Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) said on Sunday that it would rely more on internal resources and public-private partnerships (PPP) to fund projects.

DEWA's announcement followed the repayment of its last outstanding bond of $1.5 billion, which was issued in 2010, leaving the state-owned utility with zero debt on its books.

"New projects worth over 80 billion dirhams ($21.8 million) are either ongoing or envisaged for completion, in the next five years. DEWA is not necessarily counting on new borrowings for that, rather we will use internal resources and leverage PPPs," said Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD & CEO of DEWA.

The utility's aggregate investment in generation, transmission and distribution infrastructure assets stands at more than 175 billion dirhams ($47.6 billion) serving a customer base of more than one million.

Last week, DEWA said that its Independent Power Producer model, used for developing solar power plants, has attracted nearly 40 billion dirhams ($11 billion) of investments to date.

(Writing by Syed Ameen Kader; Editing by Anoop Menon)

(anoop.menon@refinitiv.com)

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