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Ammon News - The long distance between the Kingdom’s water sources and distribution centers is one of the main reasons for the water sector's high electricity consumption, said Managing Director of the National Electric Power Company (NEPCO), Amjad Rawashdeh, on Thursday, Jordan News Agency Petra reported.

Speaking at the closing ceremony of the Water and Energy Nexus Conference at the Dead Sea, Rawashdeh explained that a cubic meter of water travels about 300 kilometers to reach the final user, which consumes 6.6 kilowatt hours of electricity. This is a major challenge that is currently being addressed within the water and energy sectors’ framework of cooperation, he added.

He also spoke on the NEPCO's success in diversifying energy sources, noting that the capacities of renewable energy systems connected to the transmission and distribution networks amounted to about 2,270 MW, compared to about 4,000 MW of conventional energy, constituting 25 percent of the overall electric power generation mix and more than half of the capacity of conventional energy, according to Petra.

"Jordan has made great strides in its energy diversification drive, most notably renewables, as part of national efforts to tackle the lack of primary energy sources, which has always been a major challenge," he added.

This challenge, he pointed out, has been addressed by diversifying primary sources of energy and fuel, raising the local contribution of generating energy, and variegate the produced energy mix through renewable sources; making use of Jordan’s unique geographical location.

On the challenges facing renewable energy, Rawashdeh said NEPCO has set strategic objectives to enhance the security of energy supply, diversify energy sources and maximize the use of local resources through several projects, including battery storage, hydroelectric energy storage, smart networks, energy management and development of the electrical network using modern and smart systems and their applications, in addition to the electricity linkage with neighboring countries project.

During the conference, Rawashdeh pointed to NEPCO's success during the COVID-19 pandemic to operate more than 450 new megawatts on the transmission network alone. The company completed the necessary infrastructure for 4 new substations and two expansions to major stations, in addition to the completion of 530 km / circuit of high voltage networks.

The conference, which gathers stakeholders and experts, was organized by the University of Jordan, the Ministry of Water and Irrigation, Water Authority and the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, with the support of the Renewable Energy Project in the Water Sector, implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), and funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).

The two-day conference included workshops for local, regional and European experts, as well as local representatives from academia, industry, civil society, public authorities and research centers to explore and discuss opportunities and strengths of hydroelectricity .

The conference aimed to review the latest technologies and previous studies in the field of water and energy, in addition to presenting dialogue sessions addressing ways to bridge the gap between the water and energy sectors, energy storage and load management opportunities, water desalination opportunities using renewable energy technology and the National Carrier Project.