Dubai, UAE, 14 November 2018: In 2016 and 2017 Etihad ESCO retrofitted more than 2,000 buildings and facilities, said Ali Al Jassim, CEO, Etihad ESCO, who stressed that over the past two years, the company provided value savings of close to AED 100 million. “In Dubai Airport,” Al Jassim said, “we are retrofitting Terminal 1, Terminal 2, Terminal 3 and Concourse B. The savings we are trying to achieve is AED 30 million every year, so the electricity bill will come down by that much.” Al Jassim said to meet these objectives, the company is changing and modifying some of the chillers, air pumps, air handling units and the air conditioning of Terminal 1, 2 and 3, in addition to some of the water fixtures. Once the project is completed by mid-2019, he said, Etihad ESCO will have achieved approximately 26-30% savings in Dubai Airport. Currently, he added, the company will oversee the retrofit of up to 150,000 lighting fixtures in Terminal 1, 2 and 3.

Overall, Al Jassim said, awareness and knowledge of retrofitting for energy reduction is growing every year, among the public and private sectors. That being said, Etihad ESCO, Al Jassim stressed, remains proactive in promoting the importance of energy efficiency to stakeholders. “We still have a long way to go in terms of having the whole society of Dubai and the United Arab Emirates on one level of understanding about the importance of preserving energy for generations to come,” he said. “But we will keep speeding up the momentum in getting everyone aligned. It is important, we need to preserve resources and utilise them in the most efficient way.

Al Jassim said the public sector is leading by example, in terms of retrofitting its facilities, but that the private sector can often be apprehensive, owing to commercial considerations. “At the end of the day, it’s just a matter of decision-making,” he said, adding that technology and financing available will mitigate the risk of such projects.