Dewa bags Guinness World Records title for largest single-site natural gas power facility in the world

Dubai Electricity and Water Authority’s (Dewa) Jebel Ali Power Generation & Water Production Complex has been confirmed by Guinness World Records as the largest single-site natural gas power generation facility in the world. The complex has an electricity generation capacity of 9,547 MW, adding to Dewa’s record of global achievements.

Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, managing director and chief executive officer of Dewa, received the certificate from Guinness representatives.

“At Dewa, we work in line with the vision to provide a state-of-the-art infrastructure that keeps pace with the requirements of sustainable development and customer demand. This vision is implemented through well thought-out plans developed using the latest forecasting tools. Dewa has created comprehensive electricity infrastructure development plans based on demand forecast until 2030, which seek to expand production capacity and transmission and distribution networks. Designed to cater to Dubai’s demographic and economic growth, these plans ensure we are able to provide our services to over one million customers while maintaining the highest standards of quality, safety, availability, reliability, and efficiency,” said Al Tayer.

“This global certificate crowns Dewa’s efforts to provide a state-of-the-art infrastructure for electricity and water to drive comprehensive sustainable development. It also consolidates Dubai’s position as a global economic hub, a leading destination for foreign direct investment, and a preferred place to live, work, and visit,” said Al Tayer.

The total assets of the power production and water desalination plants in the Jebel Ali complex are valued at over Dh45 billion. Dubai recorded the world’s lowest Customer Minutes Lost (CML) of 1.66 minutes per year; the lowest electricity transmission- and distribution-network-line losses of 3.3 per cent, and one of the lowest water-network losses of 5.1 per cent. Fuel Heat Utilisation in Dewa’s power plants reached 90 per cent. The UAE, represented by Dewa, has maintained its first global ranking for the third consecutive year, with scores of 100 per cent in all Getting Electricity indicators in the World Bank’s Doing Business 2020 report. The report measures the ease of doing business in 190 economies around the world.

Generation efficiency

Dewa is implementing the latest Fourth Industrial Revolution disruptive technologies, including Artificial Intelligence, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, and other innovations. This has resulted in Dewa improving its generation efficiency by 33.41per cent, which also helped achieve considerable financial savings. This improvement has also reduced over 64 million tonnes of carbon emissions, which are equivalent to planting 327 million trees. It has also reduced over 46,000 tonnes of nitrogen oxide gases, and over 3,000 tonnes of sulphur dioxide.

Nasser Lootah, executive vice-president of Generation at Dewa, said: “We are proud of this global recognition, which officially makes the Jebel Ali Power Plant and Water Desalination Complex the largest single-site power generation facility in the world powered by natural gas. The complex’s power generation and water desalination plants use world-class operational technologies, state-of-the-art smart solutions, and information technology systems. Emiratis with the best skills and qualifications are managing this complex. Our people are the most important success factors for Dewa’s Generation division. All of the division’s top management are Emiratis.”

Dewa uses the latest technologies in electricity generation and water desalination at the Jebel Ali Power Generation and Water Desalination Complex and continuously expands the complex to meet increasing demand. In 2019, Dewa completed the extension project for M-Station in Jebel Ali, which is the largest power generation and water desalination plant in the UAE. The project included over 20 million Safe Man Hours without Lost Time Injury. The project focused on capacity building and the transfer of international expertise to UAE nationals, contributing to the Emiratisation of the energy sector. With the construction of the extension, the total cost of M-Station reached over Dh12 billion, while its production capacity reached 2,885 megawatts (MW) and 140 million gallons of desalinated water per day.

— business@khaleejtimes.com