Smart technology can save GCC utilities billions

GCC Smart Metering powers smart grids with real-time monitoring, demand response, and remote AC control, boosting energy efficiency, integrating renewables, cutting summer peak loads, and aligning consumption with tariff reforms across GCC states.

Adoption of smart technology could result in savings of about $5 billion to $10 billion over the next decade in investments made by power utility firms in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states toward managing peak load capacities, according to consultants at AT Kearney.

GCC states include Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, where major projects such as a Kuwait grid upgrade are progressing.

Smart technology, such as smart metering and smart grid connections, will enable energy utility firms to monitor demand and supply in real time and automatically control energy usage. Using Internet portals and home displays, customers also could monitor and reduce excess energy consumption by up to 10% by finding and fixing power hogs at home.

Peak energy loads in the Middle East occur during the summer months, when air conditioning units function throughout the day. Smart technology allows the utility firm to monitor and remotely control AC units through the smart grid infrastructure in many markets.

The consumer power consumption pattern is likely to change in the event of an increase in power tariffs that are currently subsidized. Over the next decade, AT Kearney predicts a decline of 10% to 20% in peak load demand in the region.

With more countries and companies going "green," smart metering is expected to be adopted worldwide as an efficient energy-management technology. In the Middle East, efforts are on at the regional level to improve energy efficiencies, which, according to the consultants, requires implementation of smart metering. Pilot projects are under way in Saudi Arabia and other GCC states, while cross-border links like the Egypt-Saudi grid interconnection illustrate regional coordination efforts. The technology will be put to practice shortly, reducing the cost of daily operations and minimizing the need for additional power plants.

Smart grid systems will be integrated with standalone renewable energy ventures as the grid transition for renewables accelerates, and monitored using smart meters, which record usage and power generation statistics. Further, remote data collection devices deployed on the field make outage and fault management easy tasks for the utility. The investments in smart technology are expected to lead to stable supply of energy that can be utilized based on requirements.

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