Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) plays a major role in promoting a culture of rational consumption in Dubai, and takes priority in organising community campaigns to make a positive change in how electricity and water are consumed. 

By the end of 2015, DEWA had launched 69 awareness campaigns, and organised over 2,300 visits to industrial, educational, commercial, and industrial organisations to reduce demand for electricity and water. This protects natural resources, enhances sustainability, and ensures a clean and healthy environment for us, and for generations to come. 

DEWA is conducting these awareness campaigns to achieve its development objectives and strategic plans to enhance environmental sustainability in Dubai. This supports the directives of Vice President and Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, to achieve the sustainable, and comprehensive development of the Emirate. 

DEWA's awareness campaigns also support the Dubai Plan 2021 to transform Dubai into a smart, integrated, and connected city that uses its resources sustainably, and is capable of providing clean, healthy and sustainable environmental elements, adhering to the Dubai Clean Energy Strategy to produce 75% of its energy from clean sources by 2050. 

It has launched its ‘Change begins with us' campaign. The annual campaign supports DEWA's initiatives to raise the environmental awareness of Dubai's residents and encourage them to adopt sustainable ways of living by using electricity and water to conserve natural resources, protect the environment, and reduce the Emirate's carbon footprint. The campaign urges everyone to limit the use of appliances that use a lot of electricity, such as irons, washing machines and dryer, dishwashers, water heaters, and electric ovens during peak-load hours from 12-6pm. DEWA encourages the public to use them in the mornings or evenings whenever possible, to reduce pressure on the electricity network. 

DEWA promoted the peak-load campaign at different government departments, shopping malls, and mosques to inform the public about the importance of reducing energy use during peak-load hours. Reducing electricity use during peak-load hours contributes to improving the efficiency and reliability of the transmission and distribution networks and helps reduce the amount of fuel needed to produce energy. 

This supports DEWA's efforts to reduce the Emirate's footprint and enhance the happiness and well-being of residents and provides an ideal and healthy environment to live in. The campaign has achieved remarkable success and was well-received by the Emirate's residents. A survey conducted by DEWA last year stated that 94% of participants liked the campaign, and 93% said they were ready and willing to implement it in their homes and workplaces. 

DEWA launched an awareness campaign under the theme ‘Every Drop Matters,' to raise awareness among Dubai's residents about the need to rationalise water use. This is done by adopting environmentally-friendly practices and behaviour to reduce wasting water and ensure its sustainability, for generations to come. 

Compared to the industrial and commercial sectors, in 2015 water consumption was highest in the residential sector with 59% of total water use. Commercial customers used 28%, non-commercial buildings used 10%, while industrial customers used 3%. 

DEWA launched its annual campaign, ‘Set your AC to 24 C,' to support environmental sustainability in Dubai. DEWA encourages its residential, commercial and industrial customers to set their air conditioning to 24 Celsius because it is ideal for human health, contributes effectively to reducing electricity consumption and consequently reduces carbon dioxide emissions. 

This move enables customers from different sectors to achieve significant financial savings, especially as air conditioning consumes a large percentage of energy in all properties. The campaign enables users to support DEWA's efforts to promote environmental awareness. 

DEWA is extending its Neighbourhood Campaign to raise community awareness about the importance of saving electricity and water, and promote social work and direct contact with all segments of society in residential areas. 

The campaign involves field visits to several neighbourhoods and housing complexes across the Emirate by a specialist team from DEWA. The team advises the public on how to better use electricity and water and live a more sustainable and environmentally-friendly lifestyle. 

The Neighbourhood Campaign has been highly-successful in raising environmental awareness among the people of Dubai. 

Its geographic scope has been expanded to include all of the Emirate's residential areas and targets both adults and children. It is important to instil a culture of responsible use of resources among the different age groups, and encourage the adoption of behaviour and practices that strengthen the foundations of environmental sustainability in Dubai. 

In 2015, the Neighbourhood Campaign team visited 3 public parks and 1,600 houses in 7 neighbourhoods. These included JLT, Skycourts Towers in Dubai, Ain Road, Al Rabia Tower in Wadi Al Safa, Oud Al Muteena, Muhaisnah, Al Badia, Warsan 4, and other residential areas in Dubai. The campaign was a success and saved 470,000 kilowatts (kW) of electricity, and 5 million imperial gallons of water (MIGD), as well as reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 320 tonnes. Approximately AED 387,000 were saved as well. 

DEWA, along with the Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA) celebrated the winners of the 10th Conservation Award 2014-2015, under the theme ‘For a Better Tomorrow,' at a ceremony organised by DEWA. The Conservation Award honours educational institutions for their efforts to reduce electricity and water consumption.

The Conservation Award, organised in cooperation with the KHDA and Dubai Educational Zone, is now in its tenth year. The Award has helped to achieve significant results, year after year. DEWA has previously honoured 162 educational institutions and communicated the message of sustainability to over 273,000 students. 

The total savings achieved by the educational institutions, students and faculty members in electricity consumption since the inception of the Awards is 125 GWh and 24 million gallons in water consumption. This contributed to reducing nearly 67,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions, with financial savings worth AED 90 million. 

The Conservation Award contributed to a significant savings in 2015, as the Facilities Management category achieved a 7% reduction in electricity use and 20% cut in water consumption. The Home Consumer segment achieved a 10% reduction in electricity use, and a 15% cut in water consumption. The total electricity savings were 12 million kW and 102 million gallons of water. This contributed to the reduction of nearly 5,500 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions, and financial savings of AED 10 million. 

The winners include 18 educational institutions including nurseries, kindergartens, primary and secondary schools, universities, colleges, special needs centres, and adult education centres. The six best conservation teams from these categories, and three winners of the Home Consumers category were also recognised. 

Best Consumer Awards DEWA launched its Best Consumer Award for the 12th consecutive year to encourage Dubai's residents to be effective participants in the sustainable development of the Emirate. 

To qualify for the award, customers have to reduce their electricity and water consumption by at least 10% from 1 January to 31 December 2015 compared to the previous year. Consumers who achieve the highest savings in electricity and water will receive cash prizes in addition to appreciation certificates from DEWA. A total of AED 39,000 will be awarded to the 13 top participants. The winner who achieves the highest savings will receive AED 10,000, while the second will receive AED 5,000 and the third AED 4,000. The other 10 participants will receive AED 2,000 each. The Award achieves advanced results year after year. In 2015, 6,008 participants helped reduce 3 million kW of electricity, 29 million gallons of water, and 1,988 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions, at a total estimated worth of AED 2.4 million. 

‘Let's be the change. Let's change climate change' campaign DEWA launched an environmental campaign under the theme ‘Let's be the change. Let's change climate change.' The campaign raises awareness among residents of Dubai about the importance of rationalising electricity and water use, the positive impact of collective efforts on the environment, and the important role individuals play in reducing carbon dioxide emissions and limiting global warming. 

DEWA invited all organisations and society members to participate in the campaign through its social networks using the hashtag #YourPower. 

The campaign highlights simple practices that individuals can adopt in their daily lives to reduce electricity and water use, and save precious resources. These include switching off non-essential lighting and electrical appliances when not in use, setting air conditioning to 24 C, and conserving water in every way possible. 

Earth Hour DEWA has achieved an impressive reduction in electricity use of 305 MWh and a reduction of 183 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions during Earth Hour 2015 in Dubai. This is an increase of 20% compared to 2014, when DEWA recorded savings of 255 MWh of electricity and 153 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions. 

During Earth Hour, tourist attractions, government and private buildings, and residents across Dubai turned off their lights and unessential electric appliances for a full hour. This underlined the belief by everyone that combining efforts will significantly contribute to establishing a culture of energy conservation, preservation of natural resources and environmental protection. 

DEWA's ongoing initiatives and programmes support the UAE Vision 2021 and the National Agenda 2021, they also support Dubai's Demand Side Management Strategy, contribute to achieving a sustainable future for the Emirate, and achieve savings in water consumption By launching initiatives to reduce electricity and water use during the last seven years, DEWA managed to save 1.344 gigawatts (GW) of electricity, and 5.6 billion imperial gallons of water, saving AED 841 million, and limiting carbon dioxide emissions by over 715,000 tonnes. 

Over the last 7 years, DEWA has achieved significant savings in electricity and water consumption, and enabled students, faculty, and educational institutions to collectively reduce electricity consumption by 9% and water consumption by 23% respectively. The Residential Consumer category achieved a reduction of 21% and 29% in electricity and water consumption, respectively. 

The Commercial category achieved a 10% reduction in electricity consumption, and a 33% reduction in water consumption. The industrial category achieved a 16% reduction in electricity consumption and a 22% reduction in water consumption. Government and semi-government categories achieved a 13% reduction in electricity consumption and a 22% reduction in water consumption. 

These numbers reflect people's contribution to national and international efforts to limit climate change and global warming by adopting a positive behaviour at work, and at home. This ensures the rational consumption of electricity and water resources, and reduces the level of carbon dioxide and greenhouse gas emissions. Protecting the environment is not only the government's responsibility, it is also the responsibility of individuals, organisations, and society as a whole. 

Source: WAM