Dubai Electricity & Water Authority (DEWA) | MD & CEO of DEWA receives Acting Director General of ADWEA

HE Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD & CEO of Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA), welcomed HE Dr Saif Saleh Al Sayari, Acting Director General of Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Authority (ADWEA), in a visit to enhance cooperation between the two utilities and identify world-class practices at DEWA, including benchmarking and key performance indicators. DEWA is working to deliver the best possible services in electricity and water that are reliable, efficient, and always available to achieve the happiness of customers and stakeholders. This is one of many mutual visits to build closer ties between government departments in the UAE.

The meeting was attended by a number of Executive Vice Presidents from DEWA.

At the beginning of the meeting, Al Tayer welcomed the visiting delegation, stressing the importance of continued cooperation and synergy between the two utilities in energy and water, and improving their efficiency, and teamwork in line with the directives of HH Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the UAE, and HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, and HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, to strengthen the leadership of the UAE globally and improve performance, productivity, and quality of service to customers.

During the meeting, Al Tayer talked about the programmes, plans, and projects of DEWA in energy to strengthen its global competitive position, especially in renewable energy, sustainability and green economy, which supports the UAE Vision 2021 for the nation to become one of the best countries in the world, and the Dubai Plan 2021 to provide the best government services.

Al Tayer explained the details of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park, the world's largest single-site solar power project, with an overall investment of AED 50 billion and a production capacity of 1,000 megawatts (MW) by 2020 and 5,000 MW by 2030. When completed, the solar park will contribute to reducing over 6.5 million tonnes of carbon emissions a  year, supporting Dubai's goals of promoting sustainable development and green economy.

“Our success with the completion ahead of schedule of the second phase of the solar park with a capacity of 200MW, is the result of the unlimited support of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, where his vision is an inspiration and a guide for us to achieve excellence. We are implementing the Dubai Clean Energy Strategy 2050 to make Dubai a global hub for clean energy and green economy by providing 7% of Dubai's power from clean energy by 2020, 25% by 2030 and 75% by 2050, and the reduction of carbon emissions by 16% by 2021. DEWA is currently building the largest concentrated solar power project in the world that’s based on the independent power producer model, with the first CSP plant generating 200MW in April 2021, and eventually a total of 1,000MW generated from CSP by 2030,” said Al Tayer.

“DEWA has achieved very competitive results in its global benchmarking, surpassing the private sector and major European and American utilities in efficiency and reliability. It has been able to raise the efficiency of energy production, using the latest technologies and adopting technological innovations, and also surpassed European and American utilities by reducing the losses from electricity transmission and distribution networks to 3.3% for compared to 6-7% in the US and Europe, and water network losses were reduced to 8% compared to 15% in North America. DEWA also achieved 3.28 customer minutes lost per year compared to 15 minutes in Europe,” concluded Al Tayer.

Al Tayer also discussed the issue of electronic security and the exchange of experiences and information between the two parties to enhance safety procedures and combat the risks of cyber-attacks that could affect services.

Both parties stressed the importance of improving electricity connections, which will contribute to energy interconnection, which in turn will benefit the reliability and efficiency of the network, the exchange of energy, and reduce operational and maintenance costs.

The two parties highlighted the importance of water connections between both utilities, and enhancing the sustainability of water security and strategic water resources through cooperation that contributes to averting crises and water shortages. DEWA and ADWEA are working to secure the various needs of their ambitious development plans by increasing the efficiency and operational capacity of their water networks to meet the growth in demand for their services, which will contribute to the promotion of sustainable development. DEWA's production capacity is 470 million gallons of desalinated water per day, while ADWEA has a capacity of 938 million gallons of desalinated water per day.

Al Sayari expressed his appreciation on behalf of ADWEA for the great efforts shown by DEWA to enhance cooperation and coordination between both utilities. He also praised the efforts and strategic initiatives implemented by DEWA, in electricity, water and renewable energy production, especially the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park.

Al Seiari discussed the strategic project to store water in Liwa in Abu Dhabi, which is one of the largest projects globally in the field of water storage. The project will store a strategic reserve of fresh water in the aquifer, which can be used in times of emergency and for managing the demand on water resources. This will be done through fresh water injected into the underground reservoir at a rate of 7 million gallons per day for a period of 22 months, which is the time required to fill the underground reservoir. Later, the water will recover, in an emergency, at a rate of 40 million gallons a day for 90 days, which is enough to provide a million people with about 182 litres of drinking water per day.

Al Sayari also taked about the importance of renewable energy for ADWEA, as a strategic option, and on ADWEA’s success with the financial closure of its solar power project at Sweihan. The project represents the largest solar power plant in the world, with a capacity of 1,170 (DC) MW of electricity, as well as the lowest in terms of production price to date.

At the end of the meeting, Al Tayer showed Al Sayari the project of DEWA’s new headquarters, Al Sheraa (Arabic for ‘Sail’).