Dubai Electricity & Water Authority (DEWA) | DEWA achieves Guinness World Records title of largest single-site natural gas power facility in the world

Dubai Electricity and Water Authority’s (DEWA’s) Jebel Ali Power Generation & Water Production Complex has been confirmed by Guinness World Records as the largest single-site natural gas power generation facility in the world.  The Complex has an electricity generation capacity of 9,547 MW, adding to DEWA’s record of global achievements.

HE Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD & CEO of DEWA, received the certificate from Guinness representatives.

The leadership’s vision

“At DEWA, we work in line with the vision of His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the UAE; His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai; and His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, to provide a state-of-the-art infrastructure that keeps pace with the requirements of sustainable development and customer demand. This vision is implemented through well thought-out plans developed using the latest forecasting tools. DEWA has created comprehensive electricity infrastructure development plans based on demand forecast until 2030, which seek to expand production capacity and transmission and distribution networks. Designed to cater to Dubai’s demographic and economic growth, these plans ensure we are able to provide our services to over one million customers while maintaining the highest standards of quality, safety, availability, reliability, and efficiency,” said Al Tayer.

State-of-the-art infrastructure

“This global certificate crowns DEWA’s efforts to provide a state-of-the-art infrastructure for electricity and water to drive comprehensive sustainable development. It also consolidates Dubai’s position as a global economic hub, a leading destination for foreign direct investment, and a preferred place to live, work, and visit,” said Al Tayer.

Al Tayer said that the total assets of the power production and water desalination plants in the Jebel Ali complex are valued at over AED45 billion.

He noted that DEWA has a track record of global achievements. Dubai recorded the world’s lowest Customer Minutes Lost (CML) of 1.66 minutes per year; the lowest electricity transmission- and distribution-network-line losses of 3.3%, and one of the lowest water-network losses of 5.1%. Fuel Heat Utilisation in DEWA’s power plants reached 90%. The UAE, represented by DEWA, has maintained its first global ranking for the third consecutive year, with scores of 100% in all Getting Electricity indicators in the World Bank's Doing Business 2020 report. The report measures the ease of doing business in 190 economies around the world.

Generation efficiency

“We are proud of this global recognition, which officially makes the Jebel Ali Power Plant and Water Desalination Complex the largest single-site power generation facility in the world powered by natural gas. The complex’s power generation and water desalination plants use world-class operational technologies, state-of-the-art smart solutions, and information technology systems. Emiratis with the best skills and qualifications are managing this complex. Our people are the most important success factors for DEWA’s Generation division. All of the division’s top management are Emiratis. DEWA is implementing the latest Fourth Industrial Revolution disruptive technologies, including Artificial Intelligence, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, and other innovations. This has resulted in DEWA improving its generation efficiency by 33.41%, which also helped achieve considerable financial savings. This improvement has also reduced over 64 million tonnes of carbon emissions, which are equivalent to planting 327 million trees. It has also reduced over 46,000 tonnes of nitrogen oxide gases, and over 3,000 tonnes of sulphur dioxide,” said Nasser Lootah, Executive Vice President of Generation at DEWA.

Jebel Ali Complex

DEWA uses the latest technologies in electricity generation and water desalination at the Jebel Ali Power Generation and Water Desalination Complex and continuously expands the complex to meet increasing demand. In 2019, DEWA completed the extension project for M-Station in Jebel Ali, which is the largest power generation and water desalination plant in the UAE. The project included over 20 million Safe Man Hours without Lost Time Injury. The project focused on capacity building and the transfer of international expertise to UAE nationals, contributing to the Emiratisation of the energy sector. With the construction of the extension, the total cost of M-Station reached over AED 12 billion, while its production capacity reached 2,885 megawatts (MW) and 140 million gallons of desalinated water per day.

Global leadership

DEWA’s Generation division has achieved global leadership in its operations and performance. McKinsey has categorised DEWA, represented by its Generation division, as one of the best five plants in the world, in an assessment of 60 prominent global utilities that use electricity and water co-generation systems. DEWA’s optimal fuel heat utilisation is 80%-90%, which is among the highest in the world. In terms of maintenance, the division made global achievements including breaking the record for gas turbine and desalination unit maintenance. It took only 11 working days for a major overhaul of a gas turbine instead of the previous record of 30 days. The water desalination unit’s annual overhaul took only 10 working days, beating the previous record of 21 days. DEWA has become a global benchmark for the maintenance of gas turbine and water desalination plants. This has helped DEWA achieve an availability of 99.73% and reliability score of 99.96% in the summer of 2020, which are among the highest rates in the world.

The Generation Division is one of the leading divisions in the use of Artificial Intelligence and other modern technologies. A team of DEWA engineers, led by Emirati experts, in cooperation with Siemens, developed the Intelligent Gas Turbine Controller, the world’s first thermodynamic Digital Twin Gas Turbine Intelligent Controller, which uses Artificial Intelligence and machine learning. Using this system at M-Station contributed to increasing efficiency and reducing emissions.

These achievements have enhanced Dubai’s leadership in providing a robust state-of-the-art infrastructure that meets the highest international standards. This infrastructure supports sustainable development and consolidates Dubai’s position as a hub for entrepreneurs and investors from around the world. It also supports the emirate’s goal to enhance the happiness of citizens, residents, and visitors.