The Dubai Electricity & Water Authority (Dewa) has achieved a new world record in electricity customer minutes lost per year and is building a smart grid to improve on this even further.
 
Dewa recorded 1.86 minutes lost in Dubai, compared with around 15 minutes recorded by leading electricity companies in the European Union.
 
The authority says it is working to enhance the capacity and efficiency of transmission and distribution networks to provide electricity and water services according to the highest standards of reliability, availability, efficiency and sustainability.
 
This is to meet the growing demand for energy and water and keep pace with Dubai’s urban and economic plans.
 
“We are proud that Dewa is part of the UAE’s global achievements that are accomplished by Emirati men and women who do their best to provide state-of-the-art services to make Dubai the smartest and happiest city in the world,” said Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, CEO of Dewa.
 
He said that Dewa adopted the latest technologies for energy production, transmission and distribution. It is also building an integrated smart grid, which is a key component of its strategy to develop an infrastructure to support Dubai’s efforts to become a smart and happy city.
 
The smart grid strategy contains ten programmes to be completed over the short, medium and long-term by 2035. These are advanced metering infrastructure for electricity, advanced metering infrastructure for water, asset management, distribution automation, information technology infrastructure, transmission automation, system integration, telecommunications, big data and analytics, and security.
 
Dewa’s results surpass major European and American utilities in several indicators. In 2018, losses from electricity transmission and distribution networks were 3.3% compared with 6 to 7% in Europe and the USA. Water network losses were also reduced to 6.5% compared with around 15% in North America.
 
The UAE, represented by Dewa, ranked first for the third consecutive year in Getting Electricity, as per the World Bank’s Doing Business 2020 report. The report measures the ease of doing business in 190 economies around the world.
 
Dewa achieved 100% in all of the Getting Electricity indicators, including procedures required to obtain an electricity connection; the time needed to complete each procedure; costs associated with each criterion; and reliability and transparency of tariffs.