By : Mohamed El Kholy
Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) received 24 local, regional, and international awards in the first half of 2021. This achievement results from following the leading work approach of the Government of Dubai.
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. This record increases the total number of awards won by DEWA to 348 awards from 2015 until the first half of this year, including 62 local awards, 63 regional awards, and 223 international awards.
HE Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD & CEO of DEWA, said that its achievements are the result of its hard work to achieve the first rank for the UAE, following the directives of HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai. These achievements are also aligned with the Eight Principles of Governance, and the Fifty-Year Charter, designed to ensure the prosperity and happiness of Dubai, with solid foundations for comprehensive and sustainable development, to make Dubai the smartest and happiest city in the world, and make the UAE the best country in the world by its centenary in 2071.
“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. DEWA spares no effort to achieve the wise leadership’s vision to advance government work in all organisations and entities in Dubai, as well as enhance our vision to become a globally leading sustainable innovative corporation,” said Al Tayer.
“At DEWA, we work within the main three themes of the fourth generation of government excellence system, as a reference for all of its government excellence programmes, to make people happy. We adopt pioneering excellence, creativity and innovation in our daily operations to consolidate DEWA’s position as one of the best utilities in all areas worldwide, and embark on more advanced phases of excellence and leadership,” said Waleed Salman, Executive Vice President of Business Development and Excellence at DEWA.
The awards DEWA won in the first half of 2021 include three diamond awards from the Harvard Business Council, organised by the Harvard Business Council in New York, with the highest score. This is one of the most prestigious international awards that focus on total quality management. It evaluates organisations across different sectors in terms of their excellence, adopting best practices, and providing high-quality services and products. DEWA won the ‘Organisational’, ‘Innovation’, and ‘Dealing with COVID-19’ awards.
The fifth phase of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park, the largest single-site solar park in the world, received the ‘MENA Renewable Deal of the year’ at IJ Global Awards. The Solar Park will have a capacity of 5,000 megawatts in 2030. DEWA also won the ‘2020 Middle East and Africa Renewable Deal of the Year’ by Project Finance International, organised by Thomson Reuters Foundation.
DEWA won the Hamdan bin Mohammed Programme for Government Services Flag in 2020 for its Smart Living initiative. It also won a Global Business Excellence Award for Outstanding Innovation from Awards Intelligence in the UK for the Smart Living initiative. The initiative enables customers to follow a sustainable lifestyle, self-monitor and control their consumption of electricity and water proactively and digitally, as well as resolve all triggers of high consumption without contacting DEWA.
DEWA also received the UAE Ideas Award for innovation and promoting business, in recognition of its deployment of special double T-Connectors for quick restoration of electricity during emergencies. DEWA received the highest Global Award from the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) for the second time. DEWA maintained its position in the Platinum category, which includes leading companies and institutions that promote excellence.
DEWA was the first organisation outside Europe to receive this prestigious global award, the highest award from the EFQM Excellence Model. It also won the EFQM UN Sustainable Development Goals Challenge 2021. DEWA also won the 2021 USGBC Leadership Award for Middle East which aims to recognise leaders that develop green and sustainable buildings to improve the quality of life.
DEWA won the Grand Globee at the 8th Annual 2021 Customer Sales and Service World Awards as well as four gold awards in the following categories: Handling Complaints Customer Service & Support Team of the Year; Best Customer Engagement Initiative of the Year; Customer Service Training or Coaching Programme of the Year; and Contact Centre of the Year.
It won a silver award for Best New Product or Service for Customer Service, and a bronze award for Company Rethinking of the Year, Customer Service & Support During COVID-19. DEWA also won four awards at the 13th Annual Golden Bridge Business and Innovation in San Francisco, USA.
It won two golden awards: Achievements in User Experience, and Aggregation Platform; two silver awards: Enterprise Solution and Information Technology Project or Initiative. DEWA won the Best Customer Focus award at the Best Business Awards, one of the most prestigious awards in the UK for its Hab-Reeh Web Service, a smart interactive platform for the self-assessment of photovoltaic designs. This is part of the Shams Dubai initiative, to encourage building owners to install solar photovoltaic rooftop energy systems and connect them to DEWA's grid.
DEWA’s virtual AI employee Rammas won two awards at the ICMG Global Enterprise and Digital Architecture Excellence Awards 2020 in Digital IT - AI Enabled Solution 2020 and Best Digital Architecture in Support Function.
