DEWA highlights important future investment opportunities in energy at Dubai Investment Forum

Thursday 27 October 2016

Dubai - MENA Herald: In adherence with the directives of HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, to create a favourable business environment for a new phase of economic growth in Dubai, Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) participated in the 2nd Dubai Investment Forum, organised by Dubai Investment Development Agency, at the Jumeirah Emirates Towers, under the patronage of HH Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of the Executive Council.
HH Sheikh Maktoum bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai, Finance Minister and President of DEWA, was present. HE Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD & CEO of DEWA, and HE Dr Abdulla Mohamed Al Karam, Chairman of the Board of Directors and Director General Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA), participated in a panel discussion under the theme ‘Leaders’ Dialogue.’
HE Sami Al Qamzi, Director General of the Department of Economic Development, Dubai Government, and HE Hussain Nasser Lootah, Director General of Dubai Municipality, attended the session for investors on strategic investment opportunities, and the new phase of growth in Dubai, to enhance the position of the Emirate as an international smart and sustainable city.
Al Tayer stressed that the wise leadership has a vision to predict the future, and to make the UAE the smartest and most sustainable country in the world, which falls in line with UAE Vision 2021, and to strengthen the UAE’s global competitiveness with a focus on green economy, by launching projects in clean and renewable energy infrastructure.”
“There are several strategies launched by our wise leadership to create an attractive environment for investment: The Dubai Plan 2021 for the Emirate to be one of the world’s most business-friendly cities and a preferred investment destination, the National Innovation Strategy in 2014, launched by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, and was approved by HH Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of the Executive Council of Dubai, and Chairman of the Board of Trustees at Dubai Future Foundation, to transform Dubai into the most innovative city in the world, Future Accelerators initiative, to create an international platform to shape the future of strategic sectors, and create economic value, by hosting and streamlining business, and future technology solutions, and attracting the best brains in the world, to implement their innovations in Dubai, the Demand Side Management Strategy aims to reduce energy and water demand by 30% by 2030, the Carbon Abatement Strategy aims to reduce carbon emissions by 16% by 2021, the initiative launched by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, to transform Dubai into the smartest and happiest city in the world, and the Dubai Clean Energy Strategy 2050. DEWA is working to diversify the energy mix so clean energy will generate 7% of Dubai’s total power output by 2020, 25% by 2030 and 75% by 2050,” said Al Tayer.
Al Tayer confirmed that the Dubai Clean Energy Strategy 2050 consists of five main pillars. The infrastructure pillar includes the establishment of a new free zone under the name Dubai Green Zone dedicated to attracting research and development centres and emerging companies in energy. The second pillar focuses on the establishment of a legislative structure supporting clean energy policies through Shams Dubai initiative, Funding through the Dubai Green Fund. The third pillar relates to financing solutions for investment in research and development on clean energy and its application. This pillar includes the establishment of the Dubai Green Fund worth AED 100 billion. The fourth pillar aims to build skills and capabilities through global training programmes in clean energy in cooperation with international organisations and institutes. The fifth pillar focuses on creating an environmentally-friendly energy mix.
Al Tayer pointed out that all these ambitious development strategies and plans aim to improve economy and attract investment into development projects that provide opportunities in support of the new growth cycle of Dubai. For example, the investment in the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park, which has a total investment worth AED 50 billion, will meet the energy needs of the emirate. DEWA’s five-year investment strategy will be AED 65 billion.
Al Tayer emphasised that investment in projects to implement the Demand Side Management Strategy of electricity and water requires a total cost of about AED 30 billion, while current saving is AED 82 billion of the pure total saving of AED 52 million. The Dubai Green Fund, which is part of the Dubai Clean Energy Strategy, encourages investment in the UAE of over AED 100 billion. It is a major pillar to financing and encouraging green project investments. Over USD 30 billion of green Investment is anticipated in Dubai by 2030. DEWA’s investment in the smart grid is part of DEWA’s smart initiatives and is estimated to be about AED 7 million. This includes 11 programmes till 2020, which will be one of the major enablers of Smart Dubai.
“Water, electricity and transportation services will need huge investment worldwide, to meet the increasing demand. Some studies suggest that international energy consumption will double over 2040 to 2050. This is considered a major future challenge. This includes financing and its mechanism and adapting legislations, R&D and managing the change to adopt sustainable green growth, build capabilities of individuals and organisations and building efficient partnerships between public and private sectors in the world. The UAE in general and Dubai in particular, is used to changing challenges into opportunities. The demand for electricity and water in Dubai is expected to grow by 4%-6%. DEWA will invest AED 65 billion in Dubai’s energy and water sector. This will support the growth of a green economy and create a competitive advantage for the UAE in clean energy and energy-efficiency technologies. DEWA represents the UAE in the World Bank’s Doing Business report.”
“To realise DEWA’s vision to become a sustainable innovative world-class utility, and in line with our strategy 2021 which comes in line with the Dubai Plan 2021, we work closely with our partners in implementing mega and pioneering water and electricity projects, to ensure economic, environmental and social sustainability and to make Dubai the smartest and happiest sustainable city in the world. For example, the first pillar of the Dubai Clean Energy Strategy 2050, which is infrastructure, includes initiatives such as the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park, which is the largest single-site project to generate electricity from solar energy in the world, with a planned capacity of 5,000 megawatts (MW) by 2030, and total investment of AED 50 billion (USD 13.6 billion) to save approximately 6.5 million tonnes per annum in emissions. In Dubai, we rely on Public Private Partnerships based on the Independent Power Producer (IPP) model, to drive economic prosperity and increase investments in energy, to establish long-term partnerships with investors, to achieve mutual benefit for both parties. Through this model, Dubai has set a world record, and has received a globally-competitive price of USD 2.99 cents per kilowatt hour (kWh), for the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park’s third phase, which will use photovoltaic technology to produce 800 MW,” said Al Tayer.
Al Tayer highlighted DEWA’s smart initiatives which include the Shams Dubai initiative to encourage building owners to install photovoltaic panels on rooftops to generate solar power, and connect them to DEWA’s grid. DEWA also launched several other initiatives. The Smart Applications and Meters initiative aims to speed up connections, respond faster, and save energy. The Green Charger initiative establishes the infrastructure for electric vehicle charging stations. To date, DEWA has established 100 charging stations across Dubai to promote the uptake of electric vehicles. The smart grid is a key element in DEWA’s strategy to develop an advanced infrastructure to support Dubai becoming a smart city. Smart Grid also supports our target to reduce energy consumption by 30% by 2030.
“In addition to this, the electricity and water consumption of Dubai’s current buildings, is estimated at around 80%. We strive to support energy services, and improve energy efficiency in Dubai. DEWA has plans to retrofit 30,000 buildings to make them energy-efficient, through Etihad ESCO which DEWA established, to provide promising investment opportunities. The Dubai Green Fund initiative, to support investments in the UAE. The scale of the fund is AED 100 billion. The Green Zone will encourage innovative green start-ups and investments and programmes under the clean development mechanism (CDM). This will benefit the citizens and residents of Dubai and generations to come. Based on the IPP model, we also received the lowest bid at USD 4.5 cents per kilowatt hour for the first and second phases of the 2,400MW Hassyan clean coal power plant. The plant will be the first-of-its-kind in the region and is fully-compliant with set international standards, adopting the use of ultra-supercritical technology. DEWA has also awarded a contract for the turnkey construction of the Jebel Ali M-Station expansion. The project is worth AED 1.47 billion (USD 400 million) and will be completed in April 2018. These future projects and programmes, are promising investment opportunities for Dubai’s green energy sector. Dubai is has become familiar with transforming challenges into opportunities, and strives to develop procedures and legislations, to create a positive and innovative environment, to attract investment, enhance long-term infrastructure projects, and face challenges through building trust with investors. Any country that encourages investment, should be equipped with policies and legislation, transparency, wise governance, and should encourage green projects. The Dubai Clean Energy Strategy adopts this as a major pillar of development,” continued Al Tayer.
“DEWA has allocated over AED 2.6 billion to support electricity, water, and renewable energy infrastructure projects, to host the best World Expo the world has ever seen. DEWA will focus on renewable energy sources to support Dubai Expo’s theme of ‘Connecting Minds, Creating the Future’ and its three sub themes of Sustainability, Mobility, and Opportunity. DEWA is building three 132/11 kilovolt (kV) substations with 45 kilometres (km) of high-voltage (132kV) cables. The total cost of the electricity projects will be AED 420 million. DEWA is also building water transmission networks with pipelines that are 600 and 1200 mm in diameter, pumping stations and distribution stations. With a planned budget of AED 515 million, these projects will increase water-flow rates and ensure an adequate water supply to meet the increasing demands,” said Al Tayer about the new opportunities that the new growth cycle will produce with the approaching World Expo 2020 in Dubai.
“These investments in electricity and water, renewable energy, infrastructure projects, will provide promising opportunities for all investors, and will support the aspired strategies and promising plans of Dubai Government, in adherence with the directives of our wise leadership. It will also provide new markets and promising job opportunities for citizens and residents alike. In reporting about the UAE, the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) noted that raising the annual investment to 2.4% of the GDP, to spread technology and enhance green efficiency in all economic activities, will increase economic growth by about 4-4.5% by 2030. This economic growth will be capable of facilitating 160,000 new jobs, ensuring green growth and resources to limit our effects on the environment,” concluded Al Tayer.

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