Dubai Electricity & Water Authority (DEWA) | DEWA hosts HYPE Innovation Managers Forum

Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) has hosted the HYPE Innovation Managers Forum at DEWA’s Sustainable Building in Al Quoz. The forum was attended by experts and specialists in innovation from a number of major organisations from across the world. They exchanged views, experiences, best practices, and success stories in innovation.

The forum was inaugurated by HE Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD & CEO of DEWA. HE Dr. Ahmed Al Nuseirat, Coordinator General of the Dubai Government Excellence Program, and official from DEWA and HYPE Innovation, were present.

In his opening speech, Al Tayer said he was pleased to host the forum at DEWA’s Sustainable Building, which is the first sustainable government building in the UAE, and the largest government building in the world to receive a Platinum Rating for green buildings from Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED).

“Our wise leadership emphasises the importance of innovation. This is clearly evident in the National Innovation Strategy, which was launched by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, aims to make the UAE one of the most innovative countries in the world, and the Dubai Innovation Strategy, which was approved by His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of the Executive Council of Dubai and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Dubai Future Foundation, aims to make Dubai the most innovative city in the world,” said Al Tayer.

“His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum once said that, “The future is not something we wait for, but something we make. We look ahead into the future and predict and shape it by being proactive in innovating and employing future technologies to bring about development and growth, and build a knowledge-based economy.” DEWA supports the efforts of our wise leadership to establish the UAE as an innovation enabler and an incubator of creativity. We have an integrated strategy to encourage and implement innovative ideas and creative suggestions, to promote research in energy, renewable energy, and water. We have incorporated innovation in DEWA’s vision, and raised its importance as a theme to encompass 40% of our strategy map for 2021. We have developed a comprehensive strategy to drive organisational innovation and empower DEWA to achieve its vision to become a sustainable innovative world-class utility,” added Al Tayer.

Al Tayer noted that DEWA is actively supporting the strategy for the Dubai Future Agenda, to establish the biggest Government Accelerators in the world; that adheres to a clear and integrated strategy based on innovation and anticipating the future, which keeps up with the Fourth Industrial Revolution, and makes use of Disruptive Technologies. Through the Innovation Centre at the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park, which is the largest single-site solar park in the world, DEWA is providing Emiratis with excellent skills to work in the energy sector. DEWA has also launched a Research and Development (R&D) Centre, with a total investment of AED 500 million. DEWA also launched the Free Electrons Programme, the international business accelerator with a consortium of 8 leading global utilities and 25 of the largest clean energy accelerators in the world. DEWA is implementing projects with three start-ups to develop advanced technologies based on artificial intelligence and solar power.

“DEWA launches several competitions to encourage innovation and creativity, locally and globally. It adopts leading initiatives such as the Solar Decathlon Middle East (SDME), which will be hosted in Dubai and takes place for the first time in the Middle East and Africa, in 2018 and again in 2020, with awards totalling AED 10 million. In addition, DEWA organised the App Master Competition for university students and the Innovation Research Awards for university students, as well as the Robotics Competition for school students, among others. DEWA encourages the creativity of its staff by providing a positive and motivating work environment. DEWA’s Innovation team develops innovative initiatives and projects to improve services provided to customers. The team presented a number of innovative ideas and techniques that will contribute to changing the energy landscape globally. The innovative projects presented by DEWA staff have won many international awards, including an idea by the Distribution Planning team to develop a backfill material from locally-sourced mixtures of materials for medium-voltage cables. This has improved medium-voltage cable ratings, reduced thermal sensitivity, and extended their lifespan. The idea has helped enhance the cable-carrying capacity of medium-voltage cables by 9-18%. This has achieved financial savings of AED 8.5-12.1 million for each substation. DEWA’s employees also designed the Intelligent Fire System Separation from Low Voltage, to put out fires in substations by using an intelligent sensory system. The system notifies engineers about increasing temperatures, enabling them to take the necessary measures to avoid fires happening. This idea has also saved over AED 1 million for DEWA,” noted Al Tayer.

“DEWA continues to adopt and implement a culture of creativity and innovation in its initiatives and projects, and supports the Dubai 10X initiative, which sets the Government of Dubai on a mission to be a global leader that is 10 years ahead of all other cities. This is done through government innovation and reformulation of traditional work mechanisms to keep up with the changes taking place in the world. This will place Dubai at the forefront of cities that do not only foresee the future, but create it,” concluded Al Tayer.