Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) is participating as the Sustainable Energy Partner of the 6th World Government Summit. The Summit is held under the patronage of HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, from 11—13 February 2018. DEWA will highlight its achievements and smart and innovative initiatives, as part of its efforts to keep up with the Fourth Industrial Revolution and developing disruptive technologies.
“As part of efforts to achieve the vision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, we are pleased to share our experiences and expertise in anticipating and shaping the future of energy by innovating a future model for utilities, based on disruptive technologies. This will provide smart solutions and services for the generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity and water, as well as clean energy generation. We will present our holistic view of the energy sector in Dubai through three main themes. These include producing more clean energy, especially solar power; producing desalinated water from solar power; and reformulation of the institutional work system and the role of utilities,” said HE Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD & CEO of DEWA.
“At DEWA, we are committed to the security and sustainability of energy supplies as well as its energy efficiency and its rational use. We contribute to achieving the Dubai Clean Energy Strategy 2050, to provide 75% of Dubai’s total power output from clean energy by 2050 through the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park, which is the largest single-site solar park in the world based on the Independent Power Producer (IPP) model with a total planned capacity of 5,000 megawatts (MW) by 2030 at a total investment of AED 50 billion. Upon completion, the solar park will help reduce over 6.5 million tonnes of carbon emissions annually,” said Al Tayer.
Al Tayer noted that DEWA’s current photovoltaic and Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) IPP-based projects’ capacity exceeds 1,700 MW. It will have an additional 3,300 MW, so that the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park’s capacity will reach 5,000 MW by 2030.
“We intend to have 100% of desalinated water production come from a mix of clean energy that uses both renewable energy and waste heat. This will allow Dubai to exceed global targets to use clean energy to desalinate water. The increase in operational efficiency created by decoupling electricity generation and water desalination will lead to savings of up to AED 13 billion by 2030, and reduce 43 million tonnes of carbon emissions by 2030. We will be able to produce 750 million gallons of desalinated water per day by 2030, compared to our current capacity of 470 million gallons per day,” said Al Tayer.
“DEWA has a clear strategy for smart and digital transformation, which will embrace all its operations and divisions, to improve efficiency, and achieve the happiness of all its stakeholders. DEWA recognises the importance of anticipating opportunities and challenges and developing long-term proactive plans. We have developed an integrated plan to keep pace with the Fourth Industrial Revolution based on enablers including Big Data analysis, Cloud Computing, Block Chain, robotics, decentralisation of services, smart grids, smart transformation of our services and workforce, local and global accelerator programmes, in addition to our efforts in Research and Development, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), 3D-Printing, and the Internet of Things (IoT),” concluded Al Tayer.