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Dewa shapes the future of utilities using Artificial Intelligence

The Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa) has announced the continued success of its Artificial Intelligence (AI) solutions that are helping it keep pace with the rapid developments all around the world.
Dewa started its AI journey since 2017 and developed a road map for AI techniques. It has initiated services and initiatives that use AI to enhance and add value to the customer, employee, and stakeholder experiences. Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD and CEO of Dewa, said that using AI at Dewa to provide smart and innovative services aligns with its strategy to achieve the Dubai 10X initiative.
The initiative was launched by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, to develop Dubai Government services, putting Dubai 10 years ahead of other global cities. It also aligns with the Smart Dubai initiative to make Dubai the smartest and happiest city in the world; the UAE Centennial 2071; the UAE Strategy for the Fourth Industrial Revolution; and Dubai Plan 2021 to make Dubai proactive and creative in meeting the needs of individuals and society.
Al Tayer noted that in 2014, Dewa completed the smart transformation of all its services by 100 per cent, less than a year after the Smart Dubai initiative was launched. Dewa initiated the AI Steering Committee to effectively contribute to its efforts to make Dubai a global hub for disruptive technologies and the Fourth Industrial Revolution. This achieves the National Artificial Intelligence Strategy 2031.
Dewa collaborated with Smart Dubai to apply the AI Ethics and Principles in all its projects and initiatives, and Smart Dubai AI Lab. Dewa launched Digital Dewa as its digital arm, with four pillars, making Dewa the world's first digital utility to use autonomous systems for renewable energy, storage, expansion in AI adoption, and providing digital services. The First Pillar is Solar Energy and this includes launching advanced solar power technologies in Dubai. One of Dewa's key projects in this regard is the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park, the world's largest single-site solar park, with a planned capacity of 5,000MW by 2030. The solar park supports the Dubai Clean Energy Strategy 2050 to produce 75 per cent of Dubai's total power output from clean energy sources.
The Second Pillar is Energy Storage in which Digital Dewa seeks to operate a renewable energy network using innovative energy storage technologies. The Third Pillar revolves around Artificial Intelligence to make Dubai the first city to provide AI-based electricity and water services. In line with this, Dewa launched Rammas. Through Rammas, Dewa is expanding its use of AI to all its operations. Through this pillar, Dewa will deploy machine learning to augment customer experience, support employee services and productivity enhancement, and optimise core grid operations.
The Fourth Pillar revolves around Digital Services where Digital Dewa will expand its digital services through Data Hub Integrated Solutions (Moro) and its strategic vision to be the most preferred choice for the public and private sectors in the UAE and the region in terms of data storage and cloud-based digital service management. This enhances the integration of institutional operations, monitoring operations, providing the best suggestions for decision making.
This pillar also includes launching Digital X and Infra X companies, owned by Dewa. Rammas, Dewa's virtual employee, uses AI to assist customers and answer their enquiries in both Arabic and English, through seven channels for customer service. These include Dewa's smart app (iOS and Android), Dewa's website and social media account on Facebook, Amazon's Alexa, and Google Assistant, robots, and WhatsApp Business. Right now, 10 robots have been dedicated to customer service at the Future and Customer Happiness Centres. These provide a wide range of services, such as enquiries, paying bills, moving to a new place, and providing information on Customer Happiness Centres among other FAQs.
Rammas is able to learn and process customers' needs, analyse and evaluate as per given data, and respond accurately to facilitate transactions. Since its inception in Q1 of 2017, Rammas has responded to over three million customer queries on 284 topics. This saved more than Dh36 million.
- business@khaleejtimes.com