POWER SECURITY: deploying district cooling and cogeneration

Over the next few months, we will bring you exclusive coverage of the oil & gas sector from a power security perspective.

There are a number of reasons behind our editorial decision.

Power security is of critical importance across the whole of the GCC, particularly in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The cost for the generation and the transmission and distribution of power is on the rise. To add to the challenge, a rising population means an increase in consumption of power. This has strong implications for the economic security of the country.

Currently, a substantial percentage of the country’s daily crude oil production has to be used to generate power; according to some reports, close to 40% of daily production has to be used for domestic consumption, of which power generation constitutes a major chunk. Again, according to some reports, this figure is climbing by eight per cent a year, which is cause for concern.

Concerned by this, the Kingdom is coming up with a slew of renewable and alternative energy initiatives to reduce the dependence on fossil fuels for power generation. At the same time, it is also increasingly looking at the HVAC industry for solutions.

It is a well-documented fact that residential, commercial and mixed-use buildings account for a large share of the power consumption in Saudi Arabia. It is an equally well-established fact that HVAC systems consume nearly 70% of a building’s total power load. In short, the impact of HVAC systems on power consumption is enormous.

In such a scenario, district cooling, and cogeneration systems, offer themselves as viable solutions to reduce the strain on the country’s power grid and, at the same time, significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions through the reduced burning of fossil fuels. According to global historical data, district cooling can shave off HVACR-related power consumption by 50%. Add to that cogeneration systems, and the scenario is appealing.