WETEX 2012: Executive summary of 14th show outing

Siemens exhibited its power solutions technology on an impressive stand at Wetex 2012.
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Empower
Empower was displaying the model of its 60,000 refrigeration tonnes district cooling plant which at Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), one of the biggest projects in Dubai.

“We are delighted to have the model of our district cooling plant in DIFC displayed in the show. We believe that district cooling will accelerate the move towards green buildings in the UAE,” said Ahmed Bin Shafar, CEO of Empower.”

The plant forms part of Empower’s expansion plans, driven by high demand from business and residential communities in Dubai.

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Sharp Solar
Mamoru Takatsuka, general manager of new business development at Sharp was on hand to promote the company’s new Solar Water Electrolyzing System solution which Sharp is launching at the exhibition. “The solution is perfect for remote areas which are not connected to the power grid, and can be used to electrolyze water for many uses through power converted by PV cells,” said Takatsuka.

“Our system utilizes a membrane as opposed to flash boiling seawater, which requires huge amounts of oil or gas. The water treatment process requires very little maintenance and is therefore much more cost effective. We have installed a system in Kenya which produces enough water for 2000 people everyday using only solar power.”

Takatsuka said that the Middle East and Africa region’s have a totally different approach to solar uses compared to Asia and Europe.

“We have just started building up our solar business locally. Electricity tariffs are extremely low in this region, and subsidising the installation costs in country rich in oil and gas has not been a priority for governments here. That is changing now and the GCC is recognising that meeting the growing electricity demand will consume huge amounts of their precious fossil fuel reserves.”

Riyadh Cable Company
Engineer Khalil Mohammed Al Khayat at Riyadh Cables told Utilities Middle East that the Saudi Arabian cable specialist is now the 18th largest cable manufacturer in the world, and has benefitted from a strong DEWA orderbook recently.

“Our manufacturing facilities cover 650,000m2 and we have 18 local branches and six overseas branches. We are one of the biggest cable manufacturers in the Middle East,” explained Al Khayat.

The company produces a full range of low, medium, and high voltage cables up to 240 kV.

“We are very well established across the GCC, and are now expanding our presence in Africa. 2011 was a good year, significantly stronger than 2010.

This year has also started extremely well and we are confident of a good year. Our principal customer in the UAE is DEWA and we have supplied a lot of high voltage cables to them, but we also work with ADWEA and FEWA.”

Al Khayat said that Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE have been the strongest regional markets by far, and that government and commercial spending looks solid  for  2012.

“There are many opportunities which are being driven by the changes throughout the Arab world. In North Africa there will be significant changes towards government spending plans. The Gulf countries are much more stable and the volume growth we anticipate here is steadier but solid.”