Asian power sector challenges from a UAE perspective

Integrating renewables into the grid effectively, accommodating nuclear power safely, and interconnecting with other neighboring networks are some of the challenges that United Arab Emirates power sector is tackling at the current stage.

These are the typical challenges Asian countries are facing in managing their power sector. The power network operators are well equipped to handle traditional fossil fuel based generators units but it will be a new experience for them to deal with solar or wind based generators.

However, it is not expected to be a big burden for the network to introduce this new type of generation as small amounts of power will be supplied initially.

These small values fed at the initial stage of integrating renewables into the network will be looked upon as a variable negative load at their respective locations.

If a considerable amount of solar energy is available at peak time then generation can be reduced at that time while keeping fast response units on standby to compensate any intermittent change in the solar power.

Shams 1, Nour 1, and Shams 2 are some of the solar plants that will be soon ready to feed the power network in UAE. There is no great potential for wind power to invade the power network, at least at the high voltage level. This is due to low wind speed in the gulf region.

However, low speed wind turbines can be installed on low voltage levels such as the plant in Sir baniyas Island. In this regard, MASDAR Company is playing a leading role in UAE to facilitate enhancing the renewable energy capabilities of the country.

This is part of the government goal to diversify the energy sources of the country to build an economy based on knowledge and technology and not purely on income from oil and gas revenues.

The other challenge UAE and other Asian countries are tackling is the accommodation of nuclear power safely and economically.

Hopefully, safety issues will be handled carefully by nuclear authorities but the challenge in introducing nuclear power into the network is the water production process. As UAE and some other Asian countries are scarce of natural water resources, most of its water comes from the desalination process.

Combined cycle units help to produce the required steam for the process and in this way both power and water are satisfied simultaneously. However, nuclear plants cannot contribute to the water production process and at the same time should be run on base load with large amounts of power.

Thus a considerable amount of power produced by nuclear plants without proportional water production which necessitate starting additional fossil fuel based units just to satisfy the water requirements of UAE. This is an inefficient and uneconomical scenario of dispatching water and power and solutions are to be worked out to resolve this issue.

The other challenge Asian power sector and UAE is tackling is setting a reliable inter-line connections with neighboring power networks. The Gulf countries recently connected together successfully and agreements on transfer and share of power are being set and continuously assessed.

Interconnecting neighboring networks is a vital step towards the establishment of a secure system capable of accommodating diversity in energy sources and robust against load and network changes.

To summarize it in all, diversification of energy sources and strengthening power networks are key steps that Asian countries must take on entry to the new era. Obstacles to these steps will have a negative impact on the economy and consequently lack of sustainable development. 

Naji A. Al-Messabi, Power Network Operational Study Engineer, TRANSCO, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.)