DEWA’s Shams Dubai solar program is based on the principle of ‘net metering’. This allows customers to install solar panels to produce their own power, reducing their electricity bill every month. Any surplus electricity not used immediately is sold back to the grid at the same price, and at the end of the month only the net amount is billed to the customer. Should a customer produce more energy in one month than he / she has consumed, DEWA allows rolling over these kWhs to the next month.

The big advantage of net metering is that customers stay connected to DEWA’s grid, thereby combining the 24/7 reliability of a grid connection with the lower costs of solar energy.

Given the excellent solar radiation available in Dubai, solar power is now cheaper than DEWA’s ‘red slab’ tariff rate of AED 0.445 / kWh for most commercial and industrial customers. This is particularly true for factories and warehouses with large rooftops in Jebel Ali Free Zone, Dubai Investments Park, Dubai Logistics City and Dubai Industrial City.

To maximize savings per kWh, many customers with significant air conditioning loads chose to cover around 80% of their winter electricity consumption (i.e. the kWhs consumed in January / February), as this means that every kWh from solar saves kWs in DEWA’s most expensive red tariff slab. Over the whole year, this allows a typical customer to offset around 50% of their consumption with cheaper solar energy.

For customers with large and stable loads (e.g. factories or cold-storage warehouses) it is possible to offset over 90% of DEWA electricity consumption with solar energy, thereby saving hundreds of thousands of dirhams per year.

For customers using more than 10,000 kWh per month, owning their building, or with at least least 12 years left on their lease Enerwhere can offer solar power on a full lease basis, offering financial savings of 10-30% with no upfront capital investment.