as demand for electricity skyrockets, cable manufacturers are fighting to install ‘best practice’ in the industry|~|108prod200.gif|~|The same old story: The fast pace of development in the region has forced local power companies to adapt by increasing cable production.|~|Powering the vast number of development projects taking place simultaneously across the UAE is just one of the
challenges that faces the power cable industry. Not only
do many of the power cable suppliers operating in the region have to adopt finely tuned strategies to ensure that
the growing daily demand of contractors is met, but they also have to tackle the ease at which sub-standard products seep through the market.
One power cable supplier that has had to adapt to the fast pace of development in the region over the last 30 years is Ducab. The company, which is jointly owned by the governments of Dubai and Abu Dhabi, has supplied cables to various power network projects in the region, including the US $9.8 million (AED 36 million) UAE Federal Electricity and Water Authority (FEWA) 33 kV power network expansion in Fujairah and Ras Al Khaimah, and Dubai Electricity & Water Authority’s (DEWA) 750 mW ‘L’ power station in Jebel Ali. Ducab’s products have also been installed in several of Dubai’s iconic buildings, including the Burj Al Arab, Emirates Towers and Emirates Palace.
In addition to manufacturing low-to-medium voltage cables, Ducab began the commercial production of 132 kV high voltage cables last year. To accommodate this extra output, the company invested $8.1 million in the expansion of its manufacturing unit in Mussafah, Abu Dhabi, along with the upgrade of production techniques and technology. The move is expected to increase production capacity by up to 25%.
This is in addition to the company’s 590 000 m2 factory in Jebel Ali, which currently accounts for the bulk of its production output. The Abu Dhabi plant has also received ISO accreditation from the British Approval Services for Cables (BASEC).
“Our main challenge is to ensure that organisations executing projects are not downgrading on product specification, or sourcing their products from alternative, cheaper sources that do not meet quality and safety standards,” says Farid Mohammed Ahmed, a senior general manager of Ducab’s UAE operations.
“We also need to make sure that consultants do not come under pressure from contractors or project owners to compromise on product specification just because the cost of a project increases.”
All of the company’s low voltage power cables are now made
in Abu Dhabi, while the factory in Jebel Ali produces medium-to-high voltage, and more specialised cables. Among Ducab’s product range are fire resistant cables, low smoke and fume cables, instrumentation and pilot cables, control and auxiliary cables, wiring cables and lead sheathed cables for the oil, gas and petrochemical sectors.
“We laid the groundwork for our Abu Dhabi expansion three years ago,” adds Ahmed. “The reason we took time with the expansion was not only because it’s a very important market to us, but we also had to think about the best way to rationalise our production lines. And so the decision was taken to expand our Abu Dhabi factory, as we felt that this would provide us with all the requirements needed to serve our existing markets, as well as meet the demands of customers in the rest of the Gulf and our export markets. The plan is to double the factory’s capacity by 2007.”
Ensuring contractors have a stringent planning process in place is also a challenge facing power cable suppliers, particularly as the number of projects taking off has placed immense pressure on key resources such a electricity.
“Because of the rush of the infrastructure and the building boom, naturally the availability of raw material can, at times, be difficult, so there is a need to pre-plan much earlier than what would have been done in the past. A contractor really needs to be looking 2-3 months ahead when it comes to ordering power cables,” says Ahmed. “We also have the challenge of making sure that raw materials are available to suit demand requirements — for this, we plan as far ahead as 2010.”
New developments sprawling across the desert have meant that the electricity grid itself has to be expanded, but it also has to cope with the increased capacity. Due to this soaring demand for electricity, countries that make up the GCC signed an agreement in 1999 to build a regional power grid. The total value of contracts for the three-phase project has been set at $3 billion.
The power grid is expected to start operating by the end of 2008, with Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait being linked in the first phase. The UAE and Oman will be linked in the second phase and all six countries will be linked in the third phase.
Projects like this are therefore crucial to the power cable companies, who continue to undertake massive expansion projects to cope with not just local, but regional and international demand.
US-based Panduit International Corporation, which has operations in the UAE, has been designing and manufacturing wiring and communication products since 1955. Its products have been used in numerous projects spanning the construction, telecommunications, transportation, automation and healthcare industries.
“Cable manufacturers are working flat out to satisfy contractors and clients who all seem to want the same products at the same time,” says Jim Graham, director of global oil & gas at Panduit International Corporation.
“The same is true for companies such as Panduit, which manufactures the products to secure, identify and terminate the cables.” Panduit is currently working on projects in the construction, IT and oil and gas industries across the region, and is supplying products to the Dolphin project in Qatar.
“Our solutions are backed up by regional technical support and 24-hour customer service,” says Graham.
Graham adds that despite the number of cable distributors in the region, only a few have the stock and capabilities to match demand and quality. “The influx of cheaper, lower-end priced products restricts the quality that should be adhered to in the construction sector; therefore companies and clients have had to settle for ‘fit for purpose’ products that may only have a short lifecycle.
“Panduit is experiencing companies asking for quality products because the cheaper, poor quality products do not meet the temperature ratings and standards required for this market, which therefore causes construction downtime and leads to additional man-hours being needed to refit products that should not have been installed by contractors.
“We have targeted consultants and specifying houses in order to tighten specifications, which will ensure that only quality manufacturers will be accepted in this market.”||**||
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