The nanosatellite has been applied to monitor DEWAs assets in various ways, such as tracking power factor and frequency in low-voltage rooms, monitoring water pipelines, among others.
Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) announced that its nanosatellite, DEWA-SAT 1, has transmitted 2,690 megabytes (MB) of data related to DEWAs work to the ground station since its launch in January 2022.
DEWA SAT-1, a 3U nanosatellite, enables direct communication via its onboard Internet of Things (IoT) system, utilising LoRa (long-range), low-power wireless connection technology. It ensures data security through DEWAs encryption standards.
Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD and CEO of DEWA, highlighted that DEWA continues its efforts to leverage the latest technologies to develop smart and sustainable infrastructure. He noted that the Space-D programme aims to make nanosatellites a complementary technology to the ground-based IoT communications network for remote asset monitoring. This supports the digitalisation of power and water networks and enhances planning, operations and preventative maintenance for the generation, distribution and transmission divisions.
Additionally, the programme helps to reduce costs, maximising the return of investment from DEWAs assets. It contributes to knowledge sharing and in the training of DEWAs Emirati workforce.
Al Tayer explained that DEWAs space programme, Space-D, aims to enhance the efficiency of electricity and water networks using nanosatellite and remote-sensing technologies. DEWA is the first utility provider worldwide to use nanosatellites to improve the operations, maintenance and planning of electricity and water networks, enhancing operational efficiency and asset operations.
The nanosatellites provide DEWA with compete control over data via the ground station at DEWAs Research and Development (R&D) Centre at the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park. The station is managed by skilled Emirati operators with advanced training. As part of its Space-D programme, DEWA launched two nanosatellites DEWA SAT-1 in January 2022 and DEWA SAT-2 in April 2023.
The nanosatellite has been applied to monitor DEWAs assets in various ways, such as tracking power factor and frequency in low-voltage rooms; monitoring water pipelines for temperature, pressure and flow to detect anomalies; measuring weather conditions like air temperature, humidity and air quality; and collecting power quality data from remote substations. In collaboration with DEWAs partners, seven research papers have been published, detailing use cases for DEWA SAT-1 and advancing the knowledge of direct-to-satellite communications using LoRa protocols.
