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UAE: Dewa's nanosatellite successfully launched on SpaceX rocket

Dewa will launch another U6 nanosatellite later this year

Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa) has successfully launched Dewa-Sat 1, the world's first nanosatellite that supports the digitisation of electricity and water networks.

This new achievement underlines Dewa's leadership in developing and using the latest world-class technologies.

Dewa-Sat 1 was launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape anaveral Space Launch Complex (SLC-40) in Florida, USA. Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, managing director and CEO of DEWA, attended the launch along with officials from Dewa and NanoAvionics.

“I extend my thanks and gratitude to His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, for his unlimited support to Dewa and its innovative initiatives and projects including its Space-D programme, which His Highness launched in January 2021," Al Tayer said. "The programme supports the National Space Strategy 2030 that aims to realise the UAE’s vision in space sciences, technologies, applications and services."

Al Tayer said the programme also aims to train Emirati professionals to use space technologies to enhance the UAE's electricity and water networks, as well as take advantage of Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies to exchange information with the help of satellite communications and earth observation technologies.

Al Tayer said that the nanosatellite was designed and developed at Dewa's R&D Centre in the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park.

He noted that Dewa will launch another U6 nanosatellite later this year to promote its flexibility and agility in monitoring, managing, and maintaining its electricity and water networks. This ensures providing electricity and water services according to the highest standards of availability, reliability, and efficiency. It also reduces costs, improves its asset utilisation, enables knowledge and experience transfer, as well as trains Emiratis at Dewa.

Al Tayer said that Dewa-Sat 1 uses LoRa IoT communication technology, which is a new wireless protocol designed for long-range communications that consumes less energy, to expand the coverage of the existing terrestrial communication network.

Using satellite communications, IoT, and AI will improve the efficiency and effectiveness of Dewa operations and support digitising energy networks, water distribution and transmission networks. It also enables the integration of IoT data using Dewa private cloud.

Waleed Bin Salman, executive vice-president of Business Development and Excellence at Dewa, said that Dewa's Space-D programme includes launching the nanosatellite constellation developed by Emiratis at Dewa R&D Centre at the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park.

The system features a ground station at the solar park as well as IoT and AI technologies to support ground communication transmission stations in electricity and water networks.

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By deploying this infrastructure, Dewa seeks to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of its planning and operations, and enhance preventive maintenance at its production, transmission, distribution divisions as well as its smart grids, and electric vehicle charging stations.

Multi-spectrum, high-resolution thermal imaging devices such as those used onboard spacecraft, specifically designed for use in electricity and water networks, will be deployed to detect thermal fingerprints in high voltage transmission lines, substations, buildings and solar power stations.