Anne Le Guennec, CEO, Enova

Dubai, UAE, 1 November 2018: Retrofitting in the United Arab Emirates can be traced back to the Paris Agreement, which is committed to reducing carbon emissions, said Anne Le Guennec, CEO, Enova, while elaborating on the company’s retrofit project, as a part of Ras Al Khaimah’s (RAK) Renewable Energy Strategy 2040.

According to Enova, the five-year agreement, between the company and the RAK Municipality, is the first energy performance contract signed by the RAK Municipality, which will see a 31.3% reduction in energy and water usage. Guennec said that the project will focus on the HVAC systems in the buildings. “At present, we are in the process of carrying out a soft set of audits in buildings across RAK and are looking at various water and energy conservation measures,” she said. The challenges in a project of this scope, seen from a control and regulation perspective, include understanding how best to replace old units with more efficient ones. She said that the main challenge lies in dealing with the occupants in the building. “It is one thing to have a building owner enthusiastic about carrying out a retrofit, but dealing with occupants in a building, who have to cope with downtime, depending on the day and level of activity in a building, is vital to the overall project,” she said. In addition, she said, the other challenge is with reference to auditing and working through facilities, while identifying what needs to be optimised or replaced, after calculating the pay-back period.

According to Enova, through the planned retrofit, the project will provide guaranteed total savings of more than four gigawatt-hours of electricity, which is comparable to that of taking nearly 700 cars off the road. Guennec said, “We are delighted to see the Emirates join together in the unified aim of sustainability and are overjoyed to be a part of the sustainability movement.”