Cooling that counts

For, the opportunities presented by these benefits have been fruitful. The concept of district cooling is spreading, installations are being commissioned and other plans are in the pipeline.

“2008 is going to be a very challenging year,” said Ahmad Bin Shafar, Empower’s CEO. “We will announce another four to five plant rooms and our capacity will go to AED 1.5 billion total cost of construction. We also have our first factory, which is coming up and will be commissioned by the end of the third quarter 2008.

“Why have we invested? We know Empower is going to be a leading industrial company and we need to bring it to the attention of our audience. We need to create awareness about district cooling so people understand that air conditioning is going to be aligned with utility services, just like power and water.”

Empower is pitching itself as having a strong customer focus: a 24-hour customer service call centre will be another addition to its assets. The call centre will be operated directly by Empower and service the company’s expected customer base of six to seven thousand consumers. Bin Shafar is adamant that customers will get help and have any issues solved.

“We are concerned about customer satisfaction and delivering our service to the customer,” said Bin Shafar. “The 24 hour contact number will be on the invoice, and we will be the customers first choice to call.”

“As a company, we want to reach for the next level. We have the support of the government and our sister companies. People know industry by its leaders; in district cooling we’re aiming to be the leader in terms of utilities services.”

Cooling calculation

One of the most compelling arguments for the use of district cooling services is the long-term cost benefit. With 70% of a typical Dubai building’s power used up by air conditioning, making sensible use of the region’s finite power resources is also important and place efficient use of energy as the central idea behind district cooling in Dubai.

While a typical building air conditioning system consumes 1.8 kW per cooling tonne, centralised systems reduce that figure to less than 1 kW, sometimes saving up to 50% of the power used to run conventional air conditioning.

Empower has developed a financial model for residential building at Business Bay showing the advantages of using district cooling services in that instance.

Empower’s calculations were based on a few assumptions. The designed capacity for the building is 2 300 tonnes of refrigeration, if the client for the building uses their own air-conditioning system. By using a centralised district cooling system this figures was reduced to 1 950 tonnes of refrigeration.

In the calculations total capital cost per tonne of refrigeration was AED 5 635 and included air cooled chillers, primary pumps, electrical switchgear and transformer, DEWA connection fees, control and electrical work, any extra construction and civil work for chillers foundation and mechanical room for the pumps, as well as piping, valves and insulation.

Other important figures to consider are an estimated AED 230 000 per annum for maintenance if the building has its own self-contained air conditioning system. This is compared to AED 400 000 as capital expenditure, to be used after 10 years to replace condenser coils in the district cooling system.

When the numbers are factored out over twenty years, Empower calculates there will be a AED 11.7 million saving. Added to that is a saving of the space that would normally be taken up by a building’s individual air conditioning plant room, leaving it free for other uses.