OverWatts Atlas Live map
Browse the atlas

United Arab Emirates · electricity network

United Arab Emirates power grid

OverWatts maps 5,097 km of the United Arab Emirates's electricity transmission network across 590 line segments and 40 substations, the 56th most-mapped grid of 153 countries. Its backbone is extra-high voltage (380–764 kV), carrying 3,341 km — 66% of the mapped length, with the highest tagged voltage at 400 kV. That works out to 63.6 km per 1,000 km² of land — strong OpenStreetMap coverage, ahead of 94% of mapped countries. It is connected to 2 neighbouring grids by 1,300 MW of existing cross-border transfer capacity.

Open the grid lens →United Arab Emirates profile →
5,097 km
Mapped transmission line
40
Substations
#56
of 153 mapped grids
1.3 GW
cross-border · 2 neighbours
400 kV
Highest voltage

OpenStreetMap coverage

Strong63.6 km / 1,000 km²ahead of 94% of 153 mapped countries

This grades how completely OpenStreetMap has drawn the United Arab Emirates's network — not how much network exists. Large, sparsely-populated countries score low for geographic reasons alone, and every kilometre here is mapped length, so the totals are a floor rather than an operator-reported figure. 0% of segments carry a real line name and 2% an operator tag.

Mapped line length by voltage

590 segments · a segment is credited to the country containing its midpoint, so a border-crossing line counts once, on one side.

Cross-border links from the United Arab Emirates

1.3 GW existing · capacities from the Global Transmission Database v0.1 (CC BY 4.0), existing as of 2023

On the interactive map

Open the interactive map →

Load against the network

58.0 GW
Operating generation
2
Data centres mapped
127
km of line per substation
63.6
km per 1,000 km²

Where there is room to connect a new load depends on published hosting capacity, which most operators release only as their own map. OverWatts does not yet ingest those feeds, so these are the density measures the open data supports — generation and mapped demand against mapped network — not a headroom figure.

Operators tagged on the United Arab Emirates's network

Segment counts from OSM `operator` tags, merged across spellings. Present on 2% of segments — this ranks who is recorded, not market share.

How the United Arab Emirates compares · mapped grid by country

Frequently asked

How big is the United Arab Emirates's transmission network?
OverWatts maps 5,097 km of transmission line in the United Arab Emirates, across 590 segments, plus 40 substations. This is mapped length from OpenStreetMap, not an operator-reported total — where OSM is incomplete the figure is a floor, never a ceiling.
What voltage is the United Arab Emirates's grid?
Most of the mapped network is extra-high voltage (380–764 kV): 3,341 km of 5,097 km. The highest voltage tagged anywhere in the country is 400 kV.
How complete is the grid map for the United Arab Emirates?
Strong — 63.6 km of mapped line per 1,000 km² of land, ahead of 94% of the 153 countries with any mapped grid. Coverage grades how completely OpenStreetMap has drawn the network, not how much network exists; large, sparsely-populated countries score low for geographic reasons alone.
Who operates the grid in the United Arab Emirates?
DEWA, Dubai Electricity and Water Authority are tagged as operators on mapped segments. Operator tags are present on 2% of the United Arab Emirates's segments, so this ranks who is *recorded*, not market share.
What interconnectors connect the United Arab Emirates to its neighbours?
1,300 MW of cross-border transfer capacity to Saudi Arabia, Oman. Capacities are from the Global Transmission Database (v1.0, 2023).

Elsewhere in the United Arab Emirates

Transmission linesSubstationsPower plantsData centres

Network geometry: OpenStreetMap (ODbL) © OpenStreetMap contributors, ingested and measured by OverWatts · derived 2026-07-26. Counts every mapped line of 220 kV and above; the map layer draws the ≥380 kV backbone only, so it shows less than is measured here.