Developing a Smart Grid System in the UAE: Challenges and Opportunities

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is considered a strategic hub with a business-friendly free zone and a fast-growing economy. Globally, governments realize the importance of updating electric energy grids and establishing smart grid systems. The smart grid system (SGS) combines connected networks and the technological era, providing several methods to produce power from multiple sources. This research aims to analyze the UAE’s smart grid system’s development challenges through a survey intended to extract the most significant guidelines and issues affecting the progressive implementation of SGS in Abu Dhabi city, as these issues have not been thoroughly investigated. An in-depth empirical study was conducted to investigate the significant factors affecting the SGS through four aspects: nature, sponsor support, government responsibility, and market expansion. The “Policy Delphi” and a sophisticated survey tool called Qualtrics were adopted by a biased group of opinion specialists. The survey is intended to extract and analyze the most important guidelines and issues affecting the progressive SGS implementation in Abu Dhabi city. The findings of this study illustrated the drivers and barriers that affect the smart grid and the variables that should be addressed to enhance its functionality. Energy efficiency and loss reduction were ranked as the top driver with 32%. Operational and connectivity challenges were cited as the major obstacles to SGS implementation. Finally, the results indicate that smart grid technology can promote economic growth in the country by enabling a sustainable electricity supply.