Dubai, UAE: In his speech at the first Dubai Business Forum organised by Dubai Chambers under the patronage of HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE, HE Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD & CEO of Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA), emphasised the importance of the forum, which is in line with the vision and wise leadership of His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the UAE, and His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, to create a green and sustainable economy, contribute to climate action, and achieve UAE vision to provide a sustainable environment for generations to come. Dubai Business Forum, held on 1-2 November 2023 in Madinat Jumeirah in Dubai, is based on the ambitious goals of the Dubai Economic Agenda (D33) and the previous successes of the Global Business Forum’s series of events, which was an essential part of global business events specialised in the business sector.

In his speech, in the presence of HE Abdul-Aziz Al Ghurair, Chairman of Dubai Chambers; HE Helal Saeed Al Marri, Director General of Dubai Department of Economy and Tourism; and a large number of officials from the government and private sectors, Al Tayer said that DEWA is fully committed to sustainability as the cornerstone of all social, economic, and environmental development plans, and to the achievement of the UAE’s Net Zero by 2050 Strategic Initiative, Dubai Clean Energy Strategy 2050 and Dubai Net-Zero Carbon Emissions Strategy 2050, and accelerating the energy transition to a green, circular, and sustainable economy. In this regard, DEWA supports COP28 and the international cooperation for the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2030.

“In line with Dubai’s and UAE’s aspirations, DEWA has launched a large number of strategic green initiatives and energy-efficient projects for generating clean energy and water and serve a customer base of over 1.2 million according to the highest standards of availability, reliability, and efficiency. DEWA is no longer building fossil fuel-based power generating plants and has also switched to reverse osmosis technology for water desalination using clean energy. We have also moved from the conventional Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) model for power and water production projects, to the Independent Water and Power Producer (IWPP) model, leveraging partnership with the private sector, which has proven highly beneficial for DEWA and so far attracted investment valued over AED 43 billion. Our main green project is the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park, which is being implemented through our Independent Power Producer (IPP) model. it is the largest single-site solar park in the world, with a planned total capacity of 5,000MW by 2030. Currently, its capacity reached 2,627MW. By completion it will reduce carbon emissions by more than 6.5 million tons annually. Since 2017, we have successfully contracted with global companies 4,178,502 i-RECs (international Renewable Energy Certificates) from the Solar Park equal to approximately 5,767,408 EUR,” said Al Tayer.

“DEWA is building the Hatta Pumped-Storage Hydropower plant, the first of its kind in the GCC region with 250 MW power capacity and 1,500 MWH equivalent to 6 hours storage capacity. DEWA built a Green Hydrogen plant to produce hydrogen using solar power, as a new clean energy source of the future. The plant produces about 400 kilograms of green hydrogen per day, and the hydrogen gas tank can store up to 12 hours of hydrogen produced when using solar energy. The plant uses Hydrogen through a combined heat and power unit of about 300 kilowatts of electrical energy. Also, we are preparing a roadmap for Hydrogen Strategy that will be implemented in phases. DEWA also built a world-class infrastructure for Electric Vehicles (EVs) with more than 380 Charging Stations throughout Dubai, to promote the use of environmentally friendly EVs and plans to install 1,000 EV charging stations by 2025. Additionally, DEWA has built a world-class digital infrastructure and intensively uses the disruptive technologies of the fourth industrial revolution and digital transformation to enhance performance. DEWA launched Digital DEWA, as its digital arm, making DEWA the world’s first digital utility to use autonomous systems for renewable energy, energy storage, expansion in AI adoption, and providing advanced digital services.  DEWA is the first utility globally and the first UAE government entity to use ChatGPT technology in cooperation with Microsoft in its virtual employee the chatbot Rammas, to enrich its services and enhance its smart transformation. Also, DEWA launched DEWAverse to provide its services to its customers and employees in the Metaverse world, making it the 1st local government entity to launch its virtual platform using Metaverse technology. Our Data Hub Integrated Solutions (Moro Hub) has the world’s largest green solar-powered data centre at the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park, recognised by the Guinness World Records. DEWA established its own space programme (Space-D) to improve the operations, maintenance and planning of its networks using nanosatellites and remote sensing technologies. DEWA has already launched two nanosatellites and is the first utility in the world to use nanosatellites in its operations,” added Al Tayer.

Al Tayer explained that DEWA invests heavily in innovation and research and development, especially in the disruptive technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution to improve performance, quality of services and people’s lives. DEWA has established the Research and Development Centre to develop effective solutions to address efficiency and climate change. DEWA is the first organisation in the GCC to apply metal 3D printing technology. DEWA achieved the Guinness World Records title for the first 3D printed laboratory, for its Robotics & Drone laboratory, housed within the R&D Centre. The R&D Centre adopts an approach based on improving the services provided by DEWA to customers by developing the latest technologies and sustainable solutions for energy and water and conducting applied research. Since its launch, the Centre has published over 170 research papers at international conferences and peer-reviewed journals and publications. So far, the Centre has applied for 27 patents and has been granted 6 patents.

Al Tayer noted that DEWA has founded several successful companies, notably the majority-owned Emirates Central Cooling Systems Corporation, EMPOWER and other fully owned subsidiaries like Etihad Energy Services Company, Mai Dubai, Moro Hub, Dubai Green Fund among others, and some of these are already market leaders. Last year, DEWA became a public listed company on the Dubai Financial Market after a historically successful IPO for US$6.1 billion, that attracted over AED 315 billion demand and was oversubscribed 37 times, becoming the largest IPO in UAE history and the biggest issue by any utility company in the world after 2008. With a valuation of AED 124 billion, DEWA became the largest company by market value on the DFM and significantly boosted the exchange’s profile.

“It is the vision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum to transform Dubai into a global model city for smart and green living and we strive to put in place the best infrastructure and provide our essential services at a world leading level of excellence. DEWA is defined as the global benchmark in numerous key performance indicators (KPIs) and recognized as one of the best utilities worldwide. Our state-of-the-art infrastructure investment with gross value exceeding AED 214 billion as on 30 June 2023 has helped us to reduce power line losses to world’s leading 2.2% and unaccounted-for-water to world’s leading 4.5%. We also reduced the Customer Minutes Lost (CML) to world’s leading 1.19 minutes per year. DEWA had a consolidated revenue of AED 27.34 billion during 2022 with a net profit of AED 8.05 billion. For the first six months of 2023, DEWA’s consolidated revenue was AED 12.7 billion and the net profit was AED 2.7 billion. We are committed to contribute our best in realizing Dubai’s ambitions,” concluded Al Tayer.

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For more information, please contact:

Shaikha Almheiri / Mohammad Almheiri / Ribal Dayekh        
Dubai Electricity and Water Authority             
shaikha.almheiri@dewa.gov.ae / Mohammad.almheiri@dewa.gov.ae / Ribal.Dayekh@dewa.gov.ae                                 

Afaf Abaza / Mohammed Meshal
Hattlan Media
afaf@hattlan.com / mohammed@hattlan.com

For more information, please visit DEWA’s website www.dewa.gov.ae