As part of its drive to transform Saudi Arabia’s energy sector, Enowa and KAUST recently hosted the inaugural Enowa-KAUST Energy Summit 2024. During the two-day event, Enowa also celebrated the third year of its Energy Cortex Program, which funds partners across the Kingdom for applied research for clean energy solutions. The Energy Cortex Program is largely centered around projects led by KAUST faculty members who are experts in renewable energy technologies. 

“Enowa’s Energy Cortex is designed to revolutionize the entire value chain of renewable energy in Saudi Arabia. By accelerating the integration of advanced data analytics, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, the program aims to optimize energy generation. We are also looking at enhancing storage distribution and predictive capabilities for efficiency and scalability,” said Murali Venkatraman, Head of Data Analytics and AI at Enowa. 

The program allows partners to share their research expertise and technologies, while Enowa provides field experience to scale up those technologies at its facilities in NEOM in northwest Saudi Arabia. The Energy Cortex is structured around four key pillars that rely on Enowa and KAUST working together: 

• Weatherlytics: Uses KAUST’s experience in climate data and modeling and analytical to build sophisticated weather prediction models that enhance the accuracy of renewable energy forecasting. 

• GenFlex Cortex: Develops methods that achieve highly dynamic responses to changing energy demand to optimize energy generation from renewable sources and enhance energy system flexibility. 

• Stor Cortex: Tests and models of energy storage technologies suitable for NEOM by focusing on improvements in efficiency and capacity to ensure reliable and sustainable energy supply even during periods of low generation.  

• Grid Cortex: Creates smart grid solutions that enhance grid stability and integration, optimize energy distribution, reduce energy losses and ensure a resilient energy infrastructure. 

In the first year since all four pillars have been active, the Energy Cortex has engaged more than 10 KAUST professors and their teams, produced six journal papers, and provided NEOM with much needed data for weather and community energy demand.  

Murali Venkatraman speaking at the summit.

“The projects being conducted in NEOM can be deployed across the Kingdom. As Saudi Arabia progresses towards a more sustainable and renewable future, accurate generation and demand prediction will be crucial for a stable energy grid,” said Vincent Cunningham, Director of KAUST@NEOM, an organization founded to strengthen relationships between the two entities. 

Among the highlighted projects at the summit were maps for renewable energy harvesting across NEOM, different algorithms to quantify and exploit the energy flexibility potential of the future grid at NEOM and new AI tools for detecting instability in electric grids. The AI tools will be trained using Enowa’s proprietary data and augmented by lab-generated synthetic data. The summit also provided an opportunity for KAUST to demonstrate how its research and capabilities align with the Kingdom’s energy goals and showcased how Enowa and KAUST can advance education in renewable energy in the Kingdom. During the summit, Enowa and KAUST also signed an agreement for Enowa's participation in the KAUST Industry Collaboration Program, which was created to be a facilitator of great ideas between KAUST's world-class research community and the wider international ecosystem.