Abu Dhabi Water & Electricity Company (Adwec) has lowered its 20-year power demand forecasts for the emirate.

Demand for power will total 30,008MW, some three times current demand, by 2030, Adwec says. Demand for water is expected to double to 1,419 million gallons a day (g/d) during the same period.

Adwec’s latest forecast revises power demand growth for the next four years down on previous projections. Demand is expected to total 8,988MW in 2010, 536MW lower than Adwec had projected in its winter 2008-09 report.

Demand is expected to total 11,072MW by 2011, 13,167MW by 2012, and 15,406MW by 2013 according to the latest figures. Previous projections estimated that power demand would total 11,346MW, 13,787MW and 15,432MW over the same period.

For the period 2013-25, power demand projections have been revised up slightly: demand for electricity is expected to stand at 26,834MW by 2025. The power demand forecast for the period 2025-30 has been revised down slightly to just over 30MW.

Abu Dhabi’s demand for water increased by 8.1 per cent between 2008-09, Adwec says. Water exports to the other emirates of the UAE increased by 10.6 per cent over the same period resulting in an overall increase of 8.2 per cent.

This trend is expected to continue and Adwec has increased its demand forecasts for water over the next 20 years on its previous data for winter 2008-09.

In 2015, demand for water is expected to be 1,061 million g/d, rising to 1,170 million g/d by 2020 and 1,276 million g/d by 2025. This figure is forecast to stand at 1,362 million g/d by 2030.