Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) announced on Tuesday that there has been a 79% surge in electricity and water accounts in Dubai over the past decade. This is largely due to the growing demand for utilities stemming from a rising population and increased economic activity in the emirate.
According to DEWA’s statement regarding electricity and water accounts, the number of electricity accounts reached 1,116,575 by the end of 2022, compared to 624,445 accounts in 2012. Additionally, the number of water accounts surged to 995,478 by the end of 2022, up from 554,562 accounts in 2012.
The expansion of DEWA’s customer base reflects the continuous growth in Dubai’s population and the emirate’s expansion across all economic sectors, said Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, DEWA’s Managing Director and Chief Executive. “We are developing a world-class infrastructure for electricity and water to keep pace with the growing demand in Dubai and provide our services according to the highest standards of availability, reliability, efficiency, and quality,” Al Tayer said.
He said DEWA keeps pace with the increasing demand for energy and water by raising its production capacity, reaching 14,517MW of electricity and 490 million imperial gallons per day (MIGD) of desalinated water. DEWA has also expanded its transmission and distribution networks to keep pace with the vast expansion of Dubai, he said.
“We provide electricity and water services to over 3.5 million people in Dubai and over 4.7 million individuals during the day. Our expansion plans are based on the demand forecast until 2030, considering the Emirate’s demographic and economic growth,” he added.
“We will continue to develop Dubai’s infrastructure to provide the best facilities for the best city in the world, guided by the vision and directives of the wise leadership to enhance Dubai’s position as a global city and a preferred destination for living, working, business and tourism,” said Al Tayer.
“We are working to diversify energy sources in Dubai through pioneering projects that include clean and renewable energy technologies in Dubai. This will help achieve the Dubai Clean Energy Strategy 2050 and the Dubai Net Zero Carbon Emissions Strategy 2050 to provide 100 per cent of Dubai’s total power production capacity from clean energy sources by 2050. Currently, the share of clean energy production capacity is about 14 per cent of Dubai’s total energy mix,” added Al Tayer.
Al Tayer said that DEWA uses clean solar energy to desalinate seawater using the latest RO technologies. According to the strategy, 100% of Dubai’s desalinated water production in 2030 will come from a mix of clean energy that combines renewable energy sources and waste heat. This will make Dubai exceed the globally set goal regarding using clean energy in water desalination.
DEWA has outperformed major European and American utilities in several key performance indicators. Losses from electricity transmission and distribution networks were significantly reduced to 2.2%, a vast improvement over the 6-7% losses typically seen in Europe and the USA. DEWA also reported a reduction in water network losses to 4.5%, compared to the average of around 15% in North America.
Furthermore, DEWA achieved a new world record in electricity Customer Minutes Lost (CML) per year, with Dubai recording only 1.19 minutes per customer. This is a significant improvement compared to the approximately 15 minutes recorded by leading utility companies in the European Union.
