Imarket insights 04 2017

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Volume 01 | Issue 04 | 2017

Awards 2017

Catch all the action at Singapore & Dubai in January 2018

Knowledge

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Analysis

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Opinion

Cloud Computing In Energy and The Environmental Impact Masdar’s trials for low-carbon desalination

Bitcoin becomes a major power consumer

Thailand begins work on major waste-to-energy project

AWARDS 2017 MOST INNOVATIVE MICRO FINANCE BANK

SRILANKA

THIS ISSUE

EDITOR’S NOTE

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UK ₤4 | Europe €5.35 | USA $6

Volume 01 | Issue 04 | 2017

Awards 2017

Catch all the action at Singapore & Dubai in January 2018

Knowledge

The past year was about understanding the wonders of digitisation and comprehending the risks that come with it. The levels of interconnectedness are only rising world over, giving rise to the need for secure systems and data protection. While these trends were largely confined to the world of software and technology, there has been a considerable spillover into every major industry. The power sector is one such. In our cover story, we explore the need for advanced technologies like cloud computing for a low-carbon future.

Industry expert Robert K Perrons explains the consequences of using cloud computing in the energy sector, and whether it does more harm than good. We have digital marketing

expert Kevin Almeida, who draws an interesting parallel between smart city development in Sri Lanka and the role of digital marketing. As the Middle East sets new precedents in saltwater desalination, the time has come to explore lowcarbon desalination as a way to offset carbon footprint. This is based on research done by MIT and GCWDA on the need for clean energy for low-carbon desalination. Digitisation has not only changed the way we do business, but also the way we live. As technology offerings lure the average customer today, we run an explorative piece on whether the industry is equipped to cope with these changes. Don’t forget to look at a graphical overview of the hottest trends in the power and utilities industry in 2017 and what we can

HIGHLIGHTS

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Analysis

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Opinion

expect in 2018. One of the most pertinent issues in the utilities sector is cybercrime and industry experts debate the best course Cloud Computing In of action in the face of rapidly digitised utilities today. The final issue of the year concludes with a quick preview of International Water Summit and World Water Week, two leading industry events. Have a happy New Year!

Energy and The Environmental Impact Masdar’s trials for low-carbon desalination

Bitcoin becomes a major power consumer

Thailand begins work on major waste-to-energy project

Sindhuja Balaji Editor, Market Insights For queries and feedback, write to sbalaji@ifinancemag.com

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NEWS 04

China to expand cloud computing technology globally

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Cloud technology linked to better business operations

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Digitisation can save billions

WHAT’S HOT 13

Vietnam to prioritize smart city development

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Digitisation of Utilities for Smart Living

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Cisco launches innovation centre in Middle East

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Sub-Saharan Africa lures investments in power sector

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Power and Utilities Outlook Simulated attack to prepare USA’s power grid

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Cracking the Waste Disposal Code in Asia

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Managing water resources naturally

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Japan and Kazakhstan collaborate on water technology

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EVENTS 52

International Water Summit - Abu Dhabi, UAE

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World Water Week - Stockholm, Sweden

Training Head: Jeffy Thomas Accounts: Angela Mathews Media Enquiries: enquiry@ifinancemag.com Knowledge

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Analysis

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Opinion

Publisher: Sunil Bhat

Registered Office INTERNATIONAL FINANCE PUBLICATIONS LIMITED

Managing Editor: Sindhuja Balaji Editorial & Design Team: Sangeetha Deepak, Prasad Shankarappa, Arthur Warren, Ashton Felix

843 Finchley Road, London, NW11 8NA

Business Analysts: Ryan Cooper, Sid Jain, James Barrett

Tel: +44 (0) 208 123 9436 | Fax: +44 (0) 208 181 6550

Business Development : Steve Martin

Email: info@ifinancemag.com www.imarketinsights.com | Issue 04 | 2017

Market Insights

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News

BNEF foresees big change in digitisation in energy sector by 2025 Latest innovations in the energy sector will focus on digital technologies and the strategic use of data, observed Bloomberg’s New Energy Finance Report. The global market for digitisation in the sector will increase to US$64bn by 2025.

The digital technologies will be built on an intelligent platform that enables homeowners to become more independent with their rooftop solar, batteries or electric vehicles. Claire Curry, head of emerging technology analysis at BNEF, said “Home energy management technologies will see the most significant change in digital revenues, rising from $1 billion in 2017 to $11 billion in 2025. The largest driver for digital technology revenues in 2025 will be smart meters, growing 44% between now and 2025, to $26bn.

This revenue increase matches the fall in digital revenues from fossil fuel O&M – 46% over that time period.”

Key challenges in the energy sector could be addressed using big data, analytics and machine learning, distributed energy resource management and cloud computing. BNEF asserted that U.S. being the leader in digital

technologies will grow in the space. Australia will rank closer to the top by 2025, and emerging markets, for example: Chile, Indonesia and Nigeria with firm government policies will digitise soon enough.

China ready to expand cloud computing technology in global markets The presence of Chinese cloud computing technology offers strong support for its manufacturing and internet industry. According to reports, China is set expand its domestic technology in the global market.

Market Insights

Issue 04 | 2017 | www.imarketinsights.com

Chen Zhaoxiong, vice minister of Industry and Information Technology said “The cloud computing technologies are driving the development of the booming digital economy. To grasp the opportunities, we should build strengths on cutting-edge cloud computing technologies and establish manufacturing innovations centers as well as encouraging software companies to embrace the upgrading for cloud computing.”

In coming decades, cloud computing will become the spine of information industry. Mei Hong, academician of Chinese Academic of Science said, “Data is the third strategic resource for the development of human society. And we are now entering a new age where software technologies and applications will permeate and shape our lives at every turn.”

In 2015, the country’s cloud computing industry grew to US$22bn. According to a government plan

by Ministry of Industry and Information Technology: China’s cloud computing market is expected to reach US$65bn by 2019.

News

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Study positively links cloud technology to business operations Cloud computing has established a diverse platform that improves global business operations across all sectors.

Pedro Guerreiro, managing director, West and Lusophone Africa, said, “As technology hastens the pace of change, businesses will increasingly need enterprise systems that provide access to the latest technologies while giving the business the agility and flexibility they need to constantly adapt to changing conditions.”

A recent SAP study conducted by Forrester Consulting showed findings that businesses using SAP Hybris Marketing Cloud positively rose by US$10.1mn in three years. In addition, the report

statistically proved 306% increase in ROI. “Cloud computing offers immense opportunity for companies to improve their business operations regardless of the sector. And with security topping the list of concerns among business and IT leaders, cloud providers today invest talent and energy into ensuring their offerings are able to meet even the most stringent security requirements,” he added.

Guerriero has advised enterprises to establish a robust cloud platform to innovate the Information Technology industry with real-time capabilities.

IEA: Digitisation and Energy can save billions of dollars

International Energy Agency’s recent Digitisation and Energy report’s focus is on energy sector. The report spells out the importance of investing in renewable energy integration. The investment could nearly save hundreds of billions of dollars.

IEA’s ongoing research work is on how digital technologies such as cloud computing, networked devices and data analytics revolutionise intergy-intensive sectors. The sectors range from industries to building to transportation. Buildings consume heavy electricity due to continuous running of servers. IEA believes digitisation could easily lower energy use by 10%. There is also a

certain amount of emphasis on industry leaders such as oil and gas that play an active role in technologies.

The constant need to curb energy consumption and lower carbon dioxide has led to several innovations across sectors. However, energy is becoming a key player in technology innovations and transformation. The report said, “Together with the progressive electrification of the energy system and the growth of decentralised sources of power, digitalization is blurring the distinction between supply and demand, and creating opportunities for consumers to interact directly in balancing demand with supply in real time.” www.imarketinsights.com | Issue 04 | 2017

Market Insights

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Events Calendar

Events-2018 Date

Event Name

Location

Website

4th – 6th Jan, 2018

SRW India Water Expo

Chennai Trade Centre Chennai, India

http://srwaterexpo.com/

9th – 11th Jan, 2018

Michigan Onsite Wastewater Conference

Kellogg Hotel & Conference Centre Michigan, USA

https://memberleap.com/Calendar/ moreinfo.php?eventid=5678

10th – 11th Jan, 2018

Southern California Energy And Water Summit And Expo

Agua Caliente Casino Resort & Spa Rancho Mirage, USA

http://socalenergysummit.org/

17th Jan, 2018

The Utility Week Water Conference

Birmingham City Centre London, United Kingdom

http://events.utilityweek.co.uk/water/

15th – 18th Jan, 2018

International Water Summit

Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre Abu Dhabi, UAE

https://www.internationalwatersummit. com/

19th -21st Jan, 2018

Asia Conference on Energy Environment Engineering

Shanghai Jiaotong University Shanghai, China

http://aceee.net/

24th – 25th Jan, 2018

Produced Water Management

Clarion Hotel Stavenger Stavenger, Norway

https://www.tekna.no/en/events/pro duced-water-management-2018-34763/

26th – 31st August 2018

World Water Week

Stockholm City Conference Centre Stockholm, Sweden

http://www.worldwaterweek.org/

Awards 2017 Celebrate and reward the industry’s best 5th Annual International Finance Awards DUBAI

SINGAPORE

18th January, 2018 at Jumeirah Emirates Tower Dubai, UAE

26th January, 2018 at Marina Bay Sands Singapore

International Finance Phone: +44 (0) 208 123 0715, +44 (0) 207 193 5502 Fax: +44 (0) 208 181 6550 Email: sthomas@ifinancemag.com, Web: www.internationalfinance.com/award-winners/ Market Insights

Issue 04 | 2017 | www.imarketinsights.com

Knowledge

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Analysis

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Opinion

For business news as it happens, subscribe to Market Insights, the latest magazine from International Finance Publications Ltd. In the upcoming issues, you can expect coverage in Oil & Gas • Renewable Energy Technology • Utilities

CONTEMPORARY MEDIA BUSINESS SOLUTIONS FOR EDITORIAL QUERIES : Sindhuja Balaji | Editor Tel: +44 (0) 207 193 9451 | Email: sbalaji@ifinancemag.com REGISTERED OFFICE : INTERNATIONAL FINANCE PUBLICATIONS LIMITED 843 Finchley Road, London NW11 8NA Tel: +44 (0) 208 123 9436 | Fax: +44 (0) 208 181 6550 | Web: www.imarketinsights.com

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Feature | Energy Goes Digital

Cover Story

cloud computing in energy sector The emergence of highpowered technologies such as cloud computing is said to invest in a low carbon future that drives green footprint. However, from the standpoint of industry expert Robert.K.Perrons, there are questionable consequences that may impact the energy sector dierently Market Insights

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he energy companies are in the next wave of transition to propel lowercarbon alternatives. Information Technology (IT) landscape is responsible for generating two percent of global greenhouse emissions. In the absence of cloud, the IT architecture is hazardous: servers can break down on their own because enterprises often fail to remove applications that are nonfunctioning or updated elsewhere.

This absorbs space and energy

Issue 04 | 2017 | www.imarketinsights.com

even in their disused condition. so, lead-acid battery power and giant spinning flywheels are installed as prevention from sudden surge that simply takes a nano-second break to collapse a server. Consequently, carbon emissions are produced in its obscure form: backup systems and the server feed on excess energy.

(90% of the power consumed is wasted; and only 6-12% remains useful to drive computations.)

Most energy companies attempt to reduce environmental

Energy Goes Digital | Feature

Cover Story

impact by disciplining their evermore complex operations. But administering and evaluating the degree of carbon reduction is challenging. A nonprofit Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) predicts that cloud computing could help global U.S. corporates save US$12.3bn in energy costs, and reduce 85.7mn metric tons of carbon emission annually by 2020.

Even Google observed that 6085% of the energy cost could be saved by migrating to the cloud.

Cloud is multi-tenant, and the centralisation is more costefficient without maintenance and occupancy of in-house servers and cooling devices. Global businesses share resources in the cloud: a serious attempt to reduce 50% of their carbon footprint.

IBM Research Dublin and Trinity College Dublin developed a group of algorithms named Stratus: a classic method of explaining carbon reduction through computing. A global network of connected data centers were cloned to run an iterative simulation technique to evaluate: how to minimise carbon emissions while extracting the lasting advantage of computing and data delivery.

Inspired by Amazon’s Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), the scientists established an experimental model: a data center setup with three key variables: Carbon emissions, cost of electricity and time to compute and transfer data on a network.

The simulation was based on Amazon’s facilities in California, Ireland and Virginia. Using the Stratus algorithms, the simulation found EC2 cloud emissions were lessened by 21%.

Robert.K.Perrons, Associate Professor of Technology Management and Strategy, Queensland University of Technology argues from a different viewpoint, “Using computing

resources from anywhere necessarily requires electricity, and cloud computing is no exception to this.

Garimella et al. (2013) point out that the overall consumption of electricity in the world’s data centers in 2009 was comparable to the total electricity production of Australia.”

High performance in data centers have become a scientific concern to energy consumption— equivalent of 25,000 households on an average. Computing application and data accelerate so fast that disks need to process them as quickly within the specified time frame. The resultant carbon footprints and energy costs from powering and cooling of servers hosted in data centers is unsettling to the energy sector.

Facebook’s data centers, for instance, emitted 298,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide in 2012.

“The consequences of the industry’s relatively tepid approach to cloud computing may be amplified by the fact that, once installed, assets in the energy sector tend to last for a long time.

As Lester and Hart suggest, “Much of the existing energy infrastructure such as power plants, refineries, transmission networks, residential and commercial buildings have a lifetime of many decades. The mammoth infrastructure, like any long-lived capital, turns over very slowly.”

The outcome of today’s design decisions within the energy sector will have a considerable amount of momentum behind them, and that the high-level architectures of assets in the decades ahead will be influenced by the choices being made right now.

By stark contrast, gains in computing power and efficiency have historically unfolded at an impressive rate—or, at a minimum, at a rate that is considerably faster than the average pace of technological evolution within the

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energy industry. It is reasonable to assume that many of the technical issues making the public cloud seem risky to the energy sector today will probably be overcome in the shortto-medium term future. System architectures within the energy industry should be constructed with as much modularity and flexibility as possible so that they are not locked out of cloud-friendly options in the years ahead,” added Perrons.

In light of futuristic cloud, the inevitable expansion of Big Data is now accompanied by an ecological measure—Green Cloud Computing to build carbon efficient computing infrastructure. Otherwise, cloud computing can result in enormous energy usage. Virtualization, green data centers, green computing and smart grid supersede devices stationed for system emergencies by streamlining companies’ IT essentials into a green central hub.

Green Cloud architecture supports Virtual Machine Migration and Virtual Machine Placement in an effort to reduce energy consumption by virtualised data centers. The next generation cloud data center: Green Open Cloud (GOC) will brace top-notch facilities such as advance reservation. GOC could even help companies to switch-off idle servers.

That said, it is important to ensure unparalleled amounts of data running on computers is powered by clean energy. Players in the tech space—Google, Facebook and Yahoo use green sources such as solar and wind to run their data centers. On the contrary, Apple, Microsoft and Amazon largely rely on unclean sources of power such as coal and nuclear. Greenpeace, a non-governmental environmental organisation encourages companies with cloud services to become more transparent in energy usage: to invest in renewable energy and formulate better policies that will bolster the use of green energy. 

www.imarketinsights.com | Issue 04 | 2017

Market Insights

10 Feature | Smart City Development in Sri Lanka

What’s Hot

sri Lanka: smart city in the era of digital marketing

Digital marketing enthusiast Kevin Almeida decodes how smart city planning and management can provide Sri Lanka’s leading cities a facelift, and greatly improve the quality of life

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T has BeeN sometime now, me being an expat and understanding, swimming into the deep-end into a developed city and studying its transformation. as an expat, I personally have seen the potential development that my mother-land can develop into.

Digital Marketing and strategy being my pet subject, I invested time in articulating some thoughts on how the Colombo City can be digitally transformed and cascade into other main cities such as Kandy and Galle. start with one city with citywide dimensions, delivering impact across Market Insights

all sectors and industries as its initial implementation. This will account to develop into a smart economy and smart Living Dimensions, fuelling entrepreneurship and competitiveness in the south asian region while enhancing quality of life for all. The article would articulate think-tank crafted strategic goals understanding thematic pillars. This will help envision a city where our resources are always optimized, where we protect both our people and our information, in order to enrich the experience of every person in our city.

Issue 04 | 2017 | www.imarketinsights.com

The Colombo city and suburbs having a population of approximately 2.3 Mn accounts for 45%, and most importantly it is the hub for industrial, commercial and administrative center in sri Lanka.

In making the Colombo city and suburbs ‘sMarT’ if the above can be implemented on particular phases a smooth flow of digitally transformed city would come into light.

Upon understanding the above facts of transforming our city of Colombo, the article will discuss on how digital marketing will play the accountability role of establishing a good marketing platform to

What’s Hot

match-pace with a digitally driven economy.

Where Colombo stands at present from being ‘SMART’ The Colombo city has been an important port city along the Indian Ocean for centuries. The natural port being in the west of the Island, in the center of Colombo buildings from the British colonial can be found, moreover the other areas of the city has modern offices and apartments as well as a financial complex in its heart.

Colombo is a small city compared to other South Asia Capitals and easy to make. But Colombo’s infrastructure has become outdated. Traffic jams and electricity shortages are frequent, several slums have sprouted in the east of the city, where approximately 70,000 people live.

According to a World Bank report published, Experts point to a lack of planning and hidden urbanization. The municipal administrators have insufficient statistics and knowledge of informal housing areas on the periphery of the city. Nobody knows exactly how many people live in shanty towns or have at least a rough idea about how many people need sanitary facilities, drinking water or electricity. In addition, the tropical climate, frequent typhoons and flooding are make the lives of the inhabitants quite difficult.

But the World Bank experts believe Colombo has the potential to be a modern city. The port city is located halfway between Europe, Africa and East Asia hence it could be an international business and trade hub, but before all of this the city will have to modernize and it largely depends on how the Colombo Metropolitan Region is managed and positioned, not only with in the country, but also regionally and globally.

Smart City Development in Sri Lanka | Feature

German technology giant Siemens is involved in the planning of the mega project with an approximate investment of $40 Billion to modernize the capital and its surrounding districts.

Siemens has come-up with a special software, which allows developers to stimulate different options and its ramifications. This software will help in calculating costs and amount of work involved and for example if you put in a low emission zone, it will model what impact that would have on air quality and how much additional jobs this technology would create.

But in the end, the urban planners in-charge have to decide what they want and what they can afford.

Businesses and enterprises will only come to Colombo if the city is able to guarantee that they can work and produce without any interruptions. And in order to take the traffic load off the city’s streets, there will be the need to build a railway connecting the north and the south of Colombo.

Planning ahead will definitely save money and prevent costly improvements.

As result of a ‘Smart City’, what could be done?

A smart city is an urban development vision to integrate information and communication technology (ICT) and Internet of things (IoT) technology in a secure fashion to manage a city’s assets. These assets include local departments’ information systems, schools, libraries, transportation systems, hospitals, power plants, water supply networks, waste management, law enforcement, and other community services.

A smart city is promoted to use urban informatics and technology to improve the efficiency of services. All of this will lead into the quality of living of the citizens of the country.

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The government can implement a strategy to reinforce the delivery across specific vertical sectors in the city. This allows, services to be developed with current and future technology, all within the remit of the city’s strategy.

Below it would be explained the strategy dimensions in order to digitally transform the culture around smart governance, mobility, environment and people.

Smart Economy Smart Logistics can exemplify economic infrastructure in air and seaports, helping drive competitiveness in the Asian Region.

International exposure initiatives for smart tourism and MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions) sectors create seamless and impactful experiences for visitors. Upon a well-established ICT infrastructure with a goal to achieve and the primary objective needs to include creating the right environment for productivity.

Smart Economic Hubs can continue to develop, through mandated ICT funding and an unparalleled unified strategy to create and sustain innovation initiatives.

Entrepreneurship needs to be encouraged further, giving Colombo a clear opportunity to create a blueprint for emerging economies.

Smart Living Sri Lanka having the inception and known for the hospitality industry a visionary focus of the Colombo city can be customer service and to make it a model of the government, aiming to delight the citizens through its services, rather simply providing services. The government can conduct a excellence programme, as an initiative which continues to prompt excellence in customer service.

Smart homes, offices and connected neighbor-hoods can become the norm. This happens

www.imarketinsights.com | Issue 04 | 2017

Market Insights

12 Feature | Smart City Development in Sri Lanka

through the city’s growing infrastructure and development and it been the green-field opportunity for smart city connectedness.

Smart technology can back-up city government and private sector developments. Smart digital signage, interactive municipal furniture, smart parking and fiber to the home can be some of them.

Education being one of the USP in Colombo, it can be laid as a city priority can be used to lay a foundation for truly connected schools and universities. Initiatives in the city can include smart learning apps that provide digital access via smart-phones to the entire primary school curriculum material.

E-libraries and other such smart learning initiatives can be included within the road map of Smart Colombo. This can enhance living as a dimension. Connected hospitals within the public and private sector will emerge rapidly as a result of the city’s focus on enhancing healthcare with technology. Further services will include significant progress within the smart homecare and m-health arenas. Along with post war scenario, the country has been peaceful, safe and a secure environment. Connected infrastructure and services within public safety, emergency response and health safety domains can aim to further enhance safety for the residents and visitors.

Smart Mobility Mobility, within the definition of the city being ‘Smart’, impacts both transport of people as well as transfer of ideas. This requires a level of coordinated innovation in the city’s hard and soft infrastructure that has little precedent globally.

Focus areas within Smart Mobility include: transportation, roads infrastructure and traffic management—including Colombo taxis and the app-connected wheelers (Uber, Pick Me), the bus Market Insights

What’s Hot

network, — each to be serviced by smart touch-points. Enhanced asset management initiatives, such as smart parking will drive true seamlessness and efficiency.

Sustainable Mobility initiatives can be implemented in the form of electric vehicle charging stations and legislative support around renewable transportation. The city’s ICT infrastructure, together with future initiatives will enable impactful movement and implementation of ideas.

realisation lies with empowering people to participate actively, while developing human capital with various forms of education.

Public involvement and education via e-community centres, digital and social communication channels and alternative skills development should act as the primary focus areas. The end goal remains creating a native culture of continual learning, participating and innovating within society.

Smart Governance

Smart ICT Infrastructure

E-government initiatives can be established, which will lead to unparalleled unification of government services. End consumer via web, mobile and social media driven channels, empowering a connected class of e-citizens and e-residents, can consume services.

Through this a vital opportunity will pave-path for open data, which can be used for governance, deployment and eventual impact on city decision-making.

Smart ICT Infrastructure and its related services will act as key enablers underlying all smart city services. Smart ICT Infrastructure is thus a transversal dimension, spanning all smart city dimensions.

Focal areas include citywide connectivity and access, sensing and actuation to drive efficiency, data orchestration and analysis for real-time intelligence, smart service delivery apps, and a centralized monitoring and management layer.

Smart Environment Modern-day planning for securing the city’s resources requires innovation across the board — in managing assets, as well as ensuring sustainability from the use of resources.

Focal areas of the strategy will include energy, waste management and environmental conditions for better quality of life.

The spectrum of smart services can includes a combination of smart grids, smart meters, urban infrastructure, emissions reduction, water and waste efficiency as well as balancing pollution of all forms.

Smart People Happiness of the city’s people its citizens, residents, business community and tourists should be the overarching goal of Smart Colombo. An integral part of it’s

Issue 04 | 2017 | www.imarketinsights.com

The pivotal role of Digital Marketing propelling as an anchor for Digital Transformation; The Colombo city being ‘SMART’ can be ambitious but achievable plan, which will eventually opendoors of the city to a whole spectrum of digital services and infrastructure to result in effective digital marketing.

There is one common denominator in digital marketing implementation and smart city data devices marriage; the installation of devices in the fabric of a city blanketed with WiFi. In principle, these devices will speak to each other, collect data and will operate services such as traffic lights. The end goal is a tech-utopia where urban planning, infrastructure and

What’s Hot

services all operate at maximum efficiency.

A natural by-product of a smart city is a cache of data on every inhabitant, or in marketing terms, potential customer. The data would reveal the routine, preferences, shopping habits and general behaviour of every person. When this is married with existing data sets, such as social media profiles or online purchases, the result is a veritable gold mine of information.

The beauty is, with devices covering a city, conceivably, messages could be delivered to customers pretty much anywhere, at any time and via any medium that has a display.

On a more positive note, perhaps the most exciting opportunity for brands and marketers is in relation to finally fully bridging the gap between the offline and online retail worlds. Successfully attributing a marketing initiative directly to a sale has long been the bane of everyone associated with the advertising industry. Marketers can work with data scientists to build models that use the information from devices in a smart city and marry them with their online behaviour.

Marriage of digital marketing with digital transformation will have to understand the platforms and devices to optimize digital marketing effectiveness,

Smart City Development in Sri Lanka | Feature

wherever crowds gather, Social Retail can enhance the smart city vibe while increasing revenue for business in the city.

Through this easy navigation can be created for visitors using digital signage and smartphone notifications. Offers, deals and discounts can be pushed directly to visitors phones as they pass-by shops. When closer to landmark notifications can be sent (museum, church, official building etc..), public service announcements can be viewed (floods, evacuation, early warnings etc..), travel-guides can be provided, frequent updates of arrival times and delays of public transportation. These are some of the advantages that can be maximized through digital marketing connect.

In Conclusion - Next Article Developments; In my series of articles, as the next step it would be further drilledinto the subject matter of digital marketing in a concept of a smart city. It would be understood in a Sri Lankan context what companies and how the said companies should amalgamate in formalizing the micro-environment in order to create the need in the macroenvironment to develop Colombo City into a ‘Smart City’. 

About Kevin Almeida: Kevin Almeida is the head of the Sri Lankan corridor at UAE Exchange, and is based out of Dubai. He is responsible for the Sri Lankan sector business, quality customer service and cumulative growth in revenue and profit for the company.

He holds a degree from MCIM, MBA (Wales), Higher Dip. in Brand Management and is an avid digital marketing enthusiast. He has worked extensively in retail operations, financial planning, relationship management, retail marketing, digital marketing, marketing communications, product management and brand management. He has also worked as a lecturer at NEXT Campus, Sri Lanka.

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Vietnam to develop multiple smart cities

According to reports, the Vietnam government’s main priority is to build smart cities. At a recently held smart city seminar by the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) and the French Embassy of Vietnam, there will more cooperation between the two countries in the IT sector following an MoU that was signed by the two nations in 2016.

Experts at the seminar stated that the Southeast Asian nation has been honing its IT infrastructure and services, in order to catch up to the world. The MIC is expanding the plan of setting up an electronic Government in the period of 2016-20, with focus on building a digital system. The ministry is also improving international co-operation to learn from experiences of other countries and then implementing a smart city model which is suitable to Vietnam, said reports.

Phan Thảo Nguyên, director of the International Cooperation Department under the MIC, said that since last year, provinces and cities across the country, such as Hanoi, Danang, Thua Thien-Hue, Lam Dong and Ho Chi Minh City, have approved and conducted smart city projects.

Building a smart city was a good measure to implement targets of developing the socio-economy in the medium and long term.

French Ambassador to Việt Nam Bertrand Lortholary said that by 2020, two thirds of the Vietnamese population would live in urban areas instead of one third like present.

Thus the country should change the way it is managing urban areas to make it more effective and suitable with the times.

Việt Nam’s problems were ones that France had experienced, so France would share its experiences and lessons, he said.

At the seminar, different French enterprises and organisations introduced technological measures emulating a three-dimension technology, which could be applied in transport, infrastructure and urban plans. The technology has been applied effectively in France.

www.imarketinsights.com | Issue 04 | 2017

Market Insights

14 News | Smart City Development in Sri Lanka

Port City Colombo: Sri Lanka’s smart city innovation The Government of Sri Lanka and China Communications Construction Company Limited have invested in a land reclamation concept—Port City Colombo. The project worth US$15bn is due for completion in 2041.

The concept was initially proposed in July 2004 under the Government–initiated Western Region Megapolis Regional Structure Plan devised by Singapore-based CESMA International. Port City Colombo spans 269 hectares and consists of five different precincts—the Financial District, Central Park Living, Island Living, The Marina and the International Island.

Of the project, 173 hectares will be marked as marketable land responsible for transforming Port City Colombo into an integrated hub for business, tourism and culture. The recent announcement on the project discloses several details: The land will be sold or leased to third party developers at market price co-decided by GOCL and Project Company. The Project Company has recruited 1,550 direct staff, mostly Sri Lankan. The hire has opened several job opportunities for the people.

China, South Korea, Japan, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates have reclaimed land in the past to further urbanisation. The International Urban Design Competition was won by The international

design group: Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP (SOM) for the Financial District and The Marina of Port City. According to SOM “It presents a dynamic new vision for Colombo Port City that promises to deliver high quality urban environments for residents and visitors. The plan is designed to accommodate future growth and change within a sustainable development framework.’’

Upon completion of Phase 2 Environmental Impact Assessment, Chinese Communications Construction Company Ltd. has plans to build Sri Lanka’s largest office infrastructure in Port City. Overall, the project will attract long-term investments and new business interest in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka and Siemens work jointly towards Megapolis smart city build The German electronics and industrial conglomerate, Siemens has signed an agreement with the Ministry of Megapolis and Western Development to enable smart city solutions in Sri Lanka.

The scope of work is to incorporate advancements into the country’s urban community. This will ensure urban residents become a part of Sri Lanka’s socio-economic development.

In a statement issued, Lakshman Jayasekara, project director, Western Region Megapolis Planning Project, said, “We are extremely happy to partner with Siemens whose expertise and technologies will contribute to the Western Province’s intensive efforts to eliminate congestion Market Insights

pressures on urban infrastructure, services and environment with a focus on reducing the per unit capital cost of infrastructure.

This will pave the way for making Sri Lanka a commercial, naval and aviation hub of Asia. In this context the ministry envisages transforming the entire Western Province into a Megapolis area to usher in comprehensive development within the next five years.”

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The statement reinstates the plan to design and develop smart urban colonies that will be strategically placed in the country.

As part of the plan, the Ministry intends to build new cities in Bandaragama, Kadawatha, Kottawa and Kerawalapitiya.

Siemens with its global expertise will be able to give the cities a competitive-edge while transforming the nation into a sustainable, liveable environment.

Sunil Mathur, managing director and CEO, Siemens limited India, said, “Siemens is delighted to partner with the Government of Sri Lanka and the Ministry of Megapolis and Western Development in its endeavour to achieve the status of a ‘high income developed nation.”

Smart City Development in Sri Lanka | News

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Sri Lanka’s smart city: 100% electricity through renewables by 2050 The UN Development Programme and Asian Development Bank recently released a joint report: Association of Sri Lanka’s Power Sector to achieve 100% renewables by 2050.

Sri Lanka is approaching smart city initiatives with power being one of them. The country is one of 43 members of the Climate Vulnerable Forum. The Forum is committed to produce electricity run by renewables.

Priyantha Wijayatunga, director, South Asia Energy Division, said, “ADB has expressed its continuous support to low-carbon development of Sri Lanka.

Recent proposals including a rooftop solar program and a large-scale wind power project demonstrate ADB’s commitment in this regard. This assessment report can serve as a comprehensive example for future utilities globally on how decentralized clean energy services can be governed.”

Sri Lanka’s electricity generation capacity needs will spike from from 3,700MW to 34,000MW by 2050. The UN Development Programme and Asian Development Bank firmly believe the country’s electric grid is important to increase electricity storage capacity.

Alexandra Soezer, climate change technical advisor, UNDP, said, “UNDP continues to be a pioneering

‘development’ institute. Knowledge products like these are giving valuable inputs to attaining Sustainable Development Goal 7 on ‘Affordable and Clean Energy’. We will continue to expand our activities in this field and pave the way for a better tomorrow.” The transition from conventional to renewable energy will allow the country to reduce its fossil fuel imports and its fuel bill by US$18bn.

However, nearly US$50bn is required for the country to make a smooth transition towards renewable energy.

Commercial spaces in Sri Lanka attracts global business and investor interest Sri Lanka’s economic development in the past decade has attracted global and local business interest.

Colombo especially has risen in the market for demand in commercial infrastructure. In 2016, the occupancy rate of Colombo’s grade A office spaces with one million square feet has reached 95%. The statistics illustrate a spike from 60% occupancy rate between 2006 and 2008. The elite business occupants include banks, law firms and investment banking companies.

Startups are growing popular in Sri Lanka’s commercial sector. The workforce in Sri Lanka is increasing at an exponential rate. According to a 2016 survey run by SLASSCOM Innovation and Entrepreneurship Forum, most startups are in their initial stages with 55% of the group generating early revenue.

The country’s business friendly environment is largely supported by government financial reforms. Its growing GDP has increased the demand for commercial spaces.

The demand is anticipated to reach 4.1% by end of 2017.

Foreign investors are willing to look at Sri Lanka as a suitable option because of a few refined measures: 15% reduction on land leasing tax for investors abroad and quick approval period for FDI requests.

The Western Region Megapolis Planning Project comprises of 150 smaller projects. Of the projects, Port City Colombo will add value to Colombo’s commercial real estate expansion. Kandy is also set to become the country’s smart city. Gampaha and Galle are evolving with new business opportunities. In addition, Sri Lanka is the only country benefiting from Free Trade Agreements with India and Pakistan. To reinforce investor interest, the Government is said to establish 45 high Economic Development Zones and 11 Industrial and Technical Zones. www.imarketinsights.com | Issue 04 | 2017

Market Insights

16 Feature | Reducing Carbon Footprint

What’s Hot

Why is Low-carbon desalination so important?

C This article explores the research done by MIT and GCWDA on why clean energy could be the answer to low carbon desalination

Market Insights

Limate change is one of the most pertinent topics, and companies worldover are trying to come up with ways to reduce carbon footprint across industrial processes. In recent times, the need for low-carbon desalination has gone up in light of environmental concerns and use of large amounts of power for the same. One of the first few initiatives to understand the science behind low carbon desalination was a workshop with some of the world’s leading specialists in the technology, economics, and regulatory issues surrounding desalination gathered at MIT this

Issue 04 | 2017 | www.imarketinsights.com

week. They discussed how to get the salt out of seawater or brackish aquifers at all scales, from small, local installations to the kinds of megaprojects that transformed Israel’s situation, while minimizing or eliminating the associated greenhouse gas emissions.

The two-day workshop, organized

by MIT’s abdul Latif Jameel World Water and Food security Lab (J-WaFs) and the Global Clean Water Desalination alliance (GCWDa), brought together experts from 11 nations to discuss the issues. at the 22nd session of the Conference of the parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate

What’s Hot

Change, or, COP22, in Marrakesh, Morocco, the report was presented.

At the workshop, participants discussed a range of solutions and challenges of minimising carbon footprint while providing access to clean water. For instance, they examined the idea of coupling desalination facilities with carbon-free or low-carbon power sources such as solar, wind, and nuclear power plants. To overcome issues inherent with wind and solar power sources, typically non-continuous power generation that could lead to operation difficulties, the participants said that further coupling with storage systems would only result in higher costs without proper design and operation. Potential pairings of power sources with desalination facilities, such as geothermal energy for providing both electricity and heat for different locations, tidal power and thermal plants that store the sun’s heat in vats of molten salt delivering heat when it’s needed, were some of the ideas discussed. And desalination could even be thought of as a kind of storage technology with excess power used to make and store fresh water, since water is cheaper than electricity to store The report contained some key findings – desalination capacity is on the rise, reaching 90 million cu/m a day last year. With areas that have strong sources of clean energy, desalination plants are necessary namely Middle East, North Africa and parts of China. The average power demand for desalination plants is estimated at 23GW and the estimated carbon footprint of carbon desalination is roughly 120MT and will grow, unless lowcarbon options are implemented.

There is a significant opportunity to couple existing large-scale renewable power systems, such as wind and photovoltaic systems, to existing largescale reverse osmosis systems to provide low carbon desalination at low energy prices.

However, better understanding is needed around system integration

Reducing Carbon Footprint | Feature

and cost optimization relative to intermittent operation and/ or energy and water storage options. Integrating desalination with renewables-powered grids at large-scale can provide grid services, such as significant flexible load or demand response, possibly helping to flatten demand and act as a counterpoint to intermittent supply. Integration of desalination and renewable energy at small-scale can provide clean water in areas of transient or sustained water scarcity with limited or non-existent grids.

These desalination systems can also provide the dump load or demand response needed to maintain the stability of an associated microgrid.

For desalination systems specifically, the preliminary survey results indicate workshop participants rated process improvements for energy efficiency, hybrid desalination technologies, advanced pre-treatment, and fouling control methods as areas of highest current TRL and potential impact.

These combinations are candidates for development and demonstration.

Next generation membranes were considered to have high potential impact, but lower TRL, suggesting value for additional research and development. Salinity gradient energy recovery, forward osmosis, and membrane distillation were rated as relatively lower TRL and impact.

For integration with low-carbon power sources, participants rated PV-RO and wind-RO (at large scale) as having highest potential impact

Desalination capacity is on the rise, reaching 90 million cu/m a day last year. With areas that have strong sources of clean energy, desalination plants are necessary namely Middle East, North Africa and parts of China

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and technology readiness, suggesting that demonstration at scale may be timely. CSP-thermal desalination hybrids, optimized power-water cogeneration, system optimization with intermittency, and autonomous grids and small-scale integration were considered to have lower technology readiness but significant potential impact; these technologies may be considered for further research and demonstration. Salinity gradient power was rated as a low priority.

Further research should examine the long-term reliability of desalination systems when operated intermittently with renewable energy. More research should be done to develop the TRL and impact scores systematically. This work should include life-cycle analysis of GWP for each technology.

Another researcher named AG Tony, UNESCO Centre for Membrane Science & Technology, School of Chemical Engineering, University of New South Wales, Australia, has conducted some research on the same topic. The use of very low energy ‘engineered biofilms’ coupled with biomimicry control of biofouling could almost eliminate pre-treatment energy.

Improved membranes based on ‘water channels’ could contribute to reduced energy demand but high flux operation will need novel mass transfer control and will be constrained by module engineering.

Significant energy benefits could come from combining seawater RO with wastewater reclamation using forward osmosis and pressureretarded osmosis (PRO), although fouling by the wastewater stream requires special attention. The overall potential of the novel pretreatments, membranes and posttreatments is to more than halve the net energy of RO desalination.

The hope is for a solution soon enough that can comfortably offset environmental challenges and convert unusable water into a precious commodity. 

www.imarketinsights.com | Issue 04 | 2017

Market Insights

18 News | Low Carbon Desalination in the Middle East

French companies unite to innovate solar powered desalination plants Akuo Energy has partnered with Mascara Renewable Water to setup water desalination plants run on solar energy.

Desalination is a global acute problem. In addition, fossil fuel powered plants emit large amounts of carbon dioxide that roughens the environmental impact. The French companies are looking for ways to lower carbon while operating desalination process.

The target is mainly towards developing countries because of off-grid use. A press release on pv magazine reads, “a number of geographical regions will be focused on, including Southeast Asia, the Middle East and part of the Indian Ocean.” The project will combine the expertise of Akuo Energy across the solar value chain with Mascara Renewable Energy’s

latest technology that uses PV panels in water production. The latter’s technology is capable of providing potable water at affordable prices to even remote colonies.

The solar PV industry is focused on methods to devise and operate a carbon-free process.

The joint efforts of both forces are impressive in solar and desalination sector. The energy consumption of desalination plants will come from solar, resulting in reduced CO2 emissions. However, the challenge rests in the necessity to insert battery into the system for a non-stop run.

Renewable energy to become all-important in Oman’s water desalination At present, 90% of potable water is sourced from expensive desalination plants that run on heavy energy. To curb the expense, solar and wind are said to become the future of energy-intensive desalination.

An Oman-based MEDRC Water Research centre believes the country could make the most of its solar energy potential to operate its desalination process. Oman is set to increase its water treatment capacity by 66% in the next seven years, observed Oman Power and Water Procurement Company.

According to Jauad El Kharraz, head of research at MEDRC on Times of

Market Insights

Oman, “The future of desalination is renewable. We cannot continue to use fossil fuels that are exhaustible to power our water needs. It is unsustainable in the long run, and considering the exponential growth in demand, solar-powered desalination units are now a necessity for water security in the future.”

MERDC has collaborated on a project with Sultan Qaboos University to understand and define challenges in opportunities to use desalination in agriculture. For research purpose, a 5KW solar-powered reverse osmosis desalination plant funded by the Agricultural Fisheries and

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Development Fund has been built at the centre’s facility. The plant treats saline water with up to 8,000 milligrams of salt per litre. The 20 solar cells at the unit can treat and produce up to 3,000 gallons of water per day for drinking and irrigation.

The International Renewable Energy Agency said that the cost of renewable power capacity was reduced by a third in comparison with conventional sources in 2016. “The cost of solar desalination is comparable to conventional ones at the lower end of the scale. However, as prices of photovoltaics decline in the future, renewables will be the most viable option for small- and large-scale plants.

Moreover, even now in remote areas, solar desalination plants can ensure the rural population is provided with potable water at a low cost,” he added.

Introducing solar energy in desalination will be a good start for both water and renewable energy industry.

Oman is strongly in favor of supporting

Low Carbon Desalination in the Middle East | News

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Masdar trials low carbon desalination Masdar, the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company will test three systems to capture solar heat as part of its Renewable Energy Desalination Program. The testing is to develop water desalination stations that come with greater commercial advantage.

The site of the Masdar Renewable Energy Desalination Programme in Ghantoot is where the three systems were installed.

The advanced systems are tested to realise its capabilities of capturing solar heat in order to desalinate seawater.

Mohamed Jameel Al Ramahi, chief executive officer, Masdar believes there is a sense of urgency in the water desalination process. The urgency relates to identifying better energy solutions that are sustainable with less consumption during the process as water in most GCC countries undergoes desalination.

Since the launch of Masdar Renewable Energy Desalination Programme has arrived at significant results for its partners and Masdar.

Masdar is eager to join hands with

leading companies such as Imperial, EMSOL and GREENoneTec to make the most of their technological expertise in the field.

The UAE has abundant of solar potential, and the energy could be well used for projects in seawater desalination. Over the course of 18 months, the Programme has successfully tested the efficiency

of five stations while carrying out the desalination process.

Veolia, Abengoa, Suez and Mascara were actively involved in evaluation of technologies in advanced reverse osmosis. The fifth company, Tevi Systems was focused on testing the technology of frontal osmosis. The initial results were demonstrated in Global Water Summit, 2016.

Desalination projects to run 100% on solar and wind in Qatar and Sweden Qatar and Sweden have invested in a green water desalination project that will exclusively run on solar and wind energy. The project is expected to lower 450,000 carbon emissions per year. The two countries will soon conduct studies through technical workshops.

Oscar Stenström, Swedish vice minister of trade told The Peninsular, “Sweden and Qatar are negotiating on a water producing project that will be set up in the north of Qatar and it will use only wind and solar energy to desalinate sea water. My meeting with the minister of energy and industry Mohammed Saleh Al Sada

has been very productive on this subject.”

The estimated cost of the project is US$2bn. According to the minister, the proposed water plan would consume 200 MW of wind and 200 MW of solar panels. “The cost of water desalination will be as low as $1 per cubic meter.

There is a common understanding

between the two sides on the project and the technical workshops will be soon held in Qatar to fine tune some technical aspects related to execution of solar power generation of the project as Qatar’s climate is rough with high temperature, sand, dust,” Stenström added.

The project will also address matters that include water scarcity management and promote green energy. Several Swedish companies have deployed breakthrough techniques in Algeria, Morocco and South Africa.

There is already a small scale project present in Al Ruwais, Qatar.

www.imarketinsights.com | Issue 04 | 2017

Market Insights

20 Feature | Smart Living

In-Focus

digitisation of utilities – is the World ready for it?

T This is one of the hottest topics in the industry, but how well equipped is the industry to cope with these changes now?

Market Insights

echnoLogy is the focal point of every business today, and utilities management is no different. The advent of technological inputs is changing the way essential utilities are being managed today but begs the question of digital maturity to handle such large processes. according to a pwC research conducted across 29 utilities in 12 countries, 70% said their companies want to be digital leaders in the utilities sector. however, there is a distinct gap in funding and efforts to tailor roles and responsibilities have not been made.

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Digital transformation can be achieved by data and IT infrastructure, organization and governance, digital culture and change management, says pwC, but the organization’s research has revealed that most companies are under-prepared in these areas.

The rising popularity of companies like Uber and amazon have redefined customer expectations today. at such a time, conventional utilities companies have to be more aware of customer needs than ever, and not overlook the role technology would play in higher conversion rates and

Smart Living | Feature

In-Focus

heightened customer experience.

Knowing the impact and relevance of technology, governments and private companies are cashing in on the enthusiasm around concepts such as smart cities.

Now, many utilities companies are approaching smart city plans with caution, given the constantly evolving nature of the domain. The PwC study finds that only eight percent of utilities’ operations are digitally mature – this means, they have digital and leadership capabilities. The need for digital maturity is imperative, as it helps utilities achieve gains in operational performance. Around 33% of extra savings can be done by masters, compared to beginners.

Digital plants can gain optimum maturity for high-

level performance by following some steps. For beginners, its recommended to use business case analysis, understand their benefits and see how it best fits an organization’s strategic goal.

Another key step would be to identify appropriate digital plant technologies by performing Proof-Of-Concept (PoC) for the prioritized digital plant initiatives.

Setting up of effective governance processes and establishing KPIs to track benefits is also a widely approved measure. A good approach to this would be to identify a leader, establish a roadmap to monitor progress and outline a strategic investment plan to scale up digital initiatives.

And it appears to be that some companies are taking this advice seriously. Research by Navigant has revealed that few utilities have begun. Stuart Ravens, principal research analyst says, “Digitization is one of the hottest topics in the utilities industry, however, the conversation often focuses on the end result - a digital nirvana of a highly efficient workforce and fully engaged customers. What is missing are the practical steps a utility must take to achieve a digital transformation, which is often a long and arduous journey.”

Navigant’s research has revealed that a “historic transformation” is underway in the utilities industry. Disruptive changes have transformed the way power is produced and consumed globally.

This has given rise to the Energy Cloud – a cleaner, more distributed and increasingly intelligent grid.

Evolving customer needs, policy, regulation, accelerating technology innovation and integration will drive the creation of distributed transactions and dynamic business models, spurring a more sophisticated two-way grid platform. The research concludes by floating the possibility of a new industry to be created,

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with estimated revenue of US$1 trillion.

Project Updates Bentley Power Systems and Siemens have teamed up to develop innovative technology aimed at digitization of power utilities. It’s the first step towards partnering with Siemens Energy Management Division. These jointly developed applications will aid users by enhancing Bentley’s network management, design and operations applications with new, integrated analysis, design optimization and Distributed Energy Resource (DER) decisionsupport capabilities, helping reduce costs, improve reliability and build-in resilience in response to global marketplace changes.

Vonnie Smith, vice president, Utilities Asset Performance, Bentley Systems, said, “Through a connected data environment, these new applications will help utility owners and operators share critical information to realise the potential of their network models for continuous benefit throughout the day-to-day running of their organisations.”

Schneider Electric’s EcoStruxure platform helps utilities boost energy efficiency, and is gaining prominence in the industry as a reliable platform. The EcoStruxure strengthens utilities’ ability to grow revenue despite shrinking capex budgets. “We understand how important it is for utilities to engage their customers and translate their customer data into insights, foresights, and better efficiency. The powerful analytics technologies we build into our EcoStruxure IoT platform do exactly that. They give utilities around the world real advantages during this time of energy transition and budget constraints,” said Frédéric Abbal, executive vicepresident, Infrastructure Division, Schneider Electric. 

www.imarketinsights.com | Issue 04 | 2017

Market Insights

22 News | Smart Living

Indian power utilities seek to invest in digitisation The U.S. based international Data Corporation conducted a survey on Indian power sector. The findings show that organisational flexibility and agility is a challenge. Nearly 68 respondents voiced their goal to introduce more agile processes and systems into organisations.

The findings said two-third of Indian Power Utilities is ready to invest in digitisation. Anil Chaudhry, country president and managing director, Schneider Electric India, said, “Digitisation offers tremendous opportunities for improving competency of power distribution in India.”

Utilities that are willing to invest in technologies largely focus on cloud platforms for data management, IoT and utilisation of data within 3D visualisations.

The study reveals the complex challenges faced by Indian power sector in energy demand growth, infrastructure modernisation, and transmission and distribution inefficiencies. The manual

processes, lack of real-time information, inflexible infrastructure and obscurity are key challenges.

But, operational efficiency and reducing cost remain on top to improve the financial position for the Indian power sector.

“Traditionally, we have addressed the energy equation

from the supply side—adjusting the amount of electricity generated to ensure that supply matches demand. But depending solely on supply-side solutions will not allow us to meet our obligations to reduce our carbon emissions and reduce energy consumption,” Chaudhry added.

Embracing the utility industry in the digital age The Australian Utility Week was held in Melbourne this year.

The event concentrated largely on promoting digital transformation.

At present, digitisation is the biggest challenge for Utilities industry. The transition towards digital technologies is positive, however, the industry is yet to acclimatize to this technological advancement. A blog post on Water Finance and Management reads, “The digital utility of

Market Insights

the future will be built upon five revolutionary technology trends: Emergence of Internet of Things (IOTs); Mobile Information Communication Technology; Cloud Storage Services; Data Analytics; and Social Platforms. The digital utility will be able to leverage this big data to improve operational efficiencies, save costs and enhance customer service.”

The Utility Magazine is planning to host an event in an effort to discuss digital utility and transformation in 2018. Digital utility could become the end product of digitisation in utilities.

Organising, storing and accessing Big Data in utilities is significantly managed using cloud technology.

For many years, South East

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Water, the utility providing water and sewerage services in Victoria, Australia follows a digital utility program. The program discusses from a water and sewer network standpoint. Connecting through digital technologies will provide real-time information into assets and infrastructure that will help to transform its business and increase customer value.

The National Association of Clean Water Agencies report on Envisioning the Digital Utility of the Future works explains strategic methods to leverage data, analytics and integrated systems. The tools, techniques and capabilities of the future digitisation already exist and is in use by most organisations today.

Smart Living | News

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Cisco launches innovation and Experience Centre in the Middle East Cisco recently launched an Innovation and Experience Centre in Dubai as a part of global network of Cisco Innovation Centres and hubs. The highly equipped Centre combines innovation and experience and displays the potential of digital transformation across sectors for Cisco’s partners and customers. The sectors range from healthcare, retail, education, hospitality, transportation to utilities, banking and oil and gas.

It was inaugurated by HH Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, president of Dubai Civil Aviation Authority with Chuck Robbins, chief executive officer, Cisco. “In today’s highly dynamic, fast-moving world, we must accelerate our pace of innovation like never before. Our new Innovation and Experience

Centre takes a unique approach that will help governments and businesses across the region develop solutions leading to greater opportunities for citizens and customers in the digital age,” Robbins added.

Businesses in the Middle East are flourishing at a time where digitisation impacts industries and government policies bolster diversification and development of knowledge-based economies.

The Centre will provide better understanding of technology

breakthroughs such as automation, artificial intelligence and virtual reality.

David Meads, vice president, Middle East and Africa, said, “Innovation and the transition to digital are high priorities for governments across our region. The Innovation and Experience Centre is a statement of our intent and illustrates our commitment to the region. The Centre aligns closely to the UAE’s National Innovation Strategy and will serve as a platform to accelerate the digital journey for our customers and enhance their competitiveness in the digital era.”

In an attempt to foster creative synergies, the Centre will introduce the interactive technology demonstration labs, where Cisco and its partners will create customised industry specific solutions.

Africa energy sector ready for digitisation The Africa Energy Indaba will be held in Johannesburg in 2018 with key focus on digitisation and its long lasting impact on Africa energy sector.

African countries are yet to fully adopt digitisation in order to innovate and develop their energy market. Industry experts believe the move will add worth of US$300bn to the continent’s economic growth by 2026. By comparison, South Africa displays digital maturity in the sector than its African neighbours.

But, emerging trends in African countries display keep interest towards digital for the benefit of power distribution.

Businesses in Nigeria consider national grid as a backup source of energy. Mostly, entrepreneurs are innovating solutions such as portable solar-powered mobile charging stations to support and sustain the digital economy.

Electricity supply networks

use digital communication technology, which includes: Global System for Mobile Communications or Power-Line Communication. The technology is frequently introduced into African power utilities plan mainly because of its extended capabilities to analyse, detect and react to local changes.

A panel of industry experts strongly believe digital adoption in Africa is increasing, and the continent’s economic necessities can be achieved through digitisation.

This is possible if disruptive technologies are strategically implemented across the industry by African countries.

www.imarketinsights.com | Issue 04 | 2017

Market Insights

24 Feature | Electrification

Business Opportunities

Sub-Saharan Africa offers attractive investments in power sector Sub-Saharan Africa’s catastrophic situation in the power sector has slowed down its economic development over the years. But, will its global attractive investment and the transcending shift from conventional to renewable energy allow the region to evolve in electrification and domestic upliftment?

p

oWer is one of subSaharan Africa’s discomfiting challenges to improve its economic Value Chain. The World Bank observed that yearly investment between Us$120bn and Us$160bn is a precondition to provide power supply throughout sub-saharan africa by 2030.

The enduring struggle in infrastructure investment and the inefficiency in transmission systems has induced an aching imbalance in generation capacity Market Insights

and demand. To meet demand, the generation capacity should increase about the same rate as economy. But the case lies in contrast to the rule: In recent years, the region’s GDp has grown at a year-long rate of five percent, and generation capacity has grown at a year-long rate of less than 3 percent (since 1980).

The average consumption rate in 2015 (excluding south africa) was 150 kW-h per capita. according to The state of The power sector

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Of sub-saharan africa (2008), the annual average per capita consumption in the developing world was 1,155 kW-h and 10,198 kW-h in high-income countries.

By comparison with Brazil, India and south africa, the region’s rate represents only a fragment of their consumption. even with its notably small share of 13% of global populace, 48% of the people are deprived of access to electricity. Load shedding has incurred cost to the economy

Electrification | Feature

Business Opportunities

at 2.1% of GDP on estimate (World Bank Factsheet). In translation, over 635mn people are mired in Sub-Saharan Africa’s longest power crisis (IEA reports, 2016).

The region is expected to consume 1,600 TWh by 2040—a fourfold increase from its consumption in 2010 (Mckinsey and Company, 2015). Its low-lying electrification rate has become an acute drawback to its economic value. To achieve breakthroughs in the midst of continual energy

poverty necessitates solid investments and sustainable power supply.

China’s involvement impacts the region’s infrastructure investment. The Greenfield undertaking by Chinese companies are worth more than 200 power projects, and 17 GW of generation capacity is built or contracted to build within the time frame of 2010 to 2020. In this period, nearly 120mn people will have access to electricity through power grids. The Chinese-built projects will enhance the power capacity mix and speed up the generation resources.

Infrastructure deficits in Africa still lags behind rest of the developing world regions.

However, a measured change can be seen with public and private investments. A recent World Bank report examines how the private sector-led investments in underdeveloped transmission infrastructure can work well for Sub-Saharan Africa.

But new models revolving the private sector are yet to draw reinforcement from policymakers and financiers. African governments need to ensure supportive policies and set-up right legal framework to bolster long-term investor interest.

Transmission infrastructure is significant to Africa’s Electricity Value Chain. The two cross border transmission projects: Mozambique–Zimbabwe–South Africa, and Zimbabwe–Zambia– Botswana–Namibia once completed will step up the transmission network between the countries, and enable them to optimise generation resources.

The private sector has invested US$25bn in generation sector in Africa. Even the African Development Bank (AfDB) has approved loans and grants worth of US$138mn to back a

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The region is expected to consume 1,600 TWh by 2040—a fourfold increase from its consumption in 2010. hydropower project for Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Rwanda.

Hydropower opportunities are nearing 70% of power generation, and are very location specific.

It could rival solar and wind opportunities across the region.

Africa holds 27% of world’s hydropower potential, and close to 93% of the resource rests unexploited. Much of the reserve is found in DRC and Ethiopia— given their terrane and economic conditions make it relatively difficult to procure multibillion dollar investments to flourish this resource.

Coal is concentrated in South Africa, but will eventually decrease in the generation mix. The remainder is distributed between oil and natural gas. While some countries including South Africa are looking at nuclear, nuclear energy is extremely expensive.

Natural oil reserves have strong presence in Nigeria, Angola and Sudan. Likewise, natural gas deposits are found in Nigeria, Mozambique, Angola and Namibia.

Regrettably, the centers for power demand are geographically distanced from regions with high fossil fuel concentration.

South Africa and Nigeria make an exception as they rely on their reserves. But most of Sub-Saharan Africa is forced without its own domestic resources.

The scattered resources and vast separation of hydropower points from main economic

www.imarketinsights.com | Issue 04 | 2017

Market Insights

26 Feature | Electrification

centres has persuaded the region to explore and bank on other forms of renewable energy. The continent’s energy landscape is conducive to local mini-grids and off-grid technology. So, the natural transition from conventional to new power generation, mainly solar is refreshing. renewable energy is prominently upsetting fossil fuel generation. solar has taken a drastic dip in pricing. In combination with energy storage Concentrated solar power (Csp) plants, solar has the potential to provide reliable, cost competitive base load power to meet subsaharan africa’s growing energy needs. Kevin smith, chief executive officer, SolarReserve, said, “solar facilities can provide off-grid solutions without the need for transmission or fuel line infrastructure—and become a strong component of the energy mix, displacing aging fleets of conventional energy.

More than 60% of new energy projects are renewable energy, and that percentage is growing as renewables are now

Business Opportunities

Solar has the potential to provide reliable, cost competitive base load power to meet Sub-Saharan Africa’s growing energy needs the most cost-effective form of energy generation in many markets.” Based on survey, the probability of advances and cost reductions in green renewable off-grid technology will deliver an exponential increase in rural electrification levels by 2025, observed the pwC report on africa power & Utilities sector survey.

“Investment opportunities in renewables are widespread across sub-saharan, including countries such as ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, south africa and Namibia with Nigeria and south africa [being] two of the largest market potentials. There are both solar and wind opportunities,” added smith.

africa is expected to double, or even possibly triple its electricity requirements by 2030. renewable energy is more cost-effective than the new traditional power generation build. renewables (excluding hydro) will contribute to more than a third of power generation by 2025.

The U.s. government’s power africa project is resolute to add more than 30,000 MW of power capacity in sub-saharan africa. even the World Bank has offered to support solar power investments using the initiative: scaling solar. The initiative is motivated to attract and encourage private investors to install solar power plants in sub-saharan africa. This could meet the region’s persistent power crisis: where existing grids are overworked and two out of three people have no electricity. advancements in economic growth and electrification rate from 20% to 70% in a span of 25 years could be achieved, if the power-hungry continent exploits its renewable energy through diversified investments. 

SADC generates surplus electricity the improved eLectricity generation in southern africa is a welcome development for the region as energy supply is a key enabler for industrialisation. energy shortages experienced over the past few years have constrained development and forced most countries to introduce demand-side management measures such as load shedding.

For the first time in a decade, the southern african Development Community (saDC) is experiencing surplus electricity-generation capacity as a result of regional cooperation in energy planning. The acting Coordination Centre Manager of the southern african power pool (sapp), alison Chikova told the sadc energy Thematic Group (eTG) meeting held in Gaborone, Botswana in October that Market Insights

excess generation capacity was about 2,616 Megawatts (MW). he said the trend was likely to continue in the future as “sapp will commission an average of 5,000MW per year in the next six years.” But sapp, which coordinates planning, generation and transmission of electricity on behalf of power utilities in 12 of the 15 saDC member states said that the current surplus is partly

Issue 04 | 2017 | www.imarketinsights.com

the result of an economic slowdown in saDC. Most saDC economies have experienced a slowdown since the global financial crisis of 2008 due to a fall in agriculture, mining and manufacturing production. In this regard, it is important for the region to continue strategising on regional power development to ensure that the demand for electricity is met when most member states recover from the economic slowdown.

“The impressive strides we have made in the energy sector should continue,” Chikova said, adding that cooperation among member states is critical, particularly in anticipation of improved economic growth by most countries. availability of electricity is essential to support efforts by the region to drive industrialisation.

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28 News | Power in Africa

Africa’s solar potential is seen on the rise Africa’s solar consumption in the energy sector has provided residents from Ethiopia to South Africa access to electricity. SubSaharan Africa is anticipated to rise in renewable energy growth over the next five years, observed a senior international energy official.

The continent’s solar, wind and hydropower projects are said to boost generation capacity to more than 70%. Paolo Frankl, head of the renewable division at the Paris-based International Energy Agency on VOA News said, “A big chunk of this [growth] is hydro because of Ethiopia, but then you have solar...in South Africa, Nigeria and Namibia and wind in South Africa and Ethiopia as well.”

The renewable energy in the region is almost doubling— from 35 gigawatts to nearly 60 gigawatts. There are several hydropower projects underway in Ethiopia. The projects include: US$4.1bn Grand Renaissance Dam along the Nile River and will output 6,000 megawatts upon completion.

Mason Qin, business development manager, Southern and Eastern Africa at China’s Goldwind, said, “The continent has a lot of potential, but the problem is financial and political issues, so all of our projects are being delayed for quite a long time, like with Eskom.”

According to South African Wind Energy Association, the energy regulator has agreed to investigate Eskom’s refusal to sign Power Purchase Agreements.

This has stalled 2,942 megawatts

of solar and wind projects.

Eskom has been unable to sign Agreements for two years. The delay in investment worth US$4.03bn affected investors, resulting in shutdown of a wind turbine plant.

Africa’s potential in renewable energy is promising. However, it largely depends on the government and framework policies. Mark Pickering, chairman at SAWEA, said, “Our government does not appear to appreciate the forces of nature.”

Africa’s power needs focuses on renewable energy Africa is expanding its demand for small-scale solar, wind and geothermal technologies, mainly because of its rural sufferings. The lack power supply in some regions affect the lives of people in serious ways. Statistics show that 635 million Africans live without any access to electricity.

Transporting electricity from power plants using transmission

Market Insights

lines is especially expensive. The use of renewable technologies allow small installations of cost-efficient solutions that work well for the regions. The continent’s renewable energy has the potential to sustain African countries and provide electricity. The resultant benefits could lower poverty and sustain economic development.

Akinwumi Adesina, president at African Development Bank quotes power as “the lifeblood of any society and the passport to economic transformation.” The Bank is focused on five priorities— High 5s to boost Africa’s power transformation. The priorities are termed as: Light up and power

Issue 04 | 2017 | www.imarketinsights.com

Africa, feed Africa, industrialise Africa, integrate Africa, and improve the quality of life for the people of Africa.

“The global power demand will be 30% higher with renewable energy facilitating almost half of sub-Saharan Africa’s power generation growth by 2040,” International Energy Agency added.

Discussions on renewable energy projects in Africa and business opportunities for private sector investment will be featured in the 10th African Energy Indaba in February 2018. The platform will also address pressing issues in Africa’s renewable energy sector.

Power in Africa | News

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KfW Development Bank funds Africa’s renewable energy projects German-based KfW Development Bank and the African Trade Insurance (ATI) have devised a new facility to support renewable energy projects in Sub-Saharan Africa. The strategy is focused on small-and-mid scale green power renewable energy projects.

Dr. Thomas Duve, KfW Director Southern Africa and Regional Funds, said, “We highly appreciate the opportunity to partner with ATI on this innovative instrument.

The RLSF is a strongly marketdriven concept, emphasizing KfW’s strategy to support and leverage the resources of local partners and the private sector.”

The launch of the facility is happening at the right time.

Small-scale projects are beneficial to Africa’s renewable energy strategies because they are less expensive and easy to implement.

However, the challenge for such projects is in meeting the

requirements to attain financial closure. The RLSF will assist independent power producers developing renewable energy projects in Africa to obtain liquidity in case of sudden delay in payment by their off-taker.

Funding up to US$32.18m will be provided by The German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development

(BMZ) through KfW. The reason behind the funding is to scale small-and-mid size renewable projects by addressing lenders’ liquidity requirements to back such projects. Africa Global Funds read, “ The facility is designed to provide a viable solution to one of the biggest challenges facing independent power producers (IPPs) operating in Africa, specifically the requirement to provide project lenders with a liquidity guarantee.”

The International Energy Agency predicts Sub-Saharan Africa’s renewable energy will increase by 73% between 2017 and 2022.

John Lentaigne, chief underwriting officer, ATI, said, “We are delighted to be working with the German government, represented by KfW, on an initiative that directly targets one of the main bottlenecks preventing green power projects from being financed in Africa.”

Shocking statistics on Bitcoin Energy consumption Digiconomist’s Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index estimated Bitcoin’s current annual electricity consumption at 29.05TWH. The estimate is equivalent of 0.13% of total global electricity consumption.

Statistics show significant numbers in the global energy consumption used to mine Bitcoins.

The last one month saw Bitcoin’s electricity consumption increase by 29.98%. The estimated global mining cost is US$1.5bn, and the estimated annualised global mining revenue is US$7.2bn. Bitcoin mining is consuming heavy electricity— more than 159 individual countries.

In terms of electricity consumption, bitcoin miners alone would rank as 61st country in the world.

Bitcoin mining uses up more electricity than 12 U.S. states:

Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Maine, Montana, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont and Wyoming. PowerCompare on Bitcoin consumption reads, “Ireland currently consumes an estimated 25 TWh of electricity

per year, so global Bitcoin mining consumption is 116%, or 16% more than they consume. The UK consumes an estimated 309 TWh of electricity per year so global Bitcoin mining consumption is only equivalent to 9.4% of the UK total.”

www.imarketinsights.com | Issue 04 | 2017

Market Insights

2017 Outlook

Power & Utilities Industry Trends Electric Utility Infrastructure

Innovating

Smart grid The Electric Grid technologies such as smart meters, smart appliances and digital automation could beneft utilities through energy resource optimisation, cost-effective operations and Utility ratemaking is run by robust cybersecurity public Utilities Commission framework based on least cost with minimum focus on risk.

However, risk is now featured in the ratemaking process to ensure more powerful customer rate decisions Market Insights

Issue 04 | 2017 | www.imarketinsights.com

Utility Ratemaking Decisions

The present utility infrastructures are more than half a century old. Smart policy and effective ratemaking choices could scale infrastructure investments, allowing it to compete with other state infrastructures such as road, water and airport

Present-day Sources

Wind and solar energy have adequately replaced thermal power plants to suit new generation climate sensibilities. Federal environmental mandates and rising state renewable portfolio standards have strengthened the choice

Behind-the-meter Model

PUC

Behind-the-meter resources could allow utilities to become reliant and resilient, and avoid escalation of investment cost in modern, new distributed energy assests. As a result, this makes the grid cost-effective and highly efficient

Source: The Wall Street Journal; Deloitte www.imarketinsights.com | Issue 04 | 2017

Market Insights

32 Feature | Digital Interconnectedness

Industry Practices

cybersecurity for the power industry Rising digital interconnectedness has inadvertently led to human adversaries followed by multi-pronged attacks. But, defenses getting better with more strategic efforts under hacker-induced circumstances bring hope to the industry’s infrastructure

Market Insights

a

Wave of cyber crimes in electric utilities industry has risen due to increasing exposure between systems and network. The expansion of intelligent network devices allows real-time visibility into data flow between existing Information Technology and Operational Technology networks. so perpetrators’ cognisance of computer technology and industry engineering becomes extensive. a possible exploitable point of entry is good enough for nation state actors to target critical industries.

The stereotype is largely on

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computer network security. But cyber breaches go beyond digital disruptions. Cybercriminals also pose a threat to the physical infrastructure and distribution of power while impairing the function of daily operational processes. The resultant power outages could accentuate a series of consequences during natural disaster. according to National Cybersecurity Institute, the Bowman avenue Dam in rye Brook, New york is a precedent for understanding cyber security breach in utilities. The hacker acquired control of the system’s

Industry Practices

operations through the cable modem. The repercussion of the possible attack could have resulted in a flood affecting nearly 200 homes.

In last year’s Ukraine power grid attack, a malware—Crash Override caused blackouts in Kiev for more than an hour. Crash Override Techniques, Tactics and Procedures (TTPs) were believed to target U.S. critical networks and systems.

Phishing is used 92% of the time by attackers to trick victims into giving away credentials, observed Verizon’s Data Breach Digest. The 2015 attack disabled portions of Ukraine’s electric grid and impacted 225,000 customers on estimate. Although not that simple, cyberattacks prey on the transmission site. Spear-phishing emails were sent from a trusted sender to extract confidential information. Attackers were able to defect the systems and hold-up power grid restoration.

In the wake of Ukraine’s attack, cyber security companies: ESET and Dragos Inc., have identified the sophisticated malicious software as capable of causing power outages through electricity transmission shutdown. Ukraine’s authorities hold Russia responsible for its grid attack.

The PwC Global State of Information Security Survey 2017 reported significant fluctuations in security incidents every alternate year. By comparison with the previous year, the report said 24% fewer security incidents were identified in 2016. Ernst and Young’s Risk Pulse Survey found 80% of respondents to be over-concerned with business interruption from cyberattacks.

So, how concerned should countries be in infrastructure and grid cyber security?

As an example: there is threat everywhere. Even Australia—with its great distance from rest of

Digital Interconnectedness | Feature

The industry’s digital interconnectedness is the primary feed for adversary activities. the world is still prone to major security incidents. Between 2015 and 2016 the Australian Cyber Security Centre reported 14,804 incidents that shook its business operations. Nearly 418 attacks involved sector systems of national interest and critical infrastructure.

Countries such as North Korea recruit Lone Wolves to hack into grids. Russian state-backed groups such as Dragonfly and Energetic Bear use Word Documents masked as job résumés to seek company information. BlackEnergy 2 and Havex are two malwares developed and used against energy sector companies.

Building robustness against cyber crimes The grid infrastructure is fairly built for reliability and safety.

The industry started addressing cyber security well before its mandatory standards framework.

But overall culmination of events ranging from Y2K to the recent Ukraine attack in the cyberspace has exposed the reason behind the disruption: the industry’s digital interconnectedness is the primary feed for adversary activities.

In recent years, the malicious intentions rested in the space have more to do with obtaining sensitive information of national interest. Now, scenarios also involve physical damage to systems and temporary loss of power. In order to get to the

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second stage, it is necessary to carry out the first stage attack.

Energy networks should be segmented like in the U.S: where operation systems and equipments controlling the grid are separated. This will ensure better grid resilience. In case of grid attack, the chances are the outage will bounce back in a few hours leaving minimum impact. A recent Wolf Creek Nuclear Facility in Kansas, for instance, fell victim to a cyberattack. But its operation systems were not disrupted because they were disconnected from targeted networks.

Experts certainly believe the attacks are not completely inescapable. However, reasonable measures supported by firm policies can reinforce the defendable environment that sustains grid cyber security.

There are a multitude of security measures to build layers of defense, and redundancy. First: assemble the architecture from the beginning. Second: the passive defense approach with vendor tools and security tools must lie on top of the architecture. Third: place intelligence on top of the tools, and is mainly directed towards analysis of adversary campaigns and breaking into their networks.

Fourth: use the defense to dissolve the malicious infrastructure. Of the measures, passive defense needs further development.

Human training is all-important to counter adversaries that are well-equipped and funded. The number of ICS professionals present worldwide is less than 1,000. The current domain needs to bridge the gap between technologies and defenders. This calls for active training measures to upskill defenders working in defendable environments.

Regulations to drive immunity

www.imarketinsights.com | Issue 04 | 2017

Market Insights

34 Feature | Digital Interconnectedness

Intensive risk management must be responsive because traditional energy infrastructures are now transformed into smart grids.

International utilities increased their security spend by three percent in 2016 and expanded 53% since 2012. The Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) provides customisable eight essential strategies to prevent cyber security incidents. Internationally, there are other well-structured documents that mature cyber security implementations.

The industry’s research and development practices must ensure attack deterrence, prevention, detection, mitigation, resilience, and forensics as priority.

Industrial cyber security firm: Dragos Inc., has raised US$10mn to promote its mission. An organisation should be modeled on Institute for Nuclear Power

Operations (INPO) to extend the capabilities of risk management.

Inclusion of some elements of the Operations like peer-to-peer and expert evaluation in cyber security-focused organisations could even result in advanced improvisations. In the absence of federal incentives, the electric power industry operates with industry partners and governments to raise cyber security. The industry should frequently set-up simulated emergency situations during cyberattacks called tabletop exercises. The exercise involves members discussing and reviewing procedures, and testing emergency plans to assess further actions.

The Energy Sector Act of 2005 has enforced the electric power industry to follow the cyber security standards and regulations

Industry Practices

by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The next decade will witness Electricity Network Transformation Roadmap hold cyber security in its core focus.

The Roadmap points toward key gaps in industry standards such as interoperability, communications frameworks and protocols, control systems and protocols, data frameworks and protocols and cyber security. It even suggests International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) to publish standards on communication networks and cyber security. The standards will aim to sync with other cyber security frameworks allowing the existing grid framework to progress. Keeping the industry’s growing sensitivity to cyberattacks, experts and active cyber security working groups must address critical infrastructure security topics. 

Australian power grid prone to sophisticated cyber threats Cyber Security Minister, Dan Tehan said, “Cyber security needs to become second nature to all Australians.”

According to Talos, CISCO’s cyber intelligence group, “A wave of cyber attacks targeted Europe and North America’s energy sector this year.”

A EY report on The Sydney Morning Herald states, cyber attacks are the number one threat to power and utility companies worldwide.

While intentions behind cyber attacks could lead to personal scams, the major threats rise from sophisticated attack groups. The

Market Insights

main perpetrators of malicious activities are identified as Dragonfly.

The resurgence of attacks is disquieting to the sector’s operational systems. According to Symantec, a cybersecurity organisation—the occurrences have been happening since 2011, and grew over the last two years. In order to impose ransom, adversaries target energy and power networks worldwide.

Understanding critical infrastructure has always been the center of focus for attackers and security researchers. Talos firmly believes “the attacks target both the critical infrastructure providers and the vendors those providers use to deliver critical services.”

The EY report said, “The growth of digital technologies and data-driven services is expanding the attack surface for cyber threats across the power and utility ecosystem. The distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks that have brought major

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websites and internet infrastructure to a screeching halt in places as varied as New Hampshire and Liberia could serve as a harbinger for the havoc Internet of Thingsenabled devices could unleash on the utility grid.”

Australia’s cyber security focuses on securing critical infrastructure assets as part of the strategy.

Legislative steps have been ensured to protect the infrastructure, but the industry is equally responsible for securing its data and access to the systems. Australia’s geographical distance from most nations has added no value to its susceptibility in the energy sector. “We are naive if we think that in Australia we are immune to [cyber attack] threats,” Tehan added.

The country will achieve its immunity only if individuals and the Government act as a whole, and share more sensitive information to solidify the defenses.

Digital Interconnectedness | News

Industry Practices

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Advanced research in the electric power grid assures protection: PPNL The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory is working with the energy industry to ensure reliable and secure distribution of power to homes and businesses. In addition, discovering ways to protect the electric power grid from cyberattacks is in focus.

PNNL is conducting research in technologies to predict and control the grid while strengthening defenses. Recently, an expert shared the importance of voluntary information-sharing program to understand real-time cyber threats in the industry. Expansion of cybersecurity awareness makes it possible to identify risk from cyberattacks and within the internal grid control system.

Exchange of information could lead to substantial data on potential threat, grid operations and automated protection systems.

The Department of Energy has multiple cybersecurity projects in

the pipeline. Of the projects, one of them aims to ensure the security of real-time information exchanges that will occur as new technologies are introduced to the “smart” grid.

One such exchange might involve the use of transactive controls, where financial signals influence how and when energy is used, reported Tri-City Herald.

The exponential growth of intelligent devices on the grid creates gap in the system. PPNL has built a device called SerialTap

to secure older industrial control systems that are incompatible with the latest security tools. The presentday grid-information security relies on technology similar to using master keys to open business vaults. In an effort to secure information, the project will transition to a keyless infrastructure solution. This solution will be used to observe and monitor the integrity of complex situations.

The combined efforts of these projects will add value to PPNL’s research and development.

Simulated attack to prepare the U.S. power grid A simulated exercise is conducted by the North American Electric Reliability Corp in an effort to prepare U.S power grid from an actual cyberattack.

Scheduled in November 2017, GridEx IV offers a platform for utilities to draw analysis from simulated incidents during cyber threat and physical damage to the infrastructure. The primary objectives of the exercise are pointed towards response and recovery, communication, learnings and senior leadership engagement.

The first grid exercise was carried out in 2011. The year 2011, 2013 and 2015 held drill sessions treated as a real disaster situation by utilities and grid operators. The drill will carry out crisis plans and coordinate responses. The public is usually being informed about the

actions to restore power.

NERC on POWER Magazine states, “An “exercise control cell,” based in Washington, D.C., will “manage [the] scenario distribution, monitor the exercise and gather lessons learned.”

Events in the recent past have called for training to sustain the defendable environment.

According to the FBI and U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the energy industry is a target for ongoing campaigns in

sophisticated cyber attack aimed at disrupting U.S. industrial and power infrastructure.

The most recent drill—GridEx III took place in 2015 with nearly 4,400 participants from 364 organisations. Gerry Cauley, president and CEO of NERC said, “the 2015 drill included simulated assaults on public-facing websites of energy generators, including customer service sites. It also simulated physical attacks on equipment such as transformers.”

The insights into the present year drill was not disclosed, mainly due to confidentiality reasons. However, FBI, National Guard, National Security Council, Department of Energy and Department of Defense will be a part of the simulation.

www.imarketinsights.com | Issue 04 | 2017

Market Insights

36 Feature | Waste To Energy In Asia

Innovations In Treatment

asia: cracking the Waste disposal code

a Asia is a bustling region with a high population, making it a hotbed for waste management. But how are Asian nations managing eective and eco-friendly waste management?

Market Insights

sia is a maJor driver of growth globally.

Specifically, Asia Pacific, with a population exceeding 4.5 billion people, powers a significant amount of industries and businesses. While the region is fast-rising, it is also plagued with a host of issues characteristic of developing countries. One of them is industrial waste. according to Future Market Insights, the region’s waste to energy market is expected to grow twofold by 2020. Japan dominates the waste to energy market now, followed by India and China, primarily because of the high levels of industrialization in these countries.

These countries are highpotential waste generators and there is a pressing need to dispose of waste in an environmentfriendly manner. Governments around the world are imposing strict legislations to control

Issue 04 | 2017 | www.imarketinsights.com

waste production, and even providing incentives to developing nations to dispose waste in an eco-friendly manner. There is also a growing awareness and need for environment-friendly sources of energy such as wind and solar. While harnessing these forms of energy on a largescale is dependent on the availability of these natural sources in abundance, waste to energy can be done in developing nations with ease. existing waste has the potential to provide for unconventional or alternate energy sources, especially since conventional forms of energy are leading environmental pollutants. experts believe that is waste is converted into energy, the carbon offset would be massive. Countries such as India, Japan and China can essentially change the way waste is converted, and have a positive impact on the environment.

Innovations In Treatment

Inadequate or improper disposal of waste can lead to a host of hazards, particularly in health.

According to the UN’s Global Waste Management Outlook, there are some deeply threatening side effects of improper waste disposal, especially by lower to middle income countries. More than two billion people have no waste collection at all – the waste is either being burnt or dumped into the sea. Children growing up in households without waste collection are doubly prone to diarrhoea and respiratory infection. Uncollected waste and open dumping in coastal towns and cities could be contributing to unaccounted amounts of plastic in oceans. Prof David C Wilson, president of the UK’s Chartered Institution of Waste Managament (CIWM) thinks that solid waste management is a key utility.

Despite the growing pressure of public sector budgets clamping down on essential infrastructure management, addressing waste disposal in an environmentfriendly manner is imperative.

In 2012, thermal technology held an 80% in the global waste to energy market. Thermal technology for conversion of waste to energy has gained prominence over biological technology, as the former is flexible in terms of feedstock used in the plant and is advantageous in terms of weight and volume of ash produced from waste. Now, the adoption of biological technology is also on the rise as it employs anaerobic digestion for converting waste in to energy. In addition, farmers prefer this technology due to biodegradability and high moisture content of the process.

The sustained discussions on the Paris Accord and the subsequent changes observed globally on climate change has activated developing countries to adapting

Waste To Energy In Asia | Feature

new methods to handle waste management. While government incentives are being rolled out, private companies are playing an increasingly engaged role in waste disposal in Asian nations. In some cases, public awareness has prompted citizens to take action in their respective cities and towns and clean up their act.

Kendari, until a decade ago, was one of the filthiest cities in Indonesia. The city, reminiscent of a garbage dump, was littered with bags, plastic, rotting food scraps and more, attracting flies and roaches. Today, its one of the cleanest cities in Indonesia.

A Straits Times report finds that garbage trucks sweep the city clean twice a day, while residents recycle waste religiously. The city’s mayor prides on one achievement – setting up Kampung Mandiri Energi in Puuwatu district, which produces methane from organic waste, in the city’s largest landfill.

Cheap plastic pipes were fitted deep into the city’s main landfill to collect trapped methane gas, which was then filtered and used as cooking gas or passed through old car engines modified into generators to produce electricity.

Mini methane plants have been installed across the city’s markets.

Another way to process existing waste in an eco-friendly manner is through biogas. Specifically, Sweden and Switzerland are exploring ways to use their surplus straw for biogas.

RISE scientific research institutes in Stockholm and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) have experimented with straw briquettes and pellets to see if straw could be broken down into biogas by microbes in a digester, and scientists have concluded that it can work well. By mixing it with other wastes such as food, the process could be made productive and faster.

With several large cities and fast development, Asia is a hotbed

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for waste management. Asian Development Blog recommends several steps for Asian nations to manage their waste better. Simple and cost-efficient technologies such as chippers and balers, as used in the Thai city of Mahasarakham, have helped manage waste entering landfills. In Myanmar’s Mandalay, trash is loaded intro trucks using skip bins that provide greater haulage.

In Sorsogon, Phillippines, simple composting is practiced in material recovery facilities. In most pilot cities of Thailand, the principles of reuse, recycle and reduce are encouraged.

According to ADB, most landfills in Asia are inefficient due to poor operations, which can be addressed by designing economically viable and environment-friendly landfills.

A public-private partnership can support a cluster of cities instead of a single one, triggering a largescale adoption of waste management practices. In addition, long-term awareness programmes will go a long way in implementing sustained change towards effective waste management.

In recent times, the role of technology has been explored to help governments manage waste more efficiently. From fill sensorequipped waste bins to databased management and logistics platforms, there is a significant shift to a cleaner environment. In the city of Gangnam, South Korea, a pilot project has been executed that experiments with smart garbage bins (SGBs), routers and servers.

Each SGB, which is battery operated, performs various techniques through wireless communication.

The server analyses the status of all SGBs and resident information collected through RFID readers.

Through technology, responsible governance and sound public policy, effective waste management can be a widespread reality in Asia and every other region in the world. 

www.imarketinsights.com | Issue 04 | 2017

Market Insights

38 News | Waste To Energy Worldwide

Coffee waste extraction to operate London buses Waste coffee grounds are partly used in the making of biofuels to power some of London’s bus service. The innovation is relatively new to the field, but will enable cleaner sustainable energy solutions to reduce carbon emissions.

Over 200,000 tonnes of coffee waste is produced every year.

Currently, 6,000 litres of coffeebased biofuel is produced, and could easily power a bus for an entire year. A mix of coffee oil extracted from coffee waste with diesel is used in the new type of biofuel. The final fuel mix consist of 80% traditional diesel and 20% biofuel blend. Bio-bean intends to collect the coffee waste from highend chains and factories.

In a joint news release, Shell and technology firm Bio-bean said the biofuel blend could be added to the London bus fuel supply

chain without any variation. Arthur Kay, founder, Bio-bean, said, “It’s a great example of what can be done when we start to reimagine waste as an untapped resource.”

This technology innovation is even suited for countries involving heavily vehicular movement.

According to Jason Leow, general manager of external

relations, Shell Singapore, “This is an exciting development not just for those in London, but also cities around the world looking to be powered by more sustainable and energy-efficient transport systems.

We hope to see more of such inspiring and creative responses to sustainability in Asia’s own clean energy movement.”

Copenhagen’s waste-to-energy program Copenhagen is driving green initiatives as part of waste-to-energy. The Amager Resource Center’s Copenhill is actively involved in educating residents and tourists about both energy generation and recreation.

Copenhill is the new face of the city’s wasteto-energy program. The program is set on the outskirts of the city.

Its vision is to displace Copenhagen’s old waste processing plants with technology that supports cogeneration, where it will supply power to nearly 62,500 homes and heat up to 160,000 homes in the district. CopenHill is being refurbished using reused material such as recycled metal and bottom Market Insights

ash. The recycling of waste could prevent the use of hundreds of thousands of gravel during its re-build. A feature on TriplePundit read “for every 400,000 tons of waste processed the plant is able to recover about 100 million

Issue 04 | 2017 | www.imarketinsights.com

litres of water from flue gas condensation.”

In summer, climbers can make the most of the Center’s 288 foot high climbing hall.

During winter, visitors will be able to grab a view of the wind turbines and its surroundings.

However, according to Babcock and Wilcox Vølund, a Danish-based cutting edge design company in renewable energy, “It is safe to say that waste-to-energy plants are not usually known for being tourist attractions.”

Waste To Energy Worldwide | News

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The Reppie project to transform Ethiopia’s energy The 50 MW Reppie waste-toenergy project is being set-up in Ethiopia and is said to incinerate 1,400 tons of waste energy every day. This illustrates 80% of the city’s waste generation, which accounts for 400,000 tons per year.

The plant will be commissioned by the beginning of 2018.

Zerubabel Getachew, Ethiopia’s deputy permanent representative, said, “The Reppie project is just one component of Ethiopia’s broader strategy to address pollution and embrace renewable energy across all sectors of the economy. We hope that Reppie will serve as a model for other countries in the region, and around the world.”

The benefits of the plant is significant, and this includes

saving space, electricity generation, prevention of toxic chemical release into groundwater and lower the release of methane into the atmosphere. Reppie ensures to meet the European standards on air emissions as it

operates within the strict emission limits of the European Union.

The modern back-end flue gas treatment technology is used by the plant to reduce the resultant heavy metals and dioxins released from burning of waste.

Waste-to-energy project set in Thailand Chonburi Clean Energy has initiated work on an industrial waste-to-energy power plant at the Hemaraj Chonburi Industrial Estate in Chonburi, Thailand. The Energy company is a joint venture established by Suez, WHA Utilities and Power and Glow Energy.

Steve Clark, chief executive office, SUEZ Asia, said, “SUEZ is proud to offer its innovative solutions,

specialty and management expertise to assist the Thai government in pursuing sustainability and a circular economy as part of the Thailand 4.0 strategy. The CCE plant marks SUEZ’s first WtE project in Southeast Asia, and adds to our portfolio of close to 60 successful WtE references worldwide. Together with our partners, we look forward to setting a new benchmark for Thailand’s industrial waste management.”

The facility is worth US$59mn and comes with a designed operating capacity of 8.63 MW and contracted capacity of 6.90 MW. It is due for completion in Q4 2019 and will be able to manage a waste volume of 100,000 tons a year. Using cuttingedge waste-to-energy technologies, the facility will be able to discard nonhazardous industrial waste through sustainable methods. This could reduce problems associated with landfills and reduce carbon emissions into the atmosphere.

“By building the plant in Thailand’s Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC), we can support the country’s pioneering development plans and provide outstanding waste management services to companies attracted by the government’s investment policy for the EEC. Meanwhile, the strong partnership between SUEZ and our partners will guarantee the upcoming WtE plant is strictly aligned with world-class standards.” he added.

www.imarketinsights.com | Issue 04 | 2017

Market Insights

40 Feature | Water Industry Goes Natural

Innovations In Treatment

cutting-edge technology in water sector

Water is significant to life on earth. The conspicuous effects of climate change and population growth on the aquatic ecosystem necessitates technologies to battle water scarcity. While governments invest billions in water purification plants, nature’s own techniques engage researchers to study and mimic its fascinating processes in wastewater treatment

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asteWater has become the starting point of environmental despair caused by human activities for many years. The domestic context defines the chance of wastewater: manner in which they are sourced and extent of treatment provided. about 80% of world’s wastewater is released into the environment without treatment, observed the UN World Water Development report. according to the report: level of wastewater treatment depends on income groups. high income countries secure up to 70% of treatment. Upper-middle income countries undergo treatment up to 38% while lower-middle income countries are subjected to treatment up to 28%. Only eight Market Insights

percent of industrial and municipal wastewater is treated in low income countries.

Wastewater composition is made up of valuable resources such as water, organic matter, energy and nutrients are productive to social and environmental commitments. however, the recovered resources are not used well to maximise the effect. The deficient treatment in waste flows attributes to inadequate infrastructure and minimal expertise in water markets. But, there are functional steps to refine the treatment.

Traditionally, the treatment concentrated on carbon removal from wastewater that can be released back into the aquatic

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ecosystem. Over the years, environmental pollution has forced stringent methods on nitrogen and phosphorus removal as well. anaerobic treatment and anaerobic digestion of sludge improves energy efficiency and decreases biosolid levels, mostly if supplementary sources of carbon are injected into the digestion process. But the conversion of biologically unavailable carbon into its biologically available form becomes an issue. Concerning nitrogen recovery, conventional nitrification and denitrification process will soon be replaced by Anammox—a globally significant microbial process of the nitrogen cycle. The future of phosphorous removal process is facilitated by

Innovations In Treatment

Enhanced Biological Phosphorus Removal (EBPR).

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued a Progress Report—Promoting Innovation for a Sustainable Water Future. The Report features how the water market and society at large use technology and innovation to sustain water resources.

Resource recovery and reuse Bio-based techniques and material play a meaningful role in wastewater treatment. In Europe, wastewater is allowed to settle in sedimentation tanks. The sludge that accumulates at the bottom is then removed. In the next step, biological treatments are implemented: Bacteria feed

Water Industry Goes Natural | Feature

on dissolved organic matter, and excess bacteria are zapped.

For decades now, heavily polluted wastewater is treated using constructed and natural wetlands. Vertical flow constructed wetland is found to reduce solids and nitrogen concentrations from swine farm slurry by 93%.

Wetland treatments even create a habitat for some endangered species of amphibians. Removal of nutrients, pathogens and toxic metals from water is possible.

Extraction of biosolids such as sludge can be reused as fertilizers after heat-drying. This procedure reduces the application of chemical fertilizers. Some plants and algae absorb nutrients from water, and can be used as animal feed or fertilizer.

According to the Science for Environmental Policy, bioelectrochemical systems have led to futuristic developments in treatment. Under certain conditions, specialised microbes can break down organic matter present in wastewater, releasing electrons. The produced electric current could be used as power supply. Furthering the research has sketched the discovery of Microbial Electrolysis Cells (MEC).

In this practice, a small amount of electricity is introduced for microbes to recover valuable chemicals from the water.

Nature-inspired technologies Natural techniques have helped to devise new mechanisms in decontamination and desalination.

Professor Cheng Luo accompanied by his student Xin Heng noted the singularity of long-billed shorebirds with thin beaks. The shorebirds demonstrate silent characteristics of water purifiers based on which a device was built to yield water from fog and dew.

Observing the natural process of sandpipers and stilts, researchers

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Limited awareness and hazardous human work continues to corrupt the reclamation cycle of our aquatic ecosystem attached two rectangular glass plates together—like a beak.

The open collector provides a large surface area for the fog to condense. The water drops slide down to the attachment and into a collection tube as the collector closes. This bird technology could help dry lands around the world to quench their thirst for potable water. The plate-based fog collector can accumulate water by 400 to 900 times more over two hours than any other artificial or natural process.

Scientifically proven benefits of seaweed separate water from oil waste. An alginatebased flocculent material when suspended in contaminated water is said to filter pollutants.

The treatment is then followed by desalination, and is ready for reuse. Euryhaline fish also known as tilapia lives in both fresh water and seawater, and holds a highly versatile osmoregulatory mechanism to cope with brine.

The vegetation in intertidal coastal zones in the world come in two variations: salt marsh and mangrove swamps. Each has organisms that can remove salt from water. This biological process has pioneered the pathway for new technological discoveries. In salt marsh, the plant Salicornia gathers salt in its tips instead of excluding them completely. First, they filter their water ingestion by one-tenth of seawater’s salinity, and then the salt is excreted through the glands.

www.imarketinsights.com | Issue 04 | 2017

Market Insights

42 News | Technology in Water Sector

Mangrove trees contain aquaporin that allows only water molecules to pass through a membrane. Some mangroves use ultrafiltration and the saltwater is sucked through the membranes in the roots. This process is supported by transpiration.

National University of Singapore and Nanyang Technological University have been working in collaboration with Singapore’s national water agency to develop and make the membranes stronger. This aquaporin-inspired biomimetic membrane acts as a natural water purifier used for forward and reverse osmosis. The membranes desalinate water by reducing appropriate energy.

Using the membrane technology could lower Singapore’s overall water purification cost by 30%.

What’s holding back?

Limited awareness and hazardous human work continues to corrupt the reclamation cycle of our aquatic ecosystem. The present generation is questioning industries’ perilous activities that result in poor water standards.

Devising and adoption of natureperfected treatment has certainly enabled indirect potable reuse in select parts of the world. Still the industry lie, partially, with challenges in water governance and impairment in water body such as eutrophication caused by uncontrolled plant and algae growth.

Policy framework and implementation is imperative to establish systematic methods in this field. Stemmed from the idea of adaptive management, adaptive water governance has become key to water security. The Water Framework Directive encourages this approach in order to manage uncertainty and intricacy of practices.  Market Insights

Grundfos seeks to break into the Cambodian water market

A Denmark-based water tech giant, Grundfos explores the Cambodian market to identify opportunities in wastewater treatment.

Grundfos is reputed for its energy efficient pumps and smart pumping solutions for domestic and commercial purposes. The solutions are mostly reliant on renewable energy technologies.

Aloysius Chan, water utility manager at Grundfos Singapore on Khmer Times, said, “The Danish pump manufacturer will be focused on Cambodia as one of its key markets for future growth.

We have done a lot of research and checked supply options in Cambodia, finally concluding that we can play a crucial role in increasing the efficiency of water usage, saving money and energy.”

Grundfos recently launched its range of new cutting-edge products for safe and cost-effective operations of complex devices. The company seeks to collaborate with Cambodian government and the private sector in an effort to boost water management efficiency and bring latest technologies into the local market.

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Eric Lai, business director of industry, Grunfos Asia-Pacific, said, “With pumps accounting for 10% of the world’s electricity consumption, the opportunity to leverage industry to integrate into pump manufacturing and reduce both financial and environmental costs is unprecedented.”

Common challenges during regular water consumption hours are old pipe system with leakages and reduced water pressure in Mondulkiri, Ratanakiri, Stung Treng and Kampong Thom provinces.

By 2025, demand in water consumption will increase by 0.8mn cubic meters per day, and touch 1mn cubic meters per day by 2030.

According to the report, Phnom Penh water supply authority will provide clean water to 90% of Phem Phem dwellers, and the remainder will obtain benefits from other clean water sources, by 2025.

The company’s vision is to ensure supply of clean potable water to the people through expansion of water lines and setting-up of new water treatment plants.

Technology in Water Sector | News

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Japan and Kazakhstan: Water Security Cooperation Japan has offered to implement the Japanese water-supply technologies in Kazakhstan.

The meeting was held in Astana with the representatives of the Kazakhstan Center for Modernization and Development of Housing and Communal Services, the Japan Association for Trade with Russia and the new independent states.

Toray Industries Inc., Mitsui & Company Ltd and Mitsubishi Corporation represented the Japanese delegation. According to the Ministry of Investment and Development in Kazakhstan, some of Kazakh cities like Shymkent, Karaganda and Astana have high demand in water supply sector. The Japanese specialists introduced their innovative water technologies to curb the demand and ensure water security.

Japan is one of the leading countries in water supply. Tokyo is considered to be one of the largest and most advanced centralised water supply systems in the world.

Its water supply system caters to 13mn people in the city.

In an effort to spread water technologies, several Japanese

companies presented their technologies suitable for Kazakh’s water insufficiency.

The technologies include: water purification products with natural techniques such as membranes use, water distribution pipes and methods to prevent corrosion of heating.

Building research and innovation in water sector The Water Environment Federation has partnered with BlueTech Research to facilitate research in the water sector. The objective of the partnership is to build opportunities for innovation and events.

Eileen O’Neill, chief director, Water Environment Federation, said, “Innovation and collaboration are two factors critical to the continued growth of the water sector. Our work with BlueTech is done in this spirit, and we look forward to continued successes.”

The Water Environment Federation is a non-profit technical and educational organisation.

The Federation being a global water sector leader consist of representatives of water quality professionals: 34,000 individual members and 75 Affiliated Member Association worldwide.

The Water Environment Federation and the Water Environment & Reuse Foundation formulated an initiative to introduce latest water technologies in the field rapidly.

BlueTech Research and Water Environment Federation go a long way in supporting Intensification of Resource Recovery Forum and the popular Innovation Showcase and Pavilion at WEFTEC. The plan is to work closely with the Federation in an effort to establish innovation related programming at other global events.

www.imarketinsights.com | Issue 04 | 2017

Market Insights

44 Events | International Water Summit Conference 2018

international Water summit conference 2018

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he internationaL Water summit Conference is an exclusive platform established to discuss ideas and innovations with industry leaders from around the world. The Conference will be held on January 15-18, 2018 in abu Dhabi.

The Conference will assemble large corporations, small and medium enterprises (sMes), engineering consultants, government officials and water companies for the event. The key focus is to engage private and public sectors in knowledge exchange over pressing issues Market Insights

such as water scarcity in select parts of the world. The Conference presents an opportunity for seniorlevel members of governments, key influencers, strategy decision makers and business leaders to voice their expert advice and insights on the future of water through a series of breakfast briefings, panel discussions and expert talks.

The feature highlights of the Conference include impact of big data on water management, improving the of reuse of water in water-scarce countries, GCC

Issue 04 | 2017 | www.imarketinsights.com

water and wastewater projects, developing more energy efficient desalination and the role of smart software and monitoring systems in water provision. a wholesome networking experience is created with a semi-circular conference hall, meeting rooms, open spaces for workshops and impromptu round table.

In addition, World Future energy summit, solar expo, energy storage and Battery expo, energy Efficiency Expo, Smart Water Expo and eco Waste exhibition are some of the co-located events. ď Ž

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sweden’s World Water Week to address ecosystems and human development In its 29th year, the World Water Week in Sweden will discuss the most pertinent issues on water management globally

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ne of the biggest water conventions in the world, the World Water Week, will be held this year from august 26-31, 2018 at the stockholm City Conference Centre. Organised by the stockholm International Water Market Insights

Institute (sIWI), the event has been the annual focal point for global water issues since 1991. every year, sIWI provides a platform for over 300 collaborating organisations to convene events about water and development issues. It is also an opportunity for individuals from around the globe also present their findings at the scientific seminars. each year the Week addresses a specific theme to enable a deeper examination of a specific waterrelated topic. While not all events during the Week relate to the overall theme, the seminars driven by the Scientific Programme Committee and many sessions focus on various aspects of the theme.

In 2018, the theme will be “Water, ecosystems and human

Issue 04 | 2017 | www.imarketinsights.com

development. In 2017, some 3,300 participants gathered in stockholm, from more than 130 countries.

Many partnerships and alliances have been formed between individuals as well as organizations during previous World Water Weeks. It is also where informal follow-up on implementation of actions, commitments and decisions from international processes and stakeholders often takes place.

During the Week, the world’s most respected award for water achievement – the stockholm Water prize – is awarded to help recognize outstanding water achievements and encourage interest in water and sustainability issues. This legacy continues with the stockholm Junior Water prize. 

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