DEWA completes smart grid short-term goals
Smart meters and network automation were key components of the first phase of DEWA’s smart grid strategy.
The strategy has seen DEWA (Dubai Electricity and Water Authority) replace its over 2 million electricity and water metering base with smart meters between 2015 and 2020.
Between 2015 and 2017, DEWA also fully automated its transmission network connected to the 400kV and 132 kV substations.
In 2017, DEWA deployed its multi-application RF mesh network across the Emirate. Since then, it has expanded to provide communication to over 4,200 distribution substations to support the smart grid, including the smart metering and distribution network automation.
Have you read?
DEWA nanosatellite improves management of power and water networks
Ground-breaking projects advance decarbonisation of cement industry
“The smart grid is a key component of DEWA’s strategy to develop an advanced infrastructure that supports the transformation of Dubai into the smartest and happiest city in the world,” comments DEWA MD and CEO HE Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer.
“DEWA provides an advanced infrastructure for facility and services management through smart and connected systems that use the latest disruptive technologies and the Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies, including artificial intelligence, blockchain and internet of things.”
The AED 7 billion (US$1.9 billion) smart grid strategy to 2035, which was launched in 2014 and updated in 2021, is a key element in supporting the goal of a 30% demand reduction by 2030 and the clean energy and net zero targets of 100% of the energy production capacity from clean energy sources by 2050.
The strategy covers six thematic areas:
● Foundational capabilities, focused on the key enabling infrastructure such as advanced metering, telecommunications and IT
● Grid automation, focused on the deployment of sensors, controls and real-time applications to orchestrate transmission and distribution grid operations
● Smart energy solutions and green mobility, focused on the deployment of distributed renewables and storage technologies to effectively manage grid operations
● Smart water, focused on water network monitoring, automation and optimisation
● Smart grid artificial intelligence, focused on unlocking additional value from data for wider commercial application and increased customer happiness
● Innovative value-added services, focused on unlocking customer value from the smart grid investments with new products and services and the enhancement of current ones.
Achievements reported by DEWA include a record low 1.43 minutes per customer in customer minutes lost per year in 2021 and transmission and distribution network losses of 3.3% and water network losses of 5.1% in 2020.
