Eng Ahmed Ali Al Ebrahim, Chairman, Technical Committee, GCC CIGRE; Eng Fatima Al Foora Al Shamsi, Chairman, Board of Directors, GCC CIGRE; Eng Ahmed Al Nassar, Steering Committee member, Kahramaa; and Eng Abdulaziz A Al Hammadi, Secretary General, GCC CI
DOHA: With high power consumption in Qatar and other GCC countries, Doha will be hosting the GCC POWER 2016 Conference & Exhibition under the theme of ‘Towards Energy Efficiency’ from November 8 until 10.
Qatar produces 8,000 megawatts (MW) of electricity of which it consumes 5,300MW during peak hours, according to the press release issued by the organizers.
The GCC power sector will require about $50bn of investments in new power generating capacity. The GCC alone will add 76.8 gigawatts (GW) of capacity for power generation between 2016 and 2020, said the release.
The event will be organised by GCC-CIGRE in collaboration with the Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation (Kahramaa).
CIGRE is Doha-based GCC organisation, which encourages and develops scientific researches and studies in the field of electricity system for member countries.
“Qatar has been supporting CIGRE for long in a bid to develop power sector in the GCC,” said Ahmed Naser Al Nasr, Head of Technical Affairs Department at Kahramaa at a press conference held yesterday to announce the event.
“CIGRE’s job is to prepare the scientific basis to rationalize the consumption of electricity in member countries to preserve the natural resources. It also helps to increase the efficiency of electric system and reduce the cost of operation for power plants,” said Al Nasr.
“GCC-CIGRE focuses on easing and encouraging exchange of technical data regarding power system and networks between the GCC countries,” said Fatima Al Foora Al Shamsi, Chairman of GCC-CIGRE. It set up technical committees and holds workshops and conferences to achieve its goals, she added.
“More than 300 papers from 30 countries have been received for the forthcoming conference. The technical committee has selected the best 50 papers for the conference,” said Al Shamsi.
“The theme of the conference ‘Towards Energy Efficiency’ is very important for the power sector of GCC countries,” said Ahmad Ali Ibrahim, Head of the Technical Committee for GCC-CIGRE.
“The member countries launched programmes to rationalise power consumption for better use of its natural resources. Per capita annual power consumption of GCC is 9,650 gigawatt in an hour. However, the international per capita power rate is 2,782 gigawatt in an hour. The power consumption rate of Middle East is 3,384 in an hour”.
“The high rate of power consumption of GCC countries might show industrial and commercial growth as the power consumption rate of the advanced countries like Europe, North America and Japan is 6,284, 13,985 and 8,063 in an hour respectively. But there is still big potential to reduce the consumption of power in the GCC,” said Ibrahim.
The opening session of the conference will be held on energy efficiency in which GCC leaders and decision makers will address on the programmes adopted by their countries for power conservation and bring about new and renewable energy to increase the efficiency.
The programme of the conference includes ten sessions during three days. Every session will discuss four to seven papers provided by the research departments of the GCC, Arab and international power companies, operators and power plants in addition to research academies from all over the world.
