Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD & CEO of Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) received Steve Tzikakis, SAP President EMEA South, who was accompanied by a high-level delegation from the company. Marwan Bin Haidar, Executive Vice President of Innovation and the Future at DEWA, also attended the meeting.

Al Tayer welcomed the SAP delegation. SAP is an international market leader in enterprise application software. He highlighted the importance of sharing best practices and international experiences between SAP and DEWA. Both parties collaborate in innovation, digital transformation, Internet of Things (IoT), big data analysis, and cloud computing, among others.

Al Tayer highlighted DEWA’s projects and initiatives to anticipate and shape the future. This is in accordance with the UAE Centennial 2071 to make the UAE the world’s leading nation; the UAE Strategy for Artificial Intelligence; and the Dubai 10X initiative, launched by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai. The initiative aims to transform Dubai into a city of the future, putting it 10 years ahead of other global cities. DEWA supports the digital transformation of the UAE and the position of Dubai as a global digital platform.

DEWA launched Digital DEWA as its digital arm, to redefine the role of utilities, making DEWA the world’s first digital utility to use autonomous systems for renewable energy, storage, expansion in AI adoption, and providing digital services.

Digital DEWA comprises four pillars; the first pillar is launching advanced solar power technologies. The second pillar is deploying a renewable energy grid with innovative energy storage technologies to meet the goals of the Dubai Clean Energy Strategy 2050. The second pillar also includes launching DEWA’s Smart Energy-X. The third pillar will develop AI to make Dubai the first city to provide AI-based electricity and water services. The fourth pillar includes launching DEWA’s MORO data hub to provide advanced and innovative digital solutions, locally and globally, as well as launching Digital-X, and Infra-X as subsidiaries of Digital DEWA.

DEWA established Moro to provide innovative solutions and technologies to public and private organisations. This is in accordance with National Innovation Strategy, launched by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, to make the UAE one of the most innovative countries in the world.

DEWA has migrated its on-premise SAP landscape to MORO to realise innovation, cost efficiency, scalability, speed, and resiliency. This is one of the world’s largest migrations for SAP HEC in the utility sector. It is also one of the largest data migrations across all industries at the European, Middle Eastern and African (EMEA) level.

The SAP delegation highlighted its services and solution, and expressed their interest to participate in DEWA’s future projects and initiatives.

The UAE has made significant achievements in several areas since the formation of the UAE. This has enhanced its competitiveness, leadership, excellence and global ranking. The UAE’s wise leadership has adopted ambitious strategies that focus on innovation, creativity, research and development (R&D). This enables capacity building, to keep pace with the latest developments internationally, and achieve sustainable development.

The UAE ranked first across the MENA region, in the 2020 Bloomberg Innovation Index, thanks to the proactive vision of our leadership. It was ranked 46th in the 2019 index and 44th in this year’s index, surpassing Argentina, Brazil, Cyprus, South Africa, India, Chile and Vietnam. The UAE ranked 30th in Productivity, and 32nd in Manufacturing Value Added, and 36th in R&D expenditure.

The UAE has maintained its good standing in this year’s edition of the Global Innovation Index (GII) jumping two spots to 36th globally. The country has also achieved progress in the Innovation Input, and a significant improvement in several pillars of the GII. These include human capital and research. In the sub-indicators, the UAE has achieved progress in the indicator of global R&D companies’ expenditure, among others.

The UAE strives to become the main destination for scholars, researchers and future makers, aiming to become a prominent incubator of R&D, by merging forces between the public and private sectors to achieve integration in different sectors, enhancing and diversifying partnerships, and benefiting from best practices and experiences locally and globally, to achieving sustainable development.

DEWA’s R&D centre at the Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park is an ideal example of public-private partnerships. The centre collaborates with several academic institutions, such as Stanford University; UAE University; Khalifa University of Science Technology; Sharjah University and Amity University to develop joint research in renewable and alternative energy.

The R&D centre highlights four major operational areas: electricity generation from solar and clean energy, integration of smart grids, energy efficiency, and water. Its internal labs study and test system reliability, and it carries out external field testing of new technologies and equipment, including the performance and reliability of solar PV panels and removing dust. It is the only centre in the UAE that focuses on renewable energy, smart grid technologies, and energy efficiency. It includes the largest testing facilities in the UAE for PV and issuing compliance certificates. The centre conducts multiple and strenuous tests for PV panels in desert climate conditions.