DUBAI, Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) continues its efforts to develop its infrastructure to keep pace with the growing demand for electricity and water and provide its services according to the highest standards of availability, reliability, efficiency, and quality for over a million customers in Dubai.
This is part of DEWA’s efforts to support Dubai’s comprehensive and sustainable development and consolidate its position as the best place to live, work, and invest.
DEWA’s Jebel Ali Power and Desalination Complex is one of the key pillars to provide Dubai with high-quality, efficient and reliable electricity and water services. The Complex has been confirmed by Guinness World Records as the largest single-site natural gas power generation facility in the world at a capacity of 9,547 MW.
“We work in line with the vision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, to provide an advanced infrastructure that keeps pace with sustainable development needs. DEWA has outlined expansion plans for the energy and water infrastructure based on demand forecasts until 2030. Innovation is a key pillar in developing our work system and improving our services to the highest standards by increasing the use of disruptive technologies and the latest Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI); Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs); Blockchain; Energy Storage; Internet of Things (IoT), and others,” said Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD and CEO of DEWA.
The Complex’s power generation and water desalination plants use world-class technologies, state-of-the-art smart solutions, and advanced technology systems, managed by Emiratis with the highest skills and capacity. The employees are the most important success factors for DEWA’s Generation division. All of the division’s top management are Emiratis, whilst in managerial positions, they make 32 percent of the workforce. The Generation division supports DEWA’s efforts in increasing the role of Emirati talent. Emirati engineers comprise around 42 percent of the total 74 engineers in the mechanical maintenance department.
DEWA’s optimal fuel heat utilisation is 80 percent-90 percent, which is among the highest in the world. In terms of maintenance, the division made global achievements, including breaking the record for gas turbine and desalination unit maintenance. It took only 11 working days for a major overhaul of a gas turbine beating the previous record of 32 days. The water desalination unit’s annual overhaul took only 11 working days, beating the previous record of 23 days. DEWA has become a global benchmark for the maintenance of gas turbine and water desalination plants. This has helped DEWA achieve an availability of 99.73 percent and a reliability score of 99.96 percent in the summer of 2020, which are among the highest rates in the world.
Nasser Lootah, Executive Vice President of Generation at DEWA, said that DEWA’s implementation of the latest innovative technologies has resulted in improving generation efficiency by 33.41 percent in 2020 compared to 2006. This resulted in considerable financial savings and reduced carbon emissions by 31 percent. This is equivalent to planting 327 million trees to offset the CO2 emissions. Nitrogen oxide emissions were reduced by 74 percent and sulphur dioxide by 99 percent.
Source: Emirates News Agency