Documents Artificial Reefs Coral Reefs Eco half yearly report of Kuwait Environment (Arabic) Eco monthly report of additive June 99 UVABC (Arabic) Electricity in Kuwait Hazardous Waste Disposal Kestrels of Kuwait PET Red Tide (English) Red Tide (Arabic) 1-Eco-Conditions-Information-Copyrights-Trademarks-V2-2002 2-Eco-How to use this CD-V2-2002 3-Eco-Kuwait Environmental Strategy-V2-2002 EIA Booklet Electricity in Kuwait This paper takes a look at Kuwait's energy resources and the development of Kuwait's electricity and water supplies. It also examines the electrical system in Kuwait in general and the Power Generation plants in particular. A study done by Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR) is used here to explain few concepts. The paper finally looks at better ways to manage electricity and thus reducing the possibility of increasing capital investment and also reducing fossil fuel emission. Introduction Kuwait is a country located in the northwestern part of the Arabian Gulf, bordered by Iraq from the north and Saudi Arabia from the south. It occupies 17,820 square kilometers, about the size of the state of New Jersey, with a population of a little more than 2 million. The population is concentrated in and around Kuwait city along the gulf coast, in a radius of only 25 miles. The rest of the country is virtually unoccupied desert and oil fields. Kuwait has no natural fresh water resources and that was the purpose behind building desalination plants to take advantage of the available seawater and convert it into drinking water. Since the discovery of oil in the 1930's and the first export of oil in 1946, Kuwait has transformed into a modern country. Kuwait has an estimated oil reserve of 96 billion barrel, which accounts to 9% of the world's oil reserves, second only to Saudi Arabia. With the massive oil revenues, the country was able to establish a pace to develop its various life aspects such as, utilities (electricity generation and water supply), education, health care…etc. One of these utilities that will be considered in this paper is the electric utility. A Company called "The private electric company" first introduced electricity in Kuwait in 1934; the company had a generating capacity of only 30 KW at 200 Volts D.C. In 1949, the first 3 phase AC power plant with two generators, each with a capacity of 200 KW, was built; D.C. system was being replaced by 3 phase AC system at voltages of 380 and 220 volts and frequency of 50 HZ. In 1951, the Department of Electricity was established to bare the responsibility of electricity production. Later, the Department of Electricity was getting bigger as the demand for electricity was increasing. That prompted the creation of what is now known as the Ministry of Electricity and Water (MEW), which is a government agency (Fig. 1). Industrial generation or non-utility generation (NUG) in Kuwait used to play a big role in supplying the electricity needed for their industries. Only two NUG's existed in Kuwait namely Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) and Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC). However, their role diminished in the 1980's due to the fact the electricity and water is highly subsidized in Kuwait. Thus, it has become more economical for KOC and KNPC to buy this highly subsidized electricity for a fraction of what it would cost them to generate it. For this reason, MEW is now the sole producer of electricity and water in Kuwait. Electrical System in Kuwait Power Generation : Before the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990, MEW had six co-generation plants (or Dual Purpose plants (D.P.P.). These plants had two functions resembled in producing electricity as well as drinking water through the desalination process. The oldest Dual Purpose plant is called Al-Shuwaikh power plant, commissioned in 1954 with four generating units of 7.5 MW capacity each, was partially destroyed by the Iraqis and no longer produces electricity. The second oldest power plant is called the Al-Shuaiba North Power Plant, which was commissioned between 1965 and 1969 and had a total installed capacity of 400 MW, was heavily destroyed during the seven month Iraqi occupation. These two power plants were not repaired because the costs of repairing them were not justified due to the fact that their life expectancies have passed. The other four power plants were repaired because they were relatively new and had more generation capacities than the older two. These four are Al-Shuaiba South, Doha West, Doha East, and Al-Zour (Table 2). These plants are fuel fired steam plants; in other words, steam is used to drive the turbines to produce electricity. Steam is generated in boilers that use different types of fuel to "fire" them. The two oldest plants used Natural gas and oil where as the new plants are capable of using the four types of fuel produced in Kuwait to fire the boilers. These four fuel types are natural gas, heavy fuel oil, crude oil, and gas oil. Gas turbines are also used, in Al-Zour and Doha East plants, but their use is primarily during peak load hours and emergency situations. These gas turbines account for about 4% of the total generation capacity (Fig. 2). From this chart, it is clear that demand is increasing in an exponential rate and in order to keep up with this demand, new Dual Purpose Plants (DPP) are being built to meet future electricity and water demand. As a matter of fact, a new DPP at Al-Subiya is currently in the process of initial operation. Al-Subiya will have an installed capacity of 2400 MW and is expected to be fully operational in the middle of 1999. However, considering the current demand growth, it will be necessary to build one power station every five years to meet the expected load. This requires massive investment in his sector. And considering the fact that Kuwait's oil sales account for more than 90% of its total revenues and that oil prices are falling (the average oil prices are now between $10-$12 a barrel) building a new power station every five years would have a great adverse effects on the country's struggling economy. This has prompted the government to announce that subsidiaries on some commodities will be reduced in an effort to reduce wasted energy by encouraging conservation. Some of these commodities are fuel and electricity. Electrical Network: In a small country such as Kuwait, connecting the entire electrical system together does not present a big problem. In fact, the entire country is connected through 300 KV and 132 KV transmission lines. The distribution system in Kuwait has two voltage levels: 33KV and 11KV. Step down substations are used to reduce the voltage further to what is used in residential and commercial buildings which is 415 Volt (240 Volt single phase) at a frequency of 50 HZ. The electrical network is controlled by different control centers as follows: 1. National Control Center (NCC) which its main responsibility is to supervise and control of 300 and 132 KV electrical network. It also has the responsibility of supervising all Generation plants all over the country. 2. District Control Centers which are scattered in different areas around the country, total number is four. These centers have the responsibility of supervising and controlling the 33KV as well as the 11KV lines. The electrical network includes overhead transmission lines, a large underground distribution cables in addition to a large number of distribution substations and transformers. The adverse health and environmental impacts should be considered whenever such electrical network or transmission lines are planned and implemented or constructed. The country does not have any electrical ties with any neighboring country. An idea to connect all six Gulf Cooperation Council Countries (GCCC), Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates and Oman, was put down in the early eighties because Saudi Arabia uses the 60 HZ. System where as the other five countries uses the 50 HZ system. However, with the technological advancement of the HVDC system, this idea gained further support in the nineties. In 1997, the six countries have agreed to establish HVDC connection after it turned out to be economically feasible. Cost of power generation versus selling price As one of the subsidized commodities, electricity rates in Kuwait are very low. The government wanted to encourage social and economical development in the country by encouraging outside investors to invest in different projects. The electrical rate is fixed and has not changed since the early eighties. For residential and commercial customers, the selling price is 0.666 cents per KWh. For industrial customers, the rate is 0.333 cents per KWh. This very low price is one cause of failure of many conservation programs that undergone in the country. These programs comprised of many advertisements on TV and newspapers. Summer in Kuwait is very hot and humid as a result load in Kuwait is summer peaking. This means that the generators are mostly needed during the summer period, which stretches between May to September. The following plot explains the load and available capacity through out the year. Because electricity rates are so low, electricity sales revenues are not enough to cover even the fuel cost for the generation plants. According to MEW's monthly report for the month of December 1997, electricity sales revenues were approximately $7,334,276 where as the cost of the fuel needed to produce that amount of electricity was $ 24,588,432. So, the price as it is structured right now does not even cover one third of the fuel costs for the power plants. The proposed electrical rate increase will be structured in a way that takes into account the various consumption patterns of the Kuwait society. For example, residents with high consumption rates will be charged more than those who have lower consumption rates. This is because the government does not want people with limited income to be affected and thus ensure they have necessary electrical supplies for the basic needs i.e. lifeline. Eventually, residents who consume more than 9000 KWh per month will be charged up to 4 cents per KWh. This increase should cover fuel cost, which is averaging 1.33 cents per KWh and part of the other costs like overhead, maintenance, transmission and distribution. This would also encourage people to conserve energy as the per capita consumption of electricity in Kuwait is growing rapidly and is considered amongst the highest in the world (Fig 3). Also, industrial consumers' rates will increase gradually. It should be noted that profit making is not the government's aim or policy. The government is only providing a service to customers. Therefore, these price changes are made to encourage people to conserve, that in turn will reduce demand growth and hence capital investments in power stations will be reduced. It is estimated that capital investment in MEW's electric power generation amounts to $ 11 billion. Improving power station's performance The MEW requested Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR) to carryout a study on selected power plants in Kuwait. The main objective of the study was to find ways to improve the performance of these power plants, and hence reduce operation and maintenance cost as well as providing a more reliable energy system (Maheshwari and Al-Abdulhadi, 1993). The study was mainly concentrated on Al-Doha East plant, which has an installed capacity of 1158 MW. However, all plants in Kuwait are DPP, which means that this should apply to all of them. The study found out that conventional way to calculate Heat Rate should not be used in these Dual Purpose Plants. The reason behind that is that the conventional way to calculate heat rate in power generation plants only does not take into account that DPP produce water too. In other words, in the conventional Heat rate method, Heat rate is equal to the ratio of the thermal energy input (Q) to the generated power output (Pl). In Co-generation plants, however, heat rate has to be measured in terms of the ability to produce electricity and water from a given amount of fuel. The study concluded that the best way to calculate the Heat rate for Co-generation plants is by calculating the Total Electricity Efficiency (TEF) which is equal to the sum of Electrical Efficiency (EEF) and Water Efficiency (WEF). The reciprocal of TEF multiplied by 10000 gives us the Heat Rate for Co-generation plants (DPP): “EEF= Gross electricity generated/Thermal energy Input (In KWh/10Kbtu). WEF= Water Production/Thermal energy Input (In IG/ 10Kbtu). TEF= EEF + WEF (KWh/10KBTU). HR (Co-generation)= (1/TEF)*10000 (In Btu/KWh)." It should be noted here that the ratio between Power generation and distillate water production could be varied within a wide range to satisfy requirements of both utilities. Therefore, one important way to improve the performance of these plants is to effectively improve the heat rate (based on this method). This can be done through monitoring and improving the factors that affect Heat rate, which are: Boiler. A good control over the air to fuel ratio. Turbine. The turbine performance should be monitored to check and measure heat rate. Cooling System. The unit heat rate is directly proportional to exhaust pressure or back- pressure as back pressure increase, efficiency will decrease. Therefore, exhaust pressure should be kept as low as possible and this could be achieved by optimizing heat transfer rate between condenser steam and cooling water. Load Fluctuation. KISR study shows that a load change from ½ rated to ¾ increases mainstream flow by 39 % and this will stabilize after 20 seconds; this is not matched by the reheat flow surge which stabilizes after 30 seconds. Steam-Water leakage. Ensure no leakage occurs in pipelines and vessels. The study concluded that a Heat Rate Improvement (HRI) Program is needed to reduce fuel consumption, reduce air pollutant like NOx and SO2 and achieve optimal operation stage. To do this, the following steps must be taken: A. Establish current performance data on all units. B. Establish best achievable performance of all units. C. Define and implement a program to achieve optimal units' performance. Keeping in mind that the best way to compare units is by comparing design and actual performance data. Also, according to MEW's latest study, heat rate has improved from an average of 13000 Btu/KWh to 10000 Btu/KWh, which translate into an improvement of efficiency from 26 % to 34 %. Other ways to reduce spending, including capital investments There are ways to reduce the frequency and intensity of more capital investment in the electric utility industry in Kuwait that have not received a great attention. This could be achieved through Demand Side Management (DSM). By looking at the daily and annual load patterns many facts can be noticed. Similar to many other load patterns, the daily and annual load patterns have shape similar to the "bell" shape (Figures 4 &5). Load during early morning hours is low; load peaks during the middle of the day and then declines as the night goes on. On an annual basis, load during the cool months between October and May are much lower than the load during the very hot months between May and September. If the objective of MEW is to recover some of the costs that should be recovered, capital investment and over head, as well as to make some profit, MEW should adjust electricity rates first and then try to reduce this gap. A good DSM program can reduce the gap between these peaks and valleys by implementing what is known as a "valley filling", which tries to level the load throughout the year and day. By doing this, load factor for these generators will improve (Fig. 6). Another strategy that MEW could implement during peak times, in the future, is Peak clipping. If MEW encounters a shortage in capacity versus the increasing demand, it can ask industrial companies that usually have very high loads to reduce their loads and/or start their own generators to share the loads. This in turn will reduce the amount of energy that MEW is required to produce. Also, MEW can sell electricity to consumers at different prices during different times. For example, MEW can charge more during peak hours, or days, than it does during off peak hours. This will also reduce the total peak demand. In addition to the above mentioned strategies, MEW should encourage consumers to conserve electrical energy and this can be done in many ways: A. Increasing the rates for higher consumption's groups within each class, especially residential customers class. B. Offering incentives for customers who reduce their consumption. C. Encouraging all customers to use more efficient equipment, lights and refrigerators. For example, and possibly give some incentives for those who do. D. Encourage the use of better home insulation, wall and glass, to reduce heat exchange and hence energy consumption. E. Setting strict standards for power factor, for industrial customers, and penalize for any deviation. Another thing that MEW should do in order to minimize the cost of each MWh it generates is to use the concept of incremental heat rate (IHR) or incremental cost before scheduling any unit; this concept should also be used before increasing the load on any unit. What IHR does is that it determines the most economic generating unit that should run for the given load or load increase. For the proposed electrical tie with other Gulf States, it would be prudent to set up a Power Pool between these countries. This Power Pool will schedule generators to serve any given load in any particular area based on least cost. It could also act as a reliability council to ensure the availability of sufficient reserves and system reliability. Finally, MEW should limit its spinning reserve to the minimum required, that will ensure reliability. By minimizing spinning reserve, efficiency of the generators will be increased and pollutants also reduced. Environmental considerations It is very important that an Environmental Impact Assessment is carried-out in order to assess the adverse impacts associated with energy project during the project cycle. This includes site preparation, construction, operation, maintenance and decommissioning phases. The general significant issues that needed to be addressed include the following: Air pollution. Noise. Non-thermal water pollution. Thermal water pollution. Electromagnetic fields. Fuel storage areas and loading terminals. Waste management. Health and safety within and out-side the plant boundary. Ecosystem and its biotic and abiotic components. Renewable Energy in Kuwait As stated earlier, Kuwait has no fresh water resources. However, Kuwait has an abundance of solar energy capability. Solar energy use has been limited to experimental, use and research purposes only. Solar energy could be used effectively in areas like Water Heating, lighting…etc. In other words, the use of renewable energy is virtually very limited and needed to be thought of and considered. Conclusion There ways to reduce the cost of electricity in Kuwait. One of these ways is to set up a Heat Rate improvement Program using the method that suits co-generation plants. Also, Demand Side Management program should be set up to recover some of the costs and to encourage conservation. Incremental Heat Rate must be used to figure out which generating unit is most economical to serve the portion of the load increase. Also, the proposed electrical tie between the six Gulf States could play a big role in saving these countries some future capital investments. A Power Pool should be formed to determine the most economic way to serve any load in any area. Ways to exploit the tremendous solar energy and other renewable energies like Fuel Cells should be considered and studied for their feasibility in Kuwait. Power plants generate adverse environmental and health impacts on the short, medium and long terms. Such impacts need to be addressed, assessed and monitored.