Global Arab Network | Syria - Thirst for Power

Translate this article to your language:

GANPublications

e-Publications

Add Site to Favorites

Add Page to Favorites

Make Homepage

Share This Page

RSS Feed

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| |

Syria - Thirst for Power

Global Arab Network - - George Haddad

Monday, 12 October 2009 14:43

For the past few summers, when an influx of tourists and air conditioners put a heavy strain on the country’s electricity networks, Syria’s Public Establishment for Distribution and Exploitation of Electrical Energy has routinely shut down the grid in large parts of the country. Although attempts have been made to publish a regular schedule of power cuts, citizens have generally been left guessing about when exactly they will and will not have electricity.

For essential industries and large companies the consequences have so far been limited to a nuisance; hospitals are required to have generators and bigger companies can usually afford to install a generator to cover the cuts. The hardest-hit businesses are small and medium-sized enterprises. The butcher cannot use his meat saw, internet cafés see their customers walk out, carpenters have to work longer hours to make up for lost time – the list is long.

“My refrigerator broke down and I had to throw it out, filled with ruined produce,” Kinan Tahan, who runs a small mini-market selling milk, yoghurt and cheese in Harasta, a suburb of Damascus, said. “All in all, I lost about SYP 25,000 [USD 544] because of the power cuts. This is a huge loss for me.”

So what is the problem? “Syria’s economy is growing,” Ahmad Kussay Kayyali, minister of electricity, said. “We are rapidly building more factories, more universities, more hospitals and so on. All of this is good, but it means there is an increased demand for electricity.”

The country’s economic opening has seen a whole range of electronic goods hit the market. Power-hungry laptops, mobile phones, washing machines, plasma TVs and, of course, the near-essential air conditioner, have all been favourite consumer items in recent years. Demand for electricity has spiked by around 75 percent over the past eight years and supply just cannot keep up.

Supply and demand
Syria’s power plants are also in dire need of upgrade and extension. Confusion seems to surround exact output and demand figures, with the minister of electricity recently giving different figures in separate interviews published in the state-run newspapers Al-Thawra and Tishreen. Statistics provided to Syria Today from the Ministry of Electricity’s (MoE) planning department, however, show that demand increased from 3,878 MW in 2000 to 6,715 MW in 2008, a year-on-year rise of 7 percent.

Expected Demand for 2009 is 7,200 MW, while generation capacity currently stands at 6,200 MW, according to the MoE. Around 85 percent of the country’s power comes from 11 power stations, with the rest provided via hydroelectric dams (all working far below capacity because of reduced water supply brought on by a three-year drought) and leftover electricity generated by refineries. In addition, Syria presently imports about 300 MW from Turkey and Egypt. This puts the current deficit at 700 MW and rising.

Syria’s electricity infrastructure is also highly inefficient. A whopping 27 percent of its electricity output disappears due to “technical and commercial losses”, Nedal Karmoucheh, director of the planning department at the MoE, said. In other words: more than a quarter of Syria’s electricity is either stolen or simply lost through badly isolated cables. In a bid to put a stop to widespread meter rigging, the government has begun switching analogue meters for electric ones which should, in theory, be harder to tamper with.

New projects
Syria is trying to catch up with demand by extending existing power stations and building new ones. “We currently have 1,000 MW under construction,” Kayyali said. “These should gradually start giving us extra electricity within two months.”

These projects include a 250 MW steam turbine in the power plant of Deir Ali I, located 25km south of Damascus, under construction by Siemens and scheduled to begin operating this month. Two 130 MW gas turbines at the Banias Power Plant and two 150 MW gas turbines are also expected to begin generating electricity in the first quarter of next year.

Getting these projects up and running has been no easy task, however, and a number of problems with international contractors have delayed their start date. These include the bankruptcy of Koch, a German firm that was part of the consortium with Siemens to build the Deir Ali I plant. Spanish firm Iberdrola also withdrew after it was awarded the contract to build a 750 MW plant in Deir ez-Zor, following a dispute with its consortium partner Alstom-Poland.

Another five projects are on the table, with the minister telling Syria Today that the contract for two of these is expected to be signed this month. The other three are still under evaluation and need financing, although the government recently secured funds from the European Investment Bank (EIB) and a number of Arab and Islamic organisations.

“These five projects should increase our capacity by 3,000 MW in 2012,” Kayyali said.

One of the two deals close to completion is the building of the Deir Ali II plant. In January, the EIB granted Syria SYP 18.4bn (EUR 275) in funds to construct a 750 MW natural gas-fired combined cycle power plant located next to the Deir Ali I, which is also being financed by the EIB.

Build, Operate, Transfer
Moving ahead, the government is increasingly looking towards the private sector to develop the country’s electricity infrastructure. The idea is to release tenders for the construction of power plants under a Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) contract. Private companies will build the infrastructure and operate it for a fixed number of years under preset terms which generally include the government guaranteeing to buy all production. After the period ends, the plant becomes government property. Similar partnerships have been used to develop the country’s mobile phone sector.

The first such partnership was announced in July last year and involves energy company Kharafi Cham, an affiliate of Cham Holding, and the MoE. According to the agreement, Kharafi Cham will build and operate a SYP 41.4bn (USD 900m), 750 MW capacity power plant at Jandar near Homs, next to the existing state-owned 450 MW plant. The ministry, in turn, will provide the gas needed to operate the plant and buy all its electricity output at an agreed price. A statement from Cham Holding released at the time said the plant will rely on French-made equipment and was expected to start operating by June 2010.

The present status of the project, however, is unclear. In an interview with Syria Today, the minister of electricity said the government was still deciding whether the contract would be awarded to Kharafi Cham or a Greek company. Cham Holding was unavailable for comment on the matter.

Regional market needed
Although more capacity is clearly needed, much can also be gained by changing the way Syria deals with electricity, argues Jean-Marie Frentz, a programme officer for the European Commission who specialises in energy issues. “More interconnection, more renewable energy and more energy efficiency,” are his recommendations. “Interconnections with neighbouring countries are there to a certain extent, but there’s room for improvement.”

Ultimately, Syria would benefit from the establishment of a regional energy and electricity market similar to that up and running in Europe: when one country has an excess, another can buy the surplus.

“This makes for a more balanced supply and demand equation,” Frentz said.

Efficiency can also be improved on the consumer side. The introduction of energy-efficient appliances and better building codes which promote more energy-efficient designs will all save electricity. The government recently launched a low interest rate loan for solar water heaters, while an EU-sponsored project taking shape in Qudsaya near Damascus is supporting the construction of an energy-efficient apartment block of the future to inspire local architects and builders.

Green Ambitions Delayed
Syria has set itself the goal of producing 5 percent of its energy needs from renewable sources by 2011. Little progress on this front has been made to date, however.

“This was an ambitious goal,” Ahmad Kussay Kayyali, minister of electricity, said.

Solar and wind stand as the most promising green energy possibilities. Although three dams on the Orontes and Euphrates rivers produce hydroelectric energy, low water levels have reduced production to just a few hundred MW, instead of the maximum capacity of 1,600 MW.

In 2006, the Syrian government started talks with Spanish energy giant Iberdrola to build a 100 MW wind farm near Homs. Responding to enquiries from Syria Today, however, Kayyali said these discussions had come to nothing.

Late last year, Syria also signed a memorandum of understanding with the German company Alternergie to build the country’s first solar electricity plant near Homs. The 3.35bn (EUR 50m) station was expected to start operating with an annual capacity of 10 MW, eventually expanding to 1,000 MW.

But progress on this front is also uncertain, with Kayyali saying the project was “not going as it should be”. Alternergie’s director Michael Nuebel said he was not aware of any problems with the project and the company had signed a number of contracts with the government. (syria-today)

Global Arab Network

Add comment

The opinions of the authors in articles published are theirs alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of Global Arab Network
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Published comments are the opinions of private individuals and do not reflect the views of Global Arab Network