MUSCAT: Having set in motion an ambitious plan to harness solar and wind resources for low-carbon electricity generation, the Sultanate of Oman is now moving to develop its energy storage capacity to address intermittency challenges associated with renewable resources.
Energy storage technologies and systems allow for the storage of energy during times of surplus availability for utilization during times of limited supply.
Eng Salim bin Nasser al Aufi (pictured), Minister of Energy and Minerals, affirmed Oman’s commitment to developing storage capacity to address imbalances in supply from renewable resources, such as solar and wind.
“The main challenge is how can we bring an unstable power generation system into the grid and continue to use it as a reliable source, and that's when storage becomes extremely important; we need to address storage and we will continue to push more and more for storage,” Al Aufi announced here last week.
Speaking at the opening of the IEEE Power Talks forum held in Muscat, he noted that Nama Power and Water Procurement – the sole national buyer of electricity and water output – has been given the mandate to oversee the development of energy storage capacity in Oman.
“Earlier this year, Nama was tasked with creating a project focusing primarily on storage, because we believe it is extremely important for us if we are to achieve the targets that we set for ourselves,” the Minister stressed.
One early target is to secure around 30 per cent of power generation from renewables by 2030, which Nama has been mandated to achieve, he pointed out.
Further, to ensure that the national electricity grid is robust enough to simultaneously handle supply from existing gas-based power plants as well as solar and wind schemes, investments in digitization, smart grid and smart metering will be necessary to help manage the grid, he said.
At the same time, Oman is forging ahead with decarbonisation of the transport sector as well, with the Ministry of Energy and Minerals working in collaboration with the Ministry of Transport, Communications and Information Technology to lay the regulatory groundwork to support e-mobility on a wide scale.
This is attested by initiatives launched in recent months, promoting the adoption of electric vehicles (EV) and hydrogen-powered transportation in the future as well, said Al Aufi.
“(Recently), I signed regulation to support the installation of EV chargers at different locations, and so on,” the Minister said. In this regard, he reiterated his pledge, first shared at the Green Hydrogen Summit Oman 2022, to ensure that EV users can drive from Muscat to Salalah and back without having to worry about the adequacy of charging points along the route – a pledge he hopes to see fulfilled by around this year’s Summit in December, Al Aufi added.
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