Comparing the utilities consumptions in Dubai per category and community: MANOVA and cluster analysis approaches

UAE is marked by the increasing demand for water and electricity due to demographic, environmental and economic factors, coupled with the dependence on water desalination process, which is costly, consumes a lot of energy and is non-environmentally friendly. Like most of the authorities in UAE, Dubai Electricity and Water Authority is facing the challenges of balancing supply with demand and responding to consumer requirements, from one side, and addressing the continuously increasing consumption and slowing it down from another side. Therefore, policy makers can benefit from statistical data analysis in order to make informed decisions. This study aims to equip decision makers with useful tools and analysis to address some of their short- and long-term objectives related to production and consumption. The current study focused on three main objectives: (i) analysing the production of the desalination plants in Dubai, (ii) comparing the consumptions of water and electricity based on the four categories residential, commercial, industrial and others, and (iii) segmenting the various communities in Dubai depending on their consumption behavior. The data used for this study is collected from the open government data and SAS Programming is adopted for data analysis. The results of the analysis revealed that the desalinated water production follows an upward trend, yet still not in line with the consumption growth. Furthermore, there are significant differences between the four categories for both water and electricity consumptions. The highest levels of consumptions are associated with the residential and commercial categories. Finally, the cluster analysis technique revealed fifteen clusters of communities depending on the consumption levels.