Dubai: The Dubai Electricity and Water Authority, the government-run utility, will sign contracts worth more than Dh3 billion this week to help meet rising demand in the emirate.
The utility, known as Dewa, will sign six contracts during the Wetex power and water exhibition in Dubai, Chief Executive Officer Saeed Mohammad Al Tayer said last Tuesday. Those deals represent about a fifth of Dewa's contract budget for the year.
Gulf states are boosting power supplies to meet rising demand from growing populations and as they seek to spur economic growth. Dubai has seen power-demand growth rates slip from about 15 per cent a year.
"Dubai is still giving full priority to huge projects in infrastructure and transport," said Philippe Dauba-Pantanacce, an economist at Standard Chartered Plc in Dubai. "That's a good factor that will help future growth since this is what's going to bring companies to Dubai."
Dewa, also seeking bids for a power-plant consultancy project, expects electricity demand to rise about 6.4 per cent this year, Al Tayer said. The utility had a 14 per cent gain in the number of power customers to 530,000 last year, he said. Dewa plans to raise generation capacity by about a third over the next two years to 9,800 megawatts.
