DUBAI: Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) focuses its efforts on enhancing climate change resilience to ensure resilience in the electricity and water sector in Dubai. DEWA continuously develops its capabilities to manage risks, understand the effects of natural disasters, and adapt effectively and proactively. DEWA adopts the best programmes, systems, and technologies to achieve this goal, thereby enhancing efficiency and productivity while fostering creativity and innovation.
“Thanks to the vision and directives of the wise leadership, Dubai continues its journey to become the best city in the world for living. To achieve this goal, DEWA has adopted effective and ambitious plans and strategies to provide electricity and water services according to the highest standards of availability, reliability, efficiency, and sustainability. DEWA has also enhanced its resilience, agility, and readiness to keep pace with the increasing demand for electricity and water in Dubai and provide the best facilities for the best city in the world,” said HE Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD & CEO of DEWA.
DEWA is highly resilient in providing its services in accordance with the highest standards of efficiency, quality, and reliability. This commitment aligns with the population growth in Dubai. DEWA’s Intelligent Controller systems improve operational efficiency, increase production capacity, and reduce fuel consumption, thereby reducing harmful emissions. DEWA has developed the world’s first thermodynamic Digital Twin Gas Turbine (GT) Intelligent Controller, which uses Artificial Intelligence and machine learning. The turbine is located at the M-Station in Jebel Ali, which is the largest power generation and water desalination plant in the UAE.
DEWA’s Space programme (Space-D)
DEWA’s Space-D programme contributes to enhancing the development, maintenance and planning of electricity and water networks. It improves the efficiency of DEWA’s generation, transmission, and distribution divisions by monitoring solar power plants and enhancing the accuracy of generation forecasts. This is achieved through forecasting weather patterns, seawater temperature and salinity, as well as monitoring of electricity transmission lines. Additionally, it aids in detecting water leaks and identifying any infrastructure changes, further optimising DEWA’s operations. This enhances operational efficiency and effectiveness, including preventive maintenance of the electricity and water networks. DEWA is the first utility in the world to launch nanosatellites to improve its operations.
Thermally storing energy, a solution for resilient energy
DEWA relies on several projects to diversify its energy sources, including the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park. The 950MW fourth phase of the solar park is the largest CSP project in the world. This project will provide approximately 320,000 residences with clean and sustainable energy. It will reduce carbon emissions by about 1.6 million tonnes annually, enhancing Dubai’s position as a leading global hub in clean and renewable energy and climate action.
Preventative maintenance systems provide resilient energy and reduce carbon emissions
Preventative maintenance programmes and systems enhance the leadership of cable performance in the power distribution network in Dubai. DEWA uses the preventive maintenance and Reliability Centred Maintenance (RCM) & Artificial Intelligence to predict cable faults. DEWA also adopts the advanced Condition Assessed Reliability Enhanced (CARE) and Cable Lifecycle Ageing project, which DEWA developed internally, to enhance and extend the life span of distribution cables through an advanced system based on data processing.
DEWA broke its world record in major inspection outage which it recorded in 2019. DEWA has reduced the maintenance outages for key inspection operations from 11 to 9 days, which is a reduction in the maintenance duration of 18%, compared to the previous world record achieved and an 84% decrease compared to 2006. This has helped DEWA achieve 99.51% and 99.83% availability in the summer for the E-Class and the F-Class fleet of Gas Turbines (GT), respectively. DEWA achieved AED 3.55 million average cost saving per GT per major inspection.
Besides providing electricity and water services according to the highest standards of availability, efficiency and reliability, this step contributes to DEWA’s environmental efforts by reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 49,329 tonnes per year in addition to the reduction in operational and maintenance costs.
Risk and resilience management standards
DEWA pioneered the development of several world-leading standards in cooperation with the British Standards Institution (BSI). DEWA has developed the PAS 60518 Enterprise Risk & Resilience Management standard for the utility sector, the first of its kind in the world. It is a reference for utilities and a key enabler for advancing risk management and resilience, ensuring business continuity and handling emergencies as competently and efficiently as possible. In 2020, DEWA developed a comprehensive Climate Change Resilience Plan to ensure the resilience of the power and water sector of the Emirate of Dubai. DEWA’s Climate Change Resilience Plan identifies detailed existing mitigation measures, preventive controls and future resilience actions that address the potential impacts of various climate change drivers on its business and operations.
Cybersecurity
Cybersecurity enhances the role of DEWA’s operations and services and supports the implementation of innovative solutions to meet the needs of the energy and water sectors. It also enhances DEWA’s resilience and protects the safety of networks. DEWA adopts an integrated approach for cybersecurity. This includes a complete series of proactive, preventative, and predictive defence mechanisms to ensure business continuity and swift recovery from incidents and protect data security. As part of Digital DEWA, DEWA is disrupting the entire business of public utilities and contributing to building a new digital future for Dubai. Digital DEWA is based on four pillars: launching advanced solar power technologies; deploying a renewable energy grid with innovative energy storage technologies; expanding integrated AI solutions; and providing digital services that serve smart, sustainable cities while ensuring their security and continuity in the cyber digital space. Says in press release
