Spotlight on Kareem Ahed Bseiso, Sales Officer at Qudra
About Kareem Ahed Bseiso
"My name is Kareem Ahed Bseiso, a member of Qudra since April 2022. I have a bachelor’s degree in industrial and Systems Engineering from San Jose State University in California, USA. My time in the states allowed me to qualify to be a member of the National Society of Leadership and Success, a starting point for my passion into the solar and renewable energy world."
Please describe your role at Qudra Energy as well as your industry expertise.
I am in Qudra’s Business Development Department as a Sales Officer, concerned with managing the business pipelines and sales contracts that are signed through account executives. Our main objective in the department is to convert leads into trackable opportunities through our different platforms. The stages include communicating with the design and operations department to get all information needed to budget, price, and prepare proposals for clients. I also work on developing and automating workflows allowing the team to decrease and organize the lifecycle of leads, manage monthly targets and yearly budgets.
Moreover, our business department is committed to researching new technologies to our product line though a wide network of leading manufacturers in the renewable energy industry. Latest services that are worked on include grid connected and solar connected EV chargers, and Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) for distributed PV systems.
I am also involved with our designated marketing agency in overseeing monthly promotional calendars, articles, and continuous awareness raising to achieve the company’s targets for organic and inorganic reach.
How did your story in renewables begin, and in your opinion, how much has it changed since then, if at all?
My story with renewable energy started after one of our speaker broadcasts during my leadership development program with the National Society of Leadership and Success. Mr. Bill Gates was the speaker for that particular session, where he concentrated on his book “How to Avoid a Climate Disaster”. From there I felt like I have found the career I would want to pursue after graduating, especially after living abroad for most of my life, I have always wanted to give back to the Palestinian community. Since my start in Qudra I have substantially grown into this industry and its importance in the region. With a small family here, you are able to get a little bit of the business as a whole, which allowed me to understand much more than expected in the solar world.
Can you tell us about your most advanced sector (solution or service) and what sets you apart from other competitors?
As a developer in the region, backed up by Palestine’s most successful businesses (Napco – Apic and Bank of Palestine Group) Qudra makes sure we provide the best engineering and financial solutions to our end client. We make sure to develop the sector as a whole, which is reflected by representing the Renewable Energy Federation in Palestine, taking part in the Palestinian Standards Institution, and so on.
With that being said, a major solution/service that we provide is our core business Energy Sales to electricity distributors, municipalities as well as commercial and industrial clients. Our clients are set to own a high performing solar asset with no risk of capital investment, and no operational risks.
We aim to establish a commercially viable model to finance state of the art solar, using Qudra made solutions, offering clients a fully managed solar assets with guaranteed quality and performance, in addition to a chance for owning a power generator that allows up to 75% savings in cost in comparison to existing traditional supply.
What's a recent milestone Qudra Energy has achieved that you would like to share with us?
A milestone that we can see as a major achievement added to Qudra’s portfolio is the ability to provide self-consumption systems connected to medium voltage grids. A case of which was piloted at our very own NAPCO. There we installed a 1 MW self-consumption solar system that allowed the factory to save 25% of their electricity bill and help them have an extra edge in providing affordable local aluminum.
Of course, this achievement does not come without advanced and flexible power monitoring and control systems based on load management forecasts that our team conducts following best practices and factory production schedules.
A case of which we aim to see in many parts of Palestine, allowing such areas a decentralized source taking them a step closer to growth and maximum capabilities.
What are your expectations for the MENA region in terms of growth and new opportunities for Qudra Energy?
I see a high potential for the renewable energy sector in the MENA region for several reasons, starting with the current need of many countries to electricity supplies. Our industries are highly dependent on the supply of energy and with the current limited resources we see a huge opportunity not met.
The regions climate also meets top expectations for one of the cheapest if not the cheapest renewable energy source – solar systems. Yet unfortunately, in many cases we see the underdevelopment of grids limiting us from this shift of decentralized electricity sources. Therefore, planning towards the future should pay a huge attention to developing a right building block.
Qudra’s vision is aware of the global challenges that are limiting the progress of renewables, and has invested in researching in microgrids technologies and efficient planning for renewable generators specifically to support its growth and expansion outside Palestine in MENA. We work closely with international institutes and make sure to reflect this experience on the Palestinian solar industry.
How can Qudra Energy offer affordable, modern renewable energy solutions to people and businesses?
Here at Qudra we aim to reach and benefit the highest number electricity users. In fact, we can say in our region renewable energy sources are a need rather than a luxury for the lack of supply. Therefore, we aim not to only reach distributors and municipalities but also factories, institutes, and households.
For that to become achievable we provide our Energy Sales package. A package that allows clients to enjoy the perks of Renewable Energy without having to worry about an Initial Investment, Approvals, Installation, Operation and Maintenance. The client commits to paying the produced energy on a reduced tariff for an agreed number of years, before the system becomes their own and produces free electricity for the rest of its lifetime. In this case, the client’s maximum exposure will be their existing energy bills that are already committed by them. Making sure that shifting towards renewable energy does not add financial stress or technical risks.
A step further to make this process easier, we have developed the first of its kind in Palestine the Qcalulator©. The calculator allows clients to estimate the necessary solar system needed for their facility, select from a variety of Energy Sales programs Qudra offers, and finally, have a brief financial and technical overview of the project’s lifetime.
Open question, is there something you want to add?
Instability in supply chain prices and availability are a major volatility risk for developers, stimulated most recently by a global pandemic, record high inflation rates, in addition to off the chart energy prices. Our company’s risk management policies consider market variables and corresponding mitigations, which can be scaled up for aggregated system orders and used for different system components. This risk management methodology relieves clients that are interested in buying solar products (whether solar contractors, developers or consumers) from the burden of finance, quality assurance, and performance evaluation.
About Qudra
Qudra was launched from a unified vision, as a joint project between the National Aluminum and Profiles Company (NAPCO) and the Bank of Palestine Group. The vision aims to provide modern, sustainable, and economical renewable energy solutions at low costs to reliably meet the needs of Palestinian citizens, institutions, and companies. In Qudra we seek to enable Palestine to move to a more stable and sustainable energy future. Therefore, we seek to launch solar power plants with a capacity of 100 megawatts as an initial stage during the next few years, we are also looking forward to providing storage solutions for produced surplus energy and applying modern energy control systems.