CEO says Bay Square cooling district network is on schedule

As part of its move to provide integrated district cooling services for the entire Business Bay project, Emirates Central Cooling Systems Corporation (Empower) recently announced that it has begun the third phase of the 70,000 TR district cooling network for the Bay Square within Business Bay.

The company had earlier announced the completion of two phases of the project, which include the Executive Towers, and the Towers Area that overlooks Sheikh Zayed Road, from Emirates Airlines Building extending to the rear of the Executive Towers, with 50,000 TR. According to Empower, it has implemented the project within the set budget and timeline.

Elaborating on this, Ahmed Bin Shafar, CEO of Empower, said: “We divided the implementation of district cooling network of Business Bay, which is one of the busiest and dynamic business spots, not only of Dubai, but also of the Middle East, into three phases, as per demand and supply. We worked according to the timeline by constructing temporary and semi-permanent work stations. As always, bestof- breed technologies were used in constructing this world-class network to ensure highest performance and quality.”

Bin Shafar added: “This project plays a crucial role in saving natural resources by saving electricity and water consumption in all the residential and business units. The start of phase three of the third phase of the district cooling network reflects the high calibre of our staff, who have been working on similar challenging jobs since the inception of Empower in 2003.”

Apart from providing energy-efficient district cooling services to Business Bay, Empower’s other projects include real estate developments, such as Dubai International Financial Center, Dubai Healthcare City, Jumeirah Beach Residence and City of Arabia.

Noting that district cooling is gaining wider recognition in the region, and District cooling systems (DCS) achieve economies of scale by using centralised plants instead of individual cooling units in each building, Bin Shafar said that the centralised system results in reduced capital and operating costs, thus reducing air conditioning set-up and energy costs per building.

“This new network saves energy by 40%,” he said. “We are satisfied with Empower’s role in disseminating the district cooling technology in the UAE via this world-class network.”