Abu Dhabi has revised up its projections for power and water demand in the long term because of an upsurge in the domestic economy.

Keith Miller, Director of Planning and Studies Directorate at the Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Company (Adwec), estimated the emirate’s present electricity demand at around 5,286 MW. This is projected to surge to 8,276 MW in 2010, to 14,946 MW in 2015, and 17,496 MW in 2020. The demand is expected to peak at 23,554 MW by 2030, an Emirates Business report quoted him as saying.

Although capacity currently exceeds demand, massive investment is needed in the long term to expand existing power generation units and build new stations to meet a growth of more than six per cent until 2030, he said in the report.

His figures showed power demand is projected to grow by an average 6.7 per cent annually until 2030, while water consumption is forecast to surge from nearly 650,000 gallons per day to 1.35 million gallons per day during that period.