DEWA sets world record numbers again, and this one is hard to ignore. The Dubai Electricity and Water Authority has achieved a new global benchmark for the lowest electricity Customer Minutes Lost (CML), at just 0.82 minutes — roughly 49 seconds — per customer per year. That beats DEWA's own previous record of 0.94 minutes from 2024, marks a 13% year-on-year improvement, and puts Dubai ahead of every major city in the world for power grid reliability. No other utility provider anywhere has matched it.
What Is Customer Minutes Lost (CML)?
CML is the standard metric used worldwide to measure how long electricity customers experience a power outage in a given year. Utility providers track it, infrastructure analysts reference it, and the lower the number, the better the grid.
To put the new DEWA world record in perspective: leading utility companies in the European Union average around 15 minutes of CML per year. Dubai is now at 49 seconds. That gap is nearly 18 times the EU average — and it makes Dubai's achievement genuinely unprecedented in global utility management.
How DEWA Breaks Its Own World Record Every Year
This result is more than a decade in the making. DEWA has been cutting its CML figures year after year, going from 6.88 minutes in 2012 to 0.82 minutes in 2025. The year-on-year trajectory tells the story clearly: 1.19 minutes in 2022, 1.06 minutes in 2023, 0.94 minutes in 2024, and now 0.82 minutes in 2025. Every single year, DEWA has beaten its own global record.
The technology driving this is DEWA's Smart Grid — a long-term infrastructure initiative with total planned investments of AED 7 billion through 2035. At the heart of it is the Automatic Smart Grid Restoration System, the first of its kind in the Middle East and North Africa. The network operates 24/7 with no human involvement required. Centralised platforms automatically detect, isolate, and resolve electrical faults, restoring power without any manual process in the way.
No technician dispatched to a fault site. No wait for a site inspection. The response is automated and immediate.
DEWA CEO Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer attributed the milestone to the full integration of Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies — particularly artificial intelligence — throughout DEWA's strategies and operations. He described the Smart Grid as a core pillar of DEWA's goal to deliver electricity to the highest standards of availability, reliability, and efficiency.
What the DEWA World Record Means for Dubai Residents and Businesses
For anyone living or operating in Dubai, 49 seconds of annual power interruption means virtually no disruption to daily life. No surprise outages mid-meeting. No scrambling when the lights go out. No equipment damaged by unexpected power cuts.
That reliability matters across smart home setups, 24-hour hospitality, retail, manufacturing, and data infrastructure — any sector where even a brief power interruption carries a real financial or operational cost. Dubai's grid handles all of it without slowing down.
The DEWA world record also connects directly to larger goals for the city. DEWA confirmed the milestone supports the Dubai 2040 Urban Master Plan and the Dubai Economic Agenda D33, both targeting Dubai's position among the world's top three cities. Hitting 49 seconds while continuing to serve a rapidly growing population and urban footprint makes the achievement even more significant.
What Comes Next for Dubai's Smart Grid
With AED 7 billion in Smart Grid investment still being deployed through 2035, and AI now fully integrated into DEWA's day-to-day operations, the direction is clear. The 2024 world record was broken in 2025. At this rate, the number will keep coming down — and Dubai's lead in global power reliability will keep getting wider.
