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Dewa slab tariff helps to cut energy consumption
Energy consumption has fallen marginally following the slab tariff imposed by Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa), a spokesperson said yesterday.
- By Nadia Saleem, Staff Reporter
- Published: 00:31 April 24, 2008
Dubai: Energy consumption has fallen marginally following the slab tariff imposed by Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa), a spokesperson said yesterday.
The tariff, which was introduced last month, had the potential to increase energy bills by 65 per cent.
"I myself have seen people changing light bulbs, in order to reduce energy consumption," Abdullah Al Hajri, Dewa's public relations officer, told Gulf News.
The growth in Dubai is not saturated, so a reduction noticed excludes the extra consumers, according to the spokesperson.
He said it would not be correct to compare one month to another. In other words, the reduction would have been greater had there been the same number of consumers last month as there were in February.
Large industrial companies felt the brunt of the slab tariff.
"We have seen a 61 per cent increase in our bills, from Dh8 million to Dh14 million. To absorb it into the budget we have already incorporated the increase in the price of our products, making them less competitive than similar products from other GCC countries that now have an advantage, said Modar Mohammad Al Mekdad, general manager at Gulf Extrusions, an aluminum infrastructure company.
Regarding demand exceeding supply, Al Hajri said Dewa plans ahead. "We are coping with the electricity requirements, and there is sufficient capacity," he said.
The peak months of energy consumption last year were from June to mid-September, where consumption exceeds 4,500 megawatts per month, compared to an off-peak month of 2,000 mw.
A percentage reduction of energy consumption was not supplied by Dewa, nor the quantity of power used for the month of March, compared to that of February.
Power consumption for 2007 was at 24,756 gigawatt hour (GWh), while system energy requirement equalled 26,030 GWh. The previous year's figures stood at 21,475 GWh and 22,272 GWh respectively. The number of consumers in Dubai last year totalled 403,669, the majority of which were residential.
Average individual electricity usage, according to Dewa, is 20,000 kwh per annum.
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