The Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa) has launched an awareness campaign to encourage consumers to reduce water and electricity consumption during the summer. The initiative, called the ‘Peak Load Campaign’, will raise awareness among Dewa customers on the importance of avoiding the use of electrical appliances and devices during the peak hours between 12 noon and 5pm. The authority has to increase its power generation capacity during these hours, resulting in higher consumption of fuel and increased gas emissions. “We rolled out the Peak Load Campaign as part of the Dubai Government’s environmental strategy to achieve sustainable development and to reinforce Dewa’s  role in raising public awareness. Through our current campaign, Dewa aims to encourage responsible behaviour and shared responsibility among our residential consumers in terms of electricity and water consumption and reduce the threat of global warming,” said Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD and CEO, Dewa. The campaign will inform residential consumers how they can help reduce this strain on generation by limiting to off-peak hours their use of electrical devices such as electric irons, washing and dryer machines, dishwashers, water heaters, and electric ovens. The campaign will also urge commercial and industrial customers to shift their less-critical energy operations from peak times to off-peak hours. Air-conditioning represents as much as 60 per cent of the load during peak time consumption. By reducing air-conditioning even marginally, it is possible for consumers to not only lower their electricity bills but also increase the overall reliability and efficiency of the electrical system. If every customer turned down the air-conditioning in their homes or offices from 20 degrees Celsius to either 23 or 24 degrees during electrical peak hours, this will considerably reduce energy consumption. By adopting such a small measure, it is possible to save thousands of tonnes of carbon emissions.