Insights Energy and sustainability from the perspective of Ramy Azar

Tell us a little about who are you and what do you do?

I am a VP-Engineering and Chief Technical Officer for Power Grids and Renewables. It’s a big title, especially since, according to my kids, all I do is “sit in meetings all day. They’re right, but effective communication is a large part of my everyday responsibilities. I oversee a group that focuses on our offerings related to the integration of modern technologies and renewable energies into our power grids, for example planning the power grid for integrating a maximum of wind or solar, or hydro or nuclear. Coupling solar with batteries or other forms of energy storage, digitalizing the grid to increase its resiliency—it’s all fascinating.  

What inspired you to take an active interest in energy?

There are 1.2 billion people on earth without access to electricity and just as many with bad access to electricity. Electrification allows people to stock food and hospitals to stock medications. Water can be pumped and cleaned, sewage water can be treated, homes can be heated and cooled. It affects education, industry, jobs and pretty much society’s prosperity and sustainability in general. Those who come from or who have travelled to the developing world realize that we’re privileged to be enjoying the quality of life that we have here in Canada, which many people take for granted. While doctors treat patients one by one, the electrical infrastructure we develop works to raise the quality of life of entire populations.

What kind of energy projects have you been involved in professionally?

My career at AtkinsRéalis has allowed me to touch on a wide variety of projects, from rural electrification in developing countries, to billion-dollar regional interconnections for electricity trade, integration of wind farms, solar farms, studying and planning new transmission lines, underground or undersea lines, substations and energy storage. You learn something new every day. And every time you learn something, you realize there are ten more things you don’t know.

What do you think the biggest change to the energy sector will be in our lifetime?

There’s going to be a bunch of them. People may not realize we’re living a revolution in the field of energy. The traditional model of a large generation plant connected to transmissions lines to power a city is gradually disappearing, as companies (and people) are starting to generate their own electricity. Driving in certain areas of Europe, I was amazed to see almost every house had solar panels on roofs and small wind turbines. More homes will use electric cars. Buildings, plants or neighborhoods are gradually gaining the ability to operate independently from the grid, which we call a “microgrid.” The grid and its loads are all gradually using digitalized control systems to optimize resiliency. We’re barely a few steps away from integrating machine learning and AI into power grids. Before you know it, Alexa or Siri will be managing and optimizing your entire energy consumption according to your habits, from your home heating to your appliances, from your hot water to your car charging, all while minimizing your bill.

Everyone has their favourite form of energy production, what’s yours?

In terms of sustainability, I would have to go with hydroelectric dams. They last long, are reliable, and can store energy if necessary. On the flip side, they’re location dependent, requiring rivers and lots of water.

Just for fun… You get to design your own spaceship. What fuel source do you use?

As a sci-fi fan, I’ve given this more thought than any normal human being should. The future of space travel hinges on developing matter-antimatter engines. Half a gram of antimatter can release 1.4 times the energy of the Hiroshima nuclear bomb. Yes, only “half a gram.” We’re not there yet. Antimatter does not occur naturally and producing it by today’s means is totally inefficient. We also have no way of storing it, and even if we did, we also have no way to channel that much energy safely into a spaceship engine. But it’s ok, let’s keep dreaming.