The Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) power capacity have risen from 43 megawatts (MW) in 1970 to 13,417 MW in 2021, which is a 300-fold increase.
Over these years, the water production capacity boosted from zero to 490 million imperial gallons per day (MIGD). There were no desalination stations initially as Dubai only had a groundwater wells system.
The managing director and CEO of DEWA, Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, said that the company said that the company regards the environment at all levels of its work.
Over the years, it has raised its clean and renewable energy use, protected groundwater to ensure resources’ sustainability, and increased water security in the UAE and Dubai.
The total production capacity of the DEWA is now 13,417MW, including 1,527MW of renewable energy while utilising photovoltaic solar panels from the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park, the largest single-site solar park around the world using the Independent Power Producer (IPP) model, he said.
The Solar Park will be having a production capability of 5,000MW by 2030.
Last year, the electricity network losses in the Emirate were almost 3.3% compared to 6-7% in Europe and the US. The water network loss was nearly 5.3% compared to almost 15% in North America.
Dewa raised its fuel efficiency in up to 90% in production units, which is one of the best percentages worldwide. Dewa also reported the lowest Customer Minutes Lost (CML) globally at 1.43 CML in 2021, compared to almost 15 minutes in leading utilities in the EU.
Dewa provides its services to Dubai citizens, who make up to 3.5 million people and millions of travellers every year. The number of electricity accounts at DEWA was 1,061,476 reports by the end of 2021, compared to 752,505 reports by the end of 2016, an increase of 41%.
There were almost 960,032 water accounts by the end of 2022 compared to 666,006 accounts by the end of 2016, which is a 44% increase. There was around 2,021,508 electricity and water accounts by the end of 2021.