By : Wael Elhosany
As part of the Smart Living initiative, Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) has added the Self-Assessment tool for residential customers to easily understand their consumption patterns. This is part of DEWA’s effort to make Dubai homes more sustainable and efficient. The Self-Assessment tool includes a survey on electricity and water consumption for customers to assess their consumption and learn about different ways for conservation. After completing the assessment, customers receive a detailed report on their consumption, in addition to customised tips to reduce waste and consumption.
“As part of our vision to become a globally leading sustainable innovative corporation and our efforts to support the Smart Dubai initiative, we harness disruptive technologies and Fourth Industrial Revolution applications to provide smart and innovative services that make the customers’ life easy. These also help them raise the efficiency of their electricity and water consumption, detect leakage and repair interruptions without contacting DEWA. We provide all capabilities to enhance the culture of sustainability and conservation as well as raise awareness of all society members on their responsibility towards conservation and protecting natural resources. This is in accordance with the vision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, to achieve sustainable development throughout and the Dubai Clean Energy Strategy 2050, and the Dubai Net Zero Emissions Strategy 2050, which aims to make Dubai a global centre of clean energy and green economy. DEWA’s efforts in spreading awareness on the importance of conservation have achieved cumulative savings up to 2.2 TWh of electricity and 5.6 billion gallons of water between 2012 and 2021. This is equivalent to AED 1.2 billion and reduces 1.1 million tonnes of carbon emissions,” said HE Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD & CEO of DEWA.
The Smart Living initiative uses a proactive mechanism in interacting with customers who have smart electricity and water meters. It enables them to monitor their consumption through a private dashboard and receive daily, monthly, and annual consumption reports. DEWA won the Hamdan bin Mohammed Program for Government Services Flag 2020 for its Smart Living initiative. Through the ‘My Sustainable Living Programme’, they can compare their consumption with similar homes. It also provides them offers on DEWA Store to purchase energy and water-saving devices. Through the ‘Away Mode’ service, they can receive daily and weekly email reports when they activate the service or when they are on vacation. Moreover, DEWA provides the High-Water Usage Alert under the Smart Response initiative to help customers detect leakages in water connections after the meter. Until March 2022, the service has saved up to 8 billion gallons of water and saved customers more than AED 500 million. The initiative also includes an auto-scheduling feature to make an appointment for a technical team visit with real-time updates. DEWA has also added a ‘call back’ feature through smart channels for customers to schedule a DEWA agent to call them back.
