Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) CEO and Managing Director
Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer spoke of the utility’s dedication to
innovatively and uniquely develop processes and quality standards at
the first Dubai Forum for Government Best Practice.
The Mohammed bin Rashid School of Government
(MBRSG) organized the forum, under the theme “DEWA’s Journey of
Excellence,” as part of the Arab Leadership and Government
Excellence Program.
During his speech, Al Tayer highlighted DEWA’s goal of optimizing it services by building an environment of excellence within its daily operations and corporate standards. The company is also focused on building the skills of employees through different initiatives and activities.
“I would like to begin by recalling the inspiring words of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, vice president and prime minister of
the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, who said, ‘Success is not a destination, but a
journey. Each time you reach a summit on this journey, you must look ahead to
the next one,’” Al Tayer said. “He also said ‘Excellence is not attained by
hopes, it can only be achieved by exertion of efforts and hard work.’ The words
of His Highness guide us in our efforts to achieve excellence, to achieve our
vision to become a sustainable innovative world-class utility, and build
sustainable development in the UAE.”
“This week, DEWA won six distinguished awards at the 19th
Dubai Government Excellence Program (DGEP) 2016,” Al Tayer said. “DEWA received
awards in the categories of Distinguished Government Entity, Financially
Distinguished Performance, Distinguished Government Entity in Communications,
Distinguished Innovative Idea and Distinguished Technical/Engineering
Employee and the Unknown Soldier Award. We also won the Hamdan bin Rashid Al
Maktoum Award for Distinguished Academic Performance as a result of our Best
Consumer Award. The Conservation award has allowed for a great deal of savings
over the last 10 years. DEWA has honored 162 educational institutions and has
passed on the message of conservation to 270,000 students. Total savings made
in electricity and consumption since the implementation of the award is
equivalent to 125 gigawatts (GW) of electricity, and 24 million gallons of
water. … We also won the Dubai Quality Award in the
Gold Category, and the Dubai Human Development Awards 2016.”
“Today, I would like to highlight the major concepts of
corporate excellence at DEWA,” Al Tayer said. “DEWA’s culture of excellence is
based on continuous development and implementing standards of organizational
excellence across all operations. DEWA’s system adopts the concept of
self-evaluation to identify points of strength and opportunities for
improvement in corporate performance, this creates a roadmap, initiatives and programs,
to further aid internal activities and programs of corporate excellence. It
also ensures integration, communication and benchmarking, resulting in the
improvement of general performance and achieving the happiness of customers.”
“DEWA’s strategy for 2021 supports the UAE Vision 2021, the
Dubai Plan 2021, and the Dubai Clean Energy Strategy 2050 to ensure a brighter
future for you, and for generations to come,” Al Tayer said. “This supports our
mission, and our commitment to ensure the happiness of our stakeholders. It
also promotes Dubai’s vision by providing water and electricity services that
meet the highest standards of reliability, efficiency and safety in an
environment that nurtures innovation with a competent workforce and effective
partnerships, supporting resources sustainability. We adopt corporate values
based on sustainability, innovation, excellence, wise governance and the
happiness of stakeholders, and we continuously integrate these values while
measuring their efficiency. DEWA is working to achieve the Dubai Clean Energy
Strategy 2050, which is shaping the energy sector in Dubai over the next three
decades. The strategy aims to provide 7 percent of Dubai’s total power output from
clean energy sources by 2020.”
“The UAE, represented by DEWA , has been ranked first in the
MENA region, and fourth globally for getting electricity, according to the World
Bank’s Doing Business 2016 report,” Al Tayer said. “Customer minutes lost per
year reached 3.87 minutes, compared to 15 minutes recorded by leading utilities
in the European Union and the U.S. Losses in power transmission and
distribution networks reached 3.3 percent, compared to 6-7 percent in Europe and the U.S.
Water network losses reached 8.26 percent, compared to 15 percent in North America.”
“In 2015 we recorded a fuel consumption efficiency rate of
90 percent,” Al Tayer said. “We run and manage the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum
Solar Park, which is one of the largest international renewable energy
projects, and will develop electricity production techniques by using solar
energy, and its capacity will reach 1,000 megawatts by 2020 and 5,000 megawatts by 2030”
“We are still proceeding on our journey to achieve
excellence,” Al Tayer said. “We are playing a pioneering role to deepen and
spread a culture of excellence and its concepts to achieve our vision. I have
faith in working to become number one. This encourages further efforts towards
becoming an international pioneer.”
“Our senior management has established strategic pillars and an administrative work system that allows active communication with all
stakeholders, to learn about their needs and expectations,” Al Tayer said. “Our
integrated corporate governance system ensures transparency, integrity and the
implementation of a firm, balanced and flexible decision-making process. We
encourage teamwork.”
“To sustain our excellent accomplishments, we developed
strategic plans in accordance with national plans to achieve balance between
current and future requirements and expectations,” Al Tayer said. “Our flexibility and agility actively contributes to our
journey towards excellence.”
“We developed corporate social responsibility (CSR) and
received several international certificates including the Social Accountability
Certification SA8000,” Al Tayer said. “We launched over 67 initiatives during
2015, and accumulated over 12,000 employee voluntary work hours, achieving a
community satisfaction rate of 87 percent. We have developed a host of international
platforms to facilitate sustainability, these include the World Green Economy
Summit (WGES), the Water, Energy, Technology, and Environment Exhibition
(WETEX), Earth Hour, and our expedition to Antarctica.”
The Arab Leadership and Government Excellence Program works
to prepare Arab leaders with the know-how to address the challenges faced by
modern governments, bettering corporate performance and back the performance
of government entities.
