Middle East Electricity & Solar 2017

MEE in Partnership with Dubai Municipality
to Boost Smart City Collaboration
14 - 16 February 2017 MEE NEWSPAPER www.middleeastelectricity.com
Middle East Electricity (MEE), one of the
world’s leading power exhibitions, has
announced its theme for the 2017 edition.
Alongside Dubai Municipality and the
Environmental Centre for Arab Towns,
who are Strategic Partners for the event, the
organisers will be creating a series of new
features, conferences and activations all
focusing on the future of Smart Cities,and
the innovations which are set to lead the
way both locally and internationally in the
coming decade.
Developing Smart Cities is a key focus of
the Middle East energy industry, with key
government projects such as the Smart
Dubai initiative driving growth in this area.
Dubai Municipality are partnering with this
year’s Middle East Electricity on the Smart
Cities theme. They are currently working
on a Smart City goal and will use Middle
East Electricity 2017 to update the industry
on their progress. This includes
advancements in their ‘City Portal’
technology which allows integration,
automation and monitoring of a large
number of services within Dubai, in order
to ensure the city continues to meet demand
from its growing population and to
improve quality of
life for its inhabitants. In terms of energy,
this is crucial to improving efficiency and
continuing to meet the city’s power needs.
Dubai Municipality are also in the process
of rolling out the ‘Smart Palm’ project,
consisting of recharge stations and info
points with complimentary Wi-Fi, across
Dubai.
According to a recent Ventures Onsite
report, created specifically for MEE, in a
period of economic slowdown the public
and private sectors are looking for
renewableenergy solutions that will
positively impact the bottom line. In the
GCC, the trend of linking Smart Cities to
the agenda of economic diversification is
fast gaining ground. Initiatives have been
implemented in the GCC region, with three
countries announcing projects for future
Smart Cities: six greenfield economic
cities in KSA (complemented by efforts to
uplift cities such as Mecca toward Smart
City status); three projects in Qatar
(Lusail’s Smart and Sustainable City,
Pearl-Qatar Island, and Energy City Qatar);
and two projects in the UAE (Masdar City
in Abu Dhabi and Smart Dubai). Dubai’s
Smart City strategy plans to transform a
thousand government services into smart
services.
The project aims to encourage
collaboration between the public and
private sectors to achieve targets in six
particular focus areas: Smart Life, Smart
Transportation, Smart Society, Smart
Economy, Smart Governance and Smart
Environment. The strategy will rely on
three basic principles – communication,
integration and cooperation. Another
important aspect of Smart Cities is
transportation, an area in which technology
has advanced dramatically. The UAE is
encouraging the use of electric cars and
building the necessary infrastructure to
support them.
A number of initiatives including the
development of ‘smart electrical grids’ to
encourage owners of houses and buildings
in Dubai to use solar energy and sell the
surplus to the government through the
network itself, as well as "smart meters"
that contribute to economising the
consumption of electricity and water are
being developed. The Dubai Plan 2021
which plans to develop Dubai into a “smart,
integrated and connected city” has a strong
focus on energy sustainability and using
renewable energy sources. Integration of
Smart Cities plans with GCC housing
projects will lead to the economising of
energy use at large.
Therefore, with the rapid advancements in
technology and the commitment of GCC
governments we may soon be seeing
several Smart Cities in the GCC creating
benchmarks for cities worldwide. The
UAE, KSA and Qatar are expected to
witness a raft of successful Smart City
implementations emerging over the next
couple of years.
The inaugural half day‘Energising the
Smart City Conference’on 15 February
will feature sessions on how to provide
innovative urban energy solutions. The
event aims to bring together municipal
leaders, energy solution providers, and
research communities to debate better
management of energy, the emerging
technologies that are available and how to
s u s t a i n a b l y m e e t r i s i n g e n e rg y
demands.Speakers will include H.E.
Hussain Nasser Lootah, Director General,
Dubai Municipality and H.E. Suhail
Mohamed Al Mazrouei, Minister of
Energy, U.A.E.