Thesis (M.Sc.) - Cairo University - Institute of African Research and Studies - Department of Natural Resources

This thesis studies the impacts of some weather factors on electrical load in North Africa. The concerned weather factors are air temperature ({u00B0}C), atmospheric pressure (Pa), relative humidity (%) and wind speed (m/s), while the studied period is 2007-2010 and the studied area is Egypt as a case study for the North African countries. The thesis is based on daily meteorological and electrical load data and annual population data, and it follows the non-linear regression method to achieve its main goal which is finding out a two-variable equation describing the relation between weather and electrical load. The first variable of that equation (independent variable) is the dominant weather factor (the most sensitive weather factor to time variation) and the other variable (dependent variable) is the electrical load. In order to identify the dominant weather factor, the variation of the four weather factors over time is examined annually in order to derive the behaviour of the average values of every weather factor annually and then seasonally. Wind speed does not vary uniformly over time, while air temperature, atmospheric pressure and relative humidity vary uniformly according to second degree equations, more uniformly in summer than in winter. Temperature has the most uniform variation since it has the largest value of determination coefficient (R² = 90.82 %), followed by pressure (R² = 86.43%) and then humidity (R² = 69.74%). Studying the mutual impacts between weather factors, there is a clear interdependence between temperature and pressure, expressed by high determination coefficient, while humidity does not have such interdependence with neither temperature nor pressure. Since temperature variation is more significant than pressure variation (larger values of R2), air temperature is considered the dominant weather factor

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