JEDDAH – “Around 70 percent of electricity consumption in Saudi Arabia go on air conditioning and with more than 1.5 million new homes needed to keep pace with population growth, domestic energy demand is anticipated to double by 2030,” said Dr. Saleh Al Awaji, Deputy Minister of Water and Electricity, ahead of the first Saudi HVAC conference on Feb. 11-13 at the Al-Faisaliah Hotel, Riyadh. Al Awaji, who is also the President of Saudi HVAC 2013 and a keynote speaker at the event, underscored the need for sustainable cooling and heating solutions in the electricity sector to boost energy efficiency in Saudi Arabia. “Energy-efficient HVAC solutions are therefore a critical aspect of Saudi Arabia's continued sustainable development,” he noted. He said “sustainable technologies will reduce energy consumption and also reduce the amount of new investment needed in electricity generation as a result.” He added that “this new conference and exhibition is an example of the cooperation between stakeholders needed to achieve the goals that benefit the Kingdom and the consumer. It will promote advanced technology and help to develop local expertise.” Moreover, he said “demand for electricity in Saudi Arabia continues to rise and more than SR500 billion will be invested in new projects in the electricity sector within the next 10 years. This situation requires immediate concrete action to encourage energy efficiency and sustainability.” The opening ceremony of Saudi HVAC Confex 2013 will be attended by the Minister of Water and Electricity, the Minister of Commerce and Industry, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman Abdulaziz Al Saud, Deputy Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources and President of the National Program of Energy Efficiency and the president of King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology. Around 50 speakers from the government and private sector will address the conference, of whom 25 are already confirmed, and more than 30 local and international companies will take part in the exhibition, including LG Electronics, Samsung, Saudi Tabreed, and Abdul Latif Jameel. Around 500 industry delegates will attend the three-day event. Speakers include George Kennich, head of Infrastructure and MEP at Aldar Properties; Sultan Al Khairaissi, director of Buildings Department, Royal Commission for Jubail and Yanbu; Abdulhamid Almansour, former CEO of Saudi Tabreed; Kishan Khoday, Senior Representative of the United Nations Development Program; Eng. Mohamed Al Badri, Acting Director General, Emirates Authority for Standardization and Meteorology; George Berbari, CEO of DC Pro Engineering; and Khalid Al Othman, CEO of Saudi Mubadara Development Authority. The CEO and President of the Saudi Electricity Company (SEC), Ali Al-Barrak, has said earlier that the Saudi Electricity Company plans to spend $80 billion over the next decade to keep pace with population growth happening in the Kingdom, which will result in an increase in demand for electricity by more than 30,000 megawatts by the year 2020. He said 70 percent of energy consumption in the Kingdom goes to air conditioning, revealing that this is largely due to consumers using inefficient devices. However, the main factor behind this amount of electricity consumption is the nature of the climate in Saudi Arabia, where the demand will rise during the daylight hours dramatically, and during the summer where the temperature rises to above 50 degrees Celsius. Gulf Cooperation Council states plan to link the Saudi Western Coast with Egypt. – SG
