AN INTERVIEW WITH JOEY DENG, CEO OF DIGITAL POWER BUSINESS AT HUAWEI EGYPT

Huawei launched its subsidiary Huawei Digital Power 2 years ago, what is your vision in digitalizing the strategic sector of oil and gas from global and local perspectives?

As the world is working to realize digital transformation and carbon neutrality, highly reliable and low-carbon energy infrastructure has become an indispensable trend in the digital industry. We believe that intelligent infrastructure is a key means to promote the development of the data center industry.

Sustainable development has become a global strategy and has been integrated into economic, social, scientific, and technological development and the continuous development of digital technology and power electronics technology has accelerated sustainable development.

From this point; Huawei Digital Power has been pursuing the vision of “integrating digital and power electronics technologies, developing clean power, and enabling energy digitization to drive energy revolution for a better, greener future”.

In 2021, we established Huawei Digital Power Technologies leverages its advantages in digital and power electronics technologies such as AI, cloud, and big data to help customers implement simple and efficient operation and maintenance while providing clean and stable power supplies. Huawei has successfully applied ICT solutions to the oil and gas sector in over 45 countries, serving 70% of the top 20 global companies in the industry.

At Huawei, we believe that Egypt has the potential to become a regional energy hub especially with the efforts being exerted by the government to transform Egypt into a strategic regional energy hub. Aligning with this vision of 2030, we offer strategies for digitizing Egypt’s oil and gas sector through integrating digital and power electronics technologies, promoting clean energy, cost savings, higher productivity, and environmental sustainability to drive the energy revolution for a better and greener future at both local and global levels.

We look forward to joining hands with the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain, governments, industrial organizations, standards organizations, and partners to make concerted efforts in innovation and contribute to Egypt’s energy innovation, sustainable development, promote the low-carbon, intelligent energy revolution and build a low carbon and intelligent society.

What are the most prominent solutions offered by Huawei Digital Power to support the oil and gas industry?

At Huawei Digital Power, we keen on providing the latest energy solutions that contribute to enhancing digitalization by improving energy efficiency and consumption, enabling the transition to new and renewable energy. Huawei Digital Power offers world-leading products and solutions such as FusionSolar, Data Center Facility and Critical Power, Site Power Facility, DriveONE, embedded Power, and Integrated Smart Energy, among others.

We believe that Africa has the biggest potential for solar energy around the world, with a long-term output of 4.51 kWh/kWp per day, especially Egypt; the accelerating growth of solar energy, as well as the growing potential that the country possesses in terms of resources that allow it to lead in this field in Africa.

Therefore, Huawei launched some solutions in Africa, including FusionSolar Smart PV Solution 6.0+, which enables a PV system to be adapted to various grid scenarios, especially in a weak grid environment. We have been using the FusionSolar brand since around 2015. The name “FusionSolar” represents the convergence of solar PV and the idea that all energy sources originate from the sun. “FusionSolar” smart PV solutions that integrate electronic and digital energy technologies, are cost-effective, risk-free, and easy to install and operate, as well as diagnose and repair faults thanks to Huawei’s latest AI and IoT technologies.

It aligns with our commitment to utilizing solar energy efficiently through quality and technological innovation. As for our slogan, “Making the Most of Every Ray.” We use technologies such as AI and Smart DC Systems (SDS) to improve PV energy yields and O&M efficiency, making power generation more economical. We can also use smart PV + storage generators to form grids and increase the proportion of renewables in energy consumption by 30%. Plus, we can use arc-fault circuit interrupters (AFCIs) to implement intelligent arc protection, this will promote the use of green power in more homes and businesses.

Aligned with decarbonization vision of the oil and gas industry in Egypt to cut emissions by 65%. The objective is to use more renewable energy resources, lessen the reliance on fossil fuels, and develop a more sustainable energy balance.

Solar energy can be used by Egypt’s oil and gas sector in a number of ways, including: Power Generation, Solar-Powered Instrumentation, Solar-Powered Lighting; which can result in improving energy efficiency, cutting costs, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Further, Huawei is also concentrating on using solar photovoltaic (PV) and lithium-ion battery storage (BESS Systems) where combining these two sources of energy can offer a clean, sustainable source of power that lessens the need for diesel generators and the related fuel expenses.

How are you planning to achieve carbon neutrality and build a green and better future for oil and gas?

In the next decade, renewables like wind, solar, and hydropower will dominate as the main sources of electricity and replace fossil fuels. Egypt is considered a prosperous market in the field of solar energy thanks to its strategic location and capabilities that qualify it to become a major regional energy center.

At Huawei, our strategy is to invest in research and development to find solutions that integrate electronic and digital energy technologies to build a sustainable, low-carbon society. The energy solutions that the company presents, support our customers and partners from the public and private sectors in Egypt. In particular, the government’s efforts to achieve digitalization in the sector and maximize the value of Egypt’s natural resources to reach an optimal mix for generating electricity from different sources, which contributes to achieving carbon neutrality and sustainability, in line with the country’s vision for the energy mix 2035 and the National Climate Strategy 2050.

As a global enterprise, Huawei Digital Power is fully aware that it should take responsibility for carbon management in the supply chain, we implement the carbon reduction concept in our overall supply chain management strategy and work with suppliers to accelerate the decarbonization of the supply chain. We are committed to the development of low-carbon technology, through cooperating with partners to accelerate the green and low-carbon transformation of cities, and building of low-carbon campuses, low-carbon buildings, low-carbon hospitals, low-carbon schools, low-carbon transportation hubs, and other low-carbon urban scenarios.

Huawei Digital Power is committed to becoming an “enabler” in global action to address climate change, promoting the utilization of clean energy across the globe with its leading products and solutions, and guiding all parties to build a zero-carbon ecosystem.

Looking ahead, Huawei will work with our partners and all parties of the industrial chain to drive the high-quality innovative development of the low carbon community to accelerate carbon neutrality; that creates a business ecology of common prosperity, makes continuous contribution to social development and build a zero-carbon ecosystem.

How can Huawei Digital Power’s vision and strategy be effectively aligned with customer needs?

Generally, we align our vision for the future with customer demands by closely listening to our customer’s needs and aligning our product development and innovation strategies accordingly. To succeed, the company needed to transform its technologies and services, learn and understand customer requirements, and accumulate more project experience; for greater value creation.

At Huawei, we always keen on being the chosen company for customers; we communicate customers’ requirements and expectations to the entire value chain of Huawei accurately, to build quality together; we respect rules and processes and do things right the first time; we fulfill the potential of employees around the globe for continuous improvement.

Moreover, we work with customers to balance opportunities and risks, promptly responding to their needs and achieving sustainable growth. We also undertake to provide customers with quality-assured products, services, and solutions and consistently enable customers to experience our commitment to creating  new value for each of them.

We seek to improve our offerings and offer a one-stop shop for hardware, software, and energy management solutions in the commercial and industrial sectors. We work to satisfy the particular demands that each industry has through ongoing innovation and improvement.

Overall, by carefully listening to our customers’ needs and adjusting our product development and innovation methods as necessary, we strike the balance between our future vision and customer needs.

Additionally, Huawei seeks to provide a lot of value-added services for our customers; that results in time-efficient customer experiences. Our goal is to provide what our customers need and respond to their biggest challenges.