Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer highlights Dubai DEWA's initiatives & projects that support the Dubai Future Agenda

Dubai, UAE, 27 December 2016

HE Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD & CEO of Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA), has opened the Dubai Future Accelerators workshop organised by the Dubai Government Excellence Program on 27 December 2016 at Jumeirah Emirates Towers.

In his keynote speech, Al Tayer emphasised that the UAE is an active key player in shaping the future through accelerators, innovation, and adopting scientific and modern technologies. The UAE’s leaders give a high priority on efforts to anticipate and shape the future.

“We are carrying out the directives of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum to implement the objectives set by the Dubai Future Agenda, and launch the Dubai Future Foundation. The Foundation will oversee the implementation of the Dubai Future Agenda to shape the future of the strategic sectors in the UAE, especially in Dubai. DEWA is actively supporting the Dubai Future Agenda to establish the largest Government Accelerators in the world, and adheres to a clear and integrated strategy based on innovation and anticipating the future, and works to further implement new initiatives, while continuously supporting Research and Development (R&D) to cope with rapid technological development. Our mission is to bring happiness to society by adopting technological innovations, thus ensuring quality of life in Dubai and an enhanced, efficient, smooth, and safe experience for citizens, residents, and visitors. We appreciate the initiative of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum to allocate AED 1 billion to invest in the Dubai Future Accelerators projects and companies. This international initiative will advance R&D and entrepreneurship in the UAE’s key sectors. I would like here to recall the words of His Highness who once observed that, ‘Shaping the future and making it is no longer a theoretical concept but a key factor for countries to achieve competitiveness in the global arena,’” said Al Tayer.

“By participating in the Government Accelerators, we work to achieve fast and tangible results that support our policies and programmes and accelerate government services to advanced levels, by adopting a mechanism that focuses on results through enabling joint government teams, and designing intensive programmes and implementing them in short periods of time, in addition to adopting innovative and leading approaches and methodologies. Our work focuses on the Sustainable Environment and Infrastructure theme, which includes 11 indicators in the National Agenda of the UAE Vision 2021. We strive to ensure the continuity of sustainable development and environmental protection, and achieve a balance between economic and social development. This is done by achieving targets that focus on air quality, the conservation of water resources, increasing the use of clean energy, and implementing green development. DEWA also works to enhance the quality of its electricity and communications services, so that the UAE becomes at the forefront in providing smart services, with a focus on quality of life for citizens and residents,” added Al Tayer.

On the importance of innovation, Al Tayer said, “At DEWA, we recognise that innovation is a priority for improving our services and initiatives, and a key element for developing our strategies and work plans. We adopt innovation as a basis for continuous improvement and development. We provide all that is necessary to enhance knowledge and creativity, and provide an environment that motivates creativity and innovation across all DEWA. We have incorporated innovation in DEWA’s vision, and created Strategic Innovation to raise its importance as a theme to encompass 40% of the DEWA 2021 strategy. We have developed a comprehensive strategy to drive organisational innovation and empower DEWA to achieve its vision to become a sustainable innovative world-class utility. DEWA strives to implement the directives of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum to keep up with the fast-paced developments brought forth by the Fourth Industrial Revolution, and enhance the government’s readiness to anticipate the rapid technological changes in the world. We do this by adopting new initiatives, strategies and technologies to promote DEWA’s leadership in implementing disruptive technologies to guarantee uninterrupted production, transmission and distribution of electricity and water, and provide world-class services to enhance quality of life for citizens and residents, while promoting sustainability of resources,” he added.

Advertisement

“To support this ambitious National programme, DEWA signed Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) as well as piloted projects with three startups that use advanced technologies that depend on artificial intelligence, using solar energy, and other technologies for experiments and research on energy consumption reduction and increased cooling efficiency, which are part of our scope of work. We strive to achieve the Dubai Clean Energy Strategy 2050, 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, and to transform Dubai into a global hub for green economy and clean energy.  This will make Dubai the city with the lowest carbon footprint in the world by 2050. This supports our strategic vision, including building smart electricity and water networks. DEWA conducts research to study and develop models for smart grid technologies and systems, in addition to studying loads, and monitoring energy consumption trends. The smart grids support our goal to reduce energy demand by 30% by 2030,” added Al Tayer.

“To achieve these goals, we adopt the best international practices in innovation and R&D in operating systems, mobile computing, cloud computing, virtualisation, distribution systems, software engineering, the Internet of Things, robots, Open Data and Big Data, studying the behaviours of customers, renewable energy resources, energy storage technologies, infrastructure for electric vehicles, 3D printing, and using drones in the energy and water sectors,” concluded Al Tayer.

-Ends-

For more information, please contact: 
Ribal Dayekh or Noora Khoory    
Dubai Electricity and Water Authority     
+971 4 307 2006 or 515 1798    
[email protected]   
[email protected]  
    
Jessy Chami or Rawad Khattar
Orient Planet PR
+971 4 456 2888 or 055-8257576
[email protected]
[email protected]

© Press Release 2016