In conversation with Farid Al-Awlaqi, CEO – Generation, Abu Dhabi National Energy Company (TAQA)

How is TAQA’s Generation business decarbonising the UAE’s utilities sector and which models do you hope to implement in future projects globally?

In the UAE, the leadership has made clear they remain committed to decarbonisation and achieving net zero. In addition to that, there is the wider global drive to decarbonise because of climate change, creating both a problem and opportunity as it triggers a growing global surge in the demand for power. That means all players in the utilities industry in the UAE and beyond need to respond.

From TAQA’s perspective, we have prioritised decarbonisation through clear ESG targets and through our growth agenda. From a wider group perspective, we aim to achieve net zero by 2050 and reduce scope 1 and 2 green house gas (GHG) emissions across the group by 25% and in the UAE by 33% by 2030 compared with our 2019 baseline. We are on track to achieve these targets, demonstrating we are serious in our intention to decarbonise in the UAE and abroad. 

Our initiatives include the decarbonisation of water desalination operations, which are very energy intensive, but necessary here in the UAE to have the water we all need in our daily lives. We are achieving this by replacing older plants with new highly efficient reverse osmosis (RO) technology to make up two-thirds of our portfolio by 2030 and we have already expanded its use so that by the end of 2024 it accounted for 41% of our total portfolio. 

An example of expanded RO is our Taweelah RO desalination plant. As one of the world’s largest operational RO plants, it produces enough potable water for more than 20% of the total population of Abu Dhabi. RO technology uses between 50% to 75% less energy than traditional thermal desalination plants. RO plants are electricity driven, so as we continue to reduce the CO2 content of our power generation, we can reduce emissions from water desalination even further. The Taweelah RO plant also has around 70MW of onsite solar power production to help with operations and is connected to the Abu Dhabi grid for the remainder of its power needs.

Older desalination plants traditionally coupled power and water production in cogeneration gas-fired power plants. This means that power plants were operating at full capacity all year round to power the thermal desalination process because water demand is quite consistent whereas power demand fluctuates. So alongside introducing RO, we are decoupling power and water production, allowing us to decommission some older less efficient plants. In addition we are retrofitting some thermal desalination plants with RO technology and also decoupling power and water production. Recently, we announced the reconfiguration of the Shuweihat 1 power plant. We have decommissioned the water aspect of the plant, but expanded the lifecycle of the gas-fired power plant because it provides flexible generation that assists with managing power demand fluctuation and allows us to integrate more renewables while also maintaining grid stability. 

From a growth perspective, we are investing strongly in decarbonisation. We aim to grow to 150GW of gross power generation capacity by 2030. 100GW of that capacity will come through renewable energy from our leading stake in Masdar and 50GW directly through TAQA’s generation business. At TAQA we are technology agnostic, but we see a key role and an opportunity in very efficient gas-fired power generation technology as this flexible generation source supports the integration of renewables and also complements other cleaner power sources such as nuclear.

Al Dhafra PV2 

What role does gas-fired power generation play in the future as more renewable power sources are brought online?

Natural gas is one of the most efficient energy sources, enabling flexibility across the grid to cope with changes in power demand. It enables the grid to incorporate more intermittent renewables such as solar, without losing the ability to always match supply and demand in real time. In this way, gas-fired power generation is key to helping minimise the carbon footprint of power production. 

According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), in 2024, the amount of energy demand rose by 2.2% compared to an average 1.3% for the last decade. The main driver was electricity demand, which spiked by 4.3%. To put it into perspective, global demand rose by the equivalent of the whole demand in Japan for one year. The key drivers for this demand spike were rising temperatures that increased the need for cooling, data centres, an increase in sales of power- consuming products like electric vehicles (EVs) and electrification in industry. 

As an industry we face the dual challenge of facing higher demand than ever for electricity at the same time as an urgent need to decarbonise. Globally renewables are supplying the largest portion of that new demand, according to the IEA, and are expected to continue to do so, though even the current rapid growth needs to accelerate further to meet increases in demand and to support the energy transition. For TAQA, renewables is the largest part of our power generation growth. However, we must support intermittent renewables, and we see flexible gas contributing to this. Gas is the second most popular technology globally to meet new demand after renewables. Why? Because it is flexible. 

One of the new major sources of demand for electricity worldwide is the rise of AI and the data centres on which it relies. TAQA and Masdar are at the heart of this in the UAE with the recently announced project in which we signed a 24-year power-purchase agreement (PPA) with EWEC for a 1GW gas-fired plant that will exclusively support AI and data centres in the UAE. This is paired with Masdar’s world-first ‘Round the Clock’ project, which is the largest project so far announced that combines solar power and battery storage to deliver up to 1GW of renewable energy 24 hours a day seven days a week. Both projects will be connected to the grid via TAQA Transmission and together these projects reaffirm the UAE’s position as a global pioneer in renewable energy deployment and low-carbon infrastructure and will support the UAE’s 2031 AI Strategy.

TRO plant 

What lessons can be learned from recent stress events (eg, cold waves, supply disruptions) about the adequacy of current flexibility measures?

The world is hot, and getting hotter with climate change. This is driving increases in electricity demand for cooling, electrification, the rise of EVs and the rise of AI, so we expect this trend of increasing demand to continue. We have seen major power outages recently in Europe, which have played a part in reinforcing the increasing importance of access to secure clean sources of power. People need reliable, efficient and sustainable power. We can’t function or thrive without it, but we must also urgently decarbonise to tackle climate change. We need to invest in reliable and sustainable energy systems, which means cleaner generation, more interconnected and resilient grids and better management of demand. The Middle East, and particularly the UAE, is playing a major role in driving the energy transition. TAQA and others from the region are making major investments and you see that across the private and public sector there is a determination and an appetite for investing in the future of energy. 

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