DUBAI - Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA)’s electricity, water transmission and distribution lines witnessed substantial growth across Dubai in 2022. The total length of transmission and distribution electricity lines has reached 42,586.71 kilometres, and the water transmission and distribution lines has reached 13,769 kilometres.

Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD & CEO of DEWA, highlighted DEWA’s commitment to continue providing a solid and advanced infrastructure to meet the increasing demand for electricity and water. This is according to the highest standards of efficiency, quality and reliability, as part of the Dubai 2040 Urban Masterplan, to keep pace with the increase in the number of Dubai residents, which is expected to reach 5.8 million by 2040.

Al Tayer added, “DEWA’s total energy production capacity is 14,617 megawatt (MW) of electricity and 490 million imperial gallons per day (MIGD) of desalinated water. DEWA is developing major projects and strategic initiatives to achieve the goals of the Dubai Clean Energy Strategy 2050 and the Dubai Net Zero Carbon Emissions Strategy 2050 to provide 100 percent of Dubai’s total production capacity from clean energy sources by 2050.

In 2022, DEWA’s results again surpassed major European and American utilities in several key performance indicators. Line losses from electricity transmission and distribution networks were reduced to 2.2 percent compared to around 6-7 percent in Europe and the USA. DEWA has achieved a new world record in electricity Customer Minutes Lost (CML) per year. Dubai recorded 1.19 minutes per customer, compared to around 15 minutes recorded by leading utility companies in the European Union.”

By the end of 2022, the total length of electricity transmission lines reached 4,332 km, and the total length of electricity distribution lines - underground cables increased to 37,541 km. Meanwhile, the total length of electricity distribution lines - overhead lines reached 713.03 km.

In 2022, DEWA inaugurated 17 new substations. These include fifteen 132 kilovolt (kV) stations with a conversion capacity of 2,280 megavolt amperes and two 400kV stations with a conversion capacity of 4,000 megavolt amperes. DEWA installed five kilometres of 400kV overhead transmission lines and 247 kilometres of 132 kV ground cables to connect the substations to the main transmission network.

DEWA also commissioned 1,113 - 11 kV distribution substations across Dubai. There are now 73 - 33kV substations in service, and 42,771 medium voltage (11Kv or 6.6Kv) substations.