A two-day workshop organised by electrical engineering faculty at Texas A&M University at Qatar (Tamuq) brought together experts and practitioners from the US, Europe and Qatar to focus on ensuring delivery of electric power in Qatar safely and reliably.
Presented in partnership with Vito Middle East and Energyville, with funding support from the Qatar National Research Fund, the workshop shared best practices, lessons learned and new technologies that are ready for application to enhance the safety and reliability of the electricity distribution systems in Qatar.
Dr Robert S Balog, workshop chair and associate professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Programme at Tamuq, said that most of the electrical distribution system in Qatar is relatively new, certainly compared with US and European systems where there are well-known problems due to the ageing infrastructure. But as solar energy becomes more widespread and electric vehicles gain traction, what will happen here in Qatar when equipment ages or is pushed beyond its intended design?
The workshop aimed to leverage expertise at Tamuq and Vito to identify potential problems and develop paths and partnerships to form and implement Qatar-specific solutions.
The event featured technologies that are part of ongoing research and development programmes at Tamuq and Vito and that are ready for technology transfer and application in Qatar. Balog said that leveraging research investments from within and abroad, means that the workshop’s expected benefit to Qatar is a faster technology development path, enabling providers to implement solutions in a shorter time frame.
However, Balog said, more work may be needed to customise these technologies into solutions specific for Qatar, thereby necessitating a research ecosystem built around technology transfer to industry and the design, development, deployment and service of these technologies.
“Highly skilled scientists, engineers and technicians are needed to design and use these systems,” Balog said, “which means that the systems also provide new test cases for students and researchers, building local human capital for the future. The workshop’s longer-term impact is to strengthen a designed-in-Qatar, designed-for-Qatar ecosystem.”
Dr César Octavio Malavé, dean of Tamuq, said, “Our mission is to play a key role in creating sustainable solutions to real-world challenges by generating new knowledge through research and collaborative partnerships, and then disseminating that knowledge to the rest of the world through scientific publications and workshops such as this one. Tamuq is committed to expanding the human capital of Qatar that is essential to fuel innovation and new thinking.”
“As a research and service centre specialised in applied research and development, we can contribute with solutions for load forecasting, congestion modelling, integration of renewable energy and electric vehicles, and Kahramaa’s Tarsheed programme results monitoring,” Arnoud Lust, CEO of Vito Middle East added.
Source:gulf-times.com
