Siemens hopeful over Masdar deals

Ralf Christian, CEO, power distribution, Siemens

Utilities-ME.com talks to Ralf Christian, CEO, power distribution, Siemens about what the company has to offer the Masdar City project.

What does Siemens offer which is unique to the company?

Siemens overall is a company that is covering the whole electricity and energy portfolio. We have nearly all technologies available to us. It goes from the generation to the distribution and into power consumption. We have a unique position because we are the only company that covers the whole chain.

Are you hoping to secure work in Masdar City?

Masdar has a huge potential to become a benchmark of a clean city and we are extremely interested in working together with Masdar. As we have a strong portfolio there are a number of different elements which could be of interest to Siemens, for example the smart power grid, technology for smart buildings, even the transportation. So there are a lot of angles where Masdar could work with Siemens.

We have excellent contacts with Masdar and we have already been in touch with them and there has been a lot of analysis of their requirements and we are confident we can become one of their important partners in the future for different elements of what is required in Masdar City.

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What challenges are facing the energy sector?

When I relate it to the energy business, I think the most important challenge is that the easy energy of the past has come to an end so we have to remodel the complete energy infrastructure globally and incorporate the renewable technology. And with most of those renewable energies we cannot just switch on and off whenever you like it, like with wind power and solar power.

So this requires a different type of management for the system. In the past it was easy, whenever you had more consumption you increased generation. But if you want to be CO2 free it is more about storage and more about managing consumption as well. In the past consumption side could do whatever you wanted to do, at whatever time of day you could use energy. In the clean future we need to have a balance and manage both consumption and generation. That requires a different set up of the grid, a lot if intelligence and communication technologies.

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