Power-up: UAE needs $35b

dubai — The UAE needs to invest at least $35 billion to meet the 17GW capacity addition needed over the medium term, according to projections made by Arab Petroleum Investments Corporation.

“The UAE is pushing strongly to diversify its energy sources in the power mix; we estimate that 10.4GW of capacity additions are already in execution,” Apicorp Energy Research said.

The majority of power is generated using natural gas, but Abu Dhabi’s Barakah nuclear-power plant will see four reactors come on line between 2017 and 2020, contributing 5.6GW in total, it said.

The UAE recently announced a nationwide power strategy, which aims to have 50 per cent clean energy by 2050. Solar power features heavily in its plans and is expected to account for 25 per cent of the generation mix once a $13.7 billion (5GW) solar park is fully commissioned in 2030.

Apicorp estimated that Mena region would need to invest $302 billion in its power sector. Of this, $179 billion will be needed to add 138GW of generating capacity, while the rest should be invested in transmission and distribution.

In the GCC, governments have coped well with

Dewa has launched a number of promising projects in the field of clean and renewable energy, most notably the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD and CEO of Dewa

The Middle East’s growing population increasingly requires reliable and efficient power supply Dietmar Siersdorfer, CEO of Siemens ME, UAE

rising electricity demand, said the report. As well as adding capacity, some countries have also recently increased electricity prices and introduced some limited power sector reforms.

The GCC represents 43 per cent, or 157GW, of current Mean power generating capacity. Despite this large capacity, the GCC will require $81 billion for the addition of 62GW of generating capacity and another $50 billion for T&D over the next five years.

According to Siemens, the highest demand for power in the region will be in the UAE, which holds six per cent of global oil reserves. By 2030, UAE’s installed power generation capacity is expected to reach 60GW, comprising of 44GW from CCPPs, and the remaining 20GW from simplecycle power plants, renewables, nuclear and other.

The Middle East will require additional power capacity of 267 gigawatts (GW) by 2030, an increase of 66 per cent, according to the engineering giant.

The German conglomerate, its outlook for the energy landscape in the region, said growing demand will require and 66 GW of power over the next 15 years. “The Middle East’s growing population increasingly requires reliable and efficient power supply,” said Dietmar Siersdorfer, CEO of Siemens Middle East and UAE.

Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa) is confidently moving forward to achieve the Dubai Clean Energy Strategy 2050 to diversify energy sources in the emirate, deriving 25 per cent from solar energy, seven per cent from nuclear power, seven per cent from clean coal, and 61 per cent from gas by 2030. Clean energy sources will be gradually increased to 75 per cent by 2050.

“To achieve this vision, Dewa has launched a number of promising projects in the field of clean and renewable energy, most notably the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park, the world’s largest single-site solar project with a planned capacity of 5,000 megawatts by 2030,” said Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD and CEO of Dewa.

Dewa, which works tirelessly to enhance its total production capacity, which is currently 10,000MW of electricity and 470 million imperial gallons of desalinated water per day, has initiated plans to build the GCC’s biggest hydroelectric power station near the Al Hattawi Dam as part of the plan to achieve the UAE Vision 2021.

The project will be the first of its kind in the Gulf, and it will make use of water stored in the mountains next to the dam to produce 250MW of power, with a lifespan of 60-80 years.

Dewa is working to expand the M-Station, the largest power production and desalination plant in the UAE. The new combined-cycle power plant will add a further 700 megawatts to the installed generating capacity of the station, boosting its capacity to 2,760MW when the project is completed in 2018.

— issacjohn@khaleejtimes.com