Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer Receives President of the World Economic Forum and Discusses Strengthening Partnership to Shape the Future of Energy and Development

His Excellency Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, Managing Director and CEO of Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA), received a high-level delegation from the World Economic Forum (WEF) led by Alois Zwinggi, President and CEO of the Forum and Chair of the Annual Meetings of the Global Future Councils.

Attending the meeting on DEWA’s side were Eng. Marwan Bin Haidar, Executive Vice President of the Innovation and the Future, and Eng. Waleed bin Salman, Executive Vice President of the Business Development and Excellence.

His Excellency Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer welcomed Alois Zwinggi and the visiting delegation, and highlighted DEWA’s most prominent projects, initiatives, and programs aimed at achieving the vision and directives of the wise leadership, especially expanding clean energy projects, keeping pace with rapid changes, and increasing reliance on Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies and strategies and digitalization, particularly artificial intelligence technologies. He also highlighted DEWA’s global achievements, including ranking first in 13 global Key Performance Indicators in its areas of work; Dubai recorded the lowest Customer Minutes Lost (CML) for electricity globally, with an average of 0.82 minutes annually per customer, while losses in electricity transmission and distribution networks reached only 2%.

His Excellency Al Tayer reviewed the Dubai Clean Energy Strategy 2050 and the Dubai Net Zero Carbon Emissions Strategy 2050 to provide 100% clean energy by 2050. Among DEWA’s most important projects to achieve this goal is the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park, the largest single-site solar park in the world using the Independent Power Producer (IPP) model. The park’s capacity is planned to reach 8,000 MW by 2030 (the original plan was 5,000 MW), which will contribute to reducing carbon emissions by more than 8.5 million tonnes annually (compared with 6.5 million tonnes annually in the original plan).

His Excellency Al Tayer spoke about DEWA’s journey in adopting artificial intelligence nearly 10 years ago, which made it a global model in digital transformation. He also highlighted the use of these technologies to enhance internal operations and raise the happiness levels of customers, employees, and all stakeholders.

His Excellency affirmed that DEWA has a long-term partnership with the World Economic Forum; in 2018,DEWA joined as a partner of the Forum’s Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, becoming the first government utility worldwide to join the Centre. This partnership aims to keep pace with rapid changes, foresee opportunities and challenges, develop long-term proactive plans, and develop disruptive technologies.

His Excellency Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer and Alois Zwinggi discussed ways to enhance cooperation in the fields of the future of development, economy, technology, society, and sustainability, contributing to shaping the agenda of the World Economic Forum Annual Meetings “Davos 2027.”