In line with Qatar's ambition to become a fully integrated digital society, the Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation (Kahramaa) has revealed that all meters in its grid will be smart meters by the end of 2020.

The announcement was made by Kahramaa president Essa bin Hilal Al Kuwari yesterday at the opening ceremony of the ‘2nd Conference on Smart Grid and Renewable Energy (SGRE2019)’ held in Doha.

While addressing the conference, Al Kuwari said more than 320,000 smart meters are currently installed in its grid, connected with multiple smart technologies, including fiber optics.

"Kahramaa’s smart efforts also include water sustainability and quality, which encourages innovation and new technologies, especially to decrease water losses and advanced desalination techniques," he said.

Al Kuwari is also chairman of the Smart Grid Centre at Texas A&M at Qatar and honourary chair of the conference.

According to Al Kuwari, Kahramaa has completed the smart grid roadmap, jointly with Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station and Texas A&M in Qatar.

The main aim is to transform Qatar’s grid into a secure, sustainable, and digitally-enabled grid that provides reliable and quality energy for stakeholders by 2026, he underlined.

President of #KAHRAMAA has opened the exhibition on the sidelines of the 2nd International Conference of Smart Grid and Renewable Energy in the presence of representatives of companies specialized in the field.#BetterLiving#Qatar#SGRE19@TAMUQ@SGC_Q pic.twitter.com/ItqKI3M04V

— KAHRAMAA (@kahramaa) November 19, 2019

He said that like any smart utility, Kahramaa has faced challenges while upgrading its network.

"However, our grid is highly-capable of monitoring and controlling all its assets and operations together with its networks of smart meters, renewable energy, and electric vehicles, while optimizing Kahramaa’s business and engaging its customers," Al Kuwari noted. 

A successful example of Kahramaa’s grid upgrade is a condition monitoring project of all substations, which achieved net savings of $36 million and reduced faults by more than 50 percent, he mentioned.

"Customers’ engagement has also improved with the Advanced Metering Infrastructure project," Al Kuwari said. 

Moreover, he said, Qatar is committed to the Paris Agreement Goals to combat climate change and to reduce the impact of greenhouse emissions.

This is reflected in the country's efforts to deliver the first 'carbon neutral' World Cup in 2022.

"To further help in reducing emissions and diversifying energy sources, Qatar has set goals to increase the share of renewable energy," Al Kuwari said adding, "[In line with this] Kahramaa will install the first mega photovoltaic station in Qatar with a capacity of 700MW in 2022."

"Kahramaa is currently working to finalize Qatar’s renewable energy strategy by the end of 2020," he said.

Among other efforts in this regard, Kahramaa is currently installing a network of electric vehicle charging stations.

This includes installing the first photovoltaic energy storage EV charging station, as well as the first e-buses charging units in Qatar. 

Additionally, Kahramaa has launched the National Program for Conservation & Energy Efficiency ‘Tarsheed’, which was able to reduce carbon emissions by almost 4 million tonnes and achieve financial savings of almost $0.5 billion in 2018 through technical, legal, and awareness initiatives, Al Kuwari highlighted.

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Cover Image Credit: Twitter/@kahramaa

Source: Gulf Times