate in factories and plants

around the world to drive productivity to new levels. They are part
of an integrated ecosystem: the Internet of Things, Services and
People. The truly collaborative YuMi is driving a manufacturing
revolution where people and robots work together, creating
entirely new possibilities.

Discover more at new.abb.com/future