June 2011 Issue No. 98 Renewable Energy & · PDF fileRenewable Energy & Sustainability. ... utility infrastructure and external works ... The client is Qatar Petroleum and the consultants

Issue No. 98June 2011

Bulletin

C O N S O L I D A T E D C O N T R A C T O R S C O M P A N Y

Renewable Energy& Sustainability

SUSTAINABILITY & RENEWABLE ENERGY

The world population will reach over 9 billion people by 2050 and demand for energy will continue to grow. Given the limitation of hydrocarbon availability, renewable energy is the only solution for the world to maintain its current rate of economic and social development.

Alternative energy sources like nuclear energy, wind energy, solar energy, geothermal, hydropower, tidal wave and biomass are the only possibly solutions to support energy demand in the future. In the years to come, these sources will not only produce cleaner fuel, but will be more sustainable than hydrocarbon.

Fossil fuels are non-renewable and world reserves are diminishing while renewable energy can constantly be replenished.

Today, the United States produces 8% of its energy from renewable energy sources while Europe targets to have 20% of its energy come from renewables by the year 2020.

CCC has embarked on a campaign to become involved in the renewable energy field and, with your help, we are confident to succeed in becoming an active player in this field, which is not easy to enter, but is a must as the rate of growth shall be very high and CCC has to capture part of this growth

Samer Khoury

President (Engineering & Construction)

From the Desk Of...

SUSTAINABSUSTAA NABB

1Bulletin Issue 98 / June 2011

Editor’s View

Dear Bulletin Readers,

I feel that this issue of the Bulletin is one of the most in-teresting we have put together. The business opportuni-ties related to Renewable Energy (RE) will be vast as and when RE becomes commercially viable. But let this not blind us to the important nature-friendly aspects of these new technologies. RE will provide more balance to mod-ern life demands. It is by far less polluting and more sus-tainable. I, for one, am ready to pay more for using RE for the sake of our children’s future.

The time for RE is now and we should champion it sin-cerely, thus investing in a healthier and, in the long run, more economical future.

This issue also hosts Mr. Khaled Al-Sabawi as an external article contributor. What he reveals about geo-thermal is indeed very enlightening. You should also watch his related youtube video.

On another note, we have received a lot of interesting and attractive entries for the CCC 60th anniversary logo competition. Many thanks to those who sent them in. The evaluation committee will convene around mid-July to choose the top three. Here is a peek preview of some of them.

The Bulletin family wishes you a happy summer with well-deserved and reinvigorating holidays.

Nafez Husseini

2 Bulletin Issue 98 / June 2011

Recent Awards

On 24 May 2011 CCC was awarded the above men-tioned major EPC project. The project is located in Shah about 180km southwest of Abu Dhabi and 100km south-east of Habshan.

The Shah Sulphur Station is part of a granulated sul-phur transportation and management project. Granulat-ed sulphur will be transported by rail from Habshan and Shah areas to a new sulphur handling terminal (SHT-2) located approximately 4.5km southeast of the existing GASCO Ruwais Sulphur Handling Terminal (SHT).

The Shah Sulphur Station and Pipelines Project in-volves the following key units:

Shipping of liquid sulphur via a dual 11km pipeline •from the existing Shah Gas Plant.

Storage of liquid sulphur.•

Blocking facility of solidified sulphur.•

Twelve granulation units to transform liquid sulphur •to granular.

Bulk storage of elemental granular sulphur.•

All conveying and stacker/reclaimer systems.•

Railcar loading facilities.•

Construction of necessary utilities and infrastructure •facilities at Shah Sulphur Station.

The scope covers detailed design and engineering, pro-curement and supply, construction and commissioning of the facilities.

The client is Abu Dhabi Gas Development Company (Al Hosn Gas).

The project duration is 40 months. Engineering activ-ities will be performed over a period of 16 months and construction duration is around 24 months.

The Power Plant of RasAzZawr, Phase 1, is developed as a greenfield gas fired combined cycle power plant and will be located at RasAzZawr, approximately 75km north-east of Al-Jubail on the shores of the Arabian Gulf.

The client is Saline Water Conversion Corporation (SWCC) and the consultant is Fichtner GMBH & Co. KG.

The full EPC contract was awarded by SWCC to the consortium of Al-Arrab Contracting Company/ SEPCO III Electric Power Construction Corporation.

The CCC and Al-Arrab Contracting Company joint venture was awarded the subcontract for the entire civ-il works of the power plant. The scope of work includes,

but is not limited to, the following:

Extensive soil improvement and piling works.1.

Soil filling with estimated quantity of 2,065,000 m3.2.

Construction of structures and foundations for the 3. power block area including 12 gas turbine generators, 5 steam turbine generators, 10 heat recovery steam generators, 22 bypass stacks and so on.

Process and non-process buildings and structures 4. (154,680 m2).

Site works including roads, water supply, sewerage, 5. drainage, lighting, landscaping, fencing and other mis-cellaneous infrastructure works.

The project was awarded in June 2011 and the duration is 30 months.

The multi-purpose administration complex is located approximately 70km north of Doha at RasLaffan Indus-trial City, south of the coastal road, to serve as a central administration complex to the operations of RasLaffan Industrial City Management.

The scope of work under this package includes the en-gineering, procurement, installation, construction, test-ing and commissioning of Phase 1 of the Multi-Purpose Administration Complex at RasLaffan, which compris-es:

Construction of the following buildings along with all •building services and specialist systems, with a total built-up area of 34,820 m²:

Office and canteen building (26,000m² over 11 1. floors).

Medical centre (4,650m² over 2 floors), with heli-2. copter landing pad and helipad pump house.

Central plant (4,170m² over single floor) and 33kv 3. substation with all its adjoining external works and services.

Site development including earthworks, ground im-•provement, utility infrastructure and external works within the MPAC site for covered and uncovered parking spaces, walkways, external signage including traffic, building, directional signs, internal road net-works with street lighting system, hard and soft land-scaping and street furniture, helicopter landing pad and site utilities and infrastructure.

The client is Qatar Petroleum and the consultants are Leigh & Orange (L&O Architects) - Hong Kong.

The award was granted in May 2011 and the duration is 28 months.

Shah Sulphur Station & Pipelines Project, Shah, Abu Dhabi

United Arab Emirates

2400 MW RasAzZawr Power Project, Phase 1

Saudi Arabia

EPIC for Multi-Purpose Administration Complex, Phase 1, RasLaffan

Qatar


Recent Awards

The Faculty of Islamic Studies is located in the south-ern zone of QF education city campus, 9km west of Doha City Centre.

The scope of work under this package includes the sup-ply, installation, construction, testing and commissioning of the main building, mosque and car park, inclusive of all the architectural, civil, structural, electromechanical works and all building services and utilities.

The building consists of two basements and five floors with a total built up area of 41,770m2.

The client is Qatar Foundation (QF), where the cli-ent representative is ASTAD Engineering Consultancy and Project Management “ASTAD” which was formed to carry out the project and construction management services.

The award was made in April 2011 and the duration is 25 months.

The Service Corridors Landside and Airside package is part of King Abdul-Aziz International Airport (KAIA), Infrastructure Project in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

The scope of work includes the supply and installation of the following systems:

Storm water and drainage network (42km).•

Waste water network (42km).•

Grey water and irrigation network (27km).•

Firefighting network (40km).•

Potable water network (39km).•

Chilled water network (28km).•

Duct banks for medium voltage and low voltage and •communications networks (60km).

CCC was awarded this package by SBG, the main con-tractor for the airport.

The client is the General Authority of Civil Aviation; the design consultant is ADPI and the construction man-ager is Dar Al Handasah.

The award was made in June 2011 and the project du-ration is 28 months.

The North-South Carrier 2 project is required to supple-ment the existing water supply to urban, rural and indus-trial areas within eastern Botswana. The NSC2 scheme will convey raw water from dams in the northeast region of Botswana near Francistown and Selebi Phikwe, south-wards to greater Gaborone, a distance of approximately 360km. However, because of financial constraints on the employer due to the economic climate, the whole project has since been split into sections and will now be carried out over the next few years.

The NSC 2.1 (this project), is the section from Break Pressure Tank at Moralane “BPT 1A2 km 32.6” and runs through to BPT 2B2 at km 110.6 above the Palapye Wa-ter Treatment Works. The new pipeline will be installed parallel to the existing NSC 1 Pipeline which was built by CCC and other partners in 1995.

The scope of work consists of engineering, procure-ment, construction, commissioning, test runs and initial operation of the following:

Carbon steel pipeline: 77.8km x 1200mm (48”) ND, •API 5l gr. x 42, 8mm thick, welded joints, buried un-derground, externally coated and internally lined.

3 reinforced concrete water tanks at Moralane, Dika-•late and Papalpye.

Moralane Pumping Station (3 multistage high lift elec-•tric operated pumps, surge vessel and chlorine injec-tion system).

144 valve chambers (air valves, scour and cleaning •chambers).

Ethernet microwave link along the whole route (350 •km): 12 MAST

FOC: 350 km x 8 core FOC cable along the whole •route including all associated telecom equipment.

SCADA system.•

VOIP telephoning, intruder alarm & fire detection •system.

Cathodic protection.•

CCC has been awarded this project as a JV with the South African partner WBHO. In the coming five months the JV will carry out detailed design and engineering and submit the same along with its final lump sum price and project management plan to the client for approval, af-ter which the procurement and construction works will start.

North-South Carrier 2 Water Transfer Project (NSC 2.1)

Botswana

Qatar Faculty of Islamic Studies for Qatar Foundation, Education City, Doha

Qatar

King Abdul-Aziz International Airport (KAIA), Jeddah, Service Corridors Landside and Airside

Saudi Arabia


Quality ManagementContinual Improvement of the Organization

Introduction

Continual improvement is a type of change that is fo-

cused on increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of an

organization to fulfill its policy and objectives; it is not

limited to quality initiatives. Improvement in business

strategy, business results, customer satisfaction, employ-

ee and supplier relationships can be subject to continu-

al improvement. Put simply, it means ‘getting better all

the time’.

This can be achieved by creating a culture which involves

people actively seeking opportunities for improvement of

performance in processes, activities and products.

PDCA Cycle

The ISO 9004 standard recommends the PDCA cycle

for continual improvement process. This cycle was intro-

duced by Shewart (American Statistician) and later made

popular by W. E. Deming. It became known as Deming

Wheel. The chart is a graphic presentation of PDCA cy-

cle.

Involvement of People

To involve people, top management should create an

environment where authority is delegated so that people

are empowered and accept responsibility to identify op-

portunities where the organization can improve its per-

formance. This can be achieved by activities such as:

Setting of objectives for people, projects and the or-•

ganization.

Benchmarking competitors performance and best •

practice.

Recognition and reward for achievement of improve-•

ment.

Suggestion schemes including timely reaction by man-•

agement.

Structure for Improvement

To provide a structure for improvement activities, top

management should define and implement a process for

continual improvement that can be applied to realiza-

tion and support processes and activities. To ensure the

effectiveness and efficiency of the improvement process,

consideration should be given to realization and support

processes in terms of:

Effectiveness (such as outputs meeting requirements).•

People at all levels are the essence of an organization and their full involvement enables their abilities to be used for the organization’s benefit.


Quality Management...Continual Improvement of the Organization

Efficiency (such as resources per unit in terms of time •

and money).

External effects (such as statutory and regulatory •

change).

Potential weakness (such as lack of capability and con-•

sistency).

The opportunity to employ better methods.•

Control of planned and unplanned change.•

Measurement of planned benefits.•

Such a process for continual improvement should be

used as a tool for improving the organization’s internal

effectiveness and efficiency, as well as to improve the sat-

isfaction of customers and other interested parties.

Management should support improvements in the form

of small steps ongoing activities integral to existing proc-

esses as well as breakthrough opportunities, in order to

gain maximum benefit for the organization and interest-

ed parties.

CCC has a system in place to measure, monitor, and an-

alyze its processes in order to evaluate conformity of its

quality management system, customer satisfaction and to

define opportunities for improvement. This evaluation

includes recording, collecting, and analyzing of relevant

data needed to monitor performance and ensure continu-

al improvement and effectiveness of the quality manage-

ment system. Quality management and improvement is

covered by QMP-MOA-018.

Customer Satisfaction

The most important measurement conducted by CCC is

customer satisfaction. This is achieved by monitoring cus-

tomer perception as to whether CCC has met customer

requirements efficiently. This measurement is carried out

by analyzing customer complaints or appraisal by obtain-

ing references related to satisfaction or dissatisfaction of

the customer.

Quality Management System

Monitoring and Measurement the effectiveness of the

quality management system is carried out by conducting

surveillances and audits that are followed by management

review. Quality audits are carried out in accordance with

QMP-MOA-016 and ISO-19011 standard.

Measurement of quality management system processes

are obtained by various methods at CCC:

Project monitoring and progress reports.•

Statistical process control for welding and nondestruc-•

tive examination.

Various scorecards are used to measure performance.•

Monitoring and measurement of products and servic-•

es for the project.

The following reports are used to measure, monitor and

analyze CCC operations:

Project Balanced Scorecard.•

Project Technical and Commercial Audit Scorecard.•

Project Quality Scorecard.•

Subcontractor Performance Evaluation Report.•

Data Collection

Examples of inputs to support the improvement process

include information derived from:

Validation data.•

Process output data.•

Test data.•

Product performance data.•

Stated requirements & feedback from interested par-•

ties.

Data from self-assessment.•

Financial data.•

Service delivery data.•

Experience of people in the organization.•

Management should ensure that product or process

changes are approved, planned, provisioned and control-

led to satisfy interested party requirements and avoid ex-

ceeding the capability of the organization.

Continual Improvement is a state of mind that continually forces employees to search and close the gap between desired and achieved results

Customer Satisfaction is about meeting customer requirements and anticipating what the market will want in the future. It is achieved through exploration, facts and data.



Quality Measurement and Improvement

Quality measure-

ment and improve-

ment is covered by

quality management

procedure QMP-

MOA-018: the pro-

cedure details re-

sponsibilities of key

personnel and the

methodology applied

by CCC for quali-

ty measurement and

improvement. A sys-

tem of scorecards is

applied to cover im-

portant aspects of

CCC operations; this may be summarized in the follow-

ing items:

Project Balanced Scorecard

The Project Balanced Scorecard measures the per-

formance of the projects on quarterly basis. In addition

to financial performance, other important areas of con-

cern are also included such as client satisfaction, lessons

learned, employee development and satisfaction, infor-

mation technology, etc. There are two scorecards, one

for oil and gas mechanical projects and the other for civ-

il projects. Chart 1 represents the categories to be meas-

ured for evaluation of project performance.

Project Technical & Commercial Audit Scorecard

The Technical and Commercial Scorecard is used to

measure the overall performance of projects. This score-

card is used to assess the technical and commercial ac-

tivities of the project in line with project and company

objectives. The scorecard is completed during the tech-

nical and commercial audits conducted by Construction

Chart 2

Cat

egor

ies

of T

echn

ical

and

Com

mer

cial

Sco

re C

ard



Support & Quality

Management Depart-

ment (CS & QMD) at

the conclusion of each

audit. This scorecard

measures the overall

performance of CCC

project operations.

Chart 2 represents

the categories to be

considered during the

evaluation process.

Project Quality Scorecard

The project quality

scorecard is used for

measuring the quality

level of a project and

it is completed by the auditor at the end of each quality

audit. The quality scorecard is part of the audit report is-

sued to project management for implementation. Chart 3

represents the main categories to be measured for evalu-

ation of quality performance.

Subcontractor Performance Evaluation Report

This report is completed at the end of the project and

used to evaluate performance of subcontractors. After

completion of every project, the project team completes

the subcontractor performance evaluation report. The

area office maintains a file with performance evaluations

received from the projects and updates the consolidated

list of approved subcontractors. Chart 4 represents the

categories to be measured for evaluation of subcontrac-

tors’ performance.

Mounir Soufyan


Quality Management Effective Quality Management & the Role the Human Factor Plays In Its Development

The following is a reprint from an article which appeared in the magazine Welding and Cutting 9 (2010) No. 6.

Introduction

It is important to understand that products, services and

systems are designed, built and materialized with a sig-

nificant human input. Humans do not operate in isola-

tion but they interact with other humans, both sociably

and in the working environment. According to the qual-

ity experts a common element in the unplanned, unac-

cepted and harmful quality violation is the element of hu-

man factor.

The Problem

According to H. K. Rampersad (ref 1) the lack of em-

ployee engagement (participation) is endemic and is caus-

ing problems in large and small organizations all over the

world incurring excessive costs, underperforming on crit-

ical tasks and creating widespread customer dissatisfac-

tion due to low quality levels achieved.

There are 22 million actively disengaged (non-partici-

pating) employees in USA alone according to Krueger

and Killham (ref 2). Their dissatisfaction is manifested in

employee absence illness and a variety of other big and

small problems that occur, affecting directly quality lev-

els.

Gallup statistics (as cited in Rampersad) show that un-

happy workers cost the American business economy up

to US$350 billion annually in lost productivity. The earn-

ings, per employee, increase 2.6 times more if employees

are engaged. Gallup research indicates that 70% of US

employees are not engaged at work. Companies with such

a large number of dissatisfied employees have more ab-

senteeism, lower productivity and lower quality levels as

well as 51% higher employee turnover. The above defines

the root of the problem.

Poor performance of disengaged employees can actu-

ally “infect” their co-workers and drag down an entire

company’s morale. However, many people are keen to

contribute more at work, but the behaviour of their man-

agement, the culture of their organization and the quali-

ty management systems employed are discouraging them

from doing so.

Creating a highly engaged and happy workforce is need-

ed, where personal and organizational performance and

learning mutually reinforce each other. The importance

and need to develop a high performance culture - encom-

passing high quality culture that combines the organiza-

tion’s goals and aspirations with those of the individuals -

is the aim of this article.

Figure 1: Organisational Performance Road Map based on Human Factor affecting quality


Quality Management...Effective Quality Management & the Role the Human Factor Plays In Its Development

zAccording to Har-

vard Business Review

2003 a 5% improve-

ment in employee

attitude resulted in

1.3% increase in atti-

tude satisfaction and

a 0.5% revenue in-

crease. Based on the

above, it becomes es-

sential to examine/

address the human

factors in the context

of a quality manage-

ment system.

Further to the available current literature, it becomes

apparent that most of the information on the subject is

rather descriptive, fragmented, vague and not really pro-

viding any links between the various elements affecting

the quality management level with respect to the numer-

ous human factors applicable for the case.

According to the literature, the most influential hu-

man factors that affect the quality level are human be-

haviour and capabilities, educational level, training, re-

cruitment policies, working environment, resistance to

change, coaching, empowerment, reward schemes, team

work, knowledge management, leadership as well as team

work spirit. The combination of all the above plays a ma-

jor role and different permutations are expected to pro-

vide a variety of results. Yet, this does not become ap-

parent in the literature as the description on this subject

tends to be rather generic.

History

Over the years, the various quality management theories

have claimed that they are the panacea to cure all ills in

business. In reality, all of them contributed to the greater

understanding of the process of managing the quality as-

pect of an organization and none of them was a complete

answer in itself. Table 1 provides the evolution of these

various quality management theories as up to today in a

rather broad brush approach.

None of the quality theories put forward by the “gurus”

- with the noticeable exception of the six sigma theory -

have focused on the most essential of activities, that is the

management and leadership of people i.e. the cultural as-

pect of the organization, as the core management func-

tion. People, the most valuable and expensive of the re-

sources, is most usually the most misused, misunderstood

and difficult to control of all other resources.

An effective quality management system must balance

process, people and technology (ref 3).

Usually quality standards are addressing process and

technology very well, however the people element is weak

as it is considered as a responsibility of human resourc-

es function.

The ISO 9001 quality management system (ref 4) is

based on eight quality management principles, and it con-

tains, as far as human elements are concerned, four rela-

tive aspects, namely:

Leadership: “should create and maintain the inter-•

nal environment in which people can become fully in-

volved in achieving the organization’s objectives”.

Involvement of people: “people at all levels are the es-•

sence of an organization and their full involvement en-

ables their abilities to be used for the organization’s

benefit”.

Customer focus: “understand current and future cus-•

tomer needs”.

Mutually beneficial supplier relationships: “mutu-•

al beneficial relationship enhances the ability of both,

that is purchasing organization and supplier, to create

value that is a “win-win” situation”.

The above mentioned standard provides guidance

in order to create the competence and effective in-

volvement of people during implementation of a quali-

ty management system thereby strengthening continual

Table 1: The Evolution Of Quality Management Theories



improvement and enhancing customer satisfaction.

The implementation of ISO 9001, or any other gener-

al quality system, can be improved with an awareness of

human factors and involvement of people in a given or-

ganization. The competence and involvement of people

improves both implementation of a quality management

system and the efficiency/effectiveness of subsequent op-

erations. This leads to an improvement in the ability to

meet requirements and implementing customer satisfac-

tion.

Figure No. 1 provides, in a diagrammatic form, the cur-

rent conventional wisdom on the subject and depicts a

performance road map based on human factors. The sug-

gested road map is generic, that is, sector industry inde-

pendent. However, we know that in the real world each

industry, sector etc. operates and develops according to

its own special demands.

The provided road map is extrapolated to the finan-

cial performance concept (dotted lines) as most organ-

izations around the world work for profit as an eventu-

al goal. Even the non-profit organizations must definitely

enjoy adequate /healthy financial performance in one way

or another. Each box, in the road map, provides the ma-

jor constituent element (in bold letters) and underneath it

the most essential, for the case, sub constituents.

In the UK, the above mentioned gap is attempted to be

closed by the Investors In People (IIP) Standard (ref 5)

which focuses on staff improvement and quality. This lo-

cal standard was developed in 1990 by the UK National

Training Task Force in partnership with leading nation-

al, business, personnel, professional and employee or-

ganizations such as the Confederation of British Industry

and the Trade Union Congress. The Investors in People

Standard is promoted, developed and quality assured by

IIPUK, a non-departmental public body (NDPB) led by

Government’s Department of Education and Skills. From

its inception the Investors In People Standard has been

reviewed every three years. The standard offers an organ-

ization a method of improving its staff management, em-

ployee satisfaction, motivation and access to training and

development.

By studying the available literature it seems that the

‘‘peoples’’ issues of quality management are not addressed

effectively and items such as competency remain weak.

Current State

Due to the above state of affairs, the ISO TC176/SC3

committee in its annual meeting in Kuala Lumpur in No-

vember 2004, decided to establish a study group to ad-

dress the need, desirability and feasibility of a guidance

document to help organizations to develop competenc-

es and people aspects for quality management. Today,

2010, we are still missing such a document, however, ISO

TC176/SC3 is drafting a standard with the tentative title

‘‘Quality Management – Guidance – People involvement

and competence in quality management systems’’ with an

estimated official release date of 2011.

This standard is designed to be sector/industry – inde-

pendent i.e. generic and applicable to all types of indus-

tries. That means adopting the same format as all ISO

series standards (for instance ISO 9001:2008 Standard –

Quality management systems – Requirements). Never-

theless, in the real world, we know that each sector, indus-

try or service develops and operates according to its own

special needs and this is very important for any organiza-

tion perspective. Items such as company sector, field, size,

organizational maturity, location, and so on, contribute

tremendously to the subject. The same applies for the var-

ious combinations of those items making the issue rath-

er complicated, but at the same time, very ‘‘value adding’’

for the organizations concerned.

Finally, it is fair to mention the two major excellence in-

ternational models such as the Malcolm Baldrige Nation-

al Award (MBNQA) as well as the European Foundation

for Quality Management (EFQM) providing awards and

prices for organizations excelling in quality aspects. Both

these schemes include human resources (people) aspects

at the core of their philosophy as appropriate, however,

they are still considered as incomplete as far as the human

factors are concerned.

Conclusions/Recommendations

At this point is worth reminding that the objective of this

article was to examine ways as well as the contribution of

human factor (people, staff, workforce employee, man-

agement) in improving organizational quality perform-

ance through management and development of people.

The phenomenon of lack of “employee engagement”

was identified and the negative impact of this phenome-

non to the organization’s quality level has been explained.

Full utilization of human factors such as: empowerment,



learning organization, knowledge management, change

management, motivation, open/trustful organizational

culture, teamwork, etc. were discussed.

Established and novel ideas based on IIP as well as the

expected to be published ISO 10018 standard providing

guidance in people’s involvement in quality management

systems were described. Other relevant sources were also

used as appropriate providing insights of how a “win-win”

situation can be achieved in aligning organizational qual-

ity/business objectives with staff objectives and expecta-

tions. The need to network/merge the fundamentals of

the generic ISO 9001 Quality Management System (most

widely used worldwide) with the generic anticipated ISO

10018 dealing with people’s involvement in quality sys-

tems was mentioned.

The above proposed integration is believed to provide

tremendous help to the quality/human resources special-

ists providing a holistic solution to the subject. A generic

road map of organization’s quality improvement by means

of utilizing the various human factors was provided.

The handicap/limitation of utilizing generic (sector /in-

dustry independent) systems and the implications of such

approaches were discussed.

Items such as maturity levels, organization location, or-

ganization size, type of industry etc are very important

items and the author of this article believes that experts

must look more closely at all these items, and the various

combinations of them, in order to provide more precise

models of how human factors affect the quality manage-

ment systems.

From the above, it can be inferred that our models or

systems, dealing with human factors affecting organiza-

tional quality output level, are still far from being com-

plete, therefore the recommendation here is for more re-

search, mostly in the “organic direction”, to be performed

in order to eventually achieve an efficient/effective pre-

cise model or system augmenting the utilization of human

factors.

There is a need to move ahead rapidly, to bring the hu-

man factors issue into force and to give the human ele-

ment, in the quality domain, a true front and central role

as appropriate.George Assimacopoulos

Head of Technical Studies (Welding)Athens


FeatureWhy Renewable Energy (RE)?

There is no question about it. RE will be the industry of the future. Unlike conventional oil/gas fired turbines, sun-light and wind power is a free everlasting source of energy. With the adverse impact of climate change due to carbon dioxide emissions, the conversion to clean energy sourc-es has become more and more important. Even nuclear power plants which (was!) considered the most economical way to generate electricity have lately suffered a heavy blow after Japan catastrophic January 2011 earthquake.

All elements, therefore, are favoring RE clean energy production. More than that, world population is growing and power demand is on the increase.

The only disadvantage of RE is currently the cost. These technologies are new but with the advancement of tech-nology, price parity between electricity generated by clean sources versus the cheaper oil/gas technology is expected within 7 to 10 years.

According to the Kyoto Protocol, many countries are already committed to generate 20% of their electrici-ty through RE. The Kyoto Protocol established a legal-ly binding international agreement whereby all the par-ticipating nations committed themselves to tackling the issues of global warming and greenhouse gas emissions. The developed “rich” countries are also encouraged to sponsor projects in underdeveloped countries and benefit credit for meeting emission reduction targets.

Government subsidies, tax credits, feed in tariffs are very important parameters for the success of RE. The de-veloped world has rec-ognized the importance and the long term bene-fits of RE. They already have issued laws ad legal frameworks and mecha-nisms for the connected Renewable Energy. U.S. and European countries (mainly Germany and Spain) are leading the de-veloped world in produc-ing RE. China and India are also generating tens of gigawatts annually in

wind and solar power.

Our main region (Gulf Countries and North Africa) are blessed before with oil/gas and for the future solar (part wind). These countries also recognized the need to go for renewables. However, the unrest in the Middle East spe-cifically North Africa has shifted the priority to manage stability first. But surely will be coming as North Africa is an ideal market.

The Gulf Countries have already released pioneer projects to test the market and technology. The legaliza-tion framework, F.I.T. and mechanisms are being studied and will soon become law.

UAE already signed a project for 100 MW Solar Pow-er Plant in Shams 1. Another 100 MW, Noor 1, is under bidding.

In Australia, Western District of Victoria, Leighton Con-tractors in consortium with Vestas “The World’s Leader in Wind Turbine Technology” were awarded a US $1 Bil-lion to generate the world’s largest wind farm for a 420 MW. The value of the construction was US $290 Million.


Feature...Why Renewable Energy (RE)?

Therefore, in all counts, this is remarkable. CCC should do all what can be done to secure a reasonable portion of such work. This kind of work will remain forever. The promising markets are KSA, UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Australia, South Africa and Brazil. The future is to have composite or Hybrid Power Plant composed of oil/gas fired and solar system.

Other forms of RE for power generation, a smaller but becoming active, is the “waste to energy” plants. This is proving a success in West Europe and the U.S. and start-ed to be recognized for our region mainly in UAE but others will follow suit. The process involves garbage col-lection, compressing it, burning it at high temperatures, the resulting gas will fuel a gas turbine and the heat gen-erated will pass through Heat Recovery Steam Generator HRSG to produce steam that will run the steam turbine. Both generated electricity from the gas turbine and steam

turbine are joined prior to connection to the GRID.

Patience is the name of the game as many companies flattered and underestimated the logistics needed and the time span to conclude a financial closure, accommodate legal framework and finalize regulations with various au-thorities and organizations.

We should be able to succeed. RE requires few resourc-es from manpower and construction equipment. It will need focus, close follow-up for the market and establish solid contacts within the main developer/contractor. So the plan is to align all our efforts and consider all options. Let’s all work together for a greener future for our chil-dren and it will be a good image for CCC.

Nabil HamdanVP Renewable Energy & Special Assignments


FeatureSustainability: A Note on the Subject

A very simple definition of sustainability is the capacity to endure (retrieved from Wikipedia 19/1/2011).

In ecology the expression describes how biological sys-tems remain diverse and productive over time. Healthy and long lived wetlands and forests are typical examples of sustainable biological systems.

For humans, sustainability can mean provision of poten-tial for long term maintenance of well being encompass-ing social, economic and environmental dimensions.

From the scientific point of view it is believed that sci-ence can develop new technologies (green technologies, renewable energy) and also provide adjustments in indi-vidual lifestyles able to conserve natural resources con-tributing, in this way, to mankind’s future.

Sustainability principles can be diagrammatically out-lined as shown below:

Reduce dependence upon fossil fuels, underground 1. metals and minerals.

Reduce dependence upon harmful synthetic chemicals 2. and other unnatural substances.

Reduce encroachment upon nature.3.

Meet human needs fairly and efficiently.4.

Definition

The word sustainability is derived from the Latin “sus-tinere” meaning to hold us up. However since the 1990’s sustainability has been used more in the sense of human sustainability on planet Earth and this has resulted in the most widely quoted definition of sustainability and sus-tainable development, that is, the Brundtland Commis-sion of the United Nations’ definition of 20 March, 1987 which reads as follows:

“Sustainable development is the development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”.

The above mentioned UN definition is not universally accepted as sceptics declare that it is very possible that the needs of future generations will be much different to those of the present.

For a number of environmentalists the idea of “sustain-able development” is an oxymoron as development seems to entail environmental degradation.

It is likely that a universally accepted definition of sus-tainability is an elusive concept as it is expected to achieve many things. It is believed that sustainability concerns the specification of a set of actions to be taken by present per-sons that will not diminish the prospects of future persons to enjoy levels of consumption, utility as well as welfare comparable to those enjoyed by present persons.

It seems that the simple definition of sustainability is: “improving the quality of human life while living within the carrying capacity of supporting eco-systems” though vague conveys the idea of sustainability having quantifi-able limits.

For all the above reasons sustainability is perceived, at one extreme, as nothing more than a feel-good buzz word with little meaning or substance but, on the other hand, as an important but unfocussed concept.

History of Sustainability

The history of sustainability traces human-dominated ecological systems from the earliest civilizations to the present. The history is characterized by the increased re-gional success of a certain society, followed by crises that were either resolved, therefore producing sustainability, or not, leading to declination.

In early human history, the use of fire as well as the de-sire for specific foods possibly altered the natural compo-sition of plant and animal communities. Between 8,000 and 10,000 years ago communities emerged which de-pended largely on their environment and the creation of a “structure performance”. The Western industrial revo-lution of the 17th to 19th centuries was heavily based on the energy provided by fossil fuels. Coal was used to pow-er engines and later on generate electricity.

Modern sanitation systems and advances in medicine have protected large populations from disease providing social sustainability.

In the mid 20th century a strong environmental move-ment indicated that there were environmental costs asso-ciated with the many material benefits that were currently enjoyed by over utilizing natural resources.

In the late 20th century, environmental problems be-came global in scale.

The 1973 and 1979 energy crises demonstrated the ex-tent to which the global communities had become de-pendent on non-renewable energy resources. In the 21st century, there is increasing global awareness of the threat posed by the human-induced enhanced greenhouse ef-fect, produced largely by forest clearing, burning of fossil fuels as well as the problem of planet over-population.

Principles, Concepts and Main Theory

In recent years a science called “sustainability science” has emerged. Sustainability science is not yet an auton-omous field or discipline and has tended to be problem driven and oriented towards guiding and decision mak-ing.

Sustainability is studied in the contexts of environmen-tal, social and economic constituents.

This concept has been depicted in a variety of ways such as the three pillars of sustainable development Fig. No. 1, the concentric circles Fig. No. 2 and finally the overlap-ping circles Fig. No. 3.

From Fig. No. 3 it becomes obvious that in order to achieve sustainability we require the optimum combi-nation of the above mentioned three major constituents (Social - Economic - Environmental).


Feature...Sustainability: A Note on the Subject

According to the 2006 IVCN Re-port the following also apply, as far as Fig. No. 3 is concerned.

Where only social and environ-1. mental concerns are met the sit-uation is characterized as: Bear-able.

Where the social and economic 2. concerns only meet the situation becomes: Equitable.

Where the environmental and 3. economic concerns only meet the situation becomes: Viable.

Obviously we must opt for the balanced co-existence of the above constituents in order to achieve sustainability.

According to a further analysis of the above concepts, performed by Michigan University (Sustainabili-ty Assessment 2002), the following apply:

Environmental constituent: It 1. encompasses the Natural Re-sources used, the Environmen-tal Management as well as the Pollution Prevention (air, water and land, waste).

Social constituent: It encom-2. passes standards of living, ed-ucation, community aspects, equal opportunity aspects as well as other similar items.

Economic constituent: It en-3. compasses Profit, Cost Savings, Economy as well as Research and Development.

According to the same source the following are applicable for the three previously mentioned, over-lapping segments:

Bearable segment: It encompass •Environmental Justice as well as Natural Resources Stewardship

Equitable segment: It encom-•passes Business Ethics as well as Fair Trade and Workers’ Rights.

Viable segment: It encompass-•es Energy Efficiency, as well as Subsidies/Incentives for use of Natural Recourses.

At this point it has to be mentioned that a very impor-tant element to be considered is the quantitative meas-urement of sustainability in order to provide concrete in-

formation pertinent to the subject.

Unfortunately the metrics used for the measurement of sustaina-bility are still evolving.

Conclusion

Based on the above concise, basic analysis it becomes rather appar-ent that the challenges ahead, as far as sustainability is concerned, demand vision.

The choices are most probably political and proposals must be re-alistic.

Win-win solutions can be prob-lematic, possibly we need to un-derstand how to make trade-offs between interests of different peo-ple and between different environ-mental outcomes.

Possibly all depends on what kind of world we expect our successors to live in.

George AssimacopoulosHead of Technical Studies

(Welding)Managing Office Athens

The author can provide an extensive bibliography upon request

figure 1

figure 2

figure 3


FeatureCarbon Capture & Storage: ‘Bridge’ Technology to a Low Carbon Future

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s latest press release, around 80% of the world’s energy supply may be met using renewable sources of en-ergy by 2050. Currently the constraints are both technical and political. Though renewable energy will need to be harnessed as global oil reserves are running out, until the technology for renewables advances to a feasible level, a transition period is expected. This is where Carbon Cap-ture and Storage (CCS) comes in. CCS is seen as a com-promise between meeting the world’s energy needs while also mitigating emissions’ effect on the environment. The idea is to separate the carbon dioxide (CO2) from the emissions to the atmosphere, instead pumping them into the ground. In this way the emissions do not contribute to the greenhouse gas effect, which has been named as a cause of the earth’s rising temperature.

Power generation is the biggest contributor to carbon emissions and as a single point emitter, power plants are the ideal candidate for implementing CCS. The technol-ogy has been used elsewhere in the world for other gains, e.g. to enhance oil recovery (EOR). The potential is far-reaching, as this technology can be used in oil and gas fields as well as power plants around the world.

Three proven types of technology for CCS exist:

1. Post-Combustion

Post combustion captures the CO2 after the combustion of the fossil fuel, as the name implies. The CO2 is sepa-rated from the resulting flue gas using an amine solution: amine binds reversibly with CO2 at different tempera-tures, allowing the amine solvent to be reused.

This is the best technology for retrofitting older pow-er plants, which can capture 80-90% of the carbon emis-sions from the plant. However, there are two main draw-backs to this process. A great amount of energy is needed to compress the gas for transport: estimates put this from anywhere from 10-40% of the power plant’s energy out-put. Also, the amine solution and other by-products are

emitted to the atmosphere.

2. Pre-Combustion

Pre-combustion carbon capture traps the CO2 before the fossil fuel is burned. The fuel is heated with air and/or steam, resulting in a mix of carbon monoxide and hydro-gen. This mix is then treated in a catalytic converter with steam, which then produces CO2 and more hyd¬rogen.

The CO2 is removed using the same amine process as in post-combustion, and the excess hydrogen can be used as a clean energy source.

The process is more complicated than that for post-com-bustion, but it provides a much higher concentration of CO2 than post-combustion and is much cheaper. How-ever, it cannot be retrofitted in older power plants. Pre-combustion can also prevent 80-90% of emissions from escaping to the atmosphere.

3. Oxy-fuel CombustionOxy-fuel combustion burns the fossil fuel in pure oxy-

gen. This results in a gas mixture comprising mostly steam and CO2. The steam and carbon dioxide are separated by cooling and compressing the gas stream.

The oxygen required for this technique increases costs, but researchers are developing new techniques to bring this cost down. Oxy-fuel combustion can prevent 90% of a power plant’s emissions from entering the atmosphere.

Once captured, the carbon dioxide is stored in one of three different ways. Geological storage is the most prom-ising, where the carbon dioxide is simply pumped into used reservoirs, as is done with EOR. At those depths, the pressure keeps the CO2 liquefied, and as oil and gas have managed to stay in those reservoirs for years, CO2 is expected to do the same. The estimated capacity for storage in depleted reservoirs is more than enough. The world’s emissions are about 23 billion tonnes a year - North America alone is estimated to have the capacity to store 900 years worth of carbon dioxide emissions.

Alternatively, CO2 can be stored in the ocean. In this case, it would need to be injected at a depth greater than 3500m to ensure the carbon stays liquid. The downside of this option is that the ocean’s acidity will rise and its effect on marine life is unknown. Still at a research phase is min-eral storage, where the carbon dioxide chemically binds to the rock. In this case there would be no risks of leaks.

Statoil is the leader with respect to carbon capture tech-nology as it has been operating the oldest project. In 1991, the Norwegian government introduced a CO2 tax at about US$50 per tonne to reduce emissions offshore. Every year since 1996, one million tonnes of carbon diox-ide from natural gas production are captured at Sleipner West and stored in the Utsira formation below the sea-bed. Though the carbon dioxide is removed from a natu-ral gas stream and does not come from a power station, the concept is the same. On Sleipner, carbon dioxide is captured using a conventional amine process and stored in geological layers. Statoil says it is saving US$143,000 per day in taxes by reinjection at Sleipner West.


Feature...Carbon Capture & Storage: ‘Bridge’ Technology to a Low Carbon Future

This is key, and brings up the point of political con-straints. The IPCC emphasized that without incentives in place, such as the carbon tax implemented in Norway, the potential for alternative sources of energy will not be ful-filled. Public policy must help, as is being done in Europe. The Norwegian government was right on target by intro-ducing this carbon tax 20 years ago, giving Norway a mar-ket edge in implementing post-combustion CCS technol-ogy. Oxy-fuel combustion is being tested out on a pilot plant scale at Schwarze Pumpe in Germany.

The potential in the Middle East is still larger. Though oil fields are producing and are projected to keep producing at the current rates, which would mean that CCS would be implemented later rather than sooner, it has already begun. Statoil has been se-questering 1 mil-lion tons of CO2 annually from the upstream gas facility at In-Salah in Alge-ria since 2004. Mas-dar (aka Abu Dhabi Future Energy Com-pany) will construct four CCS plants as the first stage of de-velopment, with the aim to eventual-ly create a pipeline network that ex-tends the Emirates

delivering carbon emissions back to oil reservoirs. What is missing is an area-wide policy that will bring the Middle East to the forefront of this technology. We must learn, either directly or indirectly, from the initiatives in place in Europe and the US.

Noora Husseini,M. Eng. Chemical Engineer


FeatureInvesting in Renewable Energy Projects

Over the last several years, interest in renew-able energy has grown considerably on one hand due to concerns about the environment including the CO2 gas impact on global warm-ing, and concerns about the availability and sustainability of fossil fuels in the long term, and on the other hand, the steady advance-ments in renewable en-ergy technologies. For some countries, energy security and the reduc-tion of imported fuels also play a part in the deployment of renewa-ble energy.

The wind power industry and the solar power indus-try have made great strides and now we can see that tar-iff parity may be within reach in the coming years (when electricity produced from Renewable Energy Resources (RES) would be sold at a competitive price to those pro-duced from other sources such as nuclear or fossil (coal, oil or gas). Renewable energy technologies include hy-dropower and in this regard small capacity hydraulic pow-er plants are being developed at sites in many parts of the world. Also, the use of waste, including garbage, has re-ceived attention. Power plants based on geothermal re-sources have been developed and ocean current and wave energy pilot projects are underway. Related to the over-all thrust of RES utilization we also see the push for ener-

gy conservation towards the goal of sustainable growth in which RES takes on increasing importance in the energy mixes, particularly in the electric generation portfolios in different countries and regions.

We will concentrate in this brief introduction on wind and solar technologies. The starting point is the availabil-ity of resources manifested in good wind conditions or so-lar irradiation at the sites considered for deployment of wind farms or solar plants.

For wind farms, the availability of wind at high average wind speed for a relatively long part of the year; sites with average wind speeds of the order between 6.5 to 7 m/s and higher; with moderate wind variability and at accessi-

ble locations for trans-portation and electri-cal grid connection, are what is required. In re-cent years, wind farm development went be-yond onshore applica-tion and offshore wind applications are grow-ing at a fast pace in north Europe and now also off the US east coast.

For solar energy, again it is the solar ir-radiation received in terms of direct and dif-fuse irradiation, with the sum of the two re-ferred to as global irra-diation. The higher the percentage of the direct portion of global irradi-ation, the better the site

Figure 1: Regions with High Irradiation - World Irradiance Map - EPIA

Figure 2: Growth of Installed Wind Capacity - GWEC


Feature...Investing in Renewable Energy Projects

would be for the application of concentrating technolo-gies. Increased cloudiness reduces solar irradiation and leads to higher diffuse per-centage. In different parts of the world global solar ir-radiation of the order of 200 to 1000 Watt/m2 on horizon-tal planes can be found. The irradiation changes with the season (summer and win-ter) and on inclined planes. In the Sunbelt regions - see the world map in Figure 1 (blessed with highest annual solar irradiation energy 2700 kWh/m2) - the dark red des-ignates zones receiving the highest solar irradiance.

Wind or solar resources are dispersed (low intensity) and wake effects in the case of wind farms, and shading in the case of solar plants, hence wind and solar plants require relatively large are-as. This, together with their intermittent nature, times of calm for wind, and night time for solar, imposes limitations and lead to the need for stor-age to match demand.

Over the last ten years, the wind industry has seen very steep development, with wind turbine genera-tors WTG-size growing from 1 MW to 3 MW for onshore to 6 MW being deployed off-shore. Figure 2 reflects the growth in wind-installed ca-pacities installed in different regions of the world.

Table 1 shows further de-tail of installed wind farms worldwide. China has seen an almost 70% increase be-tween 2009 and 2010; the US saw a 15% increase.

For solar applications over the last decade, both Pho-to Voltaic (PV) and Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) have advanced considerably. PV polycrystalline and mo-no-crystalline as well as thin film technologies continue to progress and higher efficiencies are being realized (as high as 18%) and decreased prices for solar PV modules are also seen. Ground fixed type constitute the largest percentage of installed PV parks, tracker type and CPV (Concentrated PV) are also deployed in areas with large direct irradiance and Building Integrated PV (BIPV) is

gaining momentum.

A CSP plant generally consists of a solar field in which solar energy is collected via receivers where special oil cir-culates and gets heated, then this heated oil conveys the heat to pressurized water that converts into steam in a heat exchanger, which is the equivalent of a boiler in a typical steam plant. The rest of the plant is the power is-land which is typically found in a steam power plant. Sim-ilarly, under CSP technology we see growth towards large capacities from 50 MW to 100 and even 300 MW are be-ing built using trough technology and deploying thermal storage in several instances. Also, tower type CSP is un-der development. Figure 3 shows growth in installed PV

Installed Wind Capacities for 2009 & 2010 - GWEC


Feature...Investing in Renewable Energy Projects

installations.

Wind and so-lar plants are characterized by a large ini-tial capital cost and relatively low operation-al costs, com-pared to fossil plants where the fuel costs take on a large share of the running costs p a r t i c u l a r l y when fuel pric-es are high or accompanied by esca-lations amid the variations and shocks of oil prices. Wind and solar plants im-pose some limitations in connection to the grid and/or at the sites located in weaker portions of a grid.

Reviewing the driving forces that led to the emergence of the wind and the solar applications one must note that subsidies of different forms have been behind the development of both wind and solar industries. Wind technology was led by Denmark in the 1980s and Germany played a key role in propel-ling the wind and solar energy indus-tries since the 1990s. One of the sup-port mechanisms (subsidy) that was adopted by Germany and was followed by many countries is the Feed in Tar-iff (FIT). Under the FIT scheme the producers get paid this tariff per kWh produced (depend-ing on type of the RES) and the producers have the right to connect to the grid. The relationship between the pro-ducer and the off-taker is regulated by law. A party (de-veloper) interested in building a wind or solar plant needs to secure permits and licenses. This is a key part of the development process; besides, the developer must secure necessary financing before starting with the construction of the project. The soundness of the project agreements is fundamental to getting bank financing. Figure 4 shows the direction Europe has chosen and the commitments that have been made towards 20/20/20 by the year 2020. Europe has been progressing and is expected to surpass the 20% targets in 2020.

In 2007 CCC embarked on its renewable energy initia-tive eyeing the growing renewable energy industries. In the period 2007 through 2009, CCC’s initial focus was on deployment of solar heated water systems in its construc-tion camps. A pilot project was implemented in Qatar (see Bulletin No. 90, 1st Quarter, 2009). This pilot project also included PV lighting and encompassed wall insula-tion investigation to reduce air conditioning loads and

diesel engine loading studies as part of CCC’s energy ef-ficiency effort.

Building on CCC’s development and investment expe-riences in power and desalination projects, together with the understandings attained through following the solar and wind industries, with the active RE market in Europe in view of the 2020 target (Figure 4), opportunities for in-vestments in RE projects are being pursued in the East Mediterranean region. Investments in RE in Europe are attractive, though subsidies (tariffs) are decreasing be-cause of the well developed markets. Countries in the MENA area are taking steps to encourage private invest-ments in renewable energy (i.e. UAE, Morocco, Egypt, Jordan, Oman and Saudi Arabia). The Masdar initiative in Abu Dhabi is noted for pioneering large scale develop-ment of RE in the Middle East.

Hemmat SafwatSegment Manager

Group BOT Power & Desalination Projects

Figure 3: PV Installed Capacity Growth - Worldwide - EPIA

Figure 4: Electricity Production from RES According to NREAPS (EU-27) - EWEA


FeatureKeeping Palestine Cool: A Different Kind of Underground Movement

The following article has been graciously contributed by Khaled Al Sabawi, General Manager, Union Construction & Investment, Ramallah. See also Khaled’s presentation on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fD2bMavK8Y

In 2007, I first arrived on my simple quest to bring green en-ergy to Pales-tine. I am the son of Palestini-an refugees that were fortunate enough to im-migrate to Can-ada and I was raised on the im-perative that if we Palestinians, who were lucky to grow up in one of the most progressive soci-eties in the world and receive edu-

cation in amongst the best institutions in the world, if we don’t come back to Palestine to help out, who will?

Thus upon graduating from university in Canada, I traveled to Palestine and immediately recognized a reality that was very concerning. Currently, Palestine has one of the world’s highest population densities - higher than any country of similar geographic size and significantly high-er than most countries around the world. In 2020, Pales-tine’s population density will increase dramatically, due to Palestine’s extremely high population growth rate. In 2050 it expected to surpass Bangladesh. To make matters worse, the Palestinian people pay amongst highest energy prices in the entire Middle East and North Africa region. Energy in Palestine has become unaffordable for Pales-tinians. This is a situation that is unsustainable.

The high population growth rate in Palestine will require hundreds of thousands of new homes to be built. More building means more energy will be demanded, as build-ings account for the majority of the energy consumed in Palestine. Buildings consume lots of energy for lighting, appliances, and mainly, for heating and cooling. Consid-ering that Palestine imports 93% of its energy and is high-ly dependent upon Israel for supply, we have no choice but to think outside the box and look to alternative forms of energy to meet the demands of Palestinians, while at the same time building more efficiently and sustainably. Where shall we look? How about down?

For who would have thought, that simply two meters below our very feet, there lies a clean renewable energy, known as geothermal energy, which can provide a source of heating and cooling for any type of building? Well, be-cause the earth naturally absorbs 50% of the sun’s energy

and stores it as clean renewable energy, the temperature in the earth, simply two meters and below, remains con-stant throughout the entire year.

How can we access the energy in the earth? Well, a glass of water has heat energy. If we were to look at a glass of water at a temperature of say 20C and we lower the tem-perature of the water from 20C to 15C while keeping the amount of water the same, what are you removing from the water? You got it, energy.

The same concept applies to a geothermal system. In Ramallah, we discovered that the temperature in the earth is at a constant 17C throughout the entire year. In the winter, the 17 degrees constant ground temperature is warmer than the 4 degrees outside air, thus by pump-ing water into a system of pipe installed deep in the earth, we can absorb heat from the warmer ground, channel it to an electrically powered geothermal heat pump, which takes the heat, compresses it and outputs it to the build-ing at 45C. In the summer the same exact system is sim-ply reversed. The 17 degrees constant temperature in the ground is now cooler than the 36C outside hot air, thus we


Feature...Keeping Palestine Cool: A Different Kind of Underground Movement

take the buildings heat, returning chilled water to the building, and reject the buildings heat down to the cooler earth.

Geothermal technology pre-sented enormous potential, however, we faced the daunt-ing challenge of creating a real-life, affordable, and replicable geothermal system – the first of its kind in the Middle East and North Africa - including Israel – keeping in mind that no matter how attractive a green technolo-gy is – if it’s not affordable – no-body can use it.

Thus, we constantly worked on ways to reduce the cost of a geo-thermal system and make it more affordable to Palestinians. Such persistence led us to the discov-ery of using limestone powder, a free by-product of the local lime-stone cutting industry in Pales-tine, as a grout to fill our geother-mal boreholes. This improved the efficiency of our geothermal systems and reduced their cost by 15%, a discovery that we recent-ly patented.

We have installed three geo-thermal systems in Ramallah, in a house, an apartment, an office building and they’ve been op-erating successfully for over 2 years. Each geothermal system is saving 70% on energy consump-tion and has eliminated the car-bon dioxide emissions that would have been produced by the stand-ard fuel burning heating systems used widely in Palestine.

We were driven by our belief that developing countries are in fact in a unique position to incor-porate renewable energy in their new constructions and actually build right. Our vision of build-ing right was finally realized on a massive scale when we were awarded the contract to install a 1.6 MW geothermal system at the University of Madaba in Jor-dan, the largest geothermal sys-tem in the region.


Feature...Keeping Palestine Cool: A Different Kind of Underground Movement

Once the Madaba project is complete, our geothermal systems will save a combined 300,000 kWh of electricity, 140,000 liters of diesel fuel, and 310,000 kg of CO2 emis-sions every single year. This is the impact of small green energy company in the Palestinian territories. We were trying to keep Palestine cool, from the ground up. I guess it worked since a representative from the Israeli Min-istry of National Infrastructure emailed us saying: “I’m impressed, looks like we have a lot to learn from you”. In fact, Palestinian TV was also very excited as they re-ferred to me as “The Inventor of Geothermal”, which is of course not true but I appreciated the thought.

Though we as Palestinians face many obstacles living under occupation, building our community sustainability is not one of them. In spite of the obstacles that we have

faced, we continue to install geothermal systems and work towards creating a more sustainable economy in Pales-tine. We are working towards our own solution for Pales-tine; not the two-state solution, nor the one state solution, but the Green State Solution.

While we may have known that the will to build our com-munities right is in our own hands, I hope we now know that the energy to do so has always been under our feet. Welcome to the underground movement to create an In-dependent Geothermal Palestine.

Khaled Al Sabawi(Guest Contributor)


FeatureSolar Energy Plant at the Princess Noora University Project

This is the world’s largest local solar heating system and one of a kind in the Arab world, providing a heating capacity of 17MW in wintertime through its 36,000m2 solar collector area.

The solar matrix is comprised of 3,616 flat plate collectors en-gineered to provide the high-est efficiency in solar capture. Each collector has a 10m2 area and they are all installed on top of the 60,000m2 university main warehouse roof.

Free thermal energy from the sun is then collected in six ded-icated storage tanks to increase solar efficiency and provide hot water for use in the university, even at night when the sun is not shining.

The geometry and positioning of the collector matrix on the warehouse roof is such that the 36,000m2 collector area is subdivided into six zones, each of 6,000 m2. Then each zone is subsequently subdivided into three clusters, each of 2,000m2. Each cluster is comprised of 19 rows.

Six steel storage tanks of 1,000m3 total capacity, cir-culating pumps, stainless steel heat exchangers and oth-er auxiliary equipment are located in a dedicated fenced solar plant area adjacent to the warehouse. Connecting pipes are laid in an underground tunnel between the solar panels on the warehouse roof and the solar plant area.


FeatureSolar Energy Plant at the Princess Noora University Project

To maximize and automate the energy gained from the solar system, a connection is made between the solar en-ergy system and the main university local heating return piping network before connecting back to the main boiler room. Stainless steel decoupling heat exchangers are used for this purpose.

Special consideration and careful attention were given to safety measures when carrying out our system design (including but not limited to the introduction of dry cool-ers which are designed to only operate in the rare case of a total power failure to protect the system from over-heating).

The solar energy system has an advanced control system installed and connected to the main university BMS for operation and monitoring.

Omar Abdel QaderPNUW Project

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia


Area News

Green Building Solutions Conference & Exhibition 2011

Qatar

Green Building, also known as Green

Construction or Sustainable Building, is the practice of

creating structures and using processes that are environmentally responsible and resource-efficient throughout a building’s life-cycle: from siting to design, construction, operation, maintenance, renovation, and deconstruction or removal. This practice expands and complements the classical building design concerns of economy, utility, durability, and comfort. Green building practices aim to reduce the environmental impact of buildings. Buildings account for a large amount of land use, energy and water consumption, and air and atmosphere alteration.

Although new technologies are constantly being developed to complement current practices in cre-ating greener structures, the common objective is that green buildings are designed to reduce the overall impact of the built environment on human health and the natu-ral environment by:

Efficiently using energy, water, and other resources.•

Protecting occupant health and improving employee •productivity.

Reducing waste, pollution and • environmental degra-dation.

The first Green Building Solutions Conference & Ex-hibition was held in Doha under the Patronage of HE Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al-Thani, Qatar’s Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, and or-ganized by the Barwa and Qatari Diar Research Institute (BQDRI) with the support of The Supreme Council for the Environment and Qatar’s big two infrastructure and real estate development companies, Barwa and Qatari Diar Real Estate Development Company.

CCC is proud to be the Gold Sponsor for this prestig-ious conference and exhibition. CCC’s participation in this event comes from our firm belief in Renewable En-ergy, Sustainable Construction and Green Buildings as the way forward towards achieving progress while, at the same time, conserving our planet for the generations to come. Qatar exploits its wealth for economic and social transformation, strengthening links between local and international markets, supporting $130 billion worth of projects and becoming a conduit for global companies to access US$1 trillion of investment during the next decade. CCC is privileged to have partnered with Barwa and Qa-tari Diar in the GBS Conference and Exhibition and will continue to participate in achieving one of Qatar’s goals of readiness for the 2022 World Cup.

The list of sponsors is long and includes Platinum Spon-sors: Qatari Diar Saudi Bin laden Group Joint Venture

(QD-CPC), Bouyges International, Qatari Diar Vinci Construction Grand Projects (QDVC); Gold Sponsors: QIMC, Energy City Qatar & CCC; Silver Sponsor: Al Meezan; Bronze Sponsor: Aluminum Gulf Ray; Media Sponsor: Al Jazeera and Green Sponsor: Qatar Science & Technology Park.

The two-day Green Building Solutions 2011 Confer-ence attracted more than 500 top-notch local and inter-national delegates including strong representation from CCC by providing a powerful mix of international and lo-cal content for built-environment professionals and stake-holders, including a Master Class workshop to introduce delegates to the Qatar Sustainability Assessment System (QSAS) and offered a platform for construction, infra-structure, engineering and research institutions to assess the QSAS.

The three-day Exhibition, with more and more construc-tion professionals realizing that green buildings with low-er operating costs and better indoor environmental qual-ity are more attractive to a growing number of corporate, public and individual buyers, the Green Building Solu-tions 2011 Exhibition covered an area of 5,000 square me-ters hosting 60 international and local companies display-ing the latest sustainable building products from around the world.

CCC has been a major player in the construction indus-try in Qatar since 1989 and has successfully completed nu-merous prestigious projects, both in the civil as well as the oil and gas disciplines, to the highest quality and safe-ty standards. CCC is also currently executing several con-struction projects with Qatari Diar and Barwa through-out the Arab World and has been highly acknowledged for our reputation by the Qatari Minister of Environment during his visit to our stand at the GBS Exhibition.

Rami Kaibni Section Engineer - Civil Barwa Commercial Avenue Project

Doha, Qatar

CCC Senior Management & Exhibitors


Area News

Operation “No one left behind - The Evacuation”

Libya

Despite the uprising in North Africa and the Arab World, it wasn’t expected for the conflict to develop and take that path in Libya, while scattered rumours were in the air, speaking loudly or giving warning signals was a high risk. We were caught in the middle, shocked, and ab-solutely unprepared.

15 February 2011: the eastern part and in particular Ben Ghazi ignited the protests. Embassies were yet to raise concerns; even on 17 February the situation was still with-in normal limits. The weekend of 18 February was rel-atively calm. On the 19th, it was decided by the project team to effect voluntary departure for families. By 20 February most families had left, along with part of the non-essential staff. By the afternoon of 21 February the situation deteriorated to a point where the decision to evacuate was taken by the main office.

President, Engineering & Construction, Samer Khoury called with the following instructions: im-mediate evacuation of all families and staff, secure the project for the client, and preserve the assets, in that order. Charter flights were arranged and 24/7 coordination was ongoing with the Cairo office and MOA.

Senior Group Vice Pres-ident, Zone II Samih Za-ben was on the line fol-lowing up hour by hour: leave no one behind, en-sure people’s safety, we will get you all out of there.

The airport was in chaos, few shops were open, lines are building up at gas stations, the workers were at camp with food reserves for a few days, people were anxious, com-munications were diminishing, and the adrenaline was pumping! Yet staying calm was imperative in order to find a way out of the situation. Everyone was doing their best to get people out safe and sound.

Luckily enough, we had our staff camp next to the air-port; staff and families were moved to that camp, securi-ty tripled and food supplies were re-arranged, MOA and Cairo office were still working on securing landing per-mits and booking charter planes, conflicting news was coming in, moving people to the airport then no permits were given, air space shut down for 12 hours, Zanga Zan-ga speech on that night, scattered gun shots around.

On 23 February, the People’s army was on the streets, with check points everywhere, foreigners being accused the night before, large cash in hand, communication devices all over. Luckily again, our good Libyan fellows provided cover and protection. (Libyan people are great people!)

The news was fluctuating, charters were booked and charters cancelled: to go to the airport or not to go to airport? No one knew what was going on, people were piling up, it was freezing cold and pouring with rain, the police are hitting out, people are shouting.

Then news came to move people to the airport with the charter arriving at 7 pm. The first delegation was sent to test the water, arriving at 2 pm at the airport, still pour-ing and freezing cold, and police being extremely rough while trying to control the crowd. After waiting six hours under heavy rains, it was back to camp after a failed at-tempt. Twenty guys are still cursing me to date. Guys, you became our hero scouts; if it wasn’t for you we wouldn’t have better planned the second successful attempt.

24 February 2011 and the latest news: 747’s are arriving at 4 am all is booked, get ready. At 12 am we started mov-ing people to the air-port gate, the sky was cloudy and the weather that night exceptional-ly cold, but not yet freez-ing. By 2 am it was freez-ing cold, but we managed to keep a bus within the airport premises to keep the families inside. By 4 am it was pouring heavily but everyone was deter-mined, no one was going back, all were desperate

to leave. After some 14 hours of patience, avoiding con-tinuous stampedes, we were on board the aircraft, taking off at two pm.

A 45 minute flight took us to Malta, a great arrival, and a staff dinner in San Jillian. Mission accomplished!

Tarek Hamed, Ala’a Massad, Christy Dabbour, the ex-tent of your support is indescribable.

Belal Kayyali, Ghassan Ouijan, Bashar Abu Salem, Na-bil Sinno, Ziad Khalaf, and the list goes on and on, thank you.

Mr. Khoury, Mr. Zaben, your personal follow-up round the clock, your instructions and actions kept everyone’s morale and hopes high.

Again … CCC along with its human capital never fails to impress.

Mousa NaberProject Controls Manager

Tripoli International Airport Project


Area News

2nd Annual Mediterranean Oil & Gas Conference

Greece

The second annu-al Mediterranean Oil & Gas Conference was

held at The Westin, Astir Palace Resort in Athens on the 30-31 May 2011, with

CCC as one of the lead sponsors. Though the confer-ence is titled Oil & Gas, the main focus was on the latter as the announced Stage 2 of the Shah Deniz gas field, the largest gas field in Azerbaijan with an esti-mated cost of US$10 billion to develop Stage 2 alone, holds many implications for the region.

Speakers came from all over, including Kazakhstan, Iran and Turkey. Yannis Maniatis, Deputy Minis-ter of the Environment, Energy & Climate Change, opened the conference and Haris Pamboukis, Min-ister of State, was the Guest of Honour and gave a speech at the conference’s official dinner.

John Roberts, Energy Security Specialist of Platts UK, chaired most of the sessions and closed with insightful comments. Every country within SE Europe wants to be

the ‘hub’ to transport the gas, always citing the strategic placement of their country, but the market location will determine which country will act as the ‘hub’ and not ge-

opolitics. He stressed that though Europe is diversify-ing its energy sources to include renewables, countries like Germany pulling away from nuclear energy after the Japanese disasters will mean that dependence on gas in particular will grow. SE Europe should not al-low politics to divide them so that Russia does not take advantage and undercut their market share; relations with Russia should be strengthened for energy securi-ty in the meantime.

Noora HusseiniEstimation Engineer

from left to right: Magdi Halawani, Suhail Sabbagh, Demetrius Dadakaridis, Tawfic Khoury, Dr. Saleh Jallad

from lleft to right: Fahad Amarin, Noora Husseini, Ibrahim Kanaan, Carla Raad


Area News

Gastech 2011 Amsterdam

The Netherlands

The prestigious Gastech event was held this year in Am-sterdam. Needless to say that CCC was as usual highly represented in the conference by four executives: Samer Khoury, Najib Khoury, Jamal Akl and Nazih Abdul Kad-er.

Our company joined most of the big national and inter-national oil and gas companies like ADNOC, ADGAS, Qatar Gas, Qatar Petroleum, Ras Gas, ARAMCO, Shell, Conoco Phillips, British Gas, British Petroleum, Exxon-Mobil, Tecnicas Reunidas, Gasprom, PTT in addition to international EPC contractors like Bechtel, Technip, Chi-yoda, JGC, Toyo, Fluor, KBR, Foster Wheeler, CB & I and many more.

CCC had a well designed stand manned by Suhayl Sha-mi, Vanessa Manoura and the undersigned. Attendance this year was fairly high and our stand received over 250 visitors. We look forward to equally if not more success-ful events in the future.

George DabbasSenior Manager

Business Development

from left to right: Najib Khoury, Suhayl Shami, Nazih Abdul Kader, Samer Khoury, Vanessa Manoura, Jamal Akl, George Dabbas


Corporate Social ResponsibilityCSR News Report

Contribution to CSR Initiative

CCC Staff are encouraged to come up with ideas and ac-tivities related to CCC’s CSR Initiatives including Going Green and community involvement events. Please send your ideas, initiatives and achievements to “CSR-CCC” email address [email protected]

Earth Hour 2011

Saturday, 26 March 2011was the third consecutive year for all CCC areas and projects to recognize and partici-pate in the Global Earth Hour Campaign by switching off their lights between 8:30 and 9:30 pm local times. Glo-bally, all landmarks were switched off and stood in dark-ness as symbols of hope for a cause that grows more ur-gent by the hour.

Paperless Day

Since the paper-saving campaign was launched six months ago, awareness has turned into reality and staff in all CCC offices, areas, projects and departments have be-come conscious of the “Paperless Day” Thursdays and all other days as “Less-Paper Days”. Average overall reduc-tion of 20-25% in paper consumption has been achieved.

Australia

MCJV Support for Flood Victims

Following the devastating floods that occurred in Queensland last January, McConnell Dowell and CCC Joint Venture made a donation of $20,000 towards the purchase of a suitable flood boat for the Chinchilla SES to assist in their endeavours in future flood events. The donation was received by the Mayor of Chinchilla who said that he is overwhelmed and grateful for the tremen-dous support MCJV has shown for the Council’s flood re-lief efforts.

Papua New Guinea

Komo Clinic Donation

MCJV Management of the Komo Airport Project made a substantial donation of medical drugs, equipment and supplies to the Kangulu ECPNG Health Sub-Center. The sister-in-charge was grateful to receive the donation; she thanked MCJV and stated that more than 10,000 people of the Komo district in Hela region will benefit from this

donation which was lacking in the area since 2002.

United Arab Emirates

Habshan 5 “The GREEN Journey”

Habshan 5 Project have published their Going Green Campaign in which they stated their commitment to mak-ing a difference by leaving a legacy of a clean, green and sustainable environment for future generations. They have started developing their green strategy which tar-gets energy savings, optimization of water consumption and reduction in fuel consumption for minimizing CO2 emissions.

Sudan

MUP Employee of the Month

Musheirab Project Management honours many em-ployees on a monthly basis, to encourage a good work-ing atmosphere and appreciation for hard work, loyal-ty, efficiency and productivity. Staff and manpower of all categories are nominated and the selected Employees of the Month receive prizes accordingly. Project Manager, Zikar Masroua, distributed the prizes for the month of January 2011 to the winners who were happy and shared their happiness with the management and staff.

Blood Donation Campaign

To celebrate International Workers Day, CCC with the Sudanese Blood Bank cooperation organized a blood donation campaign on the 28 April 2011, at Musheirab Project in Khartoum. This was the second time that MUP organized a blood donation campaign and about 50 em-ployees have participated in donating their blood.

Qatar

Bechtel Green Footprint Awards 2010

Certificate of Recognition was awarded to CCC / TCC JV - MAT CP27 Project in recognition of their efforts in achieving the 3-R’s ranking First Place in the Bechtel Green Footprint Awards 2010.


Corporate Social Responsibility...CSR News Report

Marine Turtle Protection Booklet

Ras Laffan Port Expansion Project’s participation in beach cleanup work activities early this year were high-lighted in Ras Laffan City’s Marine Turtle Protection Booklet for 2011. CCC was recognized as role model contractor to others in alignment with the environmen-tal initiatives and efforts of their City. The booklet is also published in the Environmental Studies Center at Qatar University for educating students and to increase their awareness in conserving and protecting the marine biodi-versity and ecosystem.

Oman

Orphanage Care Centre Al Khoud

In continuation of their participation in CSR activi-ties, A’Seeb Sewage Collection and Conveyance System Project (ASCS) Management and CSR team have pro-vided the training workshop of the Orphanage Care Cen-tre (OCC) in Al Khoud area of Muscat with the necessary furniture and training materials needed to equip their electrical, carpentry and steel workshops. During the handover ceremony, OCC officials thanked and praised the initiative taken by CCC-ASCS and presented them with a commemorative shield. The Project Manager ex-tended CCC-ASCS’ good wishes and offered to send the company’s technical members to train OCC students who will also be invited for enhanced training at CCC Oman main workshop facility in the Raysul area. In addition, a commitment was extended that OCC students who dem-onstrate promising potential and have reached the age of 18 years may also be employed by CCC, which was much appreciated by OCC officials.

Kazakhstan

Orphans Lunch at CCC Camp Canteen

In line with CCC Kazakhstan’s CSR programme, the CSR Team continued to organize activities that would support members of their local communities. In March, they invited 90 children from Atyrau orphanage to have lunch at the CCC Camp Canteen; the kids were well looked after by management and staff members which made the day an enjoyable event for them.

Tony AwadGroup Corporate Social Responsibility Officer


Corporate Social ResponsibilityDonation of Three Generators to Japan

In response to the urgent call made by relief organizations in Japan for their need to sup-port the Power Generation Relief Campaign following the natural disasters that struck the northeastern part of the country last March, CCC immediately responded with an offer to donate three 500 KW generators from our in-ventory.

PMV Department immediately responded with priority to upgrade and prepare the three units to top notch condition and arranged to house them in containers for ease of mobili-ty. The units were ready in early June when they were shipped to their destinations.

The donation process was coordinated and made through JGC Corporation who organ-ized the logistics and delivery of the gener-ators to their final destination of Ishino-maki City, Miyagi Prefecture. The Chairman Emeritus of JGC Group, Yoshihiro Shige-hisa, sent a letter of thanks to Samer Khoury acknowledging the donation by stating:

“This remarkable and forward-thinking ac-tion on the part of CCC, with JGC Corpora-tion serving as facilitator in Japan to provide the necessary logistics for these units up to the final destination of Ishinomaki City, Mi-yagi Prefecture, is recognized as an epoch-making one in contributing to the recovery and rebuilding of the nation.”

Special thanks go to members of PMV-KSA for their prompt attention and quick response in delivering the three donated generators in time, making it a commended donation by CCC.

Tony AwadGroup Corporate Social Responsibility Officer


Corporate Social ResponsibilityCCC Supports Lebanese Athlete in Extreme Race in Chile

The ‘4 Deserts’ is the world’s leading endurance foot-race series. It is a unique collection of four world-class races organized annually, and each race takes place over seven days and 250 kilometers in the largest and most for-bidding deserts on the planet.

The Atacama Crossing 2011 is one of these four races. This race took place from 6-12 March, in Chile’s stun-ning but brutal Atacama Desert, which is the largest cold coastal desert, and the driest place on earth. The Ataca-ma is a rainless plateau hemmed in between the Pacific Ocean and the Andes, and is a unique landscape of salt lakes, volcanoes, lava flows and sand dunes. This environ-ment challenges even the best runners.

The Atacama Crossing is grueling not only because of the forbidding terrain which is rarely flat underfoot, se-vere aridity, and a harsh climate, but also because of the high altitude that averages 2,500m during the race.

Competitors, representing almost 40 countries, spent seven days moving through the stunning landscape of the desert, on a grueling course that spans salt lakes, sand dunes, canyons and oases. They went beyond the limits of their physical and mental endurance. Racing self-sup-ported in the most inhospitable climates and formidable landscapes, runners also had to carry all their own equip-ment and food, and were only provided with drinking wa-ter and a place in a tent each night to rest.

Being a pioneer in its ventures in new and remote ar-eas, CCC felt such enduring races reflect the challenges and obstacles it faces when working on projects in very re-mote and tough areas. As a result, CCC decided to join this year’s event with the help of its area office in Bei-rut by sponsoring the notable Lebanese athlete, Ali Keda-mi. Ali already participated last year in the 250km Sahara race in Egypt, and runs many marathon races in differ-ent countries.

According to Ali, the Atacama crossing was the hardest race challenge he has ever endured in his entire life.

“The persistent lack of oxygen during the entire race due to the high altitude of the plateau where the race took place put enormous physical and mental stress on me” added Ali.

Despite these difficulties, Ali finished the seven day, 250km race in 42h 09m and held a respectable 34th posi-tion against world known professional runners who most-ly arrived at Atacama two weeks in advance and had suffi-cient time to train for the race and familiarize themselves with the tough environment, unlike Ali who left Lebanon only three days before the race started.

“I would like to thank CCC for its dedicated support and generous sponsorship, for making my dream come true” was Ali’s closing statement.

What a beautiful and rewarding sight, to see CCC’s logo in one of the hardest and most daring races on earth!

Emile TabetBeirut Town Office


Corporate Social ResponsibilityCCC Egypt Helps the Local Community in Cairo

28th Annual Professional Day, 22-25 May 2011 - Saudi Arabia

CCC Egypt’s CSR team acted quickly suggest-ing an initiative to help the families. After brain-storming different ideas and contacting different charity organizations, the CSR team decided that the best approach would be to start with the most basic need: food. The most effective way to make this idea a reality was by donating food packag-es containing necessities such as rice, sugar, oil, flour, salt and dried vegetables, to affected com-munities especially daily labourers and their fam-ilies as they were the most affected. With the help of Boraq, a local charity organization, the CSR team contacted The Egyptian Food Bank, an or-ganization that specializes in food distribution to the poor. We needed their expertise and large da-tabase to insure that our donations reached the people most affected.

CCC Egypt collected from employees and man-agers from projects all around Egypt 11,230EGP in donations. The company generously offered to match the donations increasing the sum to 22,460EGP. This amount went to support approximately 150 families for an entire month.

Finally we would like to thank all our staff for their gen-erosity, the CSR team for their effort in making the initi-ative a success and the company for their continued sup-port and contributions.

Dina Farid & Ahmed Refai

Dhahran: As part of the Corporate Social Re-sponsibility Programme, CCC participated in the 28th Annual Professional Day held at King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals (KFUPM) where hundreds of Saudi students and graduates met to discuss the work opportunities with the in-ternational and local companies within Saudi Ara-bia.

The official ceremony was opened by HRH Prince Moh’d Bin Fahd Al Soud, Eastern Prov-ince Amir, and attended by his Deputy Prince Ja-lawi Bin Mesa’ed Al Soud and KFUPM Dean Dr. Khalid Al-Sultan and his Deputy Dr. Mesfer Al Zahrani.

More than 120 companies, banks, foundations and establishments participated in this annual event. Many trainees and graduates attended our booth for opportunities within CCC that were dis-cussed and explained in details with each person. CVs were collected for referencing, review and categori-zation. Some of the concerned will be contacted with a view to joining us for training or employment.

Yousef HajeirManager, Estimation & Support


Corporate Social ResponsibilityNursery in Kypseli

Schinias Beach Cleaning

What could be more rewarding for the CSR members who are involved in im-proving the environmental conditions and the quality of life for the people than a big smile on a small child’s face, a child which probably does not have much joy in its life?

The conversion of an ugly courtyard to a pretty little outdoor playground at a children’s nursery in Kypseli, a commu-nity of Athens, was very successful. This day-care nursery mainly accommodates children of immigrants from Africa and eastern countries, whose only joy is to be able to spend the day among other children before they are taken back to their own poor homes.

CCC/CSR are giving them the oppor-tunity to play outdoors, which they oth-erwise do not have while living in one of the most dense areas of Athens and with

parents who cannot afford taking them for an excursion or even to another part of the city.

With CCC’s contribution, the nursery not only was able to create the playground, but rotten windows and the back door were also changed, safety issues were improved by installing fire extinguishers, bathrooms were adjusted for the use of small children, and the nursery was disinfected to guarantee better conditions for the kids.

Yvonne WyssPersonal Assistant

The environment ministry of Greece has recently issued a report on the cleanliness of Greek beaches, according to which, 95% of swimming waters in Greece are of “excellent quality”. What about the beaches themselves? If you go to Loutsa, Glyfada and many other beaches you might get another image.

On 29 May a group of around 40 MOA employees with friends and families par-ticipated in a mid-scale voluntary ac-tion organized by the CSR Committee in Athens, Greece. Just a stone’s throw away from Athens the natural reserve of Schinias Beach is one of the most envi-ronmentally valuable and sensitive parts of coast to discover around here, as a typical Mediterranean pine tree forest reaches almost up to the waters, creat-ing a scenery of unique beauty.

The objective of the coastal cleanup was to raise aware-ness to the public, children and participants regarding the major issues concerning garbage disposal from hu-mans ending up on our shores and sea. With “I love clean

beaches” as our motto the voluntary team spread out over the beach and the reserve to collect garbage found all around and deliver clean scenery to enjoy all summer.

Stamatis KoutsouflakisMOA CSR Committee Member

Before After


Health, Safety & EnvironmentMobile HSE Training Unit Initiative

Introduction

In order to meet CCC core values and in particular items related to innovative approaches to the construc-tion industry, VP-HSE took the initiative to bring the HSE Training facility on site, rather than taking site em-ployees to the static HSE training facility.

As a result, the HSE Mobile Training Unit was intro-duced to CCC projects as a means to materialize the ob-jective of the VP-HSE initiative. This approach of in-troducing innovative measures to adapt to the dynamic nature of the construction industry crystallizes leader-ship and management commitment at all levels to achieve the ultimate goal of safeguarding our beloved employees’ health and safety so that “nobody gets hurt and everyone returns home safely”.

Mobile HSE Training Unit Initiative

The introduction and adoption of the HSE Mobile Training Unit re-duces the site lo-gistical issues hin-dering people from attending HSE training, especially on pipeline, roads and wide-spread projects where long travel distanc-es are required due to the spread of workers.

The added val-ue of this initia-tive and innovative approach to HSE training is reflect-ed in two major aspects of the construction industry:

The HSE culture is enhanced through the safety signs •and messages that are conveyed on these mobile HSE training units in terms of drawings and signage on their exterior. This will keep the safety messages continu-ously roaming around the construction site as the HSE mobile training unit goes from one place to another. Thus, the notion of HSE continuously present on site and enhancing the HSE culture among construction staff is maintained.

Efficiency and effectiveness approach. (Refer to Item •No. III.).

In addition to this, the mobile HSE training unit impacts positively on the environmental aspect of the construction industry in general, as it enhances the extended life-cy-cle of fixed assets: old buses whose value has already de-preciated are thus recycled rather discarded. In this way, the construction project will be saving a lot of unneces-sary waste to the environment on one hand, and will be

developing a new asset from an already depreciated one on the other hand.

The HSE mobile training unit can be easily fabricated by the Project Plant, Machinery & Vehicles (PMV) De-partment as detailed here below by Plant Manager, Samir Abdullah:

“The idea at the beginning was to modify a container to be mounted on a scrapped trailer or bus chassis. Also con-sidered was to modify a 66 seat Tata bus from CCC exist-ing fleet.

PMV immediately started modification works firstly re-moving half of the seats and fabricated tables with the help of the project carpentry shop and PMV’s fabrication shop. In addition to that, our transport officer arranged for curtains from the local market, installed at PMV fabri-cation shop…at the same time the team was fabricating a

steel structure for the installation of the external gener-ator and air-condi-tioning split units. We purchased two air-condition-ing units; the sup-plier carried out the installation. The PMV electri-cal team made the necessary elec-tric connections and installations including lights (neon type) inside the bus though at the end fitted a new 18KVA gen-erator.

Technically, the only setback is that the bus operates on service yet bumpy roads which causes the air-conditioning pipes to break from time to time so it is highly recommended to install a very strong and rigid steel foundation in order to prevent the pipes and air compressor from breaking. The driv-er has to drive carefully so as to avoid damages due to humps and bad roads.

To sum up, the idea started from a small drawing on a piece of paper which was then transferred into reality thanks to the determination of the project team, especial-ly the HSE and PMV Departments, because the spirit of safety lives within these team members.”

Effectiveness of the HSE Mobile Training Unit Initiative

A clear reduction in the time lost by construction staff when transported from site to static HSE training facili-ties for necessary and mandatory HSE training courses on construction projects has been observed. CCC managed to save an estimate of two hours of productivity time lost per worker due to transportation from site to static HSE


Health, Safety & Environment...Mobile HSE Training Unit Initiative

training units as detailed here below by HSE Training Su-pervisor, Anthony Fewell:

“One of the benefits of the mobile HSE training unit is the time saving in man-hours. Before the bus was put into service, it was taking approximately three to four hours per employee to come to the HSE Training Center, one hour to gather the employees up and transport them to the HSE Training Center, one to two hours for the actual class, and then one hour to transport them back out to the site and get them back to work. So, the project was losing approximately tw hours of productivity per employee in transport times. With the mobile HSE training unit com-ing to the site and giving classes right at the job site, the productivity time lost is minimal. The supervisors gather up the employees in a matter of a few minutes and they are seated in the mobile HSE training unit and class is un-derway in a matter of minutes, and when the class is com-pleted the employ-ees are off the bus and right back to work. With 2,600 employees having used the bus so far, that is a saving of 5,200 man-hours. If you average 200 employees using the bus daily that is 400 man-hours per day lost and that is 2,400 man-hours lost per week and 9,600 man-hours lost monthly and 115,200 man-hours lost annual-ly! And if you fig-ure an average cost of four Oma-ni Rials per labourer each, times 9,600, that works out to be a OMR38,400 (US$99,456) monthly saving, and OMR460,800 (US$1.2 million) annual saving in man-hour cost.”

As well, various senior CCC construction staff praised the mobile HSE training unit initiative once they utilized it on their construction sites, as per the quotes below:

Project Director Brian Wilson:

“The HSE training bus developed on the DMIA con-tract has added a new dimension to the HSE training fa-cilities available to the work force and staff on site. This facility permits specific training by competent staff to be undertaken at the job site where risks are identified. This is extremely important for new recruits from the Asian continent and has assisted the site in many aspects to maintain a high standard of safety on the DMIA Project. A fantastic initiative!”

Project Manager Brendan Saggers:

“The benefits of having an effective training bus tour-ing the site: I believe the idea of having a mobile HSE training classroom is very effective. What you are doing is bringing safety into the work place and the operatives on site then actually seeing the importance of delivering the relevant safety aspects to the workforce.

The mobile HSE classroom I believe has paid huge divi-dends to our project. One can see that the commitment to deliver up-to-date safety issues is a real bonus, in getting the information to the operatives without having to dis-rupt the working day.

One can see the keenness of the staff that operate the training bus, how they manage to get this over to as many as hundreds of site operatives each day is in its own way a great achievement, the challenge that lies ahead is the

continuation of keeping existing operatives as well as new operatives keyed up with the latest information and data from the HSE Department. The effective training that the HSE bus delivers is of paramount importance to all on site.”

Project Manager Sinan Melhem:

“My comments on the safety bus can be sum-marized in two points:

Time and costs for employee transportation to the Safe-ty Center to have safety trainings/lectures are saved.

The mobile unit can reach all site locations. Moreover, it is an advanced and civilized method of safety imple-mentation.”

Conclusion:

The mobile HSE training unit is an innovative measure that constitutes a step forward for health and safety in the construction industry due to all the added values it pro-vides in terms of HSE and its positive impact on the con-struction industry. As well, it is worth mentioning that the Mobile HSE Training Unit Initiative was part of various international HSE award submissions.

Hazem FarajHSE Training Coordinator

Managing Office Safety & Controls Department


Rally Paper

Rally Papers for the year 2011 have come to an end with great success in all three areas: M .O .Athens, Oman and Abu Dhabi. It’s very encouraging to hear that all CCC employees who took part in these Rally Papers had a great time. All the reviews and the feedback from all par-ticipants are taken into serious consideration for next year’s Rally Papers.

It’s amazing to observe the enthusiasm that I keep see-ing on the faces of the participants whether they are tak-ing place for the first time or have been regular devotees of the Rally Paper since 1999 when I organized my first one in Athens.

Organizing RP is neither something so simple to do nor an event that could be arranged in a couple of days. Be-lieve it or not, sometimes it takes eternal hours of research and study just in order to verify one story or a single fact. Therefore, reading books, encyclopedias, statistic reports

and spending endless hours on the Internet are part of my daily routine. It is really a job that is all-consuming! Why then do I keep on doing it?

First of all, I love it. It’s something I really enjoy do-ing. Having organized more than 25 Rally Papers so far, I have acquired the experience of how to organize such events, to meet new people and to get together with my colleagues (with whom I would normally just exchange a simple “good morning”). Not to mention the great deal of general facts and amazing stories that I have come cross during the years and that really enhanced my knowledge of the animal world, space, history and so on. No wonder my friends don’t invite me to their Trivial Pursuits night. I’m also happy to report that I’m still married which proves that I still have the support of my wife Jenny.

Members of Rally Paper team: Vangelis, Maria, Nina & Vivi (Oman)

Rally Paper team gathering (Abu-Dhabi)

39

Rally Paper

Secondly, as I mentioned above, I enjoy the excitement that I see eve-ry year among the participants who really look forward the whole year round to taking part in the Rally Paper. This is why the number of participants record is broken every year as happened at M.O. Athens 2011 with a record of 33 cars.

Thirdly, but most important im-port of all, I keep on organizing this event because of the person who is behind all Rally Papers, be-hind all these events and activities that have been taking place in CCC for the last years. And that person is Samir Sabbagh. I feel very grate-ful to Samir since he is the man who supports, subsidizes, sponsors and stands up for the activities team, in-cluding me. His involvement in the Rally Paper and all other activities is very significant as he not only manages and directs all of us but also takes part himself as a member of the team. This has proven that Samir Sab-bagh besides being a good director and excellent leader is also a very humble and good man.

I look forward to seeing you all in Rally Paper 2012 in your local areas.

Alex Khoury

Rally Paper headquarters (M.O. Athens)

Bulletin Issue 98 / June 2011


Family Day

This year the Family Day was a great success. In fact it was the biggest turnout ever, close to 600 people at-tended!! The venue was also a great success, as there were many activities. I think we covered just about all the age groups. Children loved the Carting, Horse and Swimming pool. There was a section with Jumping Cas-tles for the toddlers, for all the children there was Roll-er Blading, T-Shirt making, Hair Braiding, Face Paint-ing, Mini Car Racing…. At the end of the day there was a backgammon competition and I hope everyone enjoyed the day as much as I did. A big thank you to all the team members for working so hard to make this event successful.

Eleanor BonanosExecutive Secretary & Activities team member


Family Day

0506

2011FAMILY DAY


Sports & LeisureCCC UAE Games

Congratulations to the winners!

I would like to thank everyone who participated in the games and made the event a successful one.

I hope everyone enjoyed the CCC UAE games 2011. This year CCC UAE received a good response with over 200 players taking part in the tournament.

The tournament was held in two places: Zayed Sports City which hosted the billiards and the bowling games and the Armed Forces Officers Club which hosted the soccer, basketball and the table tennis games.

In addition to these teams, we have a very good CCC

Abu Dhabi cricket team, which is eager and ready to join our tournament next year.

What I would like to stress about these games is that all the games were fun and challenging at the same time, but in 100% sports spirit. Everybody had fun and was keyed up to reach the finals.

Organizing such a big tournament is possible only be-cause of the continuous support received from the man-agement of CCC Abu Dhabi area represented by Walid Shuhaiber in order to build team spirit and enhance a dis-tinguished relationship among CCC groups.


Sports & Leisure...CCC UAE Games

On this occasion, I would like to sincerely appreciate and thank our great supporter as always Walid Shuhaib-er for his continuous support in all these six years sports events and all his team in CCC area office.

Also on this occasion I would like to thank the remarka-ble efforts of Samir Sabbagh from MOA who always sup-ports CCC sports everywhere.

Not to forget our great MOA sports co-coordinators, Maria Vassilopoulou and Vangelis Magiras for arranging and looking after the event and making it a success.

Also I would like to express my gratitude to all the

players; everyone displayed a high level of sportsman-ship.

We in CCC Abu Dhabi enjoyed the event and we are looking forward to the next event next year, inshallah.

It’s easy to have fun …. Just join the CCC Abu Dhabi sports team! CCC fun has a better taste!

Wissam A. Al-KhatibCCC Abu Dhabi Sports Coordinator


Milestones

Engagements & Marriages

Births

Ahmed Al Dini (DKO, Saudi Arabia) is happy to

announce his engagement to be married. The bride-to-

be is Farah Al Abbasi and the ceremony took place in

Amman, Jordan on 29 January 2011 in the presence of

family and friends.

MUP project management in Sudan wishes to

congratulate Ahmad El Korch and his wife Glenda

Ravonison on their marriage in Khartoum on 10

February 2011.

Huzaifa Mansuri (DMIA Project, Oman) became engaged to be married to Nazima. The happy occasion was on 8 March 2011 in Ahmedabad, India and was attended by family and friends.

Rupen Shah (RLPE Project, Ras Laffan, Qatar)

wishes to announce his marriage to Archana Shah on

8 March 2011. The wedding was held in Vadodara,

Gujarat, India.

Mohammad Hamdan (Riyadh Area Office, Saudi Arabia) is very glad to announce his marriage to Haya Nairoukh on 13 April 2011. The ceremony took place in Amman, Jordan.

Their first child is a boy named Zain and father Tahir Nawaz

Khan (Khobar Office, Saudi Arabia) and his wife Samia are

very happy to announce the fact to their CCC colleagues. The

baby was born on 2 February 2011 in their native town of Esa

Khel (Mianwali), Pakistan.

Siraj Thattantavida (QC Department, PNUFW Project, Saudi Arabia) and his wife Sharmina are delighted to announce the birth of their first boy named Mohammed Sabhan on 11 April 2011 in their native town of Thalassery, Kerala, India.

Khaled Aboul Azm is a BIM engineer in the Cairo

office and is pleased to announce the birth of his second

baby, which is a boy. Baby’s name is Asser (mother’s

name is Dalia Atef) and he was born on 24 May 2011.

Khim Bahadur Sunar (RLPE Project, Ras Laffan, Qatar) and his wife Ganga are very pleased to announce the birth of their second child, a girl, called Sameena. She was born on 15 April 2011 in Pokhara Lakeside, Nepal and her brother Saman is very happy to have a little sister as a playmate.

Mr. and Mrs. Suhail Ahmed Khan (Habshan-5 Project, UAE)

are extremely pleased to announce the birth of their baby girl. Her

name is Alishba Zabeen and she was born on 17 May 2011 in

Sujat Gunj Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India. Laraib, Rizwan A.Khan

and the entire family are very happy with the new arrival.

Assem Alzoubi (PNUW, Saudi Arabia) and his wife Bayan Freihat are very happy to announce the birth of their first baby boy called Yousef. He was born on 16 May 2011 in Riyadh.

45Bulletin Issue 96 / December 2010Bulletin Issue 98 / December 2011

ReflectionsPower and Influence

People are intrigued by power and influence. Many people like to have more and more of them without any regard to quality; what they are after is quantity.

Unfortunately authority, power and influence are among the least under-stood and most abused processes. Many believe that if you want to test a person, give him power, and many be-lieve that power intoxicates and many have difficulty to recover from this in-toxication.

Power is understood by many pro-fessionals as the ability to make things happen in almost every aspect of our life. Power is neutral; it can be good for the good and bad for the bad. What characterizes the quality of power is its source. Sometimes it is likened to water that can be good or bad depending on the quality of the source.

What managers/supervisors/parents at all levels can do with power depends on its source. If the source is good, the power (ability) can lead to good results, but if the source is bad the results will be bad. The results are pre-dictable depending on the quality of the foundation of power they exercise.

When the foundation/source of power is fear, distrust or intimidation, for example, subordinates will follow or obey out of fear, even if the manager was wrong. The results are disempowerment of people, a win-lose envi-ronment, lack of productivity, and so on. Sooner or lat-er, the intimidation will lose its power. At the right time people will retaliate; they fight or flee, because they can-not live in fear, disrespect and intimidation. They need to be treated with honour and dignity.

When the source of power is based on money, rela-tionships, charisma, information, expertise, and so on, the nature of power (utility power) will be conditional and temporary. The power then will be characterized by the nature of the relationship or financial connection. As long as there is good money, there is ability, and as long as the relationship is good with somebody we can exercise that power.

The permanent power is the one whose source is hon-our and principles. People live in honour when they be-lieve they are doing the right things. The results of this

power are more permanent. They lead to real influence and great results, such as productivity, trust, loyalty, ac-countability, and for sure more profits.

The informal, more permanent power is generated from the three dimensions of human beings which are: who we are, what we know and what we do. In other words, these dimensions are: the character, the compe-tencies and the action that determine the nature of pow-er and its level. This informal power is converted in no time to influence which is the currency of leadership.

We as humans cannot live without the good power which becomes influence. This influence will help us to be in the front and make our employees and others fol-low us because they love to and not because they have to.

We as humans earn and develop this influence and we can determine its quantity and its quality. The conse-quences we get in every aspect of life depends totally on the nature of our power and whether our power is con-verted to influence which is the currency of our leader-ship. And the higher the influence is in our life the high-er will be our productivity.

Dr. Riad Elhaj

The BULLETIN is a publication issued at CCCin Athens by volunteer staff.

All opinions stated herein are the contributors’ own. Submissions (announcements, stories, artwork, etc.) are

welcome.

CCC BULLETIN

P.O. Box 61092

Maroussi 151 10

Fax (30-210) 618-2199 or [email protected]

see The BULLETIN on line at

www.ccc.gr - News - Quarterly Bulletin

EDITORS

Samer KhouryZuhair HaddadNafez HusseiniDamon Morrison

PUBLIC RELATIONS

Samir Sabbagh

PRODUCTION

Jeannette ArduinoNick GoulasGeorgia GianniasAlex Khoury

ContentsFROM THE DESK OF....................................Samer Khoury

EDITOR’S VIEW...............................................................…1

RECENT AWARDS.......................................................……2

QUALITY MANAGEMENT- Continual Improvement of the Organization

Mounir Soufyan….......…..4- Effective Quality Management: Human Factor

George Assimacopoulos…...…..8

FEATURE: Renewable Energy- Why Renewable Energy (RE)? - Nabil Hamdan…......12- Sustainability: A Note on the Subject

George Assimacopoulos…..…..14- Carbon Capture & Storage: ‘Bridge’ Technology to a

Low Carbon Future - Noora Husseini………................16- Investing in Renewable Energy Projects

Hemmat Safwat…..…18- Keeping Palestine Cool: A Different Kind of

Underground Movement - Khaled Al Sabawi…….…..21- PNUW Solar Energy Plant

Omar Abdel Qader….........24

AREA NEWS- Qatar: Green Buildings Conference - Rami Kaibni….26- Libya: No one left behind - The Evacuation

Mousa Naber….......…..27- Greece: 2nd Annual Mediterranean Oil & Gas

Conference - Noora Husseini…...............................…..28

- The Netherlands: Gastech 2011 AmsterdamGeorge Dabbas…...........29

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY- CSR News Report - Tony Awad…..........................…..30- Three Generators for Japan - Tony Awad…..…...........32- Extreme Race in Chile - Emile Tabet…....................…..33- Helping the Local Community in Cairo

Dina Farid & Ahmed Refai….........34- 28th Annual Professional Day, Saudi Arabia

Yousef Hajeir…..….....34- Nursery in Kypseli - Yvonne Wyss…......................…..35- Schinias Beach Cleaning - Stamatis Koutsouflakis…..35

HEALTH, SAFETY & ENVIRONMENT- Mobile HSE Training Unit Initiative

Hazem Faraj…........…..36

RALLY PAPER 2011- Three Rally Papers - Alex Khoury….......….................38

FAMILY DAY 2011…....................................................…..40

SPORTS & LEISURE- CCC UAE Games - Wissam A. Al-Khatib….........…..42

MILESTONES- Announcements….....................................................…..44

REFLECTIONS- Power & Influence - Dr. Riad Elhaj…...................…..45

Documents

June 2011 Issue No. 98 Renewable Energy & · PDF fileRenewable Energy & Sustainability. ... utility infrastructure and external works ... The client is Qatar Petroleum and the consultants