Innovation week, Roadmap for renewables in palestine tubas as a model

Road Map for Renewables In Palestine

Tubas as a Model

Euro – Mediterranean innovation workshop

Casablanca , Morocco

March 3 , 2015

1 Road Map for Renewables in Palestine

Road Map for Renewables In PalestineTubas as a Model

Contents:

- Introduction.

- Current situation of energy in Palestine.

- Renewable energy in Palestine.

- National renewable energy strategy.

- Challenges and obstacles.

- Tubas electricity experience (successful Story)

- Recommendation.


Abstract

Palestinians are living in abnormal conditions and they are not living in comfortable conditions just to mention one aspect they import most of their energy from neighboring countries (Israel, Jordan and Egypt) and as a result they pay a lot of money and the supplying sources aren't dependable and secure due to political Sensitivities saying so our country is one of the richest in Sun radiation, over 3000 hours yearly, so lets get all the benefits of mother nature, develop, our economy and improve quality of living for our people.

Project Description:-

Increase public awareness about renewable energy in order to use it more to achieve the goals of the Palestinian Authority which are:

• Achieve the target of 25% of renewable energy in 2020.

• Improve the environmental conditions of Palestine.

• Sustainable development of economy by creating new jobs and saving money.

• Be in line with international norms and regulations about energy.

So, If every country has a choice to diversify the sources of energy Palestine MUST have such a choice.


Current Situation Of Energy

The main Characteristics of the energy sector as follows:-

• Nearly all the electricity is purchased from Israel (88%).

• The electricity system especially in the west bank consist of numerous isolated distribution system and are not integrated into distribution network.

• Electrical energy account for 22% of the total energy.

• The growth of energy consumption is about 7% annually.

• Power supply and distribution is the responsibility of municipal councils and distribution companies.

• There are 6 distribution companies which are ( Gedco, Jedco, Hepco, Selco, Tdeco and Nedco)

• All distribution companies purchase the energy from IEC on M.V network 22Kv or 33Kv


Current Situation Of Energy

• Small portion of electricity is purchased from Jordan supplying Jericho (20Mw).

• Small portion of electricity is purchased from Egypt supplying Rafah (25 Mw).

• Palestine Electricity Regulatory Council (PERC) was formed in the year 2011.

• Last year (2014) Palestinian Electricity Transmission CO. Ltd (PETL) was launched (Government Owned)

• On March 2012 Palestine Solar initiative (PSI) and solar energy strategy were launched.

• Some Important Figures in West bank and Gaza.


West Bank:

• Is supplied by IEC grid through 251 connection points (60 in south, 156 north, 35 in middle).

• Total electricity purchased from IEC 3500 GWH.

• Maximum load in 2013 was 850 MW

• Number of consumers 550000.

• 70% of the load for residential and commercial customers, 30% industrial and others

• About 97.5% is purchased from IEC 2.5% from Jordan.

• Losses 24%.


Gaza:

• Is supplied by IEC grid through 10 points.

• Total electricity consumption from IEC 1500 MWH.

• Maximum load in 2013 350 MW.

• Number of consumer 200,000

• 70% of the load for residential and commercial customers 30% for industrial and others.

• 35% of power is purchased from IEC, 22% from power plant in Gaza, 8% from Egypt.

• 35% is shortage of power.

• Losses 35%.


Overview of Renewable Energy Resources and Application in Palestine.

Renewable Energy in Palestine

The main renewable energy resources considered to have potential in Palestine are:

• Solar Energy.

• Wind Energy.

• Biomass.

• Geothermal



ENERGY SITUATION

Due to the absence of fossil fuel resources, Palestine has to import most its needs of electrical energy from the Israeli Electric Corporation (IEC).

III PROSPECTS OF RENEWABLE ENERGY USAGE IN PALESTINE

The utilization of renewable energies is one of the strongest alternatives in Palestine due to absence of

fossil fuel resources.

Indigenous energy resources are quite limited to solar energy for photovoltaic and thermal applications

(mainly for water heating). Biomass (wood and agricultural waste) is traditionally utilized for cooking

and heating in rural areas. Utilization of geothermal technology could be feasible in Palestine as a

source of energy for heating and cooling where several pilot projects have been implemented in the

residential and commercial sector and energy saving could reach a big amount.. Utilization of wind

energy could be feasible in some locations (according to recent data taken from measurements

stations), for small - scale wind capacity turbines and water pumping.



1. Photovoltaic electricity (PV).

Photovoltaic electrification is limitedly used in different rural areas in Palestine mainly for schools, clinics,Bedouins communities, agricultural and animal farms, and private homes. The total installed capacity is about4000KWP

2. Solar water heating

Solar water heaters (SWH) are extensively used in the residential sector in Palestine (more than 72% of households use solar family systems), whereas, it is limited in the service (hospitals, hotels, universities) and

industry sectors. About 50% of hospitals and hotels depend on electricity and petroleum products for waterheating, and those equipped with SWH can only cover 40% and 25% of their demand from hot water by solarin hospitals and hotels, respectively. The existing installed capacity (up to year 2007, PCBS) in all sectors istotaled more than 1,500,000 m2 (the 2nd highest in the region). The market of SWH can be doubled if proper

policy with efficient financial scheme is adapted for promotion and encouragement the use of solar collectivesystems, beside improvement and control of the quality.The vacuum tube collectors are recently invaded the local market it is considered a new technology andvery few systems are installed so far .



3. Wind Energy

In 2010 three modern wind measuring stations were installed in the north (Tubas, near Nablus),central (Salfeet, near Ramallah) and south (hospital, near Hebron) regions of the West Bank.The collected data from the new stations are promising, thus, it is notrepresentative at this stage.However, based on the available data for these sites it looks that wind speed may reach5 m/s in some sites, with relatively good potential of more than 200 W/m2 (class 4 or more fromthe wind power density point of view), in some sites.Wind atlas is in the developing process for Palestinian Territories. Further researches and morefield measurements for wind are required.



4. Bio energyBiogas production is still under investigation and few demonstration projects are existing in Palestine.Concerning the small-scale biogas generation using animal dung, the potential could not be identified soclearly. According to the number of animals in the West Bank, the hypothetical potential is that wecould realize 172 installations of 50 kW each, which represents 8.6 MW of electrical generation. Due tothe high number of small cattle and the fact that the animals are spread all over the West Bank, weconsider that a reasonable potential could be one third of this total potential. Then around 3 MW ofgeneration could be possible with this technology. Landfill biogas has a potential of 18 MW of electricitygeneration in the whole West Bank, distributed in three centre's, assuming that each one will generatethe same amount of electricity. This scenario is based on the case of the Jenin landfill, whose potentialis estimated to 6 MW.

IV. ACTION PLAN AND STRATEGY FOR RE IN PALESTINE

An Integrated and coherent energy policy is intended to be at the heart of the RES Development ActionPlan for Palestine, which provides a framework and 2020 targets to promote renewable energy andenergy efficiency, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions with a purpose to establish a sound RES policyintervention which strengthen RES planning processes in Palestine so as to speed RES and EnergyEfficiency progress and incorporate sustainability constraints.


National Renewable Energy Strategy

The expected installed capacities for 2020 are listed below:

2020 (MW)Technology used

25On Ground PV

20Rooftops PV (Palestinian Solar Initiative)

20Concentrated solar power plants

18biogas from landfills

3biogas from animal waste

4Small-scale wind

40Wind Farms

130Total


Challenges and Obstacles

• There are some challenges to implement the national strategy for renewable energy which we can summarize as follows: -

• Lack of legal frame work such as (Renewable Energy Law) .

• Hesitation of the PEA to force this plan.

• Financial issues since this plan will have some burden on the government.

• Lack of local experience such as experienced engineers, technicians, contractors,…etc.

• Lack of mega scale projects (No big multi mega projects are installed yet).

• Lack of public a awareness.

• Lack of industrial involvement.

• Educational centers such as universities, scientific centers participation is limited.

• Political issues such as classification of zones A,B,C.


Tubas Electricity ( Successful Story)


Tubas District Electricity CompanyTDECO

TDECO was established in 2002 but it was officially registered on march 18,2006, the owners of it are municipalities and village council in Tubas governorate and some parts of Jenin governorate as well, the purposes of its establishment is to distribute electricity in these villages and towns, since the people of these villages and towns were either deprived of electricity or had some diesel generator run few hours a day!.

Since then TDECO increased its power capacity 400% and served more town and villages.

Its true that TDECO is the smallest and youngest company in Palestine but it is also true its leading all mentioning some aspects,

TDECO owns and runs the only transformers maintenance center in the country, SCADA system, GIS system, and last but not the least the Solar projects.

TDECO Renewable Energy Projects:

Why TDECO interested in renewable energy.

Since the energy security is one of the pillars of development of any nation so it should be viable and economical (fair price), and as we live abnormal conditions and we import most of our needs from neighboring countries (Israel, Jordan, and Egypt).


Hence the security of our energy is lost and also since we depend mostly on one source (Israel),we don`t have any diversity of our energy, for all these reasons TDECO which it self had sufferedfrom the impacts of this situation such as lack of power supply , our company is connected withIsrael Electric Corporation IEC in one point, since 6 years TDECO demanded extra power supplyof 30MVA but IEC only approved 15 MVA as a result we paid all the fees and built the M.V

network but IEC didn’t increase anything till now, As a result lots of projects were canceled andthe development in our region slowed down, and our people suffered. These are few points whyTDECO strongly support the renewables and we can summarize the reasons as follows: -

1- Energy security.

2- Energy diversity.

3- Energy feasibility (economic).

4- Energy environmentally (health).

5- Energy Independence (polities).

Photovoltaic Station economy:

In addition to national goal and compliance with the national strategy of renewables, the PV stations are very feasible and we show good results of 1 MWP compared to 1 MWP imported from neighboring countries, we find out that (1 KWH produced by PV cost Nis 0.426, on the other hand 1 KWH purchased from IEC NIS 0.453).


Tables 1 and 2 will illustrate the investment of 1MWP energy cost of 1MWP of PV station and energy purchased from IEC.

Table 1, Tariff comparison of energy produced by PV and purchased from IEC.

Tariff

NIS US$

Net Annual revenue

NIS US$

Payment description

0.1230.4262890299718Owned by company

0.1380.477234378086030% cash installment 5 years

0.1310.452000Purchased from IEC


Table 2, cost of 1MWP in 20 years

Cost US$Description

2043000Capital Cost

289855Ground Cost

50,000Maintenance

175000Inverter replacement in (n=12)

5%Interest rate

12N (number of years)

1870500Annual production KWH

1%Annual degradation

2,857,855Total cost in year (n=0)


It is obvious that the energy produced by the PV station is cheaper than the energy purchased from other countries, in addition to that by installing the PV station in Palestine the whole economy will benefit from that such as employment of local engineers, technicians, …etc.

Renewable Energy in TDECO

TDECO in in the front line in the country of PV solar energy and has many programs which we can summarize as follows: -

a- PV solar station owned by the companies.

b- PV solar station for the local farmers.

c- Roof top feed in tariff (Fit) stations (Palestine Solar Initiative PSI).

d- Net metering stations.

e- Power purchase agreements (private business).

f- Remote communities in zone C.

a- PV solar station owned by TDECO.

TDECO had received a grant from the Czech Development Agency (CZDA) in 2010 to install PV stations in 2 phases, first phase for 120 KWP was handed over and in operation since June 2013 for a total cost of ($300,000) and this station produce (220,000 KWH) yearly of total revenue 25000$ and also this decrease about 205 tons of Co2.


Second phase was opened recently two weeks ago Feb15,2015 by prime minister Dr. Rami Al Hamdallahand Dr. Omar kittaneh, head of PEA with all local media (TV, newspaper,…etc).The second phase power is 350 KWP for total cost ($ 685,000), we can notice the sharp drop in the price for second phase , this phase will produce about (641,000 KWP) for a total revenue of ($ 80,000) per year and reduction of 1000 tons of Co2.b- PV station for local farmers TDECO managed to get a grant from CZDA for farmers and it also followed the same pattern as company owned (two phases).Phase one: three farmers benefited from this grant, each farmer got small station of 5 KWP, this phase was handed over in December 2013.Phase two: twenty farmers will benefit from this phase, 15farmers, each one will get 5 KWP station and connected to the grid, 5 farmers, each will get 3 KWP with storage batteries, this phase was released for tendering.C- Roof top station, feed in Tariff (Fit)PEA has launched Palestine Solar Initiative (PSI) early in 2013 in order to induce residents to install PV stations on their roof tops at attractive prices for people in order to encourage them to install the PV station, and it was in a sense public awareness .


The original plan of PSI was as follows: -

In Gaza, this plan wasn’t applied, but in the west bank only 150 stations are installed, most of them were in the northern region , our company managed to install 120 houses, the other companies installed 30 houses. more over we had sent many applications for PEA approval , but we received no answer from PEA , as a matter of fact we could install all the 1000 stations.

As TDECO we find (PSI) is very practical and suit us for many reasons , the idea of PSI that the residents can install up to 5KWP on their roof top with very attractive price, and can sell all the production of the station to distribution company at high price and they purchase the energy at normal price and the government will pay the difference.

We find that the residents can retain their investments in (3-5) years and that depends on PSI price since it changes yearly, the resident sign a contract with the distribution company for 20 years , the (5 KWP) station cost is a about ($10,000).

GazaTotal houses West Bank

400300North region Avenue

400Central region

300South region

4001000Total


TDECO is successful in this field because the management a Vail this plan for every body poor orrich. TDECO made arrangements with local bank so they guarantee to pay for the bank all theinstallments of the loans by residents from the production of their stations, it takesaround (3.5- 5 years).

TDECO also signed agreements with local contractors the same way with banks , both way (bankand contractors) are going well.

In addition to that TDECO producers are very simple, it usually takes few days to get the approvalfor applicants.

To explain why PSI was very attractive for people the 1st 100 applicants will sell their energy invery good price (NIS 1.07) ($ 0.31), the next people will sell at a price of (NIS 0.8) ($0.232)whilethey can purchase their energy from their distribution company at price of (NIS 0.65).

To summarize some important points about PSI in TDECO

120 houses (600KWP) represent 3% of connected load , total revenue of $(140,000) andreduction of 1000 tons of CO2.

d- Net metering station

Even through there are no regulation or laws which regulate the net metering, TDECO approved4 small projects just to push the case and enforce regulation by PEA, and as a result PEA ispreparing a draft of renewables and hopefully it will be approved by the government in fewweeks.


These four projects were taken carefully and we try to spread them in different locations not in one single town and also in different (sectors and professions) .

Lets take a look at these projects: -

Table (3) :

From the above table (3) we can see that total capacity installed – is111 KWP which represent 0.56% of total connected load and this capacity will yield total revenue $(23000) yearly and reduce emission of CO2 (190 tons) , by the way we have received many applications of all sectors and business and we are waiting for the new law by PEA.

InvestortypeCapacity LocationProject

Palestine telecommunication company PALTEL

Private business

5 KWPTubas, Tubas1-

Mr. JarbawiFarm of cattle

30 KWPUmm Altout, Jenin 2-

Agriculture Training CenterNGO6 KWPZababdeh, jenin3-

Private UniversityEducation70 KWP1st phase

Arab American University4-


e- power purchase agreement (PPA)

TDECO had signed PPA with local company since two years ago to purchase the energy at very competitive price less or equal to the IEC price and this agreement will be installed in two phases, phase I of 3000KWP, and phase II of 2000 KWP, luckily PEA has approved first phase and gave the local company the license , it is a great break through and this is the only license has been approved so far we hope that the local company will start the work in few weeks.

The first phase 3MWP will represent 15% of connected load capacity and will yield total revenue ($700,000) yearly and will reduce omission 6000 tons of CO2.

f- Remote communities in zone C:

There are small villages and communities in what so called (Zone C) in the west bank , and the people living there are deprived of electricity, due to political situation, we can`t connect them to the grid, so with the help of Dr. Imad Brik, Head of Energy Research Center in Annajah national University who managed to get a grant from Spanish Agency “SEBA” a stand alone PV station for each, house in these villages (A’touf, Yerza, Ibzik) was installed three years ago . It is true the capacity of power was small and minimal, but at least these people now have accesses to electricity sources which is barely enough for their basic needs these people are more fortunate than others who are still without any source of electricity.


Total capacity of these PVS 28KWP which may not represent any tangible value of the grid connection load but it means every thing for these people.

1- WHY TDECO is Successful Story

a- Procedures in TDECO are very simple.

No complications for applicants.

b- Financial issue is no problem for every body since TDECO signed agreements with local banks

(Green Loans).

c- Public a awareness campaign, TDECO has issued massive public awareness campaign in all types of media, such as TV, radio.

d- credibility of the company since TDECO has good credibility with the people and it always honor all promises.

e- Human resources, TDECO is investing a lot in training employees , we continuously train our engineers and technicians.

f- dedication, determination and vision by the management since 2008 the management is pushing this issue.

g- TDECO has good contacts with all concerned parties such as, PEA, distribution companies, contractors, Universities, and international donors as well.

h- TDECO participation in all related conferences and seminars such as (energy 5th international conference in Palestine which was held 3 weeks ago.


Recommendations

1- Installation of mixture of renewable energy (PV, wind and bio mass) is possible and feasible

and it is a must in Palestine.

2- PSI must be extended since it is the core of the renewable and affect all people.

3- Regulations for renewables should be approved by PEA without any delay.

4- All roof tops of public buildings such as schools, ministries, mosques, churches, …etc shall have been first application of PV.

5- Business men and women are very interested to engage in renewables and so they shall be encouraged through PPA.

6- Incentives by the government and distribution companies for every resident who install PV in roof top.

7- new buildings shall not be licensed unless parts of energy consumption is produced by renewables.

8- extending the green loans by local banks.

9- Extensive public awareness campaign through all types of means media.

10- Annual national price by PEA for the best projects of the renewables.

11- Tax free for the equipments of renewables and the production of energy.

12- Training of technicians for multi mega projects.

13- Involvement of educational institutions such as research of renewable and bridge such results with concerned parties.


References

1- Palestine Energy Authority and Natural Resources (PEANR).

2- Palestine Electricity Regulatory Council (PERC).

3- Palestine Statistics Beuro.

4- TDECO.

5- Energy Efficiency Directorate (EED).
