Middle East Infrastructure

Dubai commissioned 793 new 11 kilovolt substations in the first half of 2026

By Staff Writer  |  14 August 2026

The work took 624,340 man hours across the emirate in six months, and the stated purpose is to keep distribution capacity ahead of the residential and commercial areas still being built.

Dubai Electricity and Water Authority commissioned 793 new 11 kilovolt substations across the emirate during the first six months of 2026. The construction and associated works involved 624,340 man hours, completed under the authority's quality, efficiency and safety standards.

Divide the one number by the other and each substation carries about 787 man hours of construction and associated work, which is a little under twenty weeks of one person's time. Multiply that across 793 units delivered in 26 weeks and the programme runs at roughly 30 substations a week, every week, through the period.

We continue our growth path to keep pace with the continuous expansion of new residential areas, commercial centres, investment projects and business hubs in Dubai.

Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Dubai Electricity and Water Authority

Why the count matters

An 11 kilovolt substation is the last transformation step before the low voltage network that serves a building. It is the unit that has to exist, energised and tested, before a developer can take a permanent supply and before a completed building can be occupied. A count of 793 in six months is therefore a measure of how much new floor area the network is being asked to absorb, and of whether connection is keeping pace with construction.

That is the connection risk that shows up in claims. Where a permanent supply arrives late, a contractor is left running temporary generation, commissioning is delayed and the argument turns to whether the delay was the employer's risk under the utility connection provisions or the contractor's for failing to apply early enough. A programme delivering at this rate reduces the frequency of that argument without removing it.

The utility also reported customer minutes lost averaging 0.82 minutes per customer a year, and transmission and distribution losses of 2 per cent.

What the figures are, and are not

Both figures quoted above are the authority's own, published in its statement on the half year. They are network performance measures rather than audited financial data, and the comparisons the authority draws with other utilities are its own. What can be taken from them directly is the direction: a network being extended quickly while its reported reliability is held.

For anyone pricing work in the emirate, the practical reading is about sequencing rather than about performance tables. Distribution capacity is being installed ahead of demand rather than in response to it, which is the condition under which a connection date can be relied on in a programme. Where it is not the condition, the connection date belongs in the risk register with a named owner, not in the bar chart as an assumption.

The half year count is worth carrying forward as a benchmark. If the second half comes in materially below 793, the question for the supply chain is whether that reflects fewer new plots reaching the connection stage or a network catching its breath.