Dubai Electricity & Water Authority (DEWA) | DEWA organises 7th Annual Innovation and the Future Conference

HE Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD & CEO of Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) confirmed that investments in Artificial Intelligence (AI) top DEWA’s priorities. DEWA seeks to achieve the utmost returns from AI, especially in utilities management, and smart consumption in renewable energy sector.

Al Tayer was speaking during the 7th Annual Innovation and the Future Conference, organised by DEWA, at Godolphin ballroom, in Jumeirah Emirates Towers hotel. The conference is part of the UAE Innovation Month, under the theme ‘Innovation starts with you’. The UAE Innovation Month is held annually under the directives of HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, to encourage innovation and harness it to achieve sustainable development and shape the future. This supports DEWA’s vision, and its Strategic Plan 2021, which is in line with the National Innovation Strategy and the Dubai Innovation Strategy, to translate the leadership's vision to make the UAE one of the most innovative countries in the world.

The conference was attended by HE Omar Sultan Al Olama, Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence; DEWA’s Executive Vice Presidents, Vice Presidents, and staff. Patrick Schwerdtfeger, Futurist; Daan Roosegarde, Artist & Innovator at Studio Roosegarde Architecture; and Alia Al Mansoori, UAE Genes in Space Winner gave presentations at the conference.

“I am pleased to welcome you to the 7th Innovation and The Future conference, organised by DEWA, during the UAE Innovation Month, which was announced by HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, to celebrate innovation and innovators, and to support the UAE’s role in fostering innovation and shaping the future, and in support of the UAE Centennial 2071 to make the UAE the best country in the world in every aspect,” said Al Tayer.

“We have launched an initiative that reimagines utility services and reshapes a new digital future for Dubai through ‘Digital DEWA’, which is the digital arm of DEWA. This translates the words of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum who once observed ‘Our 2071 Strategy is founded on a set of fundamentals, primarily Artificial Intelligence across all our government and private sectors.’ This also supports the vision of His Highness to make Dubai a global role model for clean energy and green economy, by adopting the 4th Industrial Revolution and disruptive technologies including AI, drones, energy storage, blockchain, the Internet of Things, among many others,” continued Al Tayer.

“Through this initiative, DEWA will implement a pioneering new model for utilities that uses innovation in renewable energy, energy storage, artificial intelligence and digital services. This model will disrupt the entire business of public utilities by becoming the world’s first digital utility, using autonomous systems for renewable-energy and its storage, expand the use of artificial intelligence, and provide digital services,” added Al Tayer.

“Our 10X initiative will focus on four pillars to deliver a new utility experience for Dubai and the world. The first pillar is launching advanced solar power technologies in Dubai; and the second is deploying a renewable energy grid that uses innovative energy storage technologies. This will make better use of the diversified clean energy mix to achieve the Dubai Clean Energy Strategy 2050. We will use advanced machine learning to integrate this large share of renewables and storage, and to ensure maximum efficiency and reliability of operations. The third pillar will expand on AI solutions to make Dubai the first city to provide AI-based electricity and water services.

The fourth pillar is to utilise connected technologies to provide 24/7 world-class service-delivery for Dubai. DEWA will launch a futuristic digital platform, a data hub named MORO, to improve the UAE’s digital capabilities to develop smart cities, provide state-of-the-art innovative solutions, and a successful model for Dubai and the world to benefit from our innovative approach,” noted Al Tayer.

“Investment in Artificial Intelligence tops our priorities at DEWA and we seek to achieve the utmost returns on it, especially in utilities management, smart consumption in renewable energy sector, precise analytics and research to provide resources in energy and water sectors, and the improvement of our smart services to unprecedented levels. This will reinforce DEWA’s reputation locally, regionally and globally in customer experience and service accessibility,” added Al Tayer.

“To support these efforts, we launched the Future Centre for Customer Happiness. This is the first integrated smart customer happiness centre in Dubai, which depends on AI and robotics. DEWA recruited five robots as staff, and customers can already benefit from Rammas, DEWA’s virtual employee that was launched in early 2017 on our smart app, our website, and also available on Alexa from Amazon and Google AI Platform. DEWA is the first government organisation to launch an AI service for customers via live chat in both English and Arabic that answers all their queries. Rammas has succeeded in advancing AI technologies in DEWA. By the end of January 2018, DEWA’s Rammas received over 698,000 enquiries less than a year after its launch,” concluded Al Tayer.

The conference discussed several topics in the field of innovation, through interactive and main sessions. These included ‘DEWA and Artificial Intelligence’, ‘Best Practices in the Application of Artificial Intelligence’, ‘Artificial Intelligence in Space’, and ‘Artificial Intelligence and Nature’. Specialists and experts in innovation and AI discussed key challenges facing this sector, and ways to stimulate innovation and make it an institutional and governmental choice.