Areva Transmission and Distribution (T&D), acquired by Areva from Alstom in January 2004, has made a substantial impact since setting up its own automation unit in Dubai, winning a number of substation automation projects in the UAE, Qatar and Bahrain, and recently being awarded a contract for the energy management systems (EMS) for the dispatching in the western region of Saudi Arabia.
Furthermore, Areva T&D was awarded two contracts for the GCC grid. The first was to construct the back-to-back 1 800 MW HVDC converter station, which converts the voltage between Saudi Arabia the other states. The second was to design and build the grid’s entire automation solution.
This meant constructing a control centre equipped with an EMS to optimise the management of the network, as well as developing the telecommunications infrastructure to relay key substation information to the control centre.
In addition, Areva T&D is installing a market management system to enable the recording and billing of energy transactions between the different countries. This system decides at what price electricity should be sold, based on the market supply and demand curve. It has been used in Europe and the US, and now Areva T&D is developing it for the Gulf Cooperation Council Interconnection Authority (GCCIA), which is overseeing the grid project. Discussion with the political authorities will then define the rules for energy pricing.
“We were very proud to win that project because it was the first time in the region where we took the overall responsibility for all of the automation,” says Laurent Demortier, executive vice president for Areva T&D’s automation and service business unit.
“We believe this is a good solution for the customers because it gives us full responsibility for all the automation on those 400/220 kV substations, and gives a single interlocutor to the customers for everything related to the data management within the grid.
“The second interesting thing is that the scope included exactly everything that we do: all the automation inside the substation; the control of the substations between themselves, what we call the dispatching, and also the market management system, which deals with the financial transactions between the different parties. It was a good project scope because it really included all the architecture for the efficient management of the data.”
Demortier describes the GCC grid concept as “absolutely necessary”. He points out that the region could choose to export its oil or transform its oil and export electricity instead. But just how feasible is exporting electricity and how far can it go?
“In order to have more efficient energy management, we need to improve the fluidity of the energy,” Demortier continues. “There is some limitation on how far you can carry the electricity but, putting that aside, we are now working a lot on interconnecting all the Mediterranean countries. For the time being, we are doing the dispatching for Libya.
“In order to interconnect, first you need to have strong management of your own electricity in your own country – be able to match supply and demand in a very efficient way and connect all the generation.”
Countries such as Morocco, Algeria, Libya and Tunisia are all putting new dispatching in place. Areva T&D is working to close the loop around the Mediterranean, interconnecting the grids of North Africa, which is in turn being connected to Jordan and Syria. The northern side of the Mediterranean is already connected to Western Europe, so it would be theoretically possible to bring power to the Gulf from Western Europe.
“If you go around the Mediterranean, we are building the required infrastructure for each region. That is the prerequisite for the next step, which is the interconnection of those regions between themselves.”
But Demortier will not be drawn on when powering the Middle East from another continent would possible. After all, when the interconnection work is done, it is time for the contractors to hand control over to the authorities. At this stage, companies like Areva can provide assistance, but the extent to which a joint system is used is no longer a technological issue – it is essentially a question of political will.
“Energy is a national matter in most countries. Look at what happens in Europe for instance – European policy will decide.
“In order to manage it efficiently they might have some governance. We do not decide on the governance but we can provide some tools to help that governance – a system that can balance the loads and the needs between Region 1 and Region 2, with all those functions being done in real-time. So it is not transactional, not like a stock exchange, it is more real-time.
“We have the technology and the means to support any policy that goes for the merging of electricity from Region 1 and Region 2. We started connecting the US at the end of the 90s. At that time there were some technological issues because of large-scale information systems that we needed to put in place. Those times are now over.
Today, it is not the technology that is a constraint – it is now a political decision on how far they want to go.
“In this region there is a lot of raw material energy so I am sure the government will look at ways to get value out of this energy – electricity is certainly one way to get value out of it.”
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