In this two-part series, Sougata Nandi analyses four LEED-certified projects in Dubai as benchmarks and assesses how far LEED certification credits are applicable and viable in the region.

Much has been said, debated and theorised about green building certification in the UAE. The entire concept of green building certification and, more specifically, applying established green building rating systems, in general, and LEED, in particular, to certify buildings in the UAE, was opposed aggressively by the industry during the period 2005-2008. Even today, there are reservations about these “imported” rating systems, although UAE itself already has more than 40 LEED-certified projects. The reasons for misgivings is not far to seek. Here is a list of key objections:

• LEED is for the US and, thus, will not work in the UAE.
• ASHRAE 90.1-2004 Lighting Power Densities do not work in Dubai.
• Green buildings cost much more than conventional buildings.
• Many LEED credits are not relevant to the UAE.

August 2006 was the time when we deployed the Sustainable Development Policy at TECOM Investments, the knowledge economy developer in Dubai and the owner of 11 Business Parks. These are: Dubai Internet City, Dubai Media City, Dubai Knowledge Village, Dubai International Academic City, Dubai Outsource Zone, Dubai Studio City, International Media Production Zone, Dubai Biotechnology and Research Park, Enpark, Dubai Healthcare City and Dubai Industrial City. The key objectives of the policy were to construct all new buildings as LEED Silver-certified at the minimum, reduce electricity and water costs and implement sustainable procurement.

This article analyses four LEED-certified projects in Dubai and assesses what can and cannot be done in this part of the world, as also the commercial implications of LEED projects. Understanding of this analysis requires prior knowledge of the LEED rating system for green buildings. This is not an explanation of LEED certification mechanism but a consolidation of four projects used as case studies to demonstrate the applicability of LEED in this region.

To put it succinctly, it must be remembered that LEED certification, or for that matter, any green building certification mechanism is an adoption of the “best practices” in design and development – elements that should be considered by default for developments that aspire to be responsible to the environment, to the economy and to the people inside and outside the buildings.

ANALYSIS FRAMEWORK

The Sustainable Energy and Environment Division’s (SEED) LEED certification work at TECOM is largely focused on Core and Shell type of developments. In 2009, we delivered the first LEED Platinum Commercial Interior – the TECOM Management Office located out of Dubai Internet City’s Building Number 4. At 10,000 square feet of built-up space, the prime driver for us to have this space certified was to demonstrate our commitment to the green building programme and to lead by the highest example possible.

Beginning April 2009, TECOM has delivered four LEED C&S-certified buildings – the sixth, seventh, 12th and 13th LEED-certified projects in the region. This is in addition to TECOM Management Office’s LEED Platinum Commercial Interior, which was also the fifth LEED-certified project in the region. Thus, in a manner of speaking, SEED’s green building programme consolidated the trend of green building certification in the region.

As part of our ongoing mandate, SEED is committed to generating awareness on sustainable development in the region, and has consciously shared technical and financial information on the LEED projects developed at TECOM. While data from the four projects do not necessarily constitute a highly reliable statistical stock, it nevertheless demonstrates certain pointers, which may guide developers and sustainability practitioners to make the LEED certification process more efficient, cost-saving and, most importantly, help focus on the right areas that are possible and relevant. Towards this end, this treatise is focused on information from four LEED Core and Shell-certified projects listed in Figure 1.

The LEED Gold Commercial offices at Dubai Studio City secured the Sustainable GCC Project of the Year in 2010 at the MEP Awards.

Except for the OMD Building, all the other three buildings are designed to be served by district cooling systems, with OMD Building having its own air-cooled chillers. While Nucleotide Laboratory Complex is designed to have 100% fresh air (being a laboratory), the other three projects have standard HVAC systems for office complexes.

This analysis will look at the credits that were achieved at these projects, review the project financials and will come to certain conclusions at the end.

The analysis assumes that the readers are familiar with LEED and its various rating frameworks. Those unfamiliar with the LEED for Core and Shell certification programme are advised to visit www.usgbc.org for detailed information on how the rating system works.

PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF FOUR LEED CORE AND SHELL PROJECTS IN DUBAI

The summary LEED C&S scorecard for all four projects is listed in Figure 2 below. It needs to be pointed out that the prime driver for SEED’s work is to reduce operating and/or capital expenditure for the organisation. Having our new projects LEED certified assists in reaching these objectives. The second key issue is that SEED is focused on small shifts at a time. Thus, the objective for all our projects is to secure a LEED Silver level of certification as a minimum, as opposed to LEED Platinum or Living Buildings. However, if an opportunity were to present itself to secure a LEED Gold or a higher level of certification, it would be captured, as in the case of commercial offices at Dubai Studio City. This target may evolve and become more mature over a period of time.

The summary scorecard demonstrates that the number of points secured by these four projects range from 29 to 36 – a narrow band of only seven points or 10% variation on a scale, where 61 is the maximum. Commercial offices at Dubai Studio City have outscored the next closest project by four points, of which three have come from “Optimise Energy Performance” credit. Our focus, thus, is quite evident.

The percentages listed within each category in the scorecard indicate the success rate of the credits within the particular category. Fifty-seven per cent for sustainable sites indicates that on an average (for these four projects), 57% of the credits within this category have been successfully secured. Similarly, the success rates are 95% for Water Efficiency, 48% for Energy and Atmosphere, 18% for Materials and Resources, 52% for Indoor Environmental Quality and 90% for Innovation and Design Process.

Overall, these four projects have secured 53% of the total credits successfully, in addition to fulfilling the pre-requisites. Projects planning to pursue LEED C&S certification may want to utilise this number of 53% as a reference pointer.

The following sections address the details of each of the six individual categories for the LEED C&S certification, namely Sustainable Sites, Water Efficiency, Energy and Atmosphere, Materials and Resources, Indoor Environmental Quality and Innovation and Design Process.

SUSTAINABLE SITES

For the purpose of quantifying performance, the pre-requisites have also been allocated a point each for each category. As it is shown in Figure 3, this category produces an average performance. This category is typified by certain credits that are simple and could already be available by default.

Credits like site selection, development density and public transportation access are examples of such types of credits. Brownfield re-development is impossible to achieve, not only in Dubai but also anywhere in the world, unless the project is situated at an environmentally damaged or sensitive site. This is rare for projects in Dubai.

Credits like bicycle storage and showering facilities are irrelevant here, not just because of the weather but also because of the nature of our developments, which tend not to have safe and secure bicycling roads leading up to them.

One of the technically easiest credits to achieve is the Light Pollution Reduction credit. Unfortunately, this does not work on projects here due to a tilt towards bright lighting requirement attributed to brand image. Finally, a very tricky credit to decide on is the parking capacity. Given the penchant for an automobile-driving culture and a public transportation system that has just begun taking shape, applying this credit on to a project might constitute a commercial risk, and is sometimes perceived as impacting the viability of a project.

Non-roof heat island effect credit is easily achieved, as by default, three of the projects have their car parks in the basement and all surface parking is shaded. Dubai International Academic City Phase Three was the first LEED project in the region to provide dedicated car parking spots for energy efficient/green vehicles and, thus, is the only one of the four projects to secure this credit.

WATER EFFICIENCY

As it is evident from Figure 4 below, assigning priority to credits in this category, is a no-brainer. Successful realisation of credits in this category has all-round benefits to all stakeholders – the developer, occupants, utility companies, municipalities, environment and future generations. Most importantly, from the viewpoint of a commercially driven organisation, this means significant operating cost savings for the lifetime of the project.

This category is also most easy to achieve, as can be noted from Figure 4, which shows that three projects achieved five out of five and one project secured four out of five credits.

For our LEED projects, water efficiency is a top priority item, as it has tremendous cost-saving implications, not only in terms of purchasing of potable water but also in relation to disposing of wastewater on some of our projects, which do not have a municipal sewage connection and, thus, have to rely on sewage tankers.

Sewage tanker rates had crossed AED1,000 for a 10,000-gallon tanker during the peak of the economic boom in Dubai. Thus, reducing, or perhaps, completely eliminating sewage tanker requirement saves much more money than reduction of potable water purchase.

What Figure 4 does not display is that, it is highly possible to perform over and beyond the expectations in both wastewater treatment and reduction in potable water consumption. However, these achievements get captured in Innovation and Design Process category.

ENERGY AND ATMOSPHERE

The presence of the word “atmosphere” in the name of the category clearly underscores the very close link between energy and environment. The continuous and incremental damage that all development is bound to cause can be limited through energy efficiency, green power and appropriate refrigerant usages.

While most of the credits within this category will be achieved to varying degrees of success through appropriate application of time, effort and money, the two credits of On Site Renewable Energy and Green Power are highly unlikely to be achieved in Dubai, even if no constraints were to be levied on budgets. This is so for two very simple reasons: (1) green power is not available through the grid here, and (2) due to significantly high annual energy consumptions in buildings here, on-site renewable energy (typically solar photovoltaic or solar water heating) find it difficult to meet the one per cent threshold criterion.

Enhanced Commissioning is a credit that is rarely going to be pursued as a norm, simply because of the fact that it is likely to cost more than regular commissioning. And given the lack of an obvious evident return in financial terms, is generally not pushed for. The other challenge with this credit is an apparent lack of expertise in conforming to the prescribed LEED requirements.

Thus, the prime focus within this category gravitates towards energy-efficient design, since these are achievable, and even if these may require additional time, effort and money, they will definitely have significant positive financial returns for the life cycle of the project.

In mature construction markets around the world, achieving more credits in energy efficiency usually requires additional capital cost. This occurs due to more costly but energy-efficient lighting technologies, enhanced insulation levels, significantly higher-performing glazing, highly energy-efficient chillers and chilled water systems. However, in the UAE, buildings are generally over-designed for both lighting and air conditioning in order to allow for safety factors. For example:

While ASHRAE 90.1 may recommend an LPD (Lighting Power Density) of 1.3 W/square feet for office, it is not uncommon to find designs with 3.0 W/square feet.

While some projects function adequately with an installed HVAC capacity of around 400 square feet/TR, there are many over-designed projects that have installed capacity of less than 200 square feet/TR.

In such situations, applying green building design criterion actually helps eliminate over-design and encourages right-sizing. This, in turn, reduces capital expenditure, sometimes significantly (in the range of several hundred thousand US dollars). Most often, this more than offsets any additional costs incurred in selection of more energy-efficient chillers or LED lights, for example.

In essence, this scenario eliminates the constraints of premium prices required to build green.

The writer is the Executive Director, Asset Management & Sustainable Development, TECOM Business Parks Operations. He can be contacted at Sougata.nandi@tecom.ae/ Sougatan@eim.ae

To be continued in the next issue …

Data centres focus on improving the efficiency of IT equipment. But it is equally important to look at the bigger picture and assess the cost of cooling requirements, says Rajiv Sivaraman. He argues that energy benchmarking is the key to improving energy performance.

Electricity has always been a significant overhead in an environment where data processing, data transmission and data storage are the primary functions. However, typically, Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) models in data centres have tended to focus on driving down the cost of the IT equipment rather than seeking to optimise the energy expended in keeping it cool. This is, perhaps, understandable when energy costs are low. However, at a time when they are not only at an all-time high but also expected to double in the next 10 years, a rethink in strategy which recognises the role of energy is certainly advisable. Critical to this is managing the cooling requirements, given that an estimated 40% of a data centre’s overall power is used for this purpose.

LOOKING AT THE COMPLETE PICTURE

A simplistic approach to the energy equation, perhaps, suggests that it should not be the focus for data centres. This is especially so, if we take into consideration the fact that, on an average, the performance per watt of a server doubles every two years, resulting in a constantly reduced cost per performance and constantly higher performance per unit. However, this is certainly far from the complete picture. Power capacity is increasing exponentially – almost doubling since the year 2000 – as data centres scale their infrastructure to keep pace with the demand for processing and delivering increasing quantities of video, voice and data through a vast global network of several billion devices. Business needs to continue to outstrip improvements in server performance. This implies that every year, the number of server units is growing. The increased density of the servers brings with it challenges in terms of accumulated heat load ‘hotspots’. And, as business operations become ever more reliant on data centres for business continuity, so does the need increase for more expensive designs, which try, as far as is possible, to prevent any interruption to the IT network. Energy costs are, therefore, increasingly becoming the focus, as data centres seek a more transparent approach to metering, monitoring and controlling their energy use.

METERING, MONITORING AND CONTROLLING

It might appear to be a fairly obvious point, but nonetheless one worth making, that in order to understand its energy consumption and how it can be optimised, a data centre needs to have a means of measuring it. Many data centres actually run at temperatures significantly lower than that required by the IT equipment. Recognising this fact can be a very useful starting point for cutting energy and its attendant cost. Energy benchmarking is the key to improving energy performance, which will provide a top level indicator of potential savings. It establishes a baseline for energy use in a typical facility, provides comparisons against similar facilities, identifies operational or maintenance problems, highlights areas for potential improvement and establishes best practice for incorporating into future designs.

In the light of the benefits listed, it is evident that monitoring and control systems need to be put in place to keep track of how and where energy is used within a data centre. Such systems are designed to provide integrated metering and monitoring to detect and respond to a variety of events that can not only assist in reducing energy consumption but also help warn of situations that actually threaten the operation of the data centre.

EFFECTIVE COOLING STRATEGIES

As already indicated, high quality and reliable cooling systems are, or need to be important features of any data centre, as they help avoid hardware malfunction and, thus, maintain the all-important continuity of service on which a centre’s clients rely. Therefore, if an effective cooling management strategy is not employed, the air-flow will be dictated by a data centre’s physical layout and the characteristics and positioning of its IT and cooling equipment.

It is important to note that the means to prevent hot air and cold air mixing, often referred to as Hot/Cold Aisle design, is a fundamental goal in a data centre’s cooling technology. This involves the effective management and control of air-flow to help prevent short-circuiting of cooling systems, isolating the hot exhaust air from the cool air supply, and thereby lowering the load of the cooling unit and maximising efficiency.

In fact, the simple act of ensuring that cooling units are moved closer to IT equipment can reduce cooling costs by more than 30%, compared with traditional approaches to cooling. The use of filler insulation panels within racks to isolate the hot air from the cold air can also reduce wasted energy in closed rack cooling, while independent cooling units can be used for equipment in different function rooms to ensure that cooling capacity is distributed on an ‘as-required’ basis, again reducing unnecessary power consumption. Also, ‘free cooling’ technology can be employed using filtered external fresh air, with the added benefit of creating a positive air pressure to effectively block dirt from outside, ensuring a clean environment.

ACTIVE ENERGY MANAGEMENT

While cooling is a very important factor, integrated systems not only monitor cooling efficiency but also take into account many other features which can impact the overall energy use.

Central to the Active Energy Management approach is the need for transparency in power flows. Current consumption and power flows need to be analysed through power monitoring devices, E-counters and communication-capable circuit-breakers. Through communication interfaces, these devices can be integrated into high-level building automation and energy management systems that consider energy efficiency in a much more holistic way, providing monitoring and control through the integration of all data from the building control, fire safety, security, lighting and power systems. Energy reports can be generated by these building automation and control systems, with the data retrieved from the process units which record the values delivered by the system’s field devices. Trends can be established from a number of different reports, including energy consumption, energy costs, CO2 emissions and comfort requirements.

COST SHIFT

There has undoubtedly been a shift in terms of the TCO in data centres. No longer is it the cost of the IT equipment that represents the largest element, but rather, the means through which the equipment is powered and cooled. With energy costs only set to rise, and the seemingly insatiable demand for more and more business applications requiring increased capacity from data centres, the spotlight on energy costs will become even greater.

The writer is Senior Vice President, Head, Market Development Board Data Centres, Siemens Building Technologies Division. He has spent over 18 years in the field of industry, infrastructure and energy sectors with specialisation in project management, marketing and new business/market initiatives

It is beyond question that air filtration is a field that encompasses a vast sweep of modern science and technology, with fingerprints pervading, both our day-to-day and industrial activities. The last 2,000 years of the history of air filtration reflects the path of triumphs and trials we have traversed along empirical endeavours to understand air filter behaviour. Filtration theories are increasingly becoming well developed in the past 60 years. This is a testament to the ushering in of high-speed computer applications into the field of air filtration, as they emerged in the 1960s.

PERFORMANCE CHARACTERISTICS

Perhaps, the first characteristic that comes to mind when we consider air filters performance is efficiency and, to some extent, pressure drop. Permeability is also an important characteristic of filter for product specification. Permeability of a porous medium may be regarded as the measure of the ease with which a fluid will flow the voids [Filtration Dictionary, 2008]. It can be calculated based on Darcy’s Law, and has units of, m2 or darcy, 1 m2 = 1.013×1012 darcy.

Darcy’s Law states that the pressure drop across an air filter is proportional to the air flow through it. The flow through an air filter is considered to be low-speed, incompressible, Newtonian and is governed by Darcy’s Law: (1) where is the permeability of the filter medium, is the air viscosity, U is the air velocity and h is the medium thickness.

By eye-balling Darcy’s Law, one can conclude that the pressure drop is inversely proportional to a filter’s permeability. The magnitude of permeability is determined by the degree of filtration medium’s “openness” or “porosity” as well as the size of the pores present in the internal structure of the filter medium, as shown in Figure 1. According to the Filtration Dictionary, porosity is defined as the ratio of the void volume to the total volume of material.

Clearly, any attempt to lower the pressure drop by lowering the thickness of the filtration material would reflect in lower readings in a filter’s overall efficiency. According to Darcy’s Law, there exists a linear relationship between pressure drop response and flow rate, which also signifies that the permeability of the filtration medium does not change, and the pressure drop should vary linearly with the filtration velocity. Therefore, an intuitive attempt to lower pressure drop would amount to lowering the medium velocity by increasing the surface area. Thus, the pressure drop of the filter is expected to decrease as the surface area increases, keeping in mind that there are certain design limitations to this effect.

Pleating the filter medium provides a larger surface area in a given space, which decreases the air medium velocity. As far as the filter efficiency is concerned, slower medium velocity translates into a longer aerosol’s residence time inside the filtration medium, which increases the probability of the particle-fibre contact. This results in an enhancement of diffusional capture efficiency, leading to increased particle- loading capacity per unit area, when compared with a flat sheet medium. Pleating the filtration medium also enables an increase in the collection efficiency for a given pressure drop, provides higher dust holding capacity and reduces energy consumption. In terms of structural integrity, pleated medium panels are more stable than a flat sheet of the same medium, which is inclined to deform and, eventually, rupture.

When higher filtration efficiency is addressed, pleated filters are used to provide the required surface area to achieve absolute filtration classes, such as HEPA and ULPA, which is impossible to attain by using flat sheet or multi-pocket filters. Pleated filters also provide longer lifetime in operation, which would positively reflect in less shut-down and reduced maintenance costs.

Pleated filters are commonly used in various critical applications related to HVAC, gas turbines, clean rooms, space and nuclear industries applications. The critical nature of these applications requires specific filtration performance. Therefore, accurate prediction of the pleated filter’s performance is of paramount importance in order to make appropriate filter selection by achieving an optimising filter design.

While users demand efficient air filters in removing contaminants, it is equally important that the filter is permeable to air. Figure 3 shows a good example of dust-loaded filters with particles settling around the fibre, keeping the pores open. In this case, therefore, the changes in permeability are insignificant, which translates into a negligible change in pressure drop. By doing so, the filters will behave as depth filters, and will deal with the appropriate particle size distribution according to their filter class. For example, the main function of HEPA filters is the removal of particles of sub one micrometre in size. Using HEPA filter to strain pollen particles on its surface, as shown in Figure 4 is a waste of the HEPA’s medium depth. A pollen particle, which is usually 25 to 100 micrometre, can be easily removed from the air stream by a coarse filter.

Obviously, filters were manufactured to separate particles from the air stream and retain them within their medium. When this happens, over time, the behaviour of a filter can be divided into two phases: the “stationary phase” and the “non-stationary” phase. In the stationary phase, the changes occurring in the filter structure due to particle deposition are negligible, which implies that the filter efficiency is unaffected. Particles captured by the filter fibres do not greatly alter the filtration mechanisms. Also, during the stationary phase, the variations in efficiency and pressure drop across the filter do not significantly change with time.

The non-stationary phase, on the other hand, is the phase where progressive buildup of particle deposition causes the formation of solid aerosol aggregates, which lead to greater increase in pressure drop and the filter’s efficiency.

Fine particles are more penetrating than coarse ones, and are capable of occupying the interstitial spaces inside the filter medium, which is responsible for the rise in the pressure drop of the filter. Figure 5 illustrates the progress of the non-stationary filtration phase until the depth of the media is nearly fully utilised.

This microscopic journey highlights that appropriate filter selection is absolutely essential to serve each application optimally. However, such a critical selection requires an understanding of the basic principles of air filtration and the associated developments, as particles challenge the filter medium.

It may appear to some that filter selection is just a mundane process, where the age-old choices of yesterday fit today’s and tomorrow’s needs. But the question is, is it such an automatic choice as it is made out to be?

Continuous research and development of air filters leading to state-of-the-art aerodynamic absolute designs, forces us to alter our attitudes and perception towards the role of air filtration. Although the behaviour of dust-loaded filters still requires further research, experimentation and theoretical investigations to better comprehend air filter performance, we are in a better position than before when we look at what we knew about air filtration a century ago. Today, hundreds of air filtration companies, equipped with cutting-edge technologies, have joined the enchanting mission of further exploring the mysteries of air filtration.

References: Tarleton ES and Wakeman RJ, 2008. “Dictionary of Filtration and Separation”, Filtration Solutions, Exeter.

In this Part 2 of our post-event coverage of Food Chain, we bring to you the presentation on PIC (Person In-Charge) by Richard Sprenger, Chairman of Highfield Awarding Body for Compliance, UK.

High standards of food safety are critical to protect consumers, tourism and the profit of food businesses.

Food safety is the responsibility of the Dubai Municipality Food Control Department (the Department), which is committed to ensuring the highest standards of hygiene, especially in the higher-risk food premises.

In June 2009, two young children died, allegedly from food poisoning, as a result of eating takeaway food from a Dubai restaurant. This was the catalyst for Dubai Municipality to secure additional improvements in food safety.

Four and five star hotels were already legally required to have a food safety management system in place, train staff and maintain the premises and equipment to the highest standards. Furthermore, many of the hotels employ well-qualified hygiene officers to provide advice, train staff and protect customers.

The Department researched globally to find food safety initiatives that had improved standards and reduced the risk of food poisoning. One such initiative has been implemented in Australia, where every licensable food business in Queensland is required to have a food safety supervisor.

In Florida, USA, it is the responsibility of the certified manager to inform all employees under their supervision and control who engage in the storage, preparation, or serving of food, to do so in accordance with acceptable sanitary practices. Furthermore, all food establishments must have a certified manager or managers responsible for all periods of operation.

DUBAI MUNICIPALITY’S PIC PROGRAMME

Bobby Krishna Tulasi, Senior Food Studies and Surveys Officer at Dubai Municipality and Co-ordinator of the Dubai International Food Safety Conference, recommended that Dubai Municipality should implement the “Person in Charge Programme” (the PIC Programme). The Director of the Food Control Department, Khalid Sheriff Al Awadhi, who is committed to maintaining Dubai as a leader in food safety, also gave his full support to the programme. He believes that the Person in Charge concept will help food establishments in Dubai maintain world-class standards.

In light of this, Krishna Tulasi contacted several food safety experts to seek their views on the most effective way of implementing the PIC Programme, including two of the world’s leading food safety experts – Dr Peter Snyder and Dr Ben Shepherd from the United States, and Professor Chris Griffith, now residing in South Africa.

Even I was approached by the Department to provide advice on the content and implementation of this world-leading initiative, and to provide advice on training and qualifications. It was considered important to link the Person in Charge Certification to an internationally recognised qualification.

The programme became mandatory in January 2011, and all food premises must comply with it by the end of the year. New premises will not be licensed unless they have the required number of PICs in place.

HOW THE PROGRAMME WORKS

A Person in Charge is required for all types of food businesses. The PIC is required to be present throughout the whole operation of the business, and is accountable to the owner and the Government for making sure all food handlers follow satisfactory policies and procedures relating to food safety. This means that most businesses will require more than one PIC, and in the case of large businesses, such as hotels, it is likely they will need at least two PICs for every restaurant.

A PIC can be the owner, a manager or a supervisor. But they must have direct authority, control and supervision of the food handlers. Selecting the right managers/supervisors to be a PIC will be essential to the success of the programme. Food inspectors from Dubai Municipality will, therefore, assist owners in determining the most appropriate candidates.

The level of training and qualification of the PIC depends on the risk associated with the business. So, PICs in large, high-risk businesses will need to successfully complete a three-day course and examination, equivalent to UK’s Ofqual accredited Level 3 Award in Food Safety. Whereas, the PICs in smaller premises and lower-risk businesses will need to successfully complete a two-day course and examination equivalent to the UK’s Ofqual accredited Level 2 Award in Food Safety.

Highfield Awarding Body for Compliance (HABC) is currently the only Ofqual-accredited Awarding Body that is approved to offer the PIC Certification in Dubai. HABC can, therefore, provide the PICs with an opportunity to obtain an internationally recognised UK qualification as well as the PIC certification.

The final day of the two courses focuses on Dubai rules and regulations, the role and responsibilities of the PIC and, in particular, the requirement for the PIC to undertake regular internal inspections and produce comprehensive reports.

These reports will be closely examined by the Dubai Municipality’s food inspectors carrying out routine inspections or visiting as a result of a customer complaint. In fact, the PIC will become the liaison officer for the food inspector as well as the person who the public can request to see in the event of a complaint or if they have an allergen problem.

TRAINING THE TRAINERS

Highfield was responsible for developing a suitable course for both the PICs and the PIC trainers. The first part of the courses is very much based on the UK Level 2 and Level 3 HABC Awards in Food Safety, but modified to take into account the requirements of food safety in Dubai.

One of the key features of the last day of the course is the “Desktop inspection”, which consists of a series of photographs showing poor food safety practices. Candidates have to be able to identify the problem and advise on the immediate action that must be taken to solve it. They, then, need to recommend the action that must be taken to prevent the recurrence of the hygiene non-compliance in the future. Unlike the UK, the examination cannot be invigilated by the trainer, and the Awarding Bodies have been given this responsibility.

Highfield thought that the programme would have a greater chance of success if all the stakeholders were invited to contribute at the outset, rather than the Dubai Municipality imposing it without consultation. Consequently, the pilot PIC Train the Trainer courses included managers from all sectors of the food industry, food inspectors and trainers. Several significant changes were made to the content of the training material as a result of this co-operation, including the decision to change terminology from American to European.

It is a requirement that PIC trainers are certified by approved Awarding Bodies and registered with the Department. Additionally, they have to have a clear understanding of the PIC competencies, the knowledge and experience to explain the need for these competencies and the necessary training skills to deliver the training programme effectively. They will need a relevant degree or a UK Level 4 accredited food safety qualification and at least two years’ experience working in a food safety-related job. This includes working in food service/catering at a managerial level or in a technical capacity.

PIC trainers must also successfully complete a two-day Train the Trainer Course provided by an approved Awarding Body and the Dubai Municipality. Training companies are approved for a period of three years. Trainers will also need to undertake 30 hours of Continuing Professional Development to maintain professional competence, enhance existing knowledge/skills and develop new knowledge and skills.

At present, Highfield has been responsible for training over 120 PIC trainers and food inspectors, which is around 95% of all people that have been trained in Dubai to date.

After successfully completing the PIC course and examination, the PIC is certified for a period of five years. A certified refresher training course must be completed before the end of the third year.

It is intended that training programmes and examinations be provided in several languages for the Level 2 training, including Arabic, Malayalam, Bengali and Urdu. The Level 3 PIC courses will be conducted primarily in English, although an Arabic and a Malayalam examination paper will also be available.

CHECKS AND BALANCES

Should a PIC leave the employment, the business must obtain a replacement PIC within 30 days and enroll them on the PIC training programme within 15 days.

PIC Awarding Bodies have to be approved by the Dubai Municipality and accredited by the Dubai Accreditation Department in accordance with ISO 17024.

The Awarding Bodies are responsible for ensuring the effectiveness of the programme, including the auditing of five per cent of training sessions provided by each trainer. They are also responsible for monitoring the CPD of trainers. The audit information will generate a grading scale for trainers, which will be displayed on the Dubai Municipality website.

Another key feature of the PIC Programme is that it will be subject to independent evaluation by PhD students from the University of North Carolina under the close supervision of Dr Ben Shepherd.

Highfield is very pleased to be involved with such an innovative and comprehensive food safety programme, which is designed to improve food safety by ensuring managers are accountable for the standard of their business and the safety and quality of the food sold.

Heat exchangers represent the most basic yet fundamental feature of any air conditioning and refrigeration process. Still, this market segment is often overlooked. Valeria Camerino sheds some light on the latest trends, technologies and applications for this key HVACR component.

As Pramod Padmanabhan, Director – Middle East Operations at Gulf Sondex explains, heat exchangers are an industrial application of convective heat transfer and heat transmission. Several approaches can be used for classification of heat exchangers, including the classification by action principles, purposes and materials. As heat transfer equipment, heat exchangers are widely used in industries, especially in those fields requiring high energy consumption.

In recent years, different types of heat exchangers have been introduced into the market, as a result of the rapid development of energy-saving technology, Padmanabhan says.

“Currently, Saudi Arabia and Qatar are the two largest markets, where we expect a boom in the near future,” he reveals.

The company, which has been involved in a number of regional projects, including King Abdulla Financial District in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Central Market Redevelopment, in Abu Dhabi and Barwa Commercial Avenue in Qatar, specialises in the developing and manufacturing of gasketed plate heat exchangers, semi-welded plate heat exchangers, free flow plate heat exchangers and brazed plate heat exchangers for a large number of segments.

Those include HVAC, industrial, food, dairy, hygienic, refrigeration and marine applications.

Furthermore, in order to better cater for the needs of its clients in Dammam, Riyadh, Jeddah and other Saudi cities, the group, which boasts an international presence, has recently opened a new office in Saudi Arabia.

Shwan Lamei, Area Sales Manager, Middle East at SWEP International, also sees many investment opportunities in Saudi Arabia.

The company, which is “fairly new to the [Middle East] market”, focuses on air conditioning, including evaporators and condensers, district cooling and other water-related applications.

“The biggest markets for chiller applications are the UAE, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan, where the large OEM producers are located,” Lamei says.

He claims that SWEP’s sales numbers have not been affected by the downturn. “On the contrary, we experienced rapid sales growth during the crisis,” he points out.

In Padmanabhan’s view, for the food and dairy industry, the refrigeration sector, as well as the industrial and marine segment, the main challenge is to carry out the cooling operations with minimum energy consumption.

For Chetan Gajria, Market Unit Manager-Comfort at Alfa Laval, the heat exchanger market is growing steadily but “not as much as in 2008”.

The company has been involved in a number of major regional projects, including the ski slope at Dubai’s Mall of the Emirates, Burj Khalifa, Emirates Palace in Abu Dhabi, The Pearl in Qatar, Bahrain World Trade Centre, and the Kingdom Centre in Riyadh.

“Country wise, it is very clear which countries will have large projects over the next few years,” he says. “But the region as a whole is seeing enormous growth in population and per capita income is on average higher than global numbers.”

Gajria explains that investment is high in sustainable and energy-efficient products.

“A large number of countries have been operating at an artificially low price for gas, which means that over time the price will increase and have a domino effect on all utilities,” he says. “The industry sees this and is starting to demand more efficient products and designs.”

Alfa Laval Comfort division’s client-based is made up of contractors and end-use district cooling providers. “The demand is still strong in the traditional base and new avenues are opening up every day,” Gajria points out.
In his view, plate heat exchangers are experiencing a broad transformation with the Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute (AHRI) standards now gaining acceptance. Technologies like brazed heat exchangers, fully welded plate heat exchangers and double walled units are being used more and more, replacing legacy technologies.

“The brazed technology is well-established in virtually all regions across the world, except for the Middle East,” argues Lamei.

He adds that SWEP can provide brazed plate heat exchangers (BPHEs) with asymmetric designs.

Some BPHEs are available with different types of channel plates where the herring-bone pattern varies. By mixing different plates (high, medium, low resistance), the thermal characteristics of the BPHE can be modified.

Siraj Nettikkadan, Alfa Laval’s Market Unit Manager – Refrigeration, acknowledges that the market is increasingly moving towards a commoditisation of the product, as customers place great emphasis on cost. “We are the market leaders, so we have to be the benchmark,” he says.

However, Padmanabhan from Gulf Sondex holds a different view: “Customers have never compromised on quality due to the cost factor,” he says. “They regard performance capability of products as highly important.”

The company educates its customers on the long-term benefits of using its products “that are designed to enhance performance and considerably reduce the downtime during service or shutdowns especially considering the critical application of heat exchangers in the HVAC industry”.

Sondex is also trying to educate its existing customers on the importance of maintaining the systems clean in order to save energy costs.

“Although cost is important, I feel that space saving, along with operational dependability are also gaining importance,” Lamei observes.

As Nettikkadan explains, Alfa Laval is working closely with potential customers to convince them of the safety benefits of its products.

“However, we now give them options so that they can choose keeping in mind the cost associated with it,” he says.

Gajria observes that in view of the financial slowdown of the last few years, it should come as no surprise that customers place a strong emphasis on cost.

“Solutions like direct connect might be plausible solutions on some projects, but the advantage of using PHEs [plate heat exchangers] cannot be disregarded,” he says. “We have all seen the Middle East market maturing at a very high pace on acceptability, purchase and installation. But it will need time to reach the same level with operational information and feedback.”

He argues that only recently, loads have increased and actual performance issues have come to light.

“Expect a correction as the results of extremely controlled capital expenditure manifest themselves as higher operation expenditure,” Gajria says.

He explains that many of Alfa Laval’s partners are re-thinking the way they design their systems to make them suitable for different building heights.

“We regularly provide support on issues like part load performance and what-if scenarios to help our customers understand the actual impact of real-life situations on heat exchangers,” Gajria claims.

He observes that hydrostatic testing is a minimum requirement for any pressure vessel. But as the heat exchangers are at the heart of any building, performance testing is also necessary.

“Every manufacturer will claim one parameter or the other,” he says. “Alfa Laval believes that by working with an industry standard like AHRI, we will all – manufacturers, contractors, designers – be on the same page. We strongly support this industry initiative.”

As Padmanabhan explains, Sondex has gained EN ISO 9001:2008 Quality Standard certification – recognition. The company also follows industry standards as per ASME “U” stamp, PED 97/23/EC, National Board Certification and AD2000 design requirements.

“[The ASME “U” stamp] accreditation is the culmination of intense work including an analysis of internal processes, rectification of any identified shortcomings and the implementation of statistical measures. These processes are reinforced by effective communication,” Padmanabhan says.

The company has carried out performance tests as per AHRI. These certified units have been supplied to St Regis Resort in Saadiyat Island in Abu Dhabi, UAE.

As he explains, Heat Exchanger Performance Monitoring is a standardised procedure that can be tailored to each individual customer, he says. The performance parameters that are assessed in the process include effect [MW], temperature efficiency [-] and terminal temperature difference [ºC].

Some heat exchanger manufacturers are not fully satisfied with current installation practices.

“A large number of present installations turn out to be installed, connected and forgotten with little emphasis on enabling maintenance. Operators experience the difficulties and usually have no choice but to live with it,” Gajria says.

In his opinion, Operations and Maintenance should be a part of the decision making process at the time of capital expenditure in order to make the life-time costs of the systems more transparent.

For Nettikkadan, one of the main installation issues is that most end-users prefer to keep the size of the plant room to minimum.

As a result, they don’t leave enough space to remove the plates and gaskets for service after five years or so. “Generally there will be a vessel above the unit and there will not be provision for a lifting hoist for future service requirements,” he explains.

Padmanabhan claims that he is not aware of any installation issues as installation and commissioning is supervised by Sondex’s engineering team.
Gajria observes that, unlike other countries in the world where heating is the dominant power application, the GCC market is largely characterised by hot weather and, as such, air conditioning and cooling are widely used.

The company has introduced a number of technologies, such as NTU plates and lower channel sizes to address these challenges, along with new technologies such as the T series of heat exchangers and double-walled units for domestic water cooling/heating.

For Lamei from SWEP International, over-dimensioned systems, that in some cases can cause decreased performance at lower loads, are among the key challenges of the GCC heat exchanger market.

Both Nettikkadan and Gajria advocate for greater operator and end-users’ involvement in the CAPEX decision making process.

“This is a culture that prevails in Europe,” Nettikkadan says, “but it will take much longer [here] for CAPEX to be replaced by OPEX as the main driving force in the decision making process.”

“Maintenance contracts with suppliers are being largely overlooked,” Gajria argues, adding that if they become a standard demand, they would result in minimal cost for the customer, but at the same time, they would ensure a higher uptime and lower reaction times.

He also calls for a review of design technologies.

“Design philosophy need to change. A very low LMTD [log mean temperature difference] is still looked at as an efficient system design, which is not true. By saving that degree, you are causing the equipment to become more expensive and the system’s heat transfer coefficient to drop considerably. As a result, the system becomes very unreliable,” Gajria says.

He continues: “Add to that the normal part load scenarios and you have an oversized system that is a disaster to control.”

In his view, a comparison with electrical thermal storage (ETS) design philosophy and sizes from other established cooling markets in the world might help identifying potential room for improvement.

Citing successful examples of district heating in Europe and South Korea, George Berbari interrogates why the models cannot be replicated for district cooling in the region.

Currently, more than three million tonnes of central chilled water plants have been built and commissioned in the GCC region, of which, around 65% of the capacity has been installed in UAE, where district cooling has achieved the highest global penetration rate of around 10% of the country’s total air conditioning market. Juxtaposed against this, the average penetration rate in the other GCC countries is around two per cent.

However, there is some amount of scepticism regarding the future of the industry. This has arisen, not only from the recent financial crisis, but also due to policies, which the industry believes, did not offer enough incentives through preferential utility rates or making available plots and service corridors and, in general, create supporting regulations that could have enforced fair district cooling rates and practices to the consumers. Unfortunately, largely speaking, this has left the district cooling companies to deal with the present difficult patch on their own.

However, the importance of district cooling in the GCC countries cannot be overlooked. It has played an important role in meeting the ever-increasing power demand, exceeding 10% every year in some of the GCC countries.

The demand for power has now reached an alarming rate. The GCC countries consume around 25% of the total oil and gas they produce. This is expected to reach 50% by year 2024. Hence, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain and the UAE have continued to produce 500,000 TR of district cooling in 2010 and 2011, for public and institutional projects, such as the Saadiyat Island, the Abu Dhabi Exhibition centre, the Qatar University, Lusail, airports in Jeddah, Madinah, Doha and Abu Dhabi, the Makkah Haram Expansion, King Abdullah Financial District and the Al Sabah University, among other projects. It is evident that district cooling developers are shifting from the traditional utilities to the public sector.

However, the question is, is this adequate or can the GCC region aim to reach a 50% penetration rate of district cooling by the year 2030? Is this an achievable rate, backed by planning, to meet the increasing power demand, or is it the writer’s unrealistic dream, clouded by sentiment?

To answer the questions, let’s start looking at district heating. As an older industry, it has achieved phenomenal success in some countries, and has failed completely in equally developed countries in the same geographical area. Let us examine a few of these phenomenal successes and see if the models can be replicated in district cooling. I will present my findings based on the research I conducted, covering Iceland, Denmark, Finland and South Korea.

CASE STUDIES

Iceland:

Iceland has the highest penetration of district heating in the world, with 95% of all housing, mostly in the capital of Reykjavik, heated by district heating services. Most of the district heating in Iceland comes from three main geothermal power plants, producing over 800 MWth – Svartsengi Combined Heat and Power Plant (CHP), Nesjavellir CHP plant and Hellisheidi CHP plant.

Denmark:

In Denmark, district heating covers more than 60% of space heating and water heating. In 2007, 80.5% of this heat was produced from CHPs. Heat recovered from waste incineration accounted for 20.4% of the total Danish district heat production. Most major cities in Denmark have big district heating networks, including transmission networks operation with up to 125°C and 25 bar pressure and distribution networks operating with up to 95°C and between six and 10 bar pressure.

The largest district heating system in Denmark is in the Copenhagen area, operated by CTR I/S and VEKS I/S. In central Copenhagen, the CTR network serves 275,000 households (90% to 95% of the area’s population) through a single network of 54 kilometres double district heating distribution pipes, providing a peak capacity of 663 MW. The consumer price of heat from CTR is approximately €49 per MWh plus taxes (as per 2009 figures).

The Danish District heating system is the result of visionary thinking and long-term planning. The foundation of today’s district heating system was built during the oil crises in the 1970s, based on a strong demand to save energy.

Heat planning has been the central driver for the successful implementation of district heating. Gradual replacement of natural gas and oil supply to district heating, along with other initiatives, such as incentives for insulation of buildings and a switch to renewable power production, has put Denmark in the forefront of energy saving.

Finland:

In Finland, district heating accounts for about 50% of the total heating market, four out of five of which are being produced from CHPs. Over 90% of apartment blocks, more than half of all terraced houses, and the bulk of public buildings and business premises are connected to a district heating network. Natural gas is mostly used in areas to the south east of gas pipeline networks. Imported coal is used in areas close to ports, and peat is used in northern areas, where it is a natural resource. However, other renewable resources, such as wood chips and other paper industry combustible by-products are also used, as is the energy recovered from the incineration of municipal solid wastes.

Industrial units, which generate heat as an industrial by-product, sell waste heat to the networks, rather than releasing it into the environment. In some towns, waste incineration contributes as much as eight per cent of the district heating heat requirement. The availability is 99.98%, and disruptions, when they do occur, usually reduce temperatures by only a few degrees.

In Helsinki, an underground data centre, under the Uspenski Cathedral, will release excess heat into the homes of the neighbours, producing enough heat to heat approximately 500 large houses.

South Korea:

South Korea targets CHP expansion, thanks to CHP being firmly embedded in the country, mainly due to its role in the country’s extensive district heating systems. The country is now working on district cooling technologies, too, and has ambitious plans for the expansion of both technologies, says David Hayes, following a recent visit. Hayes writes extensively on energy matters in Asia.

The government’s plans are based on an expected increase in the number of district heating users by one third over the next four years, as part of its wider efforts to increase clean energy consumption at a time of rising energy costs, without slowing down economic growth.

The South Korean Government’s target will also help boost the use of renewable energy in the country, as all district heating companies building new CHP units are required to build renewable energy projects, whether or not they are connected to the district heating projects.

South Korea’s district heating market has expanded steadily during the past decade due to increase in the number of nuclear families living in high-rise apartments, and government support for CHP through its planning policy and tax incentives. The country’s population of 49 million people consists of 14.4 million households, of which 1.87 million households, or 13% of the total population, use district heating.

Government plans a call for another 670,000 households to use district heating by 2013, to meet stricter environmental targets. Thus, the number of households using district heating will grow by 36%, with almost one in six households expected to use district heating by the end of the current CHP development phase.

“The South Korean government’s plan is to extend district heating to 2.54 million households. So, it is a big increase in three years,” comments Chul Jong Yoo, Senior Manager of Korea District Heating Corporation’s (KDHC) global business team. “Most of the new users will live in the Seoul-Incheon area, as the climate is colder there and the population density is high.”

WHY NOT IN THE REGION?

The reason why I have highlighted the successes of district heating in the above countries is because I believe that these examples can be emulated in the fledgling district cooling industry in the region. I believe that the GCC can lead the world in showing how a 50% realistic rate can be achieved by 2030. I hereby ask few futuristic questions that could help actualise this vision:

• Which will be the first city from the GCC countries to develop a city-wide district cooling network owned by the city municipality, while the district cooling plants are privatised? Will it be Abu Dhabi, Doha or Riyadh? Or will another unlikely city in the region surprise us?
• Which city will privatise the central cooling generation plant and develop high-efficiency targets on the plant, the use of thermal storage and treated sewage effluent, the monitoring of efficiencies and public safety?
• Which city will give incentives for incorporating five per cent renewable energy from geothermal, solar or wind sources in the district cooling industry, whether at site or at a remote location that will be connected to the grid?
• Which city will make natural gas available for cogeneration (CHP) plants and tri-generation plants with total fuel efficiencies exceeding 75% and the fuel to cooling total COP exceeding 2.0, in comparison with an average of 28% and COP of 1.2, currently achieved in the GCC?
• Which city will give the preferential utility rates, including off-peak cheap power for district cooling plants?
• Which city will utilise district cooling utility structure, where efficient use of cooling energy (structures that use a cooling density of 45 m2/tonnes of cooling or higher) will benefit from lower district cooling rates, and where inefficient structures will be penalised by higher rates?
• Which city will use these penalties to finance a rebate programme, which will encourage existing buildings to retrofit by adding insulation or replace external glass or adding energy recovery on centralised fresh air and exhaust?
• Which city mayor will read this article and react to it first?

As far as the sceptics are concerned, to them I hereby state that district cooling in the GCC region and the world, and district heating in colder countries are here to stay. They will be part of every city in the future, with substantial penetration rates. The rate at which the vision will be actualised depends on the vision of our city mayors or authorities, supported by our leaders, who can help achieve a secure, competitive and green future.

The writer is CEO of DC PRO Engineering, UAE. He can be contacted at gberbari@dcproeng.ae

B Surendar

Albert Einstein once famously said, “We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” He also said, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” While the circumstances that provoked him to make the two statements were different from the ones we find ourselves in, post Lehman, there is much to learn from them.

An immediate challenge is securing finance for district cooling schemes, though it must be added that the progress of the Saadiyat project in Abu Dhabi has proved that there is a way out and that banks will lend as long as the right boxes are checked in the list of parameters, including a guaranteed offtake mechanism. Other challenges include evolving a system that clearly defines who takes ownership of piping networks, and forecasting occupancy – a case of balancing demand with supply. At different levels, there are challenges that have to do with end-user satisfaction and a proper sub-metering regimen, plus the willingness of different players in the industry to share operational data, which will be a first step towards putting a strong case for district cooling, which in turn, will convince the public utilities to offer support. The last point is crucial – as was discussed at a district cooling conference in Qatar in November 2010, the industry simply has not done enough to present a convincing case to the authorities to warrant support.

It is true the financial fog has not lifted, and that the uncertainty it continues to engender is responsible for the inertia in thinking. New construction projects are few and far between, even in Saudi Arabia and Qatar, to lift an entire industry up to pre-Lehman levels, or at least to a notch below that. Existing buildings, though, well… they do exist, don’t they? Dubai has proved that district cooling can be a reality in existing building neighbourhoods, such as a long stretch of Sheikh Zayed Road. The argument will go that Sheikh Zayed Road is not as congested as that other Dubai neighbourhood – Deira – where it would be infinitely difficult to dig up roads and reconcile with the subsequent traffic snarls, plus not to forget, the need for footprint to set up plantrooms, even if they are smaller facilities, set up in a modular fashion. But that’s where Einstein words need to find resonance, and that where the industry needs to approach the issue differently. Chicago and Paris have shown the way that it is possible to install district cooling schemes in thriving, throbbing cities. While Qatar has opened up an opportunity for itself by progressing with its Heart of Doha project, which will essentially see it replacing the old central Doha district with new buildings, which makes it easier to incorporate a central cooling scheme without disrupting traffic and commerce, Dubai and Riyadh, as of now, don’t have such projects. The capital of Saudi Arabia is dense with buildings that use old air conditioning technologies. Most of them require an upgrade, which translates into heavy capex. Under these circumstances, given the chance, they would choose district cooling, which would do away with equipment expenditure and, at the same time, if the plants are run properly, will ensure a substantial shift for the better in energy efficiency. And if the model is replicated across the vast country, it will eventually have a substantial impact on the current power consumption profile of the Kingdom, which is increasingly becoming a cause for alarm, considering that a substantial volume of the crude oil produced in the country has to be diverted for domestic consumption, of which power generation is a major activity. Out of district cooling, and cogeneration, can emerge a solution for the power security challenge the Kingdom faces. And that would be no small achievement.

– B. Surendar

Company says it addresses increased demand for heat reflective and eco-friendly paints in the Kingdom

According to the latest edition of the Saudi Arabia Infrastructure Report for the Third Quarter of 2011 from Business Monitor International (BMI), the country continues to be the GCC’s largest and most dynamic infrastructure market, with over US$100 billion worth of infrastructure projects under way, and US$80 billion worth of pledged housing projects. The large number of projects has, in its wake, created a demand for heat reflective and eco-friendly paints. In the light of this, Jotun Paints has revealed the launch of Jotashield Extreme, a new range of paints. Jotun has reportedly invested over US$25 million into research and development of its products.

The announcement explained that according to studies, the continuing development in urban areas in Saudi Arabia is expected to produce an Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect. Studies have also shown that the temperatures in urban air domes in Saudi Arabia can run up to four degrees centigrade warmer than the surrounding countryside, prompting an increase in air conditioning costs and attendant air pollutants. Jotun said that keeping this in view, Jotashield Extreme had been created making use of a pigment technology that allowed surfaces to enjoy a darker shade of colour, but with a thermal indoor comfort and longer lasting protection. It claimed that the new range exceeded the international GS-11 standards for paint, and to date, was the only product in the Middle East that provided significant temperature reductions while protected surfaces from Near Infrared (NIR) effect.

Speaking about the launch, Faisal Karim, Marketing Manager, Jotun Paints, Saudi Arabia, said: “Jotashield Extreme is a result of Jotun’s extensive efforts to develop an exterior paint product that can not only reflect heat, but also promote a reduction in energy use.”

Consolidates position in the country’s market

Drake & Scull International (DSI) announced at the international MEP summit at Oryx Rotana that it has secured an AED 100 million MEP contract for a private residential facility in Doha, through its newly acquired MEP specialist company Drake & Scull International Qatar (DSQ). DSQ will immediately start the complete supply, delivery, installation, testing and commissioning of the associated MEP package, and will complete and hand over the project in November 2012, the announcement added.

Khaldoun Tabari

Elaborating on the announcement, Khaldoun Tabari, CEO of DSI said: “We have reinforced the management team in DSQ and upgraded our operational capabilities to meet the rising demand for the planned 2022 World Cup associated infrastructure, commercial and residential developments .The construction sector is well developed across all industries, with a healthy level of competition for large contracts. We see a progressive increase in tendering activities, and we expect to witness an increased impetus in project announcements in the market.”

On the sidelines of the summit, commenting on winning the project, Mark Andrews, Managing Director, DSI-MEP, said that the ongoing construction projects in Qatar have been ensuring solid activity levels for firms in building material, construction and engineering sectors. “The diverse experience of DSQ and its specialisation in the MEP field will enable it to service all construction segments,” he added.

He said that the huge influx of international contractors to the Qatari market had stimulated strong competition and continued to raise the standard in the MEP industry. “The resurgence of project financing and the availability of credit will eventually accelerate the lifecycle of infrastructure projects. We are constantly investing in the development of sustainable engineering techniques and technologies to deliver the best international quality standards,” he concluded.
 

Mark Andrews

According to the announcement, since the beginning of the year, DSI has managed to secure a series of civil, MEP and water and power projects of a combined value of AED 3.2 billion, and its backlog stands at AED 7.5 billion as of March 31, covering projects in Oman, Egypt, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Asia and Europe.

DSQ was established in 2006, and has reportedly undertaken a number of MEP projects in Qatar, including the West Bay Complex, Four Seasons Hotel and the QTEL headquarters.

William O Swan is mourned by BACnet community
 
In an announcement, BACnet said that William O Swan, Vice President and honorary member of the BACnet Interest Group Europe (BIG-EU), and one of the founders and designers of the international BACnet community, passed away on June 4 in California after a short and serious illness.

According to BACnet, he represented the BIG-EU at the BACnet Forum in London in April, and had opened the BACnet Plugfest in Saarbrücken in May. 

BACnet said that Swan had been active in the BIG-EU since 2003. Because of his outstanding technical skills and dedication to the BACnet standard, he was made an honorary member in 2005 and included in the advisory board. His election as Vice President followed in 2007. From 2004 to 2008 he was also Chairman of the American BACnet standards body SSPC 135 of ASHRAE.

Recalling Swan’s achievements, BACnet said that during this period, the number of working groups which developed new application areas increased to 11, which enabled integration of non-HVAC areas, such as lighting and elevator control, access control and web services. He was known for his weblog, The BAC-Cave. (http://bacnetbill.blogspot.com/).

Recounting his early days with the organisation, the obituary said that in 1995, as one of the first engineers at Alerton, he was charged with the development of building automation through BACnet. He developed a passion for it that motivated him right to the end, and which makes him an irreplaceable person, BACnet said, and added that his sudden death has left a large void in the organisation.