September 06, 2008

Abu Dhabi to invest heavily to meet the power demand

Abu Dhabi Water & Electricity Company has announced that it will have to invest heavily to meet spiraling demand which is expected to triple by 2015 on a boom in the Gulf emirate's construction and industry sectors.

Mr Keith Miller director for planning and studies at ADWEC said that "Massive investments are needed in the long term to expand existing power generation units and build new plants." He added that the emirate's peak demand stood at about 5,286 MW and is expected to surge to 8,276 MW in 2010 and 14,946 MW in 2015. Demand for water is expected to double by 2030 to 1.2 billion gallons of water per day from 560 million gallons of water per day.

Mr Miller said that "ADWEC's power capacity stood at 8,312 MW at the end of 2006 and 668 million gallons of water per day. It will have additional capacity to meet long term demand and new plants will be built. We have plenty of time."

The economy of the UAE is booming on a more than 5 fold increase in crude oil prices in the last 6 years. Power demand is also growing due to a rapid growth in the population, which is expected to surge to nearly 3.17 million by 2030 from around 1.3 million at present.