Abu Dhabi has established the Emirates Water Electricity Company (Ewec) to replace the Abu Dhabi Water Electricity Company (Adwec) as part of plans to unify water production and power generation between Abu Dhabi and the Northern Emirates.

The new company, established by royal decree on 28 November, will fall under the umbrella of the Abu Dhabi Power Corporation.

According to a statement issued on state news website Wam, the establishment of Ewec will pave the way for the Federal Electricity & Water Authority (Fewa), provider of utilities for the Northern Emirates, to join the new company with the “objective of unifying water production and power generation efforts in Abu Dhabi and the emirates that are currently served by Fewa.”

According to the statement, work is underway to finalise bilateral integration agreements between Ewec and Fewa for the latter to join the new company. Once finalised, the new company will be responsible for distributing more than 80 terawatts of electricity and 1.2 billion cubic metres of water across the UAE annually.

The establishment of Ewec is the latest of a number of changes that the UAE capital has implemented in its utilities sector in the past year. In February this year, it was reported that the Abu Dhabi government had folded Abu Dhabi Electricity & Water Authority (Adwea) into the Department of Energy, a newly established entity to oversee the energy sector in the emirate.

The move to unify the Abu Dhabi and Northern Emirates utilities production follows rising exports of electricity from Abu Dhabi to Fewa over the past decade.

Since 2007, the Northern Emirates’ peak power imports from Abu Dhabi have risen sharply, from 785MW in 2008 to 2,407MW in 2016 as part of a federal programme to invest more in the Northern Emirates.