Dubai utility charges remain unchanged since introduction of tariff, says Dewa chief

The Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa) has not increased utility bills since the introduction of the tariff, and there is no plan to reduce utility charges, said a senior official on Tuesday.

In reply to a query about reducing utility charges, Al Tayer said, “I don’t think so, so far. We have a plan. We didn’t increase the price for the past 15 years. Since we started tariff, we didn’t increase the price.”

The utility services provider introduced slab system tariff in March 2008.

Dewa chief was speaking to the media on the sidelines of the 24th edition of the 24th Water, Energy, Technology and Environment Exhibition (Wetex).

Al Tayer revealed that the firm plans to develop most of the new projects through independent power producers.

He said the utility services provider plans to float two tenders of about 100 and 180 million gallons of water per day and another 900 MW power plant tender.

“It is an independent power plant of photovoltaic technology. This is under the float and will be awarded by the end of this year or early next year,” said Al Tayer.

“Most of the investment will come from the developer and Dewa will invest in the equity only. Most of our future projects will be private through IPPs and our investment will be partial in the equity. This is economical and reliable because we will have the latest technology and power purchase agreement for the next 25 years,” Dewa chief said.

Dewa has currently 12 per cent of clean energy of total installed capacity. “By 2030, we should have 25 per cent of clean energy. With respect to emissions, we are much ahead of what we planned actually. We planned to reduce emission by 16 per cent by 2021 and we reduced it by 2019, so we are ahead of the programme,” he said.

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Commenting on the 2050 strategy, he said, “In terms of reduction of CO2 emission, we are ahead of the curve. In terms of renewable, there are challenges from manufacturers due to some delays however we are coping and marching our progress,” he said.

He stressed that the emirate has sufficient power to meet the needs of the residents and industries.

In reply to a query about new technologies, Dewa's chief said hydrogen is the technology for the future which is going to compete with solar – but not for short period but in a long term because of price.

“This (hydrogen) will take some time. It’s like solar. When we started 15 years ago, the solar price was very high but now it has come down (drastically) and hydrogen will come in this direction but it will take time,” he said.

• Dubai