It is not economically viable to lease power on temporary basis, unless the project is late. Power companies are not able to meet demand, so yes, you need rental.

– Abdul Hamid Al Mansour, Saudi Tabreed

There are very small remote areas where SEC, being a nationwide utility company, are committed to providing power.

– Ghaleb Abusaa, en3 Solutions

15 years ago, it was very difficult to make people aware of the tariff system. Now, though quite a bit of confusion exists on numbers, there is focus and passion. This is the positive side. The question remains, though – how far can you go with passion? Today, we have a few sympathetic owners, coupled with enthusiastic engineers, but we need a larger movement.

– Dr Anwar Hassan, JCI

In two projects that I know of, they used TES (thermal energy storage) and VSDs (variable speed drives), when given the liberty. When there were time constraints, though, people said, “I don’t care about the long term.”

– Dr Anwar Hassan, JCI

Potable water is 10 times more expensive than TSE (treated sewage effluent). Yet, we need a law for people to use it. So, is it complexity that is driving us away (from using any technology)?

– George Berbari, DC PRO Engineering

Very few cities in the world have networks to feed steam to chillers. But in industries, this is feasible. In the US, a number of university campuses generate their own power at very low cost – less than what it costs for the local utility. They have huge boilers and steam turbines. The cost of steam turbines is very high, though. It is advantageous to those that have subsidised steam.

– Member of the audience

ECRA (Electricity and Cogeneration Regulatory Authority, Saudi Arabia) is a wonderful development. As of now, though, the facility is not available with ECRA for anyone who wants to sell power to the grid. In US, there is a national law forcing the authority to buy electricity from users.

– Member of the audience