Smart grid investments have reduced annual power outage time in Dubai to less than one minute.
Dubai: Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) has surpassed its own world record for power reliability, achieving a new global low of 0.82 minutes—around 49 seconds—in Customer Minutes Lost (CML) per year.
The milestone, announced by Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD and CEO of DEWA, marks a 13 per cent improvement over the authority’s previous world record of 0.94 minutes set in 2024, further reinforcing Dubai’s position as a global leader in electricity service continuity.
“We work in line with the vision and directives of Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, to provide the best electricity and water infrastructure in the world. We utilise the latest technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, particularly artificial intelligence, which we are fully integrating into DEWA’s strategies and operations.
The smart grid is a fundamental pillar of DEWA’s strategy to deliver services according to the highest standards of availability, reliability and efficiency. This supports the Dubai 2040 Urban Master Plan and the Dubai Economic Agenda (D33), which aim to strengthen Dubai’s position among the world’s top three global cities,” said Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, Managing Director and CEO of Dubai Electricity and Water Authority.
Behind this achievement is Dubai Electricity and Water Authority’s ambitious Smart Grid programme, supported by a total investment of Dh7 billion through 2035. The initiative modernises the energy transmission and distribution network, helping reduce outages, minimise losses, and optimise electrical load management while improving customer satisfaction.
Central to its success is the Automatic Smart Grid Restoration System, the first of its kind in the Middle East and North Africa. Operating entirely without human intervention, the system provides continuous remote monitoring and control around the clock, using intelligent centralised platforms to detect, isolate and resolve faults, significantly speeding up power restoration.
The scale of Dubai Electricity and Water Authority’s progress over the past decade highlights a major transformation. In 2012, Dubai’s Customer Minutes Lost (CML) stood at 6.88 minutes per year. By 2025, that figure had dropped to just 0.82 minutes—nearly 18 times better than the European Union average of around 15 minutes among leading utilities.
The result places Dubai not only at the top of regional rankings, but also at the forefront of global utility performance.
