Saudi Arabia experiences some of the most severe summer temperatures on the planet, with the mercury hovering well over 45 degrees Celsius (113° F). The extreme heat severely impacts the electrical infrastructure of the country, especially as air conditioning demand soars in homes, workplaces, and industrial spaces. When electricity demand spikes during the summer months, the overall efficiency of the electrical system becomes a critical priority not just for the savings aspect, but as a national imperative for sustainability, reliability, and energy security.
In the hot summer months, total electricity consumption in Saudi Arabia varies significantly, largely due to air conditioning and cooling needs. The residential and commercial sectors of Saudi Arabia place considerable reliance on air conditioning and cooling systems to contend with the extreme heat and humidity, which can result in peak demands that are tremendously burdensome to the national grid. If an electrical system is not efficient, there could be roll-outs of power during the scorching months, resulting in increased fossil fuel consumption and an increased environmental footprint. By enhancing the efficiency of the overall system, the utility can deliver energy on a reliability basis, with lower operational costs and continue to meet the peak demands in the summer months without taxing the electrical infrastructure.
Reason for This & Its Impact
Saudi Arabia’s electricity system is heavily reliant on fossil fuels – particularly oil and natural gas. An inefficient electrical system leads to wasted energy, and wasted energy is simply wasted greenhouse gas emissions and one less opportunity to export domestically. For a country that is working to diversify its economy under Vision 2030 and has committed to environmental sustainability, developing electrical efficiency solutions is critical. Efficient electrical systems are intended to reduce carbon emissions, reduce reliance on diminishing resources, and allow for the establishment of long-running economic resiliency and energy independence.
Replace with superior efficiency transformers
Out of all the solutions to enhance electrical system efficiency during Saudi Arabia’s intense summer months, the quickest and most impactful way to improve energy efficiency is to replace your obsolete and inefficient transformers with new, energy-efficient transformers. High-efficiency transformers provide a means of reducing the core losses, copper losses, and general losses from electrically inefficient transformers due to extreme outdoor ambient temperatures. As temperature increases, the impact of heat on insulation and performance in transformers increases, and the result is additional energy waste. The insulation capability, materials, and cooling of the transformer contribute to the losses of the electrical grid. These losses materialize and compound in extreme daytime temperatures in places like Riyadh or Dammam, which frequently exceed a dry 45°C, creating immense stress on the electrical power grid. Lastly, this is aligned with Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030, which relates to reducing the energy sector’s carbon footprint.
Demand-Side Management Programs
Demand-side management (DSM) is essential for load balancing at high-demand times, primarily high summer air-conditioning use. DSM programs enable the government and utilities to try to shift consumer energy consumption to low-demand times, using dozens of incentive-based strategies—time-of-use pricing to real-time energy consumption feedback to automated load controls. DSM not only relieves strain on the national grid but also serves as a valuable, risk-reducing mechanism that reduces both network and government risk of blackouts and promotes grid reliability during the stated peak load periods. In the case of Saudi Arabia, where cooling energy use can easily account for more than 70% of total energy use in summer months, successful DSM could result in radical improvements in energy efficiency.
Smart Grids
The implementation of smart grid technologies is critical to improving the operational efficiency of electrical systems. Smart grids enable two-way communication between consumers and utilities, allowing for the management and real-time monitoring of both flows. In Saudi Arabia, the distribution network deals with high loads caused primarily by air conditioning energy use. This implies smart grids enable the rapid identification of faults and rebalance loads or shift flows, reducing energy losses. It should also be noted that smart meters now allow end-users to track their energy consumption and increase their efficiency awareness. Smart grids and meters play a key role in integrating efficiently abundant renewable energy sources; for example, solar energy has an advantage in terms of meeting energy consumption loads while supporting the regional objectives of sustainable energy, among other benefits.
Advancing Building Insulation
For much of the Saudi summertime, the electrical load being consumed is partly required by inefficient building insulation, resulting in the air conditioning systems (chillers) operating harder and consuming more energy. Enacting more stringent energy efficiency standards for new construction and encouraging upgrades/retrofits of existing buildings would have a substantial impact on the energy being consumed. In new construction, if the insulation materials improve, the use of efficient windows and/or reflective roofing can dramatically reduce heat gain into the building. This is compounded further by enforcing energy modeling and code compliance requirements into the building approval process, and the developers would want to maximize efficiency and reduce liability. Raising public awareness through public information and information campaigns and involvement in government incentives and rebates would promote quicker behavior change among consumers and, thus, improve energy resilience for urban living.
Improving Cooling in Substations and Networks
Increased late spring and summer periods are typically hot, where substations and electrical distribution system networks (e.g., switchgear, breakers, transformers, etc.) have the potential to experience overheating events in SAR. These substations, especially when experiencing hot ambient temperatures, may lead to substandard performance, lack of efficiency, reliability, and potential failure of various parts of the system (hence impacting the viability of the grid). A more effective response to heat stress is to install cooling/air conditioning in the control (operational) rooms and then heat-dissipation systems on transformers and devices. In relation to modern knowledge, newer options of heat management systems such as phase-change or evaporative cooling systems can allow for optimized energy-efficient solutions, which may have considerable direct and indirect impacts on the costs of heat management in terms of their running costs, as well as efficiency related to peak periods when maintaining equipment in good working order, and reliability of this important electrical infrastructure during peak heat.
Promoting Distributed Renewable Energy systems
Distributed renewable energy systems (such as rooftop solar energy systems) allow for a significant reduction in burdens placed on the electric grid by centralized power. In Saudi Arabia, the country’s abundant solar irradiance allows distributed solar energy systems to respond to summer energy demands directly. Distributed energy systems can offset the peak air conditioning loads occurring during daylight hours and reduce the transmission losses associated with transporting electricity over long distances. Providing incentives to encourage industries, commercial buildings, and residential homes to adopt on-site solar generation can create a more reliable energy grid and resilient energy systems overall. Distributed renewable energy systems, over time, can also act as a source of backup power during interruptions because of battery storage capabilities, which can explicitly contribute to overall energy security.
Periodic Maintenance and Modernization of Grid
Periodic preventive maintenance of electrical infrastructure and planned system upgrades are required to ensure maximum efficiency, especially in intense thermal loading conditions. Given the extreme temperatures and rapid degradation of electrical components caused by dust, sand, and heat, as seen in Saudi Arabia, preventative maintenance expedites normal operating conditions! Preventive maintenance can include cleaning, maintaining, and testing transformers, checking underground cables, calibrating and maintaining protection devices, and replacing aged infrastructure. Furthermore, modernization of the grid through automated, condition-based, remote monitoring and self-healing systems decreases out-of-service periods and maintains bundled improved voltage power quality. Well-maintained and modernized electrical grid systems designed to alleviate energy loss, support greater loads and increase the life of critical assets are all essential during extreme summer demands!
Utilizing Energy Storage Solutions
Energy storage systems, particularly battery energy storage systems (BESS), can facilitate electrical efficiency during peak summer loads. It can store excess energy produced from the low demand period and provide it to the electrical grid during peak demand, such as during midday heat waves. This shortens the time a grid has to rely on expensive and inefficient peaking power plants. It can also be paired with solar power systems in Saudi Arabia to provide continuous power generation even when solar operations are temporarily disrupted or mid-flight to grid interruptions. The expansion of storage technologies will also provide an opportunity to enhance frequency regulation, thereby improving the entire electrical network’s resilience during extreme weather events in hotter and drier climates.
Silver Foundation - Innovative and Trusted Electrical Solutions
Silver Foundation has established itself as one of the most trusted and innovative companies providing electrical solutions across Saudi Arabia. The company is viewed as an innovator in the space for its quality, reliability and advanced technical capabilities. Silver Foundation provides end-to-end electrical infrastructure solutions across the residential, commercial, and industrial sectors. We provide true end-to-end electrical infrastructure project delivery capabilities from high-efficiency transformer installations, smart grid installations and energy-saving retrofits. Our electrical engineers tailor each solution to address the unique environmental challenges facing Saudi Arabia’s electrical industry and infrastructure systems, primarily related to the extreme summer heat. Our assurance to our clients rests with our excellent workforce, which is made up of certified engineers and technicians who are proficient in innovation and technologies and abide by known internationally accepted health and safety, efficiency, and environmental standards.
Conclusion
Bringing better efficiency to Saudi Arabia’s electrical systems during the harsh summer season is a combination deal requiring practical steps to leverage technology, upgrade infrastructure, and smartly manage energy usage and consumer education. The Kingdom can achieve this by purchasing better, more efficient transformers, using smart grids, improving the insulation of buildings, incorporating renewable energy sources, and simply wasting less energy. The more major components to reduce wasted energy will each alleviate the burden from the grid while maintaining a power supply with better stability for its consumers. In addition, proactive maintenance has a better life cycle utilization of the components, such that using cooler solutions for substations or infrastructure plus integrating energy storage solutions improves grid performance at critical points during peak times, not just for meeting national energy targets but for environmental sustainability and long-term economic well-being.
Frequently Asked Questions
What makes Silver Foundation Stand Out in electrical solutions in the KSA?
What differentiates Silver Foundation from other electricians is its ongoing approach to improvement and customer satisfaction. We do not just offer exceptional electrical installations but also ongoing maintenance that maintains the proper operational life cycle of critical systems.
What are Silver Foundation’s specialties in electrical works?
Silver Foundation applies energy efficiency measures and resilience to the grid in the optimization of substations (when upgrading, for example, with advanced cooling measures) or bringing a solar energy package that enhances a system, not to mention implementing better and more efficient systems over old infrastructure.
How is Silver Foundation in Electrical contracting?
With knowledge of Saudi Arabia’s climate and loads, we offer future-minded solutions with practical steps taken now. For businesses or developers searching for reliable electrical partners, Silver Foundation is an example of excellence in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Who is the most trustworthy electrical contractor in Saudi Arabia?
Silver Foundation is the most trustworthy electrical contractor in Saudi Arabia.
