New UAE law in the works to curb misuse of energy

There is the need to slow the UAE’s growth in electricity and water consumption, which has been running at an average of 6 per cent a year over the past decade.

Suhail Al Mazroui, the Minister of Energy, stressed the need to slow the UAE’s growth in electricity and water consumption during a forum at the Al Bateen Palace majlis. Rashed Al Mansoori / Crown PriShow more

A federal law is being planned aimed at curbing wasteful energy and water use that have resulted from rapid economic development and population expansion.

Last week, Suhail Al Mazroui, the Minister of Energy, told a majlis that included Sheikh Hazza bin Zayed, the National Security Adviser and Vice Chairman of Abu Dhabi Executive Council, that a special committee at the ministry had started to prepare a law that will include measures to prevent inefficient energy use.

It is a concrete step to address a problem that Mr Mazroui has talked about since taking office last year. He stressed the need to slow the UAE’s growth in electricity and water consumption, which has been running at an average of 6 per cent a year over the past decade (sometimes reaching double digits), and with per capita use standing at between two and three times the international average.

The country’s annual bill for electricity and water use stands at Dh35 billion, he said.

In June, Mr Mazroui talked about the need to reduce government subsidies in the energy sector, although there have been no specific initiatives yet on that front at the federal level.

Each emirate sets its own tariff levels for energy.

The latest move is part of a broader strategy aimed at making energy use more efficient and diversifying its sources.

The UAE plans by 2020 to generate 25 per cent of its power from four nuclear plants that are currently under construction. The aim is also to have renewable energy generate about 7 per cent of Abu Dhabi's electricity (1.5 gigawatts) by 2020, mostly from solar power, with Dubai aiming for 5 per cent (1GW) from renewables by 2030. A fully-fledged roadmap to achieve these targets has not yet been set out publicly.

However, on the efficiency side, the ministry is working with the relevant authorities on rules that will ensure a more rational use of energy and change patterns of energy consumption by individual households and commercial premises, which together account for two-thirds of the country’s electricity consumption, Mr Mazroui said.

In a report last year on wasteful energy use in the region, Chatham House, a London-based think tank, noted that the GCC countries used as much primary energy as the whole of Africa, or as Indonesia and Japan combined, although their populations are much smaller by comparison.

The report noted that there was a whole range of initiatives that could reduce wasteful energy use, including “quick wins” from fairly easily achieved changes in behaviour.

“In one case of a large government office building whose management was working with the Estidama programme in Abu Dhabi efforts of just one employee to change staff behaviour resulted in a saving of 30 per cent of the building’s electricity demand.” the report noted..

The Dubai Supreme Council of Energy has set out regulations for government buildings including keeping the temperature at 24°C during working hours and 27°C at other times, and switching the lights off at the end of the day.

At the regional level, the most pressing need is integrated strategic planning.

“If the relevant authorities are not talking to one another, a government cannot formulate a realistic strategy,” the report warned. “Furthermore, if those with the knowledge and capacity to develop energy and water strategies lack the authority to implement their plans, no strategy will achieve its potential at scale.”

For the UAE, the law will shed light on how the government plans to follow through at federal level on the energy roadmap it outlined two years ago.