Editor Phil Ross of Climate Control News argues that sometimes, asking a different question might show the way forward than seeking answers.

The human race has advanced over thousands of years because we have made technological changes to the way we do things.

As a species, we have been unfailingly inquisitive, a constant “what if” has run throughout history. Sometimes the answers have been useful, sometimes the answers have been destructive. But even with the negative changes, the following generation’s learnt lessons.

Every now and then, an extreme leap appears that leads to a higher benchmark for the rest of the world to catch up. These occur in all fields of endeavour, whether it be Einstein’s theories, Hillary’s mountain climbing, the Internet or even the advent of refrigeration. All those achievements occurred in modern times, but there have been enormous changes throughout history in all forms of science, human endeavour, arts and culture.

Generally, however, change is incremental. We get caught up in working with what we know and understand then tweak around its edges to make it perform better.

But, every now and then, someone asks a different question, and, thankfully, every now and then, they get the opportunity to find out.

When I started working here at CCN, I decided to look back over old magazines to get a feel for the industry. One 2008 issue mentioned a government grant given to an engineer who had come up with a new way to exchange heat. While the grant was relatively minor, I was intrigued to see if this was just another waste of public money. It is not often I am right, but it would appear I was wrong again!

Sattler Consulting has come at the whole issue from a totally different perspective. Instead of trying to improve thermal dynamics, David Sattler has gone to a molecular level to achieve quite astounding coefficients of performance never before dreamed of.

Yes, it may be some time off from being commercialised, but you get the feeling this could promote a change in thinking for climate control.

Am I a technophile? I guess I am. It appears to me that civilisation has not advanced by going backwards. It has not even advanced by sitting still. Even the most basic of civilisations advances relatively when a better tool has been introduced.

Denying progress is tantamount to death. Naturally, as mentioned before, science has made mistakes. We would not have had the danger of a hole in the ozone layer if it were not for the wonder of chlorinated fluorinated refrigerants. However, if it was not for those early gases, society would not be as far advanced as it is today. After all, Time magazine in 2000 nominated air conditioning as the invention of the millennium. Plus, it was the knowledge gained in the manufacture of CFCs that allowed chemical companies to research and develop their ongoing replacements.

Science and technology are always asking questions, even when there is already an answer. As the late American palaeontologist, evolutionary biologist and historian of science, Stephen Jay Gould wrote: “In science, ‘fact’ can only mean ‘confirmed to such a degree that it would be perverse to withhold provisional assent.”

Just as the natural world evolves to cope with external environments, so too does the human race. No species ever survived by going backwards or even standing still for too long.

In the continuing question as to where is the trade heading – commercial interests would like to see trade skills relaxed to allow more people the right to install air conditioning systems. Is this answering a short-term need that may stifle the trade’s future in the long term?

Should not the industry aspire to help all to climb the mountain rather than make base camp too welcoming?

What do you think?

This is an excerpt from the Editorial of the December 2010 issue of Climate Control News. Article reproduced here, courtesy Climate Control News.

Discussion under the rubrics of investment and energy saving opportunities in variable flow systems

ASHRAE-ORYX chapter, in association with Faisal Jassim Company and Tour & Andersson, Middle East Africa & India, has announced that it would be conducting a day-long seminar on December 11 at The College of The North Atlantic. The event would be of interest to engineers. There are 120 available seats, which will be offered on a first-come-first-served basis.

Colin Bridges, Technical Director, Middle East, Africa & India, Tour & Andersson (Middle East Africa & India) is the keynote speaker. He will be speaking on ‘Investment and Energy Saving Opportunities in Variable Flow Systems’.

Bridges has over 28 years of experience in the HVAC industry, and has worked on prestigious projects in the Middle East, including Burj Dubai. He specialises in advising consultants and MEP contractors on sizing, selection and the cost-effective use of a wide range of system solutions that TA offer through its extensive distributor network in the region.

The topics slated for discussion for the day are:

• Main areas of energy use
• Energy efficiency
• Delta T issue
• Variable flow thru terminal units
• Controllability
• Pumping energy
• Control modes
• Pump sensor location

For information on attending, contact

• Hassan Sultan, MZ Partners Phone: +974 55817061
• Mohamad Mokdad, Dynair, Phone: 44995085; Mobile: 66808481

For general clarification, contact Seenu Pillai, Secretary (2009-2010), Member of Chapter Newsletter Committee, ASHRAE-Qatar Oryx Chapter, Phone: +974 422 7436; Mobile: +974 562 6509.

23 & 24 February 2011, BEIJING Hong Kong Macau Center

District Heating and Cooling Asia is designed as a very timely platform to provide successful case studies, bridge technology gaps and discuss unique challenges of DHC in China market.
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    * Design challenges of DHC System
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District cooling project to be completed in 18 months

According to an announcement, Drake & Scull Water and Power (DSWP), a subsidiary of Drake & Scull International (DSI) PJSC, has been awarded a Dh290 million EPCO (Engineering, Procurement, Construction and Operation) contract for a district cooling plant in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

The contract includes designing and building of the plant, which, reportedly, has a capacity of 35,000 tonnes. DSWP will also be responsible for the operation and maintenance of the project for a period of 10 years, the announcement said.

In this context, Khaldoun Tabari, CEO of DSI said: “This latest contract win is a step forward for Drake & Scull International in further establishing our presence within Saudi Arabia’s growing water and power industry. With a proven track record in this sector, we are able to deliver quality services and projects to our clients due to the niche engineering capabilities offered by our water and power business stream.”

Tawfiq Abu Soud, Executive Director, DSWP, added: “We are confident that our past technical and operational knowledge in the field, a strong portfolio of prominent projects, which includes two of the world’s largest district cooling plants located in Dubai, and our understanding of the complex Saudi market dynamics, will support us in achieving success in the Kingdom and the region as a whole.”

According to DSI, as of September this year, its projects in Saudi Arabia have contributed to 29% of the company’s total backlog, including the backlog consolidation of recently acquired Drake & Scull International Saudi.

However, Tabari added, “DSI aims to increase the figure to 50% by 2011 by continuing to focus our efforts and resources on the Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing (MEP) division and in the Kingdom’s water and power industry, which has proved to be highly lucrative.”

Designing and building of the new project is scheduled to start immediately, and will take 18 months to complete, the announcement added.

Here we are with another edition of the Climate Control Guide & Directory. It is difficult to believe that a year has passed since we worked on the previous edition; as the saying goes, the time has simply flown by in what has been a busy and event-filled year.

Working on this book, this time around, involved a different challenge. Even in the best of times, one of the challenges in producing a directory is that people keep moving from one assignment to another. In the downturn, the movement has been that much more pronounced; so much has changed since the time of the second edition – quite a few people that we contacted, a year ago, have moved on. That way, this book is like a barometer of the tremendous change the region has experienced.

We have stuck to tradition, though. As always, this book opens with articles that reflect the industry. They are related to all the key disciplines – cooling, refrigeration and ventilation.

The next section is the product category-wise listing, which is followed by the company-wise listing.

Download the 2011 edition of the Climate Control Guide & Directory HERE.

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Spotlight on IDEA’s 5th International District Cooling Conference & Trade Show, Doha, Qatar

In the face of lingering challenges the signs of a determination to overcome is evident in the region’s district cooling industry, and Saudi Arabia and Qatar are at the forefront. Story and photographs: B Surendar

District cooling in the region is not out of the woods; far from it, the challenges remain firmly in place. If the MEED conference on district cooling in September (related story in the October issue of Climate Control Middle East) revealed road-bumps emerging in Abu Dhabi, the recently concluded 5th International District Cooling Conference and Trade Show only confirmed the situation that the UAE has quite a way to go to emerge from the crisis.

Without the slightest doubt, a lot of crease lines need to be ironed out, and the two-year-old lament, post Lehman Brothers, about the delicate nature of the industry still resonates in the desert air. At the same time, there is a resolve to make things happen in the region. And Saudi Arabia and Qatar are at the forefront.

Qatar, for the first time, hosted IDEA’s conference. The icing on the cake was the inauguration of the conference host, Qatar Cool’s 130,000 TR-capacity integrated district cooling plant (IDCP) on The Pearl-Qatar, so indicative of a political will in the peninsula to support district cooling. This was in evidence at the inauguration, considering H.E. the Deputy Premier and Minister of Energy and Industry, Abdullah bin Hamad Al-Attiyah, cut the ribbon to the plant.

While there is a possibility that Qatar could see a supply glut of residential units, much like Dubai and Abu Dhabi, which will result in an inevitable slowdown of the district cooling industry, Qatar is pressing ahead with optimism and, in some cases, an approach that is different from that of UAE and Bahrain.

District cooling providers in the two countries have faced an enormous challenge with relation to piping networks alone. Speaking about this on the first day of the conference, Bernt Andersson, the CEO of Bahrain District Cooling Company, said, “The developers want us to finish the piping network immediately, which is a huge challenge if the pipes are going to wait for five years.” In direct contrast to this, Anderson’s fellow delegate, Jean François Chartrain of GDF Suez, said that the Lusail project was following a different approach to district cooling in the sense that the developer had taken upon himself to ensure the availability of district cooling infrastructure, thus reducing the financial burden on the district cooling provider.

Saudi Arabia is also trying to adopt a different approach to district cooling. In the course of speaking at the conference, Abdul Salam Al Mobayed, Vice President – BDO of Saudi Tabreed, said that his team and he were sparing no efforts to educate different stakeholders on the benefits of district cooling. “In Saudi Arabia, we have a big challenge to meet the demand of power consumption,” Al Mobayed said. There will be a big boom in Saudi Arabia, which means there will be a lot of demand on power. Without district cooling, it will be very difficult to meet the power needs. Our minister for power and water understands this and is very supportive of district cooling. He has said he will try to support the industry.”

Saudi Arabia has already started the process of helping the industry. The Saudi government recently announced that it is going to establish a night rate, which will open up the opportunity of installing thermal energy systems and reaping the benefit from them. Saudi Arabia has arrived at the decision as much out of necessity as out of a need to support the industry, said Hisham Hajaj of Stanley Consultants at the conference. “Air conditioning systems consume 60% of the total energy in the region,” he said. The government recognises this to be a big number. The government had a wake-up call last summer in Jeddah when they had a few black-outs. The peak was so high. They realised that with preferential rate, they can cut down on peak demand for air conditioning through thermal storage.”

Much in the same way, Hajaj said, there has been enlightenment to use treated sewage effluent (TSE). The powers that be have contracted the National Water Company to supply TSE with irrigation and district cooling in mind.

28-30 March 2011, Abu Dhabi, UAE

To be held at Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre, Green Building Middle East is being billed as the largest international trade fair and regional summit for sustainable construction in the Middle East. Over 500 companies are expected to exhibit, showcasing thousands of products. According to the organisers, the show is expected to attract over 10,000 trade visitors.

A highlight of the event will be a conference track, comprising four high-profile global summits.

Being produced by Corporate Publishing International (CPI), the summits are: Building Smart, Climate Control Summit, Infrastructure Summit and Green Building Middle East.

Contact:

T: +971 4 335 6533
W: greenbuildingmiddleeast.com

For information on Climate Control Summit,

Contact:
Frederic Paille
T: +971 4 375 6833
M: +971 50 714 7204
E: fred@cpi-industry.com

Masood Raza made a presentation on the Tamouh district cooling plant on Al Reem Island, at MEED’s Middle East District Cooling 2010 conference in Abu Dhabi (on September 28). While highlighting the need for district cooling, he also took cognisance of the challenges and demands of serving such a mega project. We bring to you the case study in a nutshell.

Al Reem Island is a natural island, covering an area of 633 hectares (68 million square feet). Earlier called Al Reem Isle Abu Al Shuoom, The Pearl and Emirates Pearl Island, it is located about 600 metres off the coast of Abu Dhabi city. It has now been transformed into a residential, commercial and business project, thanks to being developed separately by Sorouh Real Estate, Reem Investments and Tamouh Investments.

Masood Raza conducted his case study on the 90,000 TR Tamouth district cooling plant under the following heads:

• Highlighting the need for district cooling
• Challenges of demand estimation and responding to shifting load demand
• Network and plant design issues – generation versus storage
• Condensate-collection system for cooling tower makeup
• Financing a chilled water project in challenging times

FEATURES OF AL REEM DEVELOPMENT

The total plot area of Al Reem Island is over 8.5 million square metres, with the total GFA for the Al Reem Island being over 20 million square metres. This, as stated earlier, includes, Tamouh, Sorouh, Reem Developers and Capital Investment. The developments are mainly high-rise structures and mixed development, with a focus on residential areas covering over 15 million square meters. The total HVAC capacity requirement for the development is 750,000 TR (connected) and 600,000 TR plant.

NEED FOR DISTRICT COOLING

Making a case for district cooling for mega projects, Raza cites the example of the Al Reem Island to highlight the fact that in such a huge development, even a minor improvement in energy requirement can have a major overall impact. He believes that district cooling is highly energy efficient – about 1kW/TR, instead of 1.7 kW/ TR for air-cooled chillers. Consequently, he argues that the installed cooling plant capacity goes down by 15 to 20% and reduces electrical infrastructure, including generation and distribution. Raza claims that the site-wide electricity reduction is about 40%

Arguing that district cooling reconciles the need for fast-paced development to the control on the waste of resources, points out that a developer, thus reaps benefits like, stable chilled water temperature, no chiller noise in buildings, reduced building maintenance cost, more secure supply of chilled water, more spare capacity readily available and more space within buildings. In short, Raza believes that it is a win-win situation, as it is beneficial to the customer, developer, the district cooling provider and for the society at large.

Speaking specifically about the Tamouh plant, Raza provides the following insights:

• In Tamouh Development – DCP1, TES has been considered. The installed power can be less if TES is used.
• The central enclosed plant room has very low leakage compared to exposed air cooled chillers.
• The centrifugal chillers have an operating life of 25 years compared to 15 years of air cooled chillers
• The water consumption is for 35% TSE and 65% potable mix.

CHALLENGES AND OPTIONS

Raza, of course, admits that projects of the magnitude of Al Reem Island are not without their attendant teething trouble. He lists the following challenges with regard to shifting load demand:

• Changing master plan and land-use pattern
• Changing GFAs
• Changing land-use mix
• Changing land owners
• Master plan approval by authorities
• Adjusting the piping design to match the shifting demand
• Piping construction commences well before finalisation of the master plan
• Proper plant-sizing

Raza says that several options were considered for shifting load demand. To keep changing piping design to match the shifting load was one of them. This is evidently not possible after a certain stage. The second option examined was to resort to creating an expensive ring around the main system of piping design. This was deemed difficult for a project like the Al Reem Island. Enforcing a freeze on HVAC demand (for a plot) on all plot developers was also under consideration. Finally, according to Raza, in a stroke of innovative thinking, a mix of all of the above options was exercised.

Network-related challenges:

• Optimum network-sizing against frequently changing development matrix and shifting plant locations
• Redundancy and reliability of the network
• Optimising cost – capital versus operating
• Finalising piping corridors
• Tight schedule of infrastructure construction
• Chemical treatment of installed piping network not connected to any plant
• Construction issues relating to day-to-day co-ordination with other utilities

Plant-related challenges:

• Optimum plant-sizing
• Locating the chilled water plant at an optimum location
• Phasing of the overall plant capacity
• Generation versus TES storage
• Makeup water mix (potable and TSE)
• Optimising plant space requirement
• Modular versus plant-room type design

CONDENSATE COLLECTION FOR CT MAKEUP

Raza explains that condensate drain collection system can provide eight to 12% during peak flow requirement. However, during off-peak humid conditions, this percentage can be even higher. According to Raza, PAL is in the process of carrying out a practical study to verify the calculated data for condensate recovery to come to definitive conclusions.

He believes that the payback for the investment in the condensate-recovery system is about two to three years at design conditions. However, he is quick to add that this is based on estimates and needs to be further verified, factoring in ground realities.

PROJECT FINANCING

Moving from the technical aspect of a district cooling plant to the financial aspect, Raza maintains that district cooling projects are either financed as BOO (Build Own Operate) or, more typically, BOOT (Build Own Operate Transfer) projects. He believes that BOO/BOOT projects are generally public infrastructure/utilities projects which employ a particular form of structured financing.

• Raza is of the opinion that the involvement of private sector in the development of infrastructure in the Middle East, by way of BOOT projects, is proving to be a challenging exercise. He enumerates the challenges:
• Long lead time and significant associated up-front costs
• Limited recourse finance, revenue guarantees difficult to realise
• Complex projects by nature due the number of parties involved and the corresponding number of contracts, which must all interlock
• Project finance generally structured on a project basis requiring all parties to share the risks of the project

Looking at project financing from the lender’s perspective, the hallmarks of BOOT project financing are: the lenders look primarily at the earnings of the project as the source from which loan repayments will be made, says Raza, and adds, their credit assessment is based on the project, and not on the credit-worthiness of the borrowing entity. Raza believes that typically, the financers are attracted towards a project with a minimum IRR of 10%.

The security taken by the lenders being largely confined to the project assets, as such, project financing is often referred to as “limited recourse” financing because, lenders are given only a limited recourse against the borrower, Raza argues.

He points out that for the Tamouh plant, PAL Technology initiated project financing negotiations before the onset of recession, and the financing was secured within six months. The plant and piping has been financed as project finance with 30 to 70 equity-debt, he explains.

The process was not without its share of problems, he adds. The hurdles the company was forced to negotiate were:

• Challenge of guaranteed offtake
• Collateral requirements for the loan
• Cash-flow calculations were put under the scanner and a detailed cash-flow model with risk analysis had to be submitted for approval

Raza points out that as the project was constructed within the stipulated time, the funds have been released by the lending bank almost as per the timeline agreed with the bank.

IN CONCLUSION …

Raza admits that being involved with the Tamouh project has been a learning experience. He poses a couple of questions, possibly rhetoric.

• Should piping go as part of the infrastructure for the new developments to be financed by the developer?
• Should there be an option for including the cost of chilled water system in the development cost?

In conclusion, he says that in such projects, offtake guarantees are needed, as no government back-up is available similar to other long-term infrastructure projects. While thinking aloud about the need for government guarantees for improving private sector involvement in the infrastructure sector, he stresses that the capacity must follow the demand of cooling, even if temporary cooling is required for some time.

Educating the customer about the need for a district cooling plant is important, he says, and emphasises that this must be combined with tangible savings directly to the customer – the benefits need to percolate down to the end-user. Raza believes that this is the biggest challenge that the district cooling industry faces today.

In the final analysis, there is a point where academic analysis needs to intersect practical, real-life situations. In fact, it needs to be a symbiotic relationship, as one aids the other, and, more important, one would be soulless without the other. In this context, Raza strongly believes that case studies and technical research papers based on real operating plants need to be encouraged to increase the relevance of the industry to local conditions.

Masood Raza is Head of Engineering at PAL Technology. He can be contacted at: masood@paltechnology.com.

A rigorous and regular scrutiny of change orders and the suppliers following a “gate check” procedure with their manufacturing facilities can ensure that orders arrive on site as per specification, argues Edward Eisermann.

Ed Eisermann

Communication, where a checklist is used to confirm key customer requirements, between the product manufacturing team and the sales organisation (company or manufacturers rep) can save a lot of time and money. The checklist consists of items, not specific to the product’s manufacturing operation that have, in the past, caused delivery problems.

It is common during the construction of any building to have changes that impact the HVAC equipment. Most built-to-order commercial equipment, chillers in particular, result in the need for one or more order fulfillment “Change Orders”, after the purchase contract has been negotiated and signed.

Getting the change orders communicated through the many groups involved in the remodelling or construction of a property can be difficult. But it should ultimately be the responsibility of the HVAC company’s sales representative to make sure the manufacturing plant knows of any changes to the design specifications submittals before production of the unit. The sales representatives’ focus is selling and supporting their customers, and this is where their communication line is the strongest.

Have any of these happened to you?

1. Unit will not fit in the space provided, because the installation submittals did not provide the correct dimensions.
2. Unit connections to the water lines, duct work, in-coming electric do not match the installation submittals. This can happen when the sales information is not transmitted properly, or there was an architect change order.
3. Shipped unit did not include the IOM (Installation, Operation and Maintenance) manuals or auxiliary components, such as fan isolators.
4. Unit was not built to the local codes and does not include the required certification label.

There are many more that could be added to the list of things that I have experienced in my career as director of Quality and Field Technical Support.

Who is impacted by an order problem found in the field?

1. The building owner
2. The person who will occupy the building, if it is not the owner
3. The general contractor for the overall project
4. The sub-contractors
5. The sales office and sales person who sold the HVAC equipment
6. The sales office’s service organisation that will be needed to address certain defects
7. The sales office service organisation’s parts group that needs to order replacement parts when needed
8. The Marketing, Service, Parts, Accounting, Quality, Engineering and Production teams

Rule of thumb:

• Fixing a problem during the design phase will cost $1
• Fixing it in the factory will cost $10
• In the field it will cost $100

As is evident, the cost of field rework can be significant. Clearly, the earlier a potential problem is defined and corrected, the more the unnecessary costs can be avoided.

To help the sales person in the field organisation, there is a benefit to having a producing plant “gate check”. This is a communication initiated with the field selling organisation during the manufacturing process. The recommendation is, once about two weeks before production scheduling, to ensure that all change orders have been communicated, and a second check two weeks before release to production, to ensure that there are no last-minute changes to delay production. This process, when introduced, significantly reduces the number of errors experienced at the job site.

If your organisation experiences these types of non-function production sales order issues, consider the use of pre-manufacture gate checks. They work.

Imad Kaba of Trane talks to B Surendar on the market for district cooling in Saudi Arabia and of the company’s approach to rising demand

Among the GCC entities, Saudi Arabia seems to be in robust shape. There is massive demand for housing – according to reports, the country needs 1.5 million new houses by 2015. How is Trane responding to this situation?

Imad Kaba

Yes, Saudi Arabia is in good shape, and it is different from even Qatar, another country that everyone is talking about. A major difference between Saudi Arabia and Qatar is the population. In the case of Saudi Arabia, there is a large domestic population, which can sustain development and growth in the country. If Qatar gets the World Cup, things will change. Saudi Arabia has a large population and huge funds from oil and gas and chemical industries. Further, the Government is taking profits and investing in infrastructure and housing.

Most of the projects in Saudi Arabia are going ahead; we don’t hear of cancellation of projects. Two years ago, there was a little weakness and a slowdown in the private sector, but the public sector energised the economy. District cooling is coming to Saudi Arabia in a big way. Maybe the market for district cooling is three times as big as Dubai and is going to last, owing to the population. And in Jeddah, you can build towers along the corniche, for as long as the eye can see.

District cooling makes sense in big complexes. There is big savings to be had, and there is the diversity factor that you can benefit from, too. So, district cooling is here to stay in Saudi Arabia, at least for double the time it lasted in Dubai.

As for Trane’s involvement in the Kingdom, the Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) project is the biggest for us. Also, we supplied 100 air-cooled chillers to only Madinah. It is the same with Makkah, where we have supplied DX units. In Madinah, we will use air-cooled systems, because it has been designed for that purpose.

Do talk me through the King Abdullah Financial District project, which you surely view as a milestone.

The King Abdullah Financial District is our first major district cooling project in Saudi Arabia. The plant has a capacity of 100,000 TR, of which 20,000 will be supplied by means of thermal energy storage and 80,000 TR through 16 chillers modules of 5,000 TR capacity each.

We won the project on efficiency. It is our major plant room to date. We are testing the first chillers, wherein the customer will travel to the US to test them for zero tolerance. The full-load efficiency of the chiller is 0.608kW/TR at zero tolerance. On site, the chiller should have the same efficiency, as long as water is maintained as clean as the test water. On site, the design data is maximum, and so on site, it is going to perform in slightly better conditions.

Historically, Saudi Arabia has been averse to using water for cooling. How do you see the trend now? With National Water Company coming in, do you see a firm reversal in thinking?

People in Saudi Arabia were always hesitant to use water, so they went for air-cooled systems. Ever since the crisis in Dubai, there has been a migration of consultants to Saudi Arabia. These consultants supported water-cooling systems here, and they are doing the same there in Saudi Arabia. Water-cooled is now an acceptable option in Saudi Arabia. And National Water Company has said that it has the network to supply treated sewage effluent.

The robust nature of Saudi Arabia notwithstanding, is Trane treading with caution? The crisis in Dubai has resulted in delayed payments, plus a shortening of targets. Where a client earlier needed 100,000 TR of district cooling, today it is, perhaps, one-fifth of that. What strategy have you adopted for Saudi Arabia? Do you have a measured approach?

In Dubai, we never manufactured equipment that we did not get paid for. We got paid for all our deliveries. We did not supply chillers to fake projects. We have the same approach in mind for Saudi Arabia. Real projects and reputable contractors will determine our direction.

Is there any change in your approach to doing business in the Kingdom?

Trane works through its distributor, Dallah, in Saudi Arabia. The strategy is to support Dallah and to elevate the capacity of the engineers there. In the UAE, we have a team that specialises in district cooling, and we are establishing a team similar to that in Saudi Arabia through our distributor. We will continue to work with our distributor and not open a separate office. They performed so well on the air-cooled chiller side, and now we are preparing them to work well on district cooling.

Are you promoting your products as being green and talking about their ability to earn vital LEED credits for customers? What has been the response at the ground level from clients?

We believe in sustainability. We have very efficient chillers, and we do witness tests for customers. Sustainability is not only about energy efficiency but also about low emissions – the chances for refrigerant leakage are minimal. If there is a leak, the refrigerant will get sucked in rather than be expelled.

We have a green strategy in place. We are doing a seminar in Saudi Arabia, called ‘Trane Earthwise Chiller: LEED and how Trane can help’. We are talking about how you can achieve LEED points and how you can achieve higher efficiency in the plantroom.

Until recently, Saudi Arabia was proceeding with air-cooled systems. However, there is so much grey water that can be recycled, and also the water that is used for ablution. At the time, there was no segregation between grey water and sewage. We did try to speak to consultants on using water-cooled systems. We bring a lot of speakers who have, in their lifetime, worked on designing water-cooled chillers. They can tell consultants where they can save maximum energy.