H.E. Al Mazrouei says the additional protfolios will focus on energy conservation and efficiency, among other objectives

The UAE Ministry of Energy held a press conference on September 22 at the Ministry of Energy in Abu Dhabi, where H.E. Eng Suhail Mohamed Faraj Al Mazrouei, the UAE Minister of Energy, shared with the media information regarding the new structure and specialities in the Ministry.

At the press conference, the Minister announced that the mandate of the Ministry of Energy had changed to enable it to deal with new challenges facing the world, which included diversity and diversification of energy and the need for a strategic plan for sustainability. The mandate had also changed to regulate new forms of energy, like Renewable Energy, he added.

He shared the information that his Ministry had proposed an organisational structuring to enlarge the workforce. There is to be an over 60% increase in the current organisation and it will have five new directorates, the Minister revealed.

An important objective was conservation of energy and improving energy efficiency, he underscored, and gave details of the roles assigned to the five new directorates:

The first directorate has been assigned with the role of conservation and energy efficiency. The second directorate will focus on the Ministry’s participation in international organisations, while the third directorate will concentrate on clean energy and climate change.

The fourth directorate will oversee organisational development, and the fifth directorate has been tasked to deal with crisis management and be ready for any crisis in the energy sector in the UAE.

“In all, there will be 60 new posts, and we will be hiring till 2016 and will be hiring as per the budget,” the Minister informed. He further elaborated: “The Ministry has a very high percentage of UAE nationals – over 80%. And we are very proud of the achievement. In the new organisational set up, we will try to keep the same percentage of UAE nationals

We will be hiring people with high technical proficiency. We are appreciative of the management of Masdar to give us 10 seats for those who would like to specialise in Renewable Energy. And we will be able to hire those people after they graduate.” After making the announcements, the Minister took on questions from the media.

Answering a question from a journalist on how the ministry was going to manage the federal law versus local laws, he replied: “Whenever we are establishing a new law, we consult all authority bodies and only then do we draft it and send it to Legal.

And once endorsed, it is supported by everyone. And the regulation will be worldclass and we hope to compete with the best in the world.” To a query whether the new directorate on conservation was top priority, the Minister responded: “Conservation is very important. The average percentage per capita is three times the world average when it comes to power consumption, and we don’t like the number. The consumption is driven by subsidy, and the directorate will be there to ensure that the wastage of energy consumption is controlled.

The conservation law will tackle higher consumption level. We are also concerned with the level of pollution. Even though low when compared to other countries, we are trying to reduce. We appreciate the introduction of mass transportation initiatives.

Etihad Rail is on its way to becoming reality, and Dubai already has a tram service. Of course, we will have a natural increase in consumption, and we are trying to increase refinery capacity. The natural increase will be owing to growing population.”