Technical article

Cooling a Home in Dubai: What the Official Tariff Says

They have heard that summers in the Gulf are hot, and they want to know what cooling a flat really costs.

By Neil Solomon · 2 min read

Picture a couple named Paul and Helen. They are 66 and 63. They have heard that summers in the Gulf are hot, and they want to know what cooling a flat really costs. They do not want a guess. They want the rate on a page.

For Dubai, the rate is on a page. The Dubai Electricity and Water Authority lists its residential slab tariff. The page said it was last updated on 16 May 2026.

The electricity rates

The page also lists a fuel surcharge labelled "October 2026" of AED 0.060 per kWh. A 5% VAT applies. The page showed no separate summer rate.

A worked example (my arithmetic)

Say a flat used 1,500 kWh in a hot month. At AED 0.230, that is AED 345. Add the AED 0.060 surcharge, which is AED 90. The total is AED 435 before VAT, and about AED 457 with 5% VAT. If use doubled to 3,000 kWh, the first 2,000 kWh would cost AED 460 and the next 1,000 kWh would cost AED 280, which is AED 740. With the surcharge of AED 180 the total is AED 920 before VAT. The slabs mean the price per unit rises as use rises.

I made up the two usage figures. Your own meter history, or the building's, would give a better number.

Water

Water is billed per cubic metre: AED 7.700 up to 27, AED 8.800 from 27 to 54, and AED 10.120 above that. A surcharge of AED 1.100 per cubic metre is listed for October 2026.

What is left open

• Outages. An official page with outage figures for any country is not among the sources.
• Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Oman. The official tariff pages I tried showed an error, listed no rates, or needed software that automated reading could not run.
• Pakistan and India. They are left open.
• Other emirates. The rates above are Dubai's only. Many flats are billed through the landlord or a district cooling company, and no official page on that was found.