DEWA expects daily water demand to reach 341 MIGD and daily electricity demand to reach 8,513 MW by 2011

DEWA officials discussed the Authority's current and future plans, and mechanics they have instituted to manage rapidly growing demand for water and electricity in Dubai.

Khaled Lootah, Executive Vice President, Project and Engineering Division and Yousef Jebril, Vice President - Corporate Strategy and Planning at DEWA discussed the opportunities and challenges with regard to the burgeoning real estate sector, especially with the difficulties faced in keeping up with estimating and keeping up with demand.

'We estimate a substantial growth in peak water demand which will reach 341 million imperial gallons per day (MIGD) by the year 2011,' said Khaled Lootah. 'Our objectives for power and water supply over the next few years are to utilize technology to increase capacity, utilize desalination and effectively increase our transmission and distribution facilities to meet demand, while at the same time maintaining world class safety levels and cost effectiveness.'

The DEWA officials also shared some statistics from the year 2005, where annual daily peak demand for water reached about 200 MIGD while peak demand for electricity reached over 3,500 megawatts (MW).

'Our planning framework involves forecasting demand for power and water and making sure meet that demand by constantly evaluating existing system capabilities, identifying and rectifying any deficiencies, evaluating techo-economic schemes and selecting the most optimal options then implementing on those results,' said Yousef Jebril. 'We estimate that electricity demand will reach 8,513 MW per day by 2011, an increase of more than 100% from 2005 numbers.'

The speakers highlighted the planning difficulties they face, that revolve around accuracy in analyzing demand created by the growing population and the development of new real estate projects to absorb rising demand. The major factor is in the fact they do not receive accurate power and water demand data from developers, which means that DEWA has to over invest in its infrastructure or risk facing shortages in supply.

These, coupled with the rapid changes that are happening in the real estate sector, and at extreme short notice, are placing immense pressure on DEWA's infrastructure.

'This event was a great opportunity for DEWA and the real estate community to exchange views on how best to deal with the issues and challenges they face through a meaningful dialogue and a direct exchange of information,' said Adel Lootah, Executive Director of Dubai Property Group. 'DPG will take these issues forward to make sure that a healthy, mutually beneficial, exchange of ideas continues to develop to insure that Dubai's real estate boom is managed effectively.'

Independent of favor or influence, DPG represents the combined interests of Dubai's real estate community. The Group's members include some of the highest profile real estate players in Dubai, such as the Dubai Development Board, Cluttons chartered surveyors and property consultants, Arenco Real Estate, Union Properties PJSC, Better Homes LLC and facilities management firm Asteco Property Management LLC.