c9e2e24a90458210VgnVCM200000e66411acRCRDapproved/thenational/Articles/Migration/2009-Q4Learn from the past to ensure energy supplyb9e2e24a90458210VgnVCM200000e66411ac____One consumer doesn't receive a utility bill for six months, another is asked by his landlord to pay the previous tenant's delinquent charges, and another complains about exorbitant rates in a country where price per kilowatt/hour is well below generation costs.<p>One consumer doesn't receive a utility bill for six months, another is asked by his landlord to pay the previous tenant's delinquent charges, and another complains about exorbitant rates in a country where price per kilowatt/hour is well below generation costs. Some of those problems come from confusion at the consumer level, but it doesn't take an electrical engineer to conclude that there are glitches in the electricity supply. Nor does it take an expert to shed light on recent blackouts in Sharjah and Ajman and the exclusion of 1,000 buildings in the northern emirates from the federal grid.</p> <p>In an interview in The National today, Mohammed Saleh, the acting director of the Federal Electricity and Water Authority, explains why the national power system is having trouble meeting demand and the constraints that will hold the country back in the near future. It is a story of insufficient supply, poor co-ordination and failure to predict growth. Fewa has six power plants online that are operating at full capacity. That should have been sufficient to keep up with the 8 per cent rate of annual growth that was expected, but comes up short given the explosive growth of the past few years.</p> <p>Development goals have outpaced capacity, with utility lines strung with Fewa approval but no firm commitment to when power would start flowing. There have been lapses of co-ordination between the federal authority and individual emirates. Northern representatives have lobbied the Federal National Council to shift responsibility for commercial projects back to Fewa. When the Sharjah Energy and Water Authority equipment failures caused a shortage this summer, Fewa was unable to make up the difference, leaving thousands of residents and businesses without power.</p> <p>There is little point in rehashing problems unless they yield solutions. There are debt-financed plans for new power plants, notably in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah and Ras Al Khaimah. Those plants will take time to come online: Ras Al Khaimah managed to build one in eight months, but that model is too small to make a considerable dent in demand. Regardless, Mr Saleh says, the problem is not only capacity but the shortfall between generation costs and energy prices. "It's not a matter of building the plants; it's about operating them," he says. "It's the cost of the fuel, and it makes no economic sense."</p> <p>There is a national energy policy to assure long-term supply that depends largely on the civilian nuclear programme. With the first construction contract under review, relatively cheap atomic energy won't be on the grid until 2017 at the earliest. Nor will plans to develop technically difficult sour gas reserves, increase natural gas imports from Qatar and connect to a Gulf-wide grid by 2011 answer near-term needs.</p> <p>Conservation in businesses and households across the country, not just emergency cuts in the northern emirates, should be part of the solution. The old adage holds true, however, that for all the goodwill in the world, consumer behaviour is most responsive to the wallet. As a net energy exporter, the UAE subsidises electricity for Emiratis and, to a lesser extent, expatriates. The choice is stark: either allocate considerable resources to maintain the subsidy in its current form or pass some of the costs to consumers to keep the lights on.</p> 13,84YYOPINION2009100100000020091001000000100ARhttp://adedit.ad.atl.publicus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091001/OPINION/709309935570930993520091001100000000