Powering growth

In his well-appointed office in the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority's headquarters in the Wafi area, Saeed Mohammad Ahmad Al Tayer, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, talks about Vision 2015 and how it ties in with the plans he has for DEWA in the near future.

What is your vision for DEWA?

Our vision for DEWA is 'to be a world-class utility', and our mission is 'meeting customer satisfaction and promoting Dubai's Vision through delivering water and electricity services by a competent workforce at a world-class level of safety and environment, reliability and efficiency'.

In 2005, we revised our strategic plan to support the Government of Dubai. We want to ensure customer satisfaction and be the paragon of safety, reliability and efficiency.

We constantly hold workshops for our staff and stress on integrity, fairness, teamwork, transparency, leadership and professionalism, qualities that are at the core of our values.

Our motto is 'We work for you', so everything our department does is for the people of Dubai. We were the first government department to adopt the Balanced Scorecard and set KPIs (key performance indicators), which are reviewed on a quarterly basis.

What are the aims and goals of DEWA?

We aim to satisfy our customers. DEWA's aims and goals are in line with the ones for Vision 2015. We have to provide reliable sources of water and power in the emirate in order to attract investors and businesses to Dubai.

Utilities without reliability are useless and without practically uninterrupted supply of water and power any kind of growth or progress is impossible.

With Dubai's population growing at a rapid pace, how will DEWA keep up with increasing demand for power and water?
The solution is to increase the output of electricity and water.

We have projects under development and by mid-2011 we will be able to produce 10,000 megawatts of electricity and 550 million gallons daily of desalinated water, which requires that we double our capacity, thus entailing the highest growth worldwide in terms of power and water production.

We're confident of meeting the growing demand, but we also have a contingency plan in place as well.

In addition, there is apromising comprehensive demand-side management programme that helps in containing this phenomenal increase in demand.

Would you say DEWA is an environmentally conscious department?

In all the power stations that are set up, international consultants conduct an environmental impact study and their recommendations are taken into account.

We ensure there is minimum impact on marine life, emissions are reduced and the quality of air is not affected.

The design of our new boilers ensures that emissions are kept to a minimum and are within the acceptable limits as per laws and regulations.

Can you tell us about DEWA's principles and strategic plan?

DEWA is all about teamwork and we work on the principles of focused leadership, organisation alignment and continuous improvement.

The goals and objectives of DEWA and Vision 2015 are united and support each other. We are implementing the current Strategic Plan for the period 2005-2009 — a comprehensive one that includes DEWA's Strategy Map, Strategic Measures, Success Factors and Business Environment Analysis.

It is Balanced Scorecard-based Strategic Plan for monitoring and controlling the performance, in which four perspectives are identified, namely Financial, Customer, Internal Processes and Learning and Growth.

Current and future investments in the electricity sector

To satisfy the future needs of electricity and water, DEWA's investments from 2006 up to 2010 will exceed Dh50 billion. The electricity projects are divided into two types: electricity power generation and desalinated water production;
and transmission and distribution networks.

Major power generation projects

• Phase II of Aweer Power Generation Station (H Station): anticipated to enter into service before next summer and will produce 400 megawatts at a cost of Dh800 million.

• Phase II of Power Generation and Desalination Station (L Station) at Jebel Ali with a production capacity of 1,200 megawatts of electricity and 55 million gallons daily of desalinated water. It will enter into service on phases by next summer and the project will be completed by 2008 at a cost of Dh3.4 billion.

• Phase III of Aweer Power Generation Station (H Station) with a production capacity of 800 megawatts: to be completed by summer 2008 at the cost of Dh1,635 billion.

• Power Generation and Desalination Station
(M Station) with a production capacity of 2,000 megawatts and 105 million gallons daily to be executed in different phases.

Future electricity projects

Phase I of Power Generation and Desalination Plant (P Station) at Ras Al Hysian with a power generation capacity of 1,500 megawatts and 100 million gallons daily of desalinated water. Commissioning of its first unit will be in 2011.

Current networks projects

DEWA executes a large number of 132/400 kilovolt substations in addition to overhead lines and underground cables for transmission of electricity from power generation stations to substations. Currently there are 28 132 kilovolt main substations and three 400kV substations in addition to the overhead power lines 144km long and laying of several hundred kilometres of 132 kilovolt underground cables.

Future network projects

Two to three 400 kilovolt main substations and 20 132 kilovolt substations to be constructed per month for the next five years in addition to hundreds of kilometres of 132 kilovolt underground cables and 400 kilovolt overhead lines.