Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa) said work was moving at a steady pace on its pumped-storage hydroelectric power plant in Hatta with the project nearly 30 per cent completed.

On completion, it will have a production capacity of 250 megawatts (MW), a storage capacity of 1,500 megawatt-hours, and a life span of up to 80 years, said Dewa.

The hydroelectric power plant has energy storage with a turnaround efficiency of 78.95 per cent that utilises the potential energy of the water stored in the upper dam which is converted to kinetic energy during the flow of water through the 1.2-km subterranean channel, and this kinetic energy rotates the turbines and converts mechanical energy to electrical energy which is sent to Dewa grid within 90 seconds in response to demand.

This is the first station of its kind in the GCC with investments of up to AED1.42 billion ($386 million), remarked Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, Managing Director and CEO of Dewa.

He was speaking after an inspection visit to the power station accompanied by Nasser Lootah, Executive Vice President of Generation at Dewa; Khalifa Albedwawi, the project manager, and the project’s team.

“The first 37-m-high roller compacted concrete (RCC) wall is now complete at the project’s upper dam. The station will use water in the Hatta Dam and an upper dam that is being built in the mountain,” he stated. “The service tunnelling operations are complete. Each tunnel is 500 m long. More than 95 per cent of the excavation operations of the 1.2-km subterranean water channel have been completed.”

Al Tayer said the 60-m-deep excavation for the area where the generators will be installed is now complete.

“Pouring of the roller compacted concrete for the first part of the 37-m-high upper dam wall is now complete. The project has completed 4.6 million safe working hours so far without any injuries,” he stated.