Dubai, UAE, 3 April 2015

HE Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD & CEO of Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) has received in his office, HE Cécile Jodogne, Secretary of State for Foreign Trade & Investment for the Brussels-Capital Region and Minister of the French Community Commission in Charge of Civil Service and Health Policy who headed a delegation representing leading Belgian energy companies. The delegation included Gauthier Lejeune, Foreign Trade Advisor for the Foreign Trade & Investment Minister for the Brussels-Capital Region, Bernard Gilliot, Executive Vice President of Tractebel Engineering, Manuel Colcombet, Vice President of GDF Suez, Yves De Smaele, External Sales Consultant at Deployments Factory, Thibaut De Vylder, CEO of Deployments Factory, Didier Wiot, Chief Solutions & Services Officer at Elia Grid International, and Berger Markus, CEO of Elia Grid International.

HE Cécile Jodogne's and the Belgian delegation's visit is part of an official visit by HRH Princess Astrid, representative of His Majesty King Philippe of Belgium, who is heading a delegation of ministers and representatives of leading Belgian companies, to discuss cooperation between Belgium and the UAE, and promote bilateral relations between the two countries.

The meeting was attended by Dr. Yousef Al Akraf, Executive Vice President of Business Support and Human Resources, Waleed Salman, Executive Vice President of Strategy and Business Development, and Ahmed Abdullah, Senior Manager of External Communications at DEWA.

Al Tayer welcomed the delegation and emphasised the importance of strengthening cooperation with Belgian organisations and companies. He invited Belgian companies to take part in DEWA's initiatives, projects, and investment opportunities. The Belgian delegation expressed their interest to collaborate with DEWA, especially in clean energy projects, and to exchange experiences, knowledge, and technologies to contribute to the sustainable growth of Dubai.

Al Tayer highlighted DEWA's contribution, as a government organisation, to Dubai's success story by improving electricity and water services to advanced levels that have enhanced its competitiveness. This was underlined by DEWA's global results in efficiency and reliability. DEWA's installed capacity is 9,700MW of electricity and 470 MIGD of desalinated water daily.

Al Tayer highlighted the Dubai Integrated Energy Strategy 2030 to diversify Dubai's energy mix to increase the share of renewable energy in the Emirate, and DEWA's green initiatives to reduce energy demand by 30% by 2030. DEWA has increased the renewable energy percentage in Dubai's energy mix to 7% by 2020 and 15% by 2030. It has also increased the capacity of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park to 3,00MW by 2030. DEWA has established Etihad ESCO to promote the optimal use of energy, improve the energy efficiency market, and retrofit over 30,000 existing buildings in Dubai. The present costs for this strategic project will be approximately AED 30 billion, with returns of AED 82 billion, and a net present profit of AED 52 billion.

Al Tayer briefed the visitors on DEWA's latest projects and achievements locally and globally, including the expansion of the power and water desalination plant at M-Station, the Hassyan clean-coal power plant, and the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park, which is one of the largest renewable energy projects in the region. The 13MW first phase became operational in 2013. The consortium led by Saudi Arabia's ACWA and Spain's TSK was selected to implement the 200MW second phase of the Solar Park, which will be operational by 2017. The Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park is one of the largest strategic renewable energy projects in the world that is based on the Independent Power Producer (IPP) model.

Al Tayer noted that DEWA has launched three smart initiatives that support the Smart Dubai initiative to transform Dubai to the smartest city in the world through 100 initiatives and 1,000 smart services. The first initiative, called Shams Dubai, encourages building owners to install photovoltaic (PV) solar panels to generate electricity. The PV solar system will be connected to DEWA's grid. The electricity is used onsite and the surplus is exported to DEWA's grid. This encourages the use of renewable energy, increases its share in electricity production and diversifies the energy mix.

Through the second initiative, DEWA will install smart applications through smart meters and grids to provide various benefits and new applications to its customers, including automatic and detailed readings, both current and historical. The data obtained through these readings will be available to customers to monitor actual consumption for specific periods of time to better understand and manage bills. Such data will help identify energy efficiency and enable comparisons with average norms. The third initiative is to establish the infrastructure to build 100 electric-vehicle charging stations (Green Charger) this year.

In terms of benchmarking, DEWA has achieved very competitive results that outperformed even the private sector. DEWA increased the efficiency of its energy generation by 22% between 2006 and 2014, using the latest technologies and adopting technological innovations. It also surpassed leading European and American companies by reducing losses in power transmission and distribution networks to 3.26%, compared to 6-7% in Europe and the USA. Water network losses decreased to 9%, compared to 15% in North America, achieving leading global results in reducing water losses. DEWA's results are among the best internationally for customer minutes lost per year, at 4.9 minutes, compared to 15 minutes recorded by leading utilities in the European Union,"

Al Tayer invited Belgian companies to participate in the Water, Energy, Technology, and Environment Exhibition (WETEX) 2015, which will be held from 21-23 April 2015 at the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre. WETEX, whose theme is At the Forefront of Sustainability, is held in conjunction with the second World Green Economy Summit. Al Tayer confirmed that WETEX has established its position as an ideal platform to showcase and discuss important topics including water, energy, natural resource protection, and sustainable development.

At the end of the visit, HE Cécile Jodogne and the Belgian delegation thanked Al Tayer for the effort to create cooperation and strong partnerships with energy Belgian organisations and companies.

-Ends-

For more information, please contact:

Ribal Dayekh or Noora Khoory   
Dubai Electricity and Water Authority 
+9714 515 1784 
ribal.dayekh@dewa.gov.ae 
noora.khoory@dewa.gov.ae 
             
Mutasem Shadid or Mazen Alebrahem
ASDA'A Burson-Marsteller
+9714 450 7675/450 7613
mutasem.shadid@bm.com
Mazen.Alebrahem@bm.com

© Press Release 2015