Qatar General Electricity & Water Corporation,was established in July, 2000 further to the Emiri Law number 10, to regulate and maintain supply of Electricity & Water to customers.
Since inception, Kahramaa has operated as an independent corporation on a commercial basis with a total capital of four billion Qatari Riyals. Kahramaa was mandated with several responsibilities and commitments, some of which are:

• The right to own, construct, operate and maintain electricity generation stations, water desalination plants, electricity transmission and water distribution networks.
  
• Set up of infrastructure & network development plans and programs.
  
• Lay out regulations, standards and codes of practices which pertain to provision of electricity and water supplies to various buildings and establishments as well as review of their implementations.
  
• Provide consultancies & services related to its operations.
  

Kahramaa board of directors comprises of Chairman, vice-chairman and several members. The board is appointed for a four-year office term subject to renewal by an Emiri decree, based on Kahramaa's law- article 7.

a. Jurisdictions

The Board of directors at Kahramaa is granted extensive authorities to achieve the corporation's goals mainly, the setting, and implementation and follows up of general policies, plans, programs and projects.
The board main responsibilities are the approval of corporation’s organizational structure, endorsement of the financial, administrative and technical internal rules and regulations, employees policies and regulations, as well as approving the corporation investment plans, its annual budgets and closing fiscal year and approves loans with the Government and other parties, in addition to review of the operational and strategic performance.

b. The Financial Resources

The main financial resources of Kahramaa is the annual allocated funds from the state (government), services fees and revenues, the return of its capital investments on its assets as well as the value of its shares and loans extended to others.


The Electricity Sector

The Electricity transmission networks consist of approximately 100 primary High Voltage sub-stations with total 660 km of overhead lines supported by 600 km of underground cables across the country. The network is coupled with 6500 low and medium voltage sub-stations (11kv) and more than 4500km of cable lines.
The National Control Center (NCC), which contains state-of-art technologies, manages all network demand and data acquisition from generation plants and primary sub-stations.

Electricity Demand

Demand on the electrical energy in Qatar has increased over the past fifty years; the maximum load over the network during the period from 1988 to 2003 has risen from 941 Megawatt to 2312 Megawatts (MW). It has reached 2520 MW in 2004.


The Water Sector

The water network in Qatar has been expanded extensively in recent years, the growth of urban areas; industry and agriculture has lead to the increase in the length of the water network to 3622 km and expansion in the number of storage reservoirs to 23 with a total capacity of 259 million gallons of water a day.

Water Demand

Statistical data in the water sector shows a remarkable growth in the capacities of water storage facilities. To give a comparative trend, such an increase has amounted to 259 Million Gallons a Year in comparison to less than 170 mg/year in 1988.

Water Quality

To ensure safe and clean drinking water to high standards and quality, water is subject to daily random bacteriological and laboratory tests undertaken by Kahramaa. Samples are collected and tested from the storage reservoirs and networks up to the customers' storage facilities.


Geographical Coverage

Kahramaa electricity and water networks cover all inhabited areas of the State and ensure high quality electricity and safe drinking water to all populations including industrial and commercial sites.


Achievements and Awards

Kahramaa's corporate culture and values assisted in promoting the team spirit amongst employees and has awarded Kahramaa several regional and international awards such as,

• The Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum distinguished award for the “Successful Arab Management Experience”.
  
• 1st award in the 13th Gulf – Cigre seminar in Oman for the best research titled “The sub-station Automation, Kahramaa experience”.
  
• The GIS award achievements by the Centre for the American Environmental System Research Institute in the USA, (GIS: Geographical Information Systems).
  
• The award of excellence in the 14th Gulf- Cigre seminar in Kuwait for the best scientific research under the title “Operational Problems & Performance of Transmission Overhead Lines in Qatar “.
  
• The award for "The best GIS applications and practices" awarded by the conference of GIS in the Middle East and Africa – Dubai 2004.