Today's Edition
KHALED AL KHAWALDEH (ABU DHABI)
As climate change drives an increase in extreme weather events across the globe, Abu Dhabi is working swiftly to future-proof its power infrastructure with smarter, more resilient systems. Enhanced automation and decentralisation are emerging as key strategies that could help build a more adaptive and robust power grid.
Speaking at the World Utilities Congress in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday, Scott Ryan, Chief Power Operations Officer at TAQA Distribution, laid out a bold roadmap to enhance grid reliability through both automation and local energy generation.
"A little over a year ago, we had record floods, and that really stressed the grid," Ryan told Aletihad.
"It created a lot of issues for our customers, so we're looking for [a way] to make our network reliable and resilient for future impacts."
This mission has driven the development of an ambitious initiative known as FLISR - Fault Location, Isolation, and Service Restoration. Long in the making, the project gained momentum amid increasing climate risks, positioning the emirate alongside advanced economies in building a highly adaptable grid capable of withstanding future shocks.
"Think of a neighbourhood that loses supply, and then two minutes later, power is restored," Ryan said.
"Customers haven't had to call up; we haven't had to roll out a truck; and the majority of customers get their power back."
FLISR combines field hardware with centralised control room software to rapidly detect faults, isolate problem areas, and restore power where possible - all in near real-time.
TAQA recently completed a successful trial of the system and has now launched a five-year plan to roll it out across its network. The goal is to boost grid reliability by 30% within that timeframe.
Automation is only part of the puzzle. Ryan says TAQA Distribution is also investing heavily in infrastructure to meet booming demand driven by electrification and mega-projects such as the recently announced 5GW data centre.
"We're seeing spikes in demand and future load growth," Ryan said.
"We stay very close to the growth we're expecting, and we start to plan ahead, preparing our grid, preparing our generation."
A key component of that preparation involves exploring decentralised generation options like microgrids, which can operate independently of the main grid in emergencies. He said TAQA Distribution was working to explore all possible options to ensure that Abu Dhabi's growth is not hindered by the grid.
"A microgrid is where you have local generation, typically renewable - solar panels, solar rooftops, maybe even a wind farm - close to the customer," Ryan explained.
"Automation like we've described with FLISR can ring around a particular area that could be islanded in the event of a fault."
According to Ryan, this kind of setup would allow parts of the grid to continue functioning even when upstream problems - like flooding or heatwaves - take other parts offline.
Ryan, who previously led the construction of a microgrid in Australia, said TAQA is considering similar deployments in Abu Dhabi.
"Abu Dhabi is booming. It always has been, but we're heading into a new era," he said.
"We need to make sure that our network can actually support all of that."
Ryan said smart metres would also likely play a foundational role in building a responsive and efficient grid. These devices provide real-time data about household energy use, allowing TAQA to detect outages immediately and even predict consumption trends.
"It can send what we call the 'last gasp'- the very last thing the metre does is say, 'I've lost power', and we can know before the customer even calls us," Ryan said.
