Gulf Construction Online - Mena ‘to see $260bn spend in power sector

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Middle East Energy ... to see the participation of more than 1,300 companies.

Mena ‘to see $260bn spend in power sector

01 February 2020

Investments estimated to be worth $260 billion will be made in the Mena region’s power sector by 2022, according to a new major industry report released ahead of upcoming Middle East Energy.

The global energy platform, to be held next month (March 3 to 5) in Dubai, UAE, is expected to see the participation of more than 1,300 companies across the exhibition’s five product sectors – Digitalisation, Power Generation, Transmission & Distribution, Energy Consumption & Management and Renewables.

According to the Energy & Utilities Market Outlook Report 2020, produced by GRS Research & Strategy and commissioned by Informa Markets, organiser of Middle East Energy, the Mena energy sector is facing the dual challenge of meeting rising demand while addressing a pressing need to shift to low-carbon systems.

“Energy systems around the world are going through rapid transitions that affect many aspects of our lives,” states the report. “The continuation and acceleration of these shifts will initiate a global energy transition that will bring about significant changes to the way we fuel our cars, heat our homes, and power our industries in the coming decades.”

The report, based on a survey of more than 2,000 energy sector operators, has identified the GCC as the highest potential market for future-focused energy business opportunities, accounting for 32.8 per cent of anticipated transactions.

Global energy expert Benoit Lebot, head of secretariat at the Paris-based Partnership for Energy Efficiency Co-operation (IPEEC), the leading international entity on energy efficiency, said the region must focus on system design to reduce region-wide cooling requirements to meet growing power demands at a lower cost, yet with greater efficiency.

“In the case of the Gulf countries, we know that the population is growing fast, that cities are expanding widely and that the climatic conditions are evolving,” said Lebot, who will address the conference on ‘Decarbonisation and Sustainability Development Goals’.

“Typically, the need for space cooling will continue to grow. To address this trend, it is especially important to design cities and buildings to limit or lower cooling demand. I see indoor comfort as a major trend on the energy transition across the region,” Lebot stated.

Middle East Energy’s free-to-attend plenary sessions will feature six dedicated discussions and more than 40 speakers delivering over nine hours of strategic dialogue on the issues at the core of the long-term development of the Mena region’s power sector.

“As the global energy platform, Middle East Energy gathers the leading lights of the worldwide industry to examine the major issues, explore opportunities and set the agenda for the future. The plenary sessions and the wider conference series will deliver expert insights into the major transformation of the energy sector,” explained Claudia Konieczna, exhibition director, Middle East Energy.

“The conference series is a bespoke industry platform created with the full support of a high-level advisory board, to provide specific market information designed to meet the needs of all our visitors,” Konieczna said.

The sessions will probe topics including new business models operating within the energy industry, the power of digital and effective renewables integration. They are part of a three-pronged Middle East Energy conference programme which has attracted more than 150 experts from the UK, US, Europe, China and the Mena region to a two-day Renewables Conference and a series of seminars devoted to Digitalisation In Energy.