Energy and exergy use in the utility sector of Saudi Arabia

We present an analysis of energy and exergy utilization in the utility sector of Saudi Arabia by considering the sectoral energy and exergy flows for the years 1990–2001. Energy and exergy analyses were conducted for its two subsectors, namely power-only plants and power/distillation plants, and hence the energy and exergy efficiencies were obtained for comparison. The power/distillation plant subsector appeared to be more energy/exergy efficient compared to the conventional power-only plant subsector for the particular reference conditions assumed in the analysis. A comparison of the overall energy and exergy efficiencies of Saudi Arabian utility sector with the Turkish utility sector is also presented for the year 1993. Although the sectoral coverage is different for each country, it is useful to illustrate the situation of how energy and exergy efficiencies vary. The turkish utility sector appeared to be more efficient for that particular year. Power/distillation makes a significant contribution to Saudi Arabia’s overall power generation in the utility sector.

We investigated energy and exergy use in the utility sector of Saudi Arabia and conducted an analysis, based on actual data, by considering the energy and exergy flows sector for the years of 1990 to 2001. Then, the variations of energy and exergy efficiencies for the utility sector were studied for their two significant subsectors, namely power-only plants and power/distillation plants. From the analysis, power/distillation plants appear to be more efficient than the poweronly plants for the entire period from 1990–2001