Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa) has installed more than two million electricity and water smart meters in Dubai in a move to develop state-of-the-art digital infrastructure, said Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, Managing Director and CEO of Dewa.

Smart meters increase efficiency and reduce consumption, as well as enable customers to monitor their consumption anytime and anywhere. Dewa has also started operating the Smart Meters Analysis and Diagnosis Centre, where smart meters are read and monitored remotely every 15 minutes.

“We have an integrated strategy for smart grids with investments up to AED7 billion ($1.9 billion) that will be completed in the short, medium, and long-term until 2035.  The strategy includes different programmes such as Advanced Metering Infrastructure for Electricity, Advanced Metering Infrastructure for Water, Asset Management, and Big Data, among others,” said Al Tayer.

“Dewa launched the ‘Smart Applications through Smart Meters and Grids’ initiative to support the Smart Dubai initiative to make Dubai the smartest and happiest city in the world. In addition to their role in smart transformation, operational efficiency and reducing water losses, smart meters provide many benefits to customers and help them monitor, manage, and control their consumption proactively and digitally without the need to contact Dewa. This contributes to reducing consumption and sustainability of resources,” Al Tayer added.

Abdullah Obaidullah, Executive Vice President of Water and Civil at Dewa, said that Dewa’s state-of-the-art infrastructure for smart meters helped detect 503,161 water leakages; 16,103 defects; and 7,974 increase load cases in the past three years. This saved customers a total of AED324 million.

Obaidullah noted that the High Water Usage Alert service, which is part of the Smart Living initiative, helps customers detect leakage in water connections after the meter. The system sends instant notifications to the customer if there is an unusual increase in consumption to check the internal connections and repair any leaks. This reduces waste as well as incurred costs for customers. – TradeArabia News Service