4 Universities, 500 Students: Oman's Grid-Planning Skills Push

Four Omani universities can now teach power engineering on the same simulation software that utilities use to plan and protect real electricity networks. At IEEE PowerTalks 2026 in Muscat, Siemens gave licences for its grid-planning and protection tools to Sultan Qaboos University, the University of Nizwa, the University of Technology and Applied Sciences and Sohar University. The Ministry of Energy and Minerals selected the universities, and the scheme is expected to reach about 500 students every semester for two academic years, GDN Online reported on 14 October.

📌 Key Takeaways

• Who: Siemens and Oman's Ministry of Energy and Minerals, working with SQU, the University of Nizwa, UTAS and Sohar University (OGN).
• What: Licences for Gridscale X PSS E, PSS SINCAL and Gridscale X Advanced Protection Assessment, which are software tools for transmission planning, grid simulation and protection studies.
• Scale: About 500 students per semester across bachelor's, master's and doctoral programmes.
• Timeline: The 2026-27 and 2027-28 academic years.
• Why now: Renewables' share of Oman's national grid rose from 4.26% in 2024 to 9.46% in 2025, and the targets rise to 30-40% by 2030 (GDN Online).
• Not disclosed: No licence value, contract terms or method for measuring student outcomes has been published.

⚡ What Actually Changed

Most power engineering students learn grid theory from textbooks and then meet professional planning software for the first time in a job. This grant tries to close that gap. According to Middle East Construction News, which ran the announcement on 15 October, students at the four universities will use the tools to learn how to design grids that respond safely to faults.

The licences cover three products:

The tool descriptions come from OGN's coverage of the announcement. According to the same report, the grant builds on a longer working relationship: Siemens has supported Oman's national energy model and Energy Transition Strategy and has trained government specialists in energy system modelling.

🎓 The Ministry Chose the Universities

The Ministry of Energy and Minerals was directly involved. It selected the four universities as part of its national energy transition plans, and its representatives attended the licence grant, GDN Online reported. That puts the initiative inside the government's grid modernisation agenda.

Universities say the benefit is practical. As quoted by OGN, Sohar University Vice Chancellor Dr Hamdan bin Sulaiman Al Fazari said: "Our students learn best when they work on the same challenges, and with the same tools, as the industry they will join." He added, according to Middle East Construction News, that the software will let Sohar University combine theory and practice in power network management across both teaching and research.

🔋 Why Grid Software Skills Matter for Oman's Energy Shift

The skills gap is growing as more renewables connect to the grid. GDN Online lists Oman's renewable share targets as 30-40% by 2030, 60-70% by 2040 and 90-100% by 2050. Solar and wind output varies far more than gas generation, so planners need more simulation studies on stability, fault behaviour and protection settings to integrate it. Those are the tasks these tools are built for.

Siemens also cited its own 2026 Middle East Infrastructure Transition Monitor, a survey of 400 senior executives in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Qatar and Oman. In that survey, 62% said inadequate grid infrastructure is holding back electrification, and 64% called smart grids and grid software crucial to the energy transition (OGN). These figures come from a vendor survey, not an independent study.

⚖️ The Caveats

• Vendor-specific training: Students will learn one company's software. That is useful if Omani utilities and consultants use the same tools. A curriculum built on them still needs to teach principles that carry over to other grid-planning platforms.
• "Expected" is not "delivered": The figure of 500 students per semester is a projection. No baseline or reporting mechanism has been published.
• Two-year window: The licences cover 2026-27 and 2027-28. Nothing public says what happens after that.
• Single-source detail: All the coverage traces back to the same Siemens announcement. No university or ministry has yet published its own figures on teaching hours or course integration.

🔗 How It Fits Oman's Wider Talent Push

This is the second energy-skills development at Omani universities this month. SQU recently opened a dedicated energy laboratory with plans to train hundreds of auditors, covered in our report on the RO 1.5M energy lab opening at SQU. The Siemens grant extends similar hands-on industry training to three more institutions, including universities in Nizwa and Sohar outside the capital. Industry-linked digital training is spreading more broadly too, as seen in PDO's graduate programme with SAP.

🇴🇲 Why this matters for Oman

Oman Vision 2040 depends on Omanis running the systems behind the energy transition, not only on new solar and wind capacity. Grid planning and protection work is specialised and pays well, and it is often outsourced to foreign consultants. Putting professional simulation tools into four universities in Muscat, Nizwa and Sohar, under ministry direction, gives Omani graduates a credible way into that work. The real test comes in 2028: whether graduates who trained on these tools are planning Oman's grid themselves, and whether the ministry and universities report results so the public can judge the programme.