Related Articles

• 
  Group expects robust steel demand in 2024

  14 October 2024

  Middle East steel demand is forecast to grow by 4.9% in 2024 to 56.9 million tonnes on the back of strong economic and projects market growth, according to the World Steel Association.

  Speaking at the 17th Arab Steel Summit in Doha on 14 October, Adam Szewczyk, data management head at the World Steel Association, said that the demand growth for finished steel anticipated this year comes on the back of a 4.2% year-on-year rise between 2022 and 2023.

  The trend will continue into 2025 where demand is expected to increase by 3.3% to 58.7 million tonnes.

  Growth in the region far outpaces other parts of the world, which as a whole is projected to see a decline in demand of 0.9% to 1,751 million tonnes this year and growth of only 1.2% in 2025.

  This forecast is attributed to the fall in real estate demand and a sluggish economic performance in China, the largest global market, which continues to impact the market. Higher energy costs and geo-political issues in Europe are also major factors affecting output.

  Overall, the Middle East is one of only four regions globally to exhibit demand growth in 2024 alongside India, other developing Asian economies – excluding China – and sub-Saharan Africa.

  Specifically, finished steel demand in the GCC is forecast at 6.2% this year to reach 24.2 million tonnes and 4.1% in 2025.

  On a country level, Saudi Arabia is exhibiting the strongest growth of the region’s major economies with demand growth of 7% to reach 12.1 million tonnes projected in 2024, rebounding strongly from a fall of 6% in 2023 when the Gaza war, the Red Sea crisis, and weaker global demand deeply impacted the local market’s performance.

  It is a similar story in North Africa, which following a decline of 5.3% in 2023, is expected to surge 6.5% to 18.6 million tonnes this year and 5.3% the next on the back in part of a weaker Egyptian pound helping boost exports.

  MEED data suggests GCC 2025 steel demand could well exceed current forecasts.

  A doubling of annual contract awards to a record $236bn in 2023 is likely to have a major positive impact on steel demand in 2025 and 2026 as this increase in spending flows through into the market over time.

  Projects cashflow in the GCC will hit $177bn in 2024 and $250bn in 2025 according to MEED Projects, up from $110bn and $127bn in 2022 and 2023 respectively. Given that the majority of all steel products output in the region is utilised on construction and energy projects, the rapid ramp-up in capital expenditure by extension is likely to result in an equally significant jump in steel demand.

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  Edward James
• 
  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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  Jennifer Aguinaldo
• 
  Qiddiya to tender utility EPC contracts

  14 October 2024

  

   

  Qiddiya Investment Company (QIC) is tendering the Qiddiya entertainment city’s utility packages individually, according to sources close to the project.

  “One of the packages is in the prequalification phase,” one source said.

  QIC previously tendered the multi-utility package using a public-private partnership (PPP) model. That package included power generation, water desalination, sewage treatment and water transmission networks.

  QIC received two bids for the PPP contract in June 2020. Saudi-based utilities developers Acwa Power and Alfanar Company submitted bids for the PPP project.

  That plan has since been cancelled, and the project’s various components have been tendered using an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract model.

  The EPC contract for the project’s sewage treatment plant (STP) project is understood to be in the prequalification phase. 

  The infrastructure package will cater to Saudi Arabia’s 360-square-kilometre Qiddiya entertainment city.

  Under the previous PPP plant, the solar power plant for the project was expected to have a design capacity of 300MW.

  The Qiddiya development is one of four major projects being developed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF). Two other developments, the Red Sea and Amaala, have each awarded multi-utility packages using a PPP model.

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  Jennifer Aguinaldo
• 
  JinkoSolar wins 3GW Haden and Al-Khushaybi orders

  14 October 2024

  Chinese solar photovoltaic (PV) and energy storage system company JinkoSolar has won a contract to supply solar PV modules with a capacity of 3GW for Saudi Arabia’s Haden and Al-Khushaybi solar projects.

  The projects comprise two of the three solar schemes awarded under round four of the Public Investment Fund’s (PIF) Price Discovery Scheme.

  Saudi utility developer Acwa Power, in partnership with PIF-backed Water & Electricity Holding Company (Badeel) and Saudi Aramco Power Company (Sapco), a subsidiary of state majority-owned oil giant Saudi Aramco, is developing the PIF 4 projects.

  Beijing-headquartered China Energy Engineering Corporation has been appointed as the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC)contractor for the 2,000MW Haden solar project in Mecca.

  The renewable energy arm of India's Larsen & Toubro (L&T) is the EPC contractor for the 1,500MW Al-Khushaybi solar PV project in Qassim.

  The contract awarded to JinkoSolar entails the supply of its N-type Tiger Neo series 78 photovoltaic modules in the Haden solar project.

  The Al-Khushaybi power station on the other hand will deploy JinkoSolar's N-type Tiger Neo series 66 photovoltaic modules.

  According to JinkoSolar', itsTiger Neo modules feature the "advanced N-type TOPCon technology". The modules have demonstrated excellent low degradation rates, low-temperature coefficients and high reliability, ensuring the project's high-level performance under the harsh conditions of high irradiation, high temperatures, large significant temperature differences between day and night, and frequent sandstorms in Saudi Arabia.

   Acwa Power and its partners announced reaching financial close for the three large-scale solar PV projects late last month.

  Acwa Power’s effective shareholding in each of the three projects is 35.1%. Badeel owns 34.9% and Sapco owns the remaining shares.

  The project companies signed financing documents amounting to SR9.7bn ($2.6bn), Acwa Power previously announced.

  The financing duration is 27.3 years.

  The three new solar PV facilities have a combined value of SR12.3bn ($3.3bn) and are expected to become operational in the first half of 2027.

  The renewable energy arm of India's Larsen & Toubro (L&T) is the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor for the 2,000MW Muwayh and the 1,500MW Al-Khushaybi solar PV projects located in Mecca and Qassim, respectively.

  The PIF is procuring 70% of Saudi Arabia's target renewable energy installed capacity by 2030 through the Price Discovery Scheme. The rest is being procured through a public tendering process overseen by SPPC. 

  The Saudi Energy Ministry recently said that the kingdom will procure 20GW of renewable energy capacity annually starting this year, in line with a revised target to install up to 130GW of renewable energy capacity by 2030, "subject to demand growth".

  PIF solar PV projects

  The PIF and its partners are developing several projects with a total capacity of 13.6GW, involving over $9bn in investments. These joint projects – including Sudair, Shuaibah 2, Ar Rass 2, Al-Kahfah and Saad 2 – are intended to enable and support the local private sector through domestic supply-chain participation.

  These three new contracts take Acwa Power's solar portfolio in Saudi Arabia to 14 projects, representing more than 17.8GW of combined PV capacity. It also brings Acwa Power's total renewable capacity portfolio to 35GW. 

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  Jennifer Aguinaldo
• 
  Neom rescopes brine complex project

  14 October 2024

  Enowa, the utility and energy subsidiary of Saudi gigaproject developer Neom, is seeking interest from companies for a project to develop a brine processing complex.

  MEED reported in 2022 that Neom was seeking investors for a brine processing complex that could require investments of up to several billion dollars.

  However, it appears that the original plan and capacity have been rescoped following the cancellation of a project to build an advanced 500,000 cubic-metres-a-day seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) plant catering to the gigaproject earlier this year.

  Enowa is now considering a phased approach for the brine complex, starting with a plant that can treat 50 million litres of brine a day (MLD) in the first phase, and with subsequent phases allowing the plant's capacity to increase to 150MLD and 450MLD, according to an industry source.

  It is understood that a pilot phase with a capacity of 1.2MLD is ongoing in Duba. The pilot project aims to test technologies and prove the full process, leading to market acceptance. 

  The brine complex's 50MLD first phase is expected to be operational in 2030. It will process brine output from an SWRO plant that is currently being tendered and is expected to have a capacity of 150MLD.  

  Brine is the main waste output of processing seawater into potable water, which is discharged to the sea. Neom aims to process residue brine into various usable minerals and chemicals in line with its sustainability and carbon circularity vision.

  Zero liquid discharge

  In May, MEED reported that the joint development agreement (JDA) for a project to develop a zero liquid discharge plant in Arabia's Neom had expired and had not been renewed, leading to the project cancellation.

  A consortium of Neom subsidiary Enowa, Japan’s Itochu and France’s Veolia signed a JDA for the scheme in December 2022, approximately six months after they signed a memorandum of understanding to develop the renewable-energy-powered advanced SWRO project in Oxagon, Neom’s industrial cluster.

  The scope of the JDA covers the project's first phase with a desalination plant that can produce 500,000 cubic metres a day (cm/d) of desalinated water by 2030.  

  In a statement sent to MEED in May, Enowa said Neom's water requirements have evolved over the last year "leading us to adopt a stepwise approach to expanding capacity".

  It continued: "As a result, we've decided to discontinue our joint development agreement (JDA) for this project. This decision was made after open communication and extensive discussions to ensure mutual understanding and commitment.

  "Our dedication to delivering sustainable and innovative solutions remains unchanged, and we value our collaboration with international partners as we adjust our approach to best serve Neom's long-term goals."

  Advanced technology

  In addition to using 100% renewable energy, the proposed state-of-the-art desalination plant intended to use advanced membrane technology to produce separate brine streams, enabling the production of brine-derived products to be developed and monetised downstream.

  The plan involved converting brine, the main waste output of desalination, into industrial materials to be used locally or exported internationally.

  At the time, Enowa said brine generated from the desalination plant would be treated to feed industries utilising high-purity industrial salt, bromine, boron, potassium, gypsum, magnesium and rare metal feedstocks.

  Neom appointed Japan’s Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation as financial adviser for the project. UK-based DLA Piper was the legal adviser and Canada’s WSP was the technical adviser.

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  Jennifer Aguinaldo