Dubai’s utility leader highlights groundbreaking resilience and renewable ambitions

Dubai’s utility boss says that the emirate has managed to build one of the world’s most resilient systems for electricity and water. This was achieved through careful planning ahead of demand, big investments in digital security measures, and keeping strategic reserves well stocked, he explained.

Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, who is the managing director and chief executive of Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA), mentioned during a session organised by the Dubai Press Club that Dubai now leads globally in 13 key metrics across power and water services. He noted that the average customer interruption time is just about 49 seconds annually, which puts Dubai among the top performers in reliability worldwide.

That number seems to build on DEWA’s broader claims about its performance in recent years. Back in February 2025, the utility stated that an international comparison ranked it first around the globe in 12 critical indicators, while also highlighting record revenue and EBITDA figures for 2024. DEWA also reported its generation capacity had reached 17.179 gigawatts , with renewable energy making up 20% of that installed capacity.

Later on, DEWA’s own results page revealed that the amount of customer outage minutes decreased further, dropping to 0.82 minutes in 2025 from 0.94 minutes in 2024. They also pointed out that electricity network losses are now at 2%, which is substantially below the global average of 6% to 7%. Water losses, meanwhile, sit at around 4.5%.

Al Tayer framed these achievements as the result of a long-term, strategic approach rather than just reacting to short-term challenges. He stressed that despite Dubai’s rapid population growth and ongoing urbanisation, the city has avoided shortages of electricity or water. The main focus, he said, is on predicting future demand rather than simply responding to it.

And this, interestingly enough, is a vital part of the UAE’s broader climate technology discussion. Utilities in the Gulf are under increasing pressure to boost capacity while also reducing emissions, improving efficiency, and safeguarding critical infrastructure from cyber threats. Dubai’s approach, as DEWA presented it, blends expanding the grid with cleaner energy sources, large-scale storage solutions, and digital control systems.

Al Tayer revealed that DEWA has upped its target for renewable power capacity to about 8,000 megawatts by 2030, which is roughly 3,000MW more than previous plans. This increase should bolster the role of solar energy in Dubai’s overall electricity mix and support the city’s Clean Energy Strategy 2050 and Net Zero Carbon Emissions Strategy 2050.

A major component of that shift is storage technology. He pointed out the molten salt systems used at the largest concentrated solar power plant in the world, which can store heat for up to 15 hours after sunset. In practical terms, this means electricity can be generated well into the night, helping to reduce grid instability and fluctuations.

DEWA has often highlighted the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park as a flagship example of this vision. In February 2025, they announced that the project had helped win the Energy Infrastructure Award at the 2024 S&P Global Platts Energy Awards, marking the first time a utility from the Middle East and North Africa region received that honour.

Their expansion plans are also driven by demand. In March 2025, Al Tayer said that Dubai’s electricity usage increased by 5.4% in 2024 , reaching 59,594 gigawatt hours, up from 56,516 in the previous year. This growth reflects both demographic and economic shifts, which is why Dubai keeps expanding its transmission and distribution networks.

Water security remains another core focus. Al Tayer mentioned that Dubai now holds a comfortable surplus, with reserves roughly 30% above existing needs. Strategic groundwater storage capacities for desalinated water can hold around six billion gallons, while surface reservoirs add more than one billion gallons of capacity.

That kind of buffer is quite significant in a region where water resilience is as much about strategic planning as operational necessity. By combining desalination, storage, and more efficient networks, Dubai aims to minimise vulnerability to supply disruptions and increased demand.

Cybersecurity isn’t overlooked either. Al Tayer explained that DEWA’s cyber teams operate 24/7 and face over 3,000 attempted intrusions or probes daily. Remarkably enough, all of these are detected and blocked without affecting service or operations.

That’s increasingly crucial in a world where utilities are becoming more digital. Smart grids, remote monitoring, automated controls, and AI-powered optimisation can boost efficiency but also increase the attack surface. DEWA’s investments in artificial intelligence, cyber defenses, and smart infrastructure are now fundamental to maintaining these high levels of reliability.

Overall, what we see is a utility trying to do several things at once: expand capacity, reduce losses, preserve water reserves, improve security, and shift to cleaner energy sources. For Dubai, all this ties back to economic growth and the city’s reputation for dependability. And for the UAE’s climate tech sector, it demonstrates how large-scale decarbonisation is being seamlessly integrated with resilience engineering, rather than being regarded as a separate project.

Al Tayer’s main message, it seems, is that Dubai’s power and water infrastructure isn’t just keeping pace with a rapidly growing city , it’s actually being built to stay ahead of it.