The new agreement is part of the emirate’s efforts to transform Dubai into a smart city
The Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Dubai Airports as part of larger efforts to expand cooperation and promote the emirate’s smart city initiative dubbed Smart Dubai.
The agreement aims at unifying the energies and resources, exchanging knowledge, innovation, ideas and effective communication to implement DEWA’s three smart initiatives at Dubai Airports.
DEWA’s smart initiatives include: Shams Dubai, to encourage home and building owners to install photovoltaic (PV) solar panels on rooftops to produce energy and connect it to DEWA’s grid; and smart applications through smart meters and grids, designed to speed up service delivery and response, to ensure the reconnection in case of service unplanned interruption. The third initiative is the ‘Green Charger’ to establish the infrastructure for electric vehicle charging stations.
“As part of DEWA’s efforts to achieve the sustainable development, and support the Smart Dubai initiative, we are pleased to sign the MoU with Dubai Airports,” said Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, managing director and CEO of DEWA. “We are committed to strengthening our cooperation and working together to implement the three smart initiatives we launched, in 2014, to drive Dubai’s smart transformation, at Dubai Airports’ specified locations. This ensures the management of Dubai’s services and facilities through connected and smart systems.”
The executive highlighted that DEWA has already installed photovoltaic panels on 439 buildings with a total capacity of 17.6 megawatts. DEWA has also installed 200,000 smart meters by January 2016, and plans to complete the installation of 1.2 million smart meters by 2020.
“In line with the long-term goals of aviation industry, Dubai Airports’ vision is to ultimately attain carbon-neutral growth, and this cooperation represents an important step towards achieving that goal,” said Paul Griffiths, CEO of Dubai Airports.
“Dubai Airports is constantly seeking innovative ideas and new technologies designed to limit our environmental impact through an integrated environmental strategy, while supporting the UAE Vision 2021, Dubai Plan, and the Dubai Supreme Council of Energy’s goal of achieving 20% reduction in utilities bill for all government buildings by 2020,” added Griffiths.
