Abu Dhabi energy sector enters digital transformation era

ABU DHABI- The Abu Dhabi energy sector plays a pivotal role in driving the government’s smart transformation with an integrated plan to digitise all services it provides to customers, making them accessible from authorised digital platforms across the emirate.

The energy sector boasts a solid digital infrastructure that enabled it to transfer most services to digital platforms, as part of plans to expedite transactions and provide water, electricity, and licensing services, among others, in accordance with the highest global standards of quality and efficiency.

In record time, the energy sector has become a model for smart transformation. It has come to offer 109 e-services across various government platforms, which represent 76.2% of all services provided by the sector in the emirate.

In recent months, the Abu Dhabi energy sector’s smart services helped ensure business continuity as authorities implemented precautionary measures to contain the outbreak of the novel Coronavirus, COVID-19, pandemic. Entities across the sector offered more of their services through their digital online platforms, as well as through ‘TAMM’, the unified digital services platform of the Abu Dhabi Government.

Mohammed bin Jarsh Al Falasi, Under-Secretary of the Abu Dhabi Department of Energy, DoE, said, "The Abu Dhabi energy sector has developed an integrated system of e-services, as part of its project to digitise the majority of its services and offer them through various digital and online platforms.

The Abu Dhabi Government provides all necessary means and technical support to expedite and enhance the digital transformation in the energy sector, as well as other vital industries in the emirate. This, in turn, supports efforts to implement the vision and directives of the wise leadership to establish Abu Dhabi as a global role model for smart cities." "The past few months have demonstrated the efficiency of Abu Dhabi’s technological and digital infrastructure, underlining the effectiveness of e-services in ensuring continuity in the energy sector’s activities," he added.

"Customers around the emirate enjoyed uninterrupted access to high-quality services throughout the COVID-19 crisis, which reflected the sector’s proactive vision towards smart transformation as an integral part of comprehensive development plans for the sector at large." "We work in partnership with various licensed entities in the Abu Dhabi energy sector and collaborate with the Abu Dhabi Digital Authority, ADDA, which is the entity leading the smart transformation of services in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi," Al Falasi explained.

"In the months ahead, we look forward to enhancing our joint efforts to digitise nearly 92 per cent of the sector’s services, offering them to the public via the available online platforms, most notably through ‘TAMM’. Energy is one of the most vital sectors in the emirate; it represents a key pillar of Abu Dhabi’s smart transformation plans, given the importance of its services and the role it plays in supporting the emirate’s sustainable development." The Abu Dhabi energy sector now offers 109 e-services, 47 of which are from the Abu Dhabi Distribution Company, 51 from Al Ain Distribution Company, and 33 forms the sum of the Abu Dhabi Department of Energy’s e-services. All in all, e-services make up 76.2 per cent of all 143 services, 55 of which are from the Abu Dhabi Distribution Company and 55 from Al Ain Distribution Company.

Meanwhile, the total number of transactions completed online or through digital platforms in the first half of 2020, hovered around 2 million, 1.59 million of which were processed by the Abu Dhabi Distribution Company, more than 400,000 by Al Ain Distribution Company, and 13 by the Abu Dhabi Department of Energy. The three entities’ digital channels were used at the notable rates of 96 per cent, 95 per cent, and 100 per cent respectively, during the said period.

The Abu Dhabi energy sector continues forward in its quest to make sure e-services make up 92 per cent of all services in the industry. To that end, extensive efforts are being undertaken to add 22 additional services to the e-services system, 5 of which are from the Abu Dhabi Distribution Company and 17 from the Al Ain Distribution Company.

The Abu Dhabi Department of Energy is the entity in charge of leading the energy sector in the emirate. It has launched a bundle of innovative smart services on three levels: internal services, customer services, and services provided for licenced companies operating in the Abu Dhabi energy sector.

In an effort to enhance the work environment, the DoE introduced a series of smart services, most notably the Abu Dhabi Enterprise Resources Programme, ADERP, which seeks to allow employees to easily avail services such as leave management, updating personal information, job, profile or yearly performance.

Another service is the Performance Management System, PMS, which provides an integrated set of performance management functions that include objective setting and management appraisals. Meanwhile, the Manpower & Recruitment service reflects all vacant and occupied positions to help generate accurate reports, whereas the OKR-KPI Tracking System computes how the work of an individual employee is connected to the overall business strategy. The DoE also introduced the Digital Innovation Platform to manage its innovation process through various stages, namely Ideation, Engagement, Evaluation, Implementation, and Success. Meanwhile, the Correspondence Management System tracks all the DoE’s incoming and outgoing business correspondence, making it available to all application users according to their roles and access.

DoE has also launched services to manage its relations with external customers, such as the Customer Relationship Management System, part of the Abu Dhabi Government’s TAMM platform, which allows the DoE to receive enquiries, complaints, and suggestions, and to create a centralised database for all cases and interactions with external customers. Another service for external customers is the Abu Dhabi Energy Services Platform, ADESP, which allows individuals and entities to obtain the necessary licences to conduct any of the regulated activities.

Among the services provided to the energy sector companies, the Water Quality Regulations Reporting System, WQRRS, presents a database developed by the DoE that allows the licensees to enter the values of parameters as transcribed in the WQR’s tables. The DoE also introduced the Incident Reporting System, which was designed to record and store all the incidents that occurred on the licensee’s premises or area of operation.

The energy sector offers integrated e-services across several channels, including the Abu Dhabi Energy Services Platform, and the Abu Dhabi government service system ‘TAMM’. These portals allow users – both individuals and organisations – to easily access e-services by registering and completing transactions from anywhere.