UAE an active key player in shaping the future

The UAE is an active key player in shaping the future through accelerators, innovation and adoption of scientific and modern technologies, said Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, CEO and Managing Director of Dubai Electricity and Water Authority, DEWA.

''The UAE’s leaders give high priority to efforts to anticipate and shape the future,'' he said in his keynote speech on Tuesday at the Dubai Future Accelerators workshop, organised by Dubai Government Excellence Programme.

"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 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,'' Al Tayer said.

''Our mission is to bring happiness to the 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 AED1 billion to invest in Dubai Future Accelerators projects and companies. This international initiative will advance R&D and entrepreneurship in the UAE’s key sectors. I would like to recall here the words of His Highness who once observed: 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," he added.

"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 focusses 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 focusses on the Sustainable Environment and Infrastructure theme, which includes 11 indicators in the National Agenda of the UAE Vision 2021," he said.

Speaking about the importance of innovation, Al Tayer said, "We have incorporated innovation in DEWA’s vision and created strategic innovation to raise its importance as a theme to encompass 40 percent 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 explained.

"To support this ambitious national programme, DEWA signed Memorandums of Understanding, MoUs, and piloted projects with three start-ups that use advanced technologies based on artificial intelligence, and leverage 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," Al Tayer said.

''We strive to achieve the Dubai Clean Energy Strategy 2050 to diversify the energy mix, so that clean energy will generate seven percent of Dubai’s total power output by 2020, 25 percent by 2030 and 75 percent by 2050, 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 percent by 2030," he added.

"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, customer behaviour study, renewable energy resources, energy storage technologies, infrastructure for electric vehicles, 3D printing and use of drones in the energy and water sectors," Al Tayer said in conclusion.