Investments stretching back decades have given Dubai an electricity grid that ranks among the most dependable anywhere, with customers losing under a minute of supply each year on average, the head of the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority told a Dubai Press Club gathering on Tuesday.
Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, DEWA’s managing director and chief executive, framed that reliability figure as evidence of how far the emirate’s infrastructure has advanced. “Outage duration is less than one minute per customer each year. These are numbers that are difficult to find anywhere else,” he said, adding separately that “the reliability indicators achieved by Dubai are among the best globally.”
Khaleej Times reported that the utility credits much of this performance to early adoption of advanced technology. DEWA brought artificial intelligence into its operations in 2017, among the first power and water providers worldwide to do so, which has allowed it to anticipate equipment problems and act on faults more quickly. Al Tayer said monitoring tools can now flag trouble before it surfaces: “Today, technology can tell us where a fault may occur before the customer even notices.”
That predictive capability is backed by a workforce of more than 2,000 engineers and specialists spread across energy, IT, AI, and cybersecurity functions. Protecting the network has climbed near the top of the authority’s priorities, with Al Tayer disclosing that DEWA fends off thousands of attempted cyberattacks every day. “We monitor our systems around the clock,” he said. “There are specialised teams operating 24 hours a day to protect our infrastructure.”
The reliability claims carried particular weight given the regional backdrop. As neighbouring countries dealt with breakdowns in power, water, and fuel supply during recent geopolitical tensions, Dubai kept its services running. “We did not witness electricity outages during the recent crisis,” Al Tayer said. “This reflects the strength of our infrastructure and the readiness of our emergency and contingency plans.” He noted the utility keeps fallback supply scenarios ready so water and electricity can keep flowing through emergencies, supported by strategic reserves of both.
Looking ahead, Al Tayer pointed to a generation mix being reshaped around renewables and storage. The Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park is set to hit 5,000 megawatts by 2030, paired with large storage projects meant to cover gaps when solar output drops. Dubai also runs one of the largest molten-salt thermal storage operations globally, letting it bank clean energy for longer stretches. Hydrogen forms another plank of the strategy, with Al Tayer saying the authority moved into it ahead of the curve: “We began investing in hydrogen early because we believe it will become one of the clean fuels of the future.”
Planning assumes the city will keep expanding. Al Tayer said demand studies feed directly into new project decisions, partly because growth tends to accelerate once a crisis passes. “We know that Dubai often experiences stronger growth after every crisis,” he said. “That is why our planning is based not only on today’s needs but also on future requirements.”
On service standards, Al Tayer was blunt about expectations. “Dubai does not tolerate delays. Services must always be excellent,” he said, citing a customer happiness rate above 98 per cent that the authority links to its digital and remote payment channels.
