Dubai Electricity & Water Authority (DEWA)| DEWA honoured with Esri’s Special Achievement in GIS

Esri, the global leader in spatial analytics, presented Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) with its Special Achievement in GIS (SAG) Award on 11 July at the annual Esri User Conference in San Diego, California. Esri selected DEWA from 300,000 eligible candidates to receive the award for its innovative application for mapping, data analytics, and thought leadership in the utility sector.

The SAG Awards honour organisations that use GIS (Geographic Information Systems) to solve some of the world's toughest challenges and who demonstrated the most groundbreaking and transformative possibilities provided by this software.

DEWA’s Shams Dubai initiative provides customers with a Shams Dubai Calculator on a web application using GIS tools to provide customers with locations and detailed comparisons that in turn, engage Dubai residents in reducing the Emirate’s carbon footprint. Customers can use the web application in many ways to identify the location of their buildings and rooftops, measure the usable area, number of panels, and their total capacity on a monthly or annual basis. This applications helps customers by showing how much photovoltaic power can be generated and the subsequent cost savings on their bills.

“We are on the right track to achieve the vision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, to implement ambitious strategies that support the UAE Strategy for Artificial Intelligence, and prepare for the UAE Centennial 2071, for a brighter future. We are proud to win Esri's Special Achievement in GIS, which underscores our efforts to keep pace with the Fourth Industrial Revolution using disruptive technologies to reshape the future of digital utilities around the world. Being selected for this award over 300,000 candidates confirms that,” said HE Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD&CEO of DEWA.

“Using sophisticated GIS tools in turn supports the ‘Shams Dubai’ initiative to strengthen the culture of sustainability among consumers in Dubai, encouraging them to adopt sustainable solutions and clean, solar power, transforming them from consumers to producers. The Shams Dubai initiative supports DEWA’s continuous efforts to achieve the Dubai Clean Energy Strategy 2050 to provide 75% of Dubai’s total power output from clean energy by 2050.”

Shams Dubai Calculator provides an innovative service for DEWA’s customers. Once the customer enters their registered account number, DEWA will identify the intended building location and determine its area through an interactive map using GIS. It then calculates the usable area, the number of solar panels absorbed by this area, and the production capacity of those panels on either a monthly or annual basis. Using innovative and interactive tools, customers can mark the space they wish to use without being restricted to the total surface area of the building.