Acwa Power taps artificial intelligence
14 October 2024
Riyadh-headquartered utility and green hydrogen developer and investor Acwa Power has topped MEED’s annual power and water developer ranking over the past few years.
The company’s portfolio, which it values at approximately $94bn, includes 49 thermal and renewable energy power plants and about a dozen water desalination plants.
These assets can generate 65GW of power and 8 million cubic metres a day of desalinated water.
Acwa Power continues to bid and win new contracts at home and abroad under Marco Arcelli, who was appointed as the firm’s chief executive shortly after Paddy Padmanathan, the firm’s CEO for 18 years, stepped down in March last year.
The company has tapped artificial intelligence (AI) and the stacks of technologies behind it to enable its future strategy, notes Thomas Altmann, the company’s executive vice-president for innovation and new technology.
“At Acwa Power, we are not talking about AI, we are doing it,” says Altmann, who cites that the company has developed an in-house algorithm to enable an augmented AI or human-in-the-loop (HITL) AI application.
Through this application, a plant operator may receive data or advice from an AI-enabled module that can trigger a response after the data is validated through the operator’s experience.
“We are focusing on human-in-the-loop, under the umbrella of collective intelligence … this in-house artificial neural network (ANN) algorithm has so far contributed to about 12% cost reduction of chemical dosing in one of our water desalination plants, which encourages us to industrialise this technology and implement it in selected plants,” explains Altmann.
“I think generally that AI is not stoppable; we’re not using it as a buzzword; we are focusing very much on use cases that make sense and create bottom-line impact.”
Analytics and machine learning
Acwa Power has been at the forefront of innovations not just in operating its plants but in winning tenders by proposing the use of new technologies.
“Over the past decade, we managed to reduce power consumption in our desalination plants by over 80%,” notes Altmann.
“I recall in 2005 when Acwa Power submitted the first bid, most of the desalination plants that were built during that period were based on thermal water desalination technologies such as MSF.”
However, things changed when Saudi Arabia tendered the Shuqaiq 2 independent water and power project (IWPP), which, for the first time, did not prescribe a specific technology for the project’s desalination unit.
There are a lot of things that typically are not discussed, like having to write new procedures to distinguish tasks that can be done by robots, algorithms and humans
“This allowed Acwa Power to innovate and deploy for the first time a membrane-based desalination technology at scale in Saudi Arabia. We were the only consortium that offered to build a 100% reverse osmosis plant in combination with a power plant (IWPP). Our bid was successful by offering 17% to 19% lower tariff due to significantly lower energy consumption compared to an MSF plant,” Altmann said.
Several years later, with the Rabigh 3 independent water project, the offtaker specified a drastically reduced energy consumption. Altmann said they “had to press the reset button, turn every stone and create a paradigm shift in RO design to meet these requirements”.
At this point, Acwa Power has used the so-called Typical Meteorological Year (TMY) methodology for renewable energy to predict future power generation in solar plants.
Altmann subsequently introduced a similar Typical Seawater Year (TSY) methodology, which used the previous five years’ worth of seawater data, used big data analytics to understand seawater resources, and designed their plant according to this result.
“This contributed significantly to our successful bid because we used real data rather than assumed data based on the request for proposals and implemented several design improvements, which resulted in the lowest ever specific energy consumption for RO in the region,” the executive noted.
Altmann says Acwa Power also introduced the so-called pressure centre in an RO plant in Saudi Arabia, where a high-pressure pump in a desalination plant is not necessarily linked to one reverse osmosis (RO) train. Instead, a pipe connects the pump and the racks, and each pipe can fit any rack. This allows fewer and larger pumps to be used and improves efficiency.
“Rabigh 3 was a breakthrough, and we continued to further optimise the process, and the results were applied, for example, in Taweelah in Abu Dhabi and Jubail 3A in Saudi Arabia.
“We added a solar component to the Taweelah IWP as an innovation and we continued to fine-tune and optimise as we move forward.”
Altmann also says they were the first to introduce machine learning to reduce chemical costs and predict the optimal time for membrane cleaning in RO desalination plants in the region.
The goal is to continue innovating into the future, says Altmann, citing their research and development (R&D) centres in leading universities across the GCC, in particular at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia, where they operate centres of excellence focusing on water, solar, hydrogen and AI.
AI and the future of utility jobs
While a fully autonomous water desalination plant may still be a few years away depending on how fast AI technologies develop, Altmann acknowledges that future plants will have fewer people on the floor.
This does not necessarily mean large-scale staff displacement since “we keep winning new plants, and we can reassign and retrain or reskill our staff.”
“As some jobs disappear, new jobs will be created,” adds Altmann. “There are many opportunities to utilise experienced people.”
The executive, however, cautions that AI deployment in a company is not just a matter of installing software codes.
It requires a change in culture and processes, particularly in HR, where one has to move away from thinking of employees’ positions or jobs but rather their tasks.
“One needs to distinguish which tasks require a lot of data, and involve routines, and which can be done by an algorithm, versus tasks involving creativity, human interaction or validation against ethical standards or privacy compliance and so on.”
“There are a lot of things that typically are not discussed, like having to write new procedures to distinguish tasks that robots, algorithms and humans can do,” he continues.
The executive also cites the paramount importance of the quality of data and the AI readiness of the Internet of Things (IoT) system to enable AI applications.
“The most important thing, besides ethics and privacy, from a technical perspective, is data. If you want a high-quality prediction or an advisory module, you need to put most of your effort into the data first.
“Utilising an algorithm … that’s the easy part, the difficult one is to get clean data, eliminate bias, noise and spurious correlations and consider differential shifts in the training of data since AI works differently to a human brain. AI doesn’t have an intuition or awareness to sense biases and is susceptible to providing wrong predictions,” explains Altmann.
Renewable-powered desalination plants
Altmann argues that if green hydrogen can be produced using 100% renewable energy, the same can be applied to water production.
Acwa Power built a 20MW solar PV to complement the grid-sourced electricity supply for the Taweelah IWP in Abu Dhabi because, according to Altmann, the RFP did not disallow it.
They are looking at doing more of these projects where it makes sense from a sustainability and efficiency point of view.
“The (Taweelah) RFP did not disallow the installation of a solar PV, and there was an available space, so we went ahead to build an on-site solar PV farm, which allowed us to reduce more expensive energy import from the grid.”
Altmann asserts that desalinated water can have a zero-carbon footprint by building captive water desalination plants or sourcing clean energy from the grid.
However, moving to a 100% renewable source will increase the complexity of building desalination plants.
“There’s a difference from a technical perspective if you take power from the grid, which has certain stability and inertia and is often linked to power plants.
“You will need to redesign the desalination plants differently, with a different operation strategy and different motors, and to deploy long-duration energy storage due to intermittency of renewable energy,” he concludes.
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Abu Dhabi National Energy Company (Taqa) completed its full 2024 fiscal year with a net income of AED7.1bn ($1.9bn) on the back of revenues that reached AED55.2bn.
The previous year’s net income is only 1.5% higher compared to the prior year, excluding one-off items worth AED10.8bn related to the acquisition of a 5% stake in Adnoc Gas and AED1.1bn deferred tax charge due to the introduction of the UAE corporate tax.
The company’s ebitda rose 5.9%, to AED21.4bn, in 2024. However, this declined by 31% compared to the prior year if the AED10.8bn acquisition of a 5% stake in Adnoc Gas is considered.
The firm’s capital expenditure rose by 63.8% due to the construction of the Mirfa 2 and Shuweihat 4 seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) plants, as well as the “timing and phasing of project execution” within its transmission and distribution (T&D) division and the inclusion of Taqa Water Solutions, formerly known as SWS Holding before its acquisition by Taqa last year.
Taqa’s free cash flow generation dipped from AED13.9bn in 2023 to AED2.6bn last year, reflecting “increased investments in Masdar, capital investment across generation, T&D and water solutions, and the acceleration of decommissioning activities within oil and gas”.
Gross debt rose from AED61.7bn at the end of 2023 to AED64.1bn due to the issuance of an aggregate AED6.4bn in seven-year and 12-year dual-tranche corporate bonds, consolidation of AED1.5bn in project debt from the acquisition of SWS Holding and AED1.4bn for the construction of the Mirffa 2 and Shuweihat 4 desalination projects.
This was offset by the repayment of AED3.5bn in matured corporate bonds, AED2.9bn in scheduled loan repayments and AED500m of other minor movements.
Some of the firm’s highlights in 2024 included merging Abu Dhabi Distribution Company (ADDC) and Al-Ain Distribution Company (AADC) into one brand, known as Taqa Distribution.
Taqa also continued to focus on Saudi Arabia, having reached financial close with its partners last year for the Juranah independent strategic water reservoir project and the Najim cogeneration plant project.
Along with partners Japan’s Jera and the Saudi firm Albawani, Taqa signed two 25-year power-purchase agreements with the Saudi principal buyer last year for the Rumah 2 and Nairiyah 2 combined-cycle gas turbine power plants, which have a combined generation capacity of 3.6GW.
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Last year, Taqa acquired a 50% stake in US-based Terra-Gen Power Holdings II, while in Europe and through Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company (Masdar), it completed the acquisition of Saeta Yield from Brookfield Renewable.
Masdar and Spain’s Endesa finalised a partnership agreement last year, with Masdar acquiring a 49.99% stake in EGPE Solar, an Endesa subsidiary. Masdar also acquired Greece’s Terna Energy, which had an operating capacity of 1.2GW at the time of acquisition and is targeting 6GW of operational renewable capacity by 2029.
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In terms of the firm’s oil and gas business, it concluded the sale of its stake in the Atrush oil field in the Kurdish Region of Iraq in 2024.
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Jafurah cogeneration plant expansion talks start
13 February 2025
Saudi Aramco and Korea Electric Power Corporation (Kepco) are understood to be undertaking talks to expand the capacity of the $500m Jafurah cogeneration independent steam and power plant (ISPP) in Saudi Arabia.
The construction of the facility is nearing completion and negotiations have started for phase 2 of the project, a source close to the project tells MEED.
At the time of its procurement, the plant's first phase was to have a power capacity of 270-320MW, and a low-pressure (LP) steam demand of 77-166 thousand pounds an hour (klb/hr) and high-pressure (HP) steam demand of 29-126 klb/hour by 2023.
The LP and HP steam demand will increase to 283-373 klb/hr and 66-321 klb/hr, respectively, by 2027.
The oil giant issued the letter of award to Kepco for the contract to develop the Jafurah ISPP scheme in July 2022.
The South Korean utility developer and investor saw off competition from two Saudi-headquartered firms, Acwa Power and Al-Jomaih, to win the contract.
Kepco subsequently awarded South Korea’s Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction the project’s engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract.
US/India-based Synergy Consulting provided financial advisory services to Kepco on its bid.
Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) served as the client's financial adviser for the project. Germany’s Fichtner Consulting Engineers is technical consultant, while the UK’s Wood Group is project management consultant.
Unconventional programme
The Jafurah gas development is part of Aramco’s $3.2bn unconventional resources programme, which aims to develop shale gas in three areas. Jafurah lies southeast of Ghawar, the world’s largest conventional oil field.
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Ewec invites Al-Sila wind bids
13 February 2025
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Abu Dhabi state offtaker Emirates Water & Electricity Company (Ewec) has invited prequalified developers to submit their proposals for a contract to develop a 140MW wind power project in Abu Dhabi.
The Al-Sila wind independent power project is a greenfield renewable energy project with a generation capacity of up to 140MW. When fully operational, it will more than double the existing wind generation capacity in the UAE.
Ewec said it expects to receive bids by Q2 2025.
Companies understood to have expressed interest in bidding for the contract include Japan’s Marubeni Corporation and Jera, France’s Engie and EDF Renewables, Saudi Arabia’s Acwa Power and Alfanar, and Beijing-based PowerChina, among others.
Ewec has not disclosed the list of prequalified bidders, but industry sources say most of the companies that expressed interest also passed the prequalification phase.
The Al-Sila wind project will involve the development, financing, construction, operation, maintenance and ownership of the wind farm and associated infrastructure.
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Ewec expects the project to generate enough clean electricity to power 36,000 homes, displacing 190,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide annually.
It will also directly contribute to Abu Dhabi’s Clean Energy Strategic Target 2035, which calls for 60% of electricity production to be generated by renewable and clean sources.
Together with the existing UAE wind assets, the new project will increase the UAE’s wind generation capacity to approximately 240MW, laying the foundation for further wind energy expansion, according to Ewec’s Statement of Future Capacity Requirements report.
In October last year, Ewec and Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company (Masdar) signed a power-purchase agreement for several wind power plants in Abu Dhabi and Fujairah, with a combined capacity of over 100MW.
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- Delma Island (Abu Dhabi): 27MW
- Al-Sila Abu Dhabi: 27MW
- Al-Halah (Fujairah): 4.5MW
Masdar developed the 103.5MW wind power projects, which use “the latest technology and innovation to capture low wind speeds at utility scale, adopting advances in material science and aerodynamics to make wind power possible in the country”.
The Al-Sila wind farm takes the total number of IPPs under various procurement stages in Abu Dhabi to six. The other schemes are:
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Contractors have submitted proposals to build a manufacturing facility in Riyadh for Chinese computer maker Lenovo.
MEED understands that the proposals for the project, known as the Oasis Project, were submitted on 10 February.
The tender notice was issued on 3 January.
The manufacturing facility will be constructed on a 200,000 square-metre site at the Special Integrated Logistics Zone at King Khalid International airport in Riyadh.
The plan is for the construction works to be undertaken in two phases, both of which are expected to be operational by 2026.
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The second phase covers the construction of the second plant building and other associated buildings. The second phase is expected to be completed by August 2026.
According to local media reports, Alat, a subsidiary of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), and Lenovo broke ground on the manufacturing facility on 9 February.
Lenovo secured a $2bn investment deal with Alat to manufacture computer devices in the kingdom in January.
In May 2024, Lenovo signed a collaboration agreement with Alat to set up a manufacturing facility in Saudi Arabia.
The funding will also support Lenovo in establishing a regional headquarters for the Middle East and Africa market in Riyadh. The headquarters will include customer centres, research and development centres, and manufacturing facilities for personal computers and servers.
In February last year, the PIF unveiled its $100bn capital-backed company Alat, which aims to transform Saudi Arabia into a global hub for electronics and advanced industries.
The company aims to create 39,000 direct jobs and achieve a direct non-oil GDP contribution of $9.3bn in Saudi Arabia by 2030.
It was reported that Alat would have seven business units focusing on areas such as semiconductors, artificial intelligence, next-generation infrastructure, and smart appliances and smart buildings.
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Alat is expected to focus on providing sustainable manufacturing solutions for international companies by accessing clean energy resources in Saudi Arabia to reach carbon-neutral goals by 2060, while the PIF’s own goal is to be carbon-neutral by 2050.
According to GlobalData, China is the largest producer of laptops, manufacturing a significant portion of the world’s supply. In recent years, it has faced challenges due to supply chain disruptions, including the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and geopolitical tensions, particularly affecting markets like Ukraine and Russia.
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South Korea is reported to produce about 20% of the global supply of semiconductors, which are essential for laptop production, while Taiwan is recognised for its advanced semiconductor manufacturing capabilities. Additionally, India is working to enhance its domestic laptop production, although it currently imports over 80% of the laptops in use.
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Ninety express interest for Taif airport PPP
13 February 2025
Some 90 firms have expressed interest in bidding for a contract to develop and operate a new international airport in Taif in the kingdom’s Mecca province.
Saudi Arabia’s Matarat Holding, through the National Centre for Privatisation & PPP (NCP), invited firms to express interest in bidding for the contract in early December.
The international and local firms that expressed their interest are:
- Abdul Ali Al-Ajmi Company (local)
- Abrdn Investcorp Infrastructure Investments (UK)
- Aeroporti Di Roma (Italy)
- Algihaz Holding (local)
- Al-Jaber Contracting (local)
- Al-Modon Al-Arabia Company (local)
- Al-Rashid Trading & Contracting Company (local)
- Al-Sharif Contracting & Commercial Development (local)
- Al-Yamama Company for Trading & Contracting (local)
- Al-Ayuni Investment & Contracting Company (local)
- Alghanim International General Trading & Contracting (Kuwait)
- Almabani General Contractors (local)
- Almansouryah Company General Contracting (local)
- AlMozaini Real Estate (local)
- Almutlaq Real Estate Investment Company (local)
- Alternative Resources Investment
- Annasban Group (local)
- Asyad Holding Company (local)
- AVIC-KDN Airport Engineering (China)
- Bangalore International Airport (India)
- Binladin International (local)
- Bouygues Batiment (France)
- CACC International Engineering
- China Harbour Engineering Company (China)
- Surbana Consultants (Singapore)
- Buna Al-Khaleej Contracting (local)
- China National Aero-Technology International Engineering Corporation (China)
- China Railway Construction Corporation (China)
- Clavrix (US)
- Consolidated Contractors Company (Greece)
- Contrax International (UAE)
- Corporacion America Airports (Luxembourg)
- Currie & Brown (UK)
- DAA International (Dublin Airport Authority, Ireland)
- Dar Al-Handasah Consultants (Shair & Partners, Lebanon)
- DG Jones & Partners (UAE)
- EB Cornerstone (UK)
- Edgenta Arabia (Malaysia)
- Egis Project (France)
- Enzar Company for Operation & Maintenance (local)
- Erada Advanced Projects (local)
- EXP Arabia (Canada)
- FAS Energy (local)
- Ghesa Ingeniera Technologia (Spain)
- GMR Airports (India)
- Gulf Investment Corporation (Kuwait)
- Haji Abdullah AliReza & Company (local)
- IC Ictas (Turkiye)
- Indiza Airport Management (South Africa)
- Innovative Contractors for Advanced Dimensions (ICAD, local)
- International Energy (local)
- Kalyon Insaat (Turkiye)
- Kolin Insaat (Turkiye)
- Korea Airports Corporation (South Korea)
- Koushan Real Estate Development Company (local)
- Lamar Holding (local)
- Limak Insaat (Turkiye)
- Lynx Contracting Company (local)
- Mada International Holding Company (local)
- Makyol Insaat (local)
- Manchester Airport Group (UK)
- Middle East Tasks (local)
- Modern Airports (local)
- Mota-Engil (Portugal)
- Mowah Company (local)
- Munich Airport International (Germany)
- Namaya Investment Company (local)
- Nasser Abdullah Abu Sarhad (local)
- National Transportation Solution Company (local)
- Nesma & Partners (local)
- Nesma Company (local)
- Pini Group (Switzerland)
- Ports Projects Management & Development Company (local)
- Salso & Associates (Greece)
- Samsung C&T Corporation (South Korea)
- Sarh Developments (local)
- Saudi Arabian Trading & Construction Company (local)
- Saudi Binladin Group (local)
- Saudi Building Technic Maintenance Company (local)
- Skilled Engineers Contracting (local)
- Sumou Real Estate Company (local)
- Tamasuk Holding Company (local)
- Tatweer Buildings Company (local)
- Tav Airports Holding (Turkiye)
- Technical Development Company for Contracting (local)
- Terminal Yapi Ve Ticaret (Turkiye)
- Vantage Group (Australia)
- Vision International Investment Company (local)
- WCT International (Malaysia)
- Zamil Group (local)
The new Taif International airport will be located 21 kilometres southeast of the existing Taif airport, with a capacity to accommodate 2.5 million passengers by 2030.
The clients opted for a 30-year build-transfer-operate (BTO) contract model, including the construction period.
In addition to a new airport terminal, the proposed design features a runway with a full-length parallel taxiway connecting to a single commercial apron.
The scope includes facility buildings, utility networks, car parks and access roads, as well as provisions for additional expansions to meet future subsystem requirements.
The new Taif International airport is expected to meet the projected increase in demand by 2055 and contribute to the economic development of Taif city and its surrounding areas, in line with the kingdom’s National Aviation Strategy.
It is also expected to meet the needs of Umrah pilgrims as a viable alternative within the region’s multi-airport system, which includes King Abdulaziz Airport in Jeddah, Prince Mohammed Bin Abdulaziz Airport in Medina and Prince Abdulmohsen Bin Abdulaziz Airport in Yanbu.
Other airport PPPs
In addition to the Taif International project, three other airports comprise the first stage of Saudi Arabia’s latest plan to modernise and privatise its international and domestic airports.
The other planned airport public-private partnership (PPP) schemes are in Abha, Hail and Qassim.
Matarat and NCP recently tendered the contract to develop and operate a new passenger terminal building and related facilities at Abha International airport. They expect to receive bids by April.
Located in Asir province, the first phase of the Abha International airport PPP project is set for completion in 2028. It will increase the airport terminal area from 10,500 square metres (sq m) to 65,000 sq m.
The contract scope includes a new rapid-exit taxiway on the current runway, a new apron to serve the new terminal, access roads to the new terminal building and a new car park area. The scope also includes support facilities such as an electrical substation expansion and a new sewage treatment plant.
The transaction advisory team for the client on the Abha airport PPP scheme comprises UK-headquartered Deloitte and Ashurst as financial and legal advisers, respectively, and ALG as technical adviser.
Previous tenders
The Taif, Hail and Qassim airport schemes were previously tendered and awarded as PPP projects using a BTO model.
Saudi Arabia’s General Authority of Civil Aviation (Gaca) awarded the contracts to develop four airport PPP projects to two separate consortiums in 2017.
A team of Tukey’s TAV Airports and the local Al-Rajhi Holding Group won the 30-year concession agreement to build, transfer and operate airport passenger terminals in Yanbu, Qassim and Hail.
A second team, comprising Lebanon’s Consolidated Contractors Company, Germany’s Munich Airport International and local firm Asyad Group, won the BTO contract to develop Taif International airport.
However, these projects stalled following the restructuring of the kingdom’s aviation sector.
Saudi Arabia has already privatised airports, including the $1.2bn Prince Mohammed Bin Abdulaziz International airport in Medina, which was developed as a PPP and opened in 2015.
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