Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA)’s performance in various key indicators surpassed major European and American utilities in 2022.
Line losses from electricity transmission and distribution networks were reduced to 2.2 percent last year, compared to around 6-7 percent in Europe and the USA.
Dubai’s utility company also achieved a new world record in electricity Customer Minutes Lost (CML) per year – which was 1.19 minutes per customer – less than 10 percent of the average 15 minutes recorded by leading utility companies in the European Union.
DEWA’s infrastructure development
DEWA announced its electricity, water transmission and distribution lines witnessed substantial growth across the emirates in 2022. The total length of transmission and distribution electricity lines has now reached 42,586.71 kilometres, while water transmission lines have reached 13,769 kilometres.
DEWA’s infrastructure development is based on the Dubai 2040 Urban Masterplan and intends to keep pace with the increase in the number of residents in the emirates. Dubai’s population is expected to reach 5.8 million by 2040.
Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, Managing Director and CEO of DEWA, said: “DEWA’s total energy production capacity is 14,617 megawatt (MW) of electricity and 490 million imperial gallons per day (MIGD) of desalinated water. DEWA is developing major projects and strategic initiatives to achieve the goals of the Dubai Clean Energy Strategy 2050 and the Dubai Net Zero Carbon Emissions Strategy 2050 to provide 100 percent of its total production capacity from clean energy sources by 2050.”
In 2022, the company inaugurated 17 new substations. These include 15 132-kilovolt (kV) stations with a conversion capacity of 2,280 megavolt amperes and two 400kV stations with a conversion capacity of 4,000 megavolt amperes.
DEWA installed five kilometres of 400kV overhead transmission lines and 247 kilometres of 132 kV ground cables to connect the substations to the main transmission network.
DEWA also commissioned 1,113 distribution substations of 11kV across Dubai, taking the number of medium voltage (11Kv or 6.6Kv) substations to 42,771.